10 Top Tips for Localising your website

Your website needs to reflect the market into which you are selling. Language, culture and local preferences need to be considered. These tips can help you to plan how to make you website market ready –

1. People are four times more likely to buy in their own language
2. Check for inclusion of correct keywords
3. For USA and others check use of UK vocabulary e.g. hood, not bonnet etc.
4. Get a relevant domain name in the target language
5. Register the domain name with the appropriate country suffix e.g. de
6. Optimise your website for each language that you target
7. Other markets may use different search engines e.g. voila in France
8. Double check you have removed any UK cultural references
9. Use a foreign web design company to really hit the market’s-preferred style
10. Take advice using the UKTI Export Communications Service (https://www.gov.uk/export-communications-review)

These tips relate to our blog post Promoting Yourself Overseas. We will be posting more of these in the next few days. If you want more now, you can go direct to the ExportSavvy page. Whilst there, take a good look around at our Export Best Practice content.

Top Tips for Approaching Partner Selection

Every experienced exporter will tell you that this is one of the most difficult tasks facing the new entrant to a market. Everyone has made mistakes in this area and everyone will tell you that they are difficult to avoid. So the best you can hope to do is take the steps that help you minimise the risks.

1. Profile your ideal partner carefully. What will they need to offer? What geographical coverage will you need to achieve? Are there market segments you want to address through a different route?
   You will address this in detail in the ‘Assessing Capacity and Capability’ module of ExportSavvy
2. Do your market research. Understand how the market works and take account of this in your strategy. Understand the value of what you have to offer.
3. Be systematic in your approach. Trawl the market for the right kind of contacts. Evaluate them according to your criteria and target the people you really want. Avoid ‘knee-jerk’ decisions.
4. Research your partner carefully.

Why Export?

The decision to export proactively is a significant strategic step in the development of your business. It will involve the allocation of time, effort and other resources, and you will want to justify this before committing. Consider some of the benefits and how they apply to you:

More Customers

Is your ideal marketplace saturated with competition or your own product? – are you struggling to find ideal customers?  There are many countries around the world where consumer bases are growing rapidly and offer real opportunities – especially for niche businesses.

Less Competition.

As a mature market the UK market is generally very competitive. Certain overseas markets may not be so mature and because they are not large enough to attract wide attention, they may be less crowded whilst still being quite sufficient to meet your immediate aspirations.

Welcome – a little about this blog …

Welcome to the ExportSavvy blog. Here we want to introduce you to the ExportSavvy service.

ExportSavvy is a unique learning and information tool for businesses who want to grow their international markets. Members include businesses who are new to export as well as those with experience. ExportSavvy is packed with useful, practical tips, case studies, checklists, links, videos and interactive features to help you develop and grow your international business. You can choose your level of advice – a bitesize written briefing or an indepth exploration with video case studies (or, of course, a combination of both).

In this blog we will develop themes from ExportSavvy that we think will be of interest to new and experienced exporters alike. It will be a complement to the ExportSavvy service but not a replacement. So do go and take a look at the service. If you aren’t already, we’d love to welcome you as a member.