10 Top Tips for Trade Advertising Overseas

Reaching out to trade or retail customers in an overseas market requires thought and careful message development. Here are some tips for making the right decisions here –

1. Use OMIS (https://www.gov.uk/overseas-market-introduction-service) or consider an in-market PR agency
2. Use press releases to get trade press exposure
3. Consult your Trade Association about target publications
4. Analyse what your competition does
5. Link advertising/PR to attendance at an exhibition
6. Devise a joint campaign with your partner
7. Monitor responses carefully yourself
8. Ensure you are able to respond to enquiries (foreign languages)
9. Have a fast response to agent/distributor enquiries in place
10. If linked to your website make sure that is also up to scratch!

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.

10 Top Tips for Using International Exhibitions

International Exhibitions are a good way to understand new markets into which you are going to sell and to reach potential partners, distributors and customers. Here are some tips on making the most of Exhibitions and ensuring a return on the – often significant – investment.

1. Research the exhibition. Visit the year before you exhibit if possible
2. Be clear about your objectives
3. Contact specific targets in advance and arrange to meet
4. Block out time to follow up BEFORE you go
5. Do a cost/space share deal with your partner(s)
6. Get experience on a shared trade association stand
7. Get student help for interpreting
8. Walk the floor to get competitor information
9. Don’t appoint partners at the show!
10. FOLLOW UP your leads!

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.

On the Road to Exporting?

International trade is highly rewarding, but as with all business, that reward comes with an element of risk. As an Entrepreneur or Business Manager you will no doubt do many things instinctively, you will make mistakes, and some can be costly. In international trade these costs can be magnified, so it is sensible to think and plan ahead, to ensure that you minimise the chance of making the mistakes.

What does the road ahead look like?

Whether you are a product business or a service business, you will probably face six really key decisions as you move forward:

Promoting Yourself Overseas

Ensuring that you get marketing literature and materials and your website right for your market is a critical part of your entry strategy. You can let down a potentially good product with poor support.

If you are working with a partner to introduce your product or service to the market, work with them to put together a package that you both feel will work from your different perspectives.

Using your Marketing Mix to Create Competitive Edge

When thinking at a strategic level about how to differentiate yourself from your competition there are seven key areas which build up into your ‘marketing mix’ and which add up to what differentiates you and constitutes your value proposition to the customer.

Product

• How unique is your product in the market you are targeting?
• Are the customer benefits which make you successful in the UK the same in your target market?
• Do you need to modify your product to meet the needs of your target market?
• Products are not just physical products. Services which are offered alongside physical products or as standalone offerings are equally included in this exercise.