International eMarketing seminar – November
International eMarketing 12th November, 13.00 – 17.00
The Source, Meadowhall, Sheffield (£35)
Learn about ebusiness strategies to promote your business in non-English markets using the Internet.
Maximise exporting opportunities with a multilingual website
According to a recent EU report, 2 of the main obstacles faced by UK businesses who are exporting for the first time are language and cultural barriers, and how best to promote their websites using SEO and online advertising.
The first step in trading internationally is to localise your website. This way, you can gain enquiries and orders from overseas customers with only a small investment – with even just one or two pages translated into foreign languages you can use your website to “test the water” in a number of countries at once, and see which ones gain you the most web traffic.
By monitoring the visitors to your localised webpages, you can choose the countries which warrant extra investment and focus on marketing your product or service there.
Online Purchases Increase Across Europe
As e-tailers prepare for another record Christmas period they should consider the changing trends in consumer confidence across Europe for new opportunities. Consumers are buying more frequently in every country in Europe, but as the pace of growth slows in the UK and competition stiffens, smart businesses will look to serve multilingual markets where consumerism grows faster and is less competitive.
International Trade – ask the expert!
This month in Yorkshire’s Insider magazine, Daniel Rajkumar, managing director of Web-Translations answered readers’ questions about web translation and emails, and setting up internationally usable websites.
Q: I have set up a new arm of my company in France as a base for drawing in business from across Europe. As I am looking at a lot of different countries do I need translation of the whole of my website or blog into all the possible European languages? Won’t English do?
A: “If you are serious about drawing business in from Europe you will have to have the website or blog professionally translated for the main language of each country you are targeting. People use the web for research and they search in their native language, so if your website is not multilingual, it will simply not be found.
International Trade will keep your company afloat
Trade figures have recently shown an improvement in business exports – partly due to the weakened value of our currency. According to research, companies which trade internationally are more likely to stay in business longer and are usually more profitable than those which choose to concentrate only on domestic sales.
Exporting is a great way to expand your business – those who trade internationally grow faster and fail less often than companies that don’t, and the current weak curerncy makes our prices much more competitive, so there’s no time like the present.
Which products/services sell well in Europe?
Machinery, engineering products and consultancy, vehicles, aircraft, plastics, crude oil, chemicals, plastic and rubber, metals, foodstuffs, beverages, textiles & clothing are all in demand throughout the Eurozone, and a little effort in approaching a potential client in their own language can go a long way. Even something as small as localising key pages of your website for a foreign market show that you are interested in foreign customers, and are a forward-thinking company.
What about in Asia?
The main exports to China are electrical/mechanical equipment, precision instruments (medical, optical, photo, technical), plastics, iron & steel, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and Automotive , Biotechnology & pharmaceuticals, Construction, Engineering, Financial services & ICT are all industries which have experienced growth there. As for India, there is a similar focus on engineering, sciences and technology, but in fact opportunities exist there for most sectors.
Where else should we look to?
Emerging markets have been identified in Poland, Vietnam, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Singapore, and Argentina. Opportunities exist in various sectors in these countries, notably design, consultancy and engineering – the sectors that are most commonly successful for overseas trade.
Brazil and Russia will also continue to be key areas for companies trading internationally.
eCommerce wars: Magento vs osCommerce
We are undoubtedly in times of fiscal ruin. Whole countries are going bust (how does that even happen?) and there is an impending sense of stagflation, or worse, deflation in the air…or even relegation if you are George Dub-ya.
“…Let’s stick to what we know, then, and make cut backs: no investment for a while, let’s just ride it out…” might say a chief decision maker whom, in doing so, will ensure his business only treads water for the foreseeable future.
UK housewives addicted to Internet
A study of more than 27,000 web users in 16 countries has shown that the Chinese spend the largest fraction of their leisure time online.
The survey also showed, however, that UK housewives spend even more of their free time online – a surprising 47%.
A total of 27,522 people aged 18 to 55 years old were interviewed online by TNS Global Interactive in the following countries: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. 2,500 were surveyed in the UK. The questions focused on online behaviour and, interestingly, also raised the issue of trust in traditional versus online media.
Exporters should take advantage of the strong € Euro
The Euro is at its strongest since its launch 9 years ago, at 1.116 Euros to the pound/0.745 EUR to the US Dollar.
While on the surface, this sounds like bad news, and it is in terms of our import buying power, as well as the cost of living which (reduced petrol prices aside), looks set to continue climbing well into 2009; for exporters it’s good news.
The tide has turned: where once the UK and USA could count on importing goods from overseas cheaply, and it was our own goods and services that were perceived as expensive by other nations, the shoe is, for the time being at least, firmly on the other foot.
Iconography recommends Web-Translations for major international brands
“Iconography chose Wéb-Tränslatiôns for a number of projects involving major international brands and clients. They offered rapid turnaround times on translation, including projects on tight deadlines and for multiple markets. I would not hesitate to recommend them to others.”
Wayne Robbins, Business Development Manager – Iconography
Web-Translations recommended by BGB Engineering
“Web-Translations are always very friendly and responsive.
They’re a great help, and I would recommend them – our project manager (Cassandra) was able to advise us on which sections of the website to include in the localisation, and worked directly with our web designers, which made it so much easier for us.”
James Tupper, Marketing & IT Systems – BGB Engineering