by Laurel J. Delaney

If you want to export to more than a billion people who are interested in buying your product, it will most likely be accomplished through using search engines and other social media channels. You should put all the different marketing mediums to work simultaneously in a highly targeted yet seamless fashion. Diversification is best when you want to maximize resources and to increase online visibility. It will take time and effort, but the payoff will be worth it in terms of bringing the world to your online export business.

When drafting an international marketing plan, the simpler, the better. Begin by addressing these five key questions:

1. What do I want to accomplish with my business online?
2. How much money do I have to spend?
3. Who will work on the marketing procedure?
4. How much time will I devote?
5. How will I make it happen (which tools will work best)?

Let’s take a look at a sample international marketing plan for a fictitious company we’ll call Organic Berry Company, which takes into consideration all of the above.

Organic Berry Company

San Francisco–based Organic Berry Company (OBC) grows, packages, and sells certified organic blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries throughout the United States. Established in 2010, OBC has $2 million in annual revenue, fifteen employees, and has established that each customer spends an average of $50 a year. The company’s marketing plan might look like this:

1.  What do we want to accomplish with our business online?
“OBC wants to create an international marketing plan that will enable it to increase its online visibility—and sales—to Southeast Asia, specifically Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia.”

2.  How much money do we have to spend?
“OBC has set aside $50,000 for the first year of online marketing. Once it generates enough new business to offset that initial expenditure, the company will allocate 7 percent of after-tax profits to future marketing efforts on a worldwide basis.”

3.  Who will work on the marketing procedure?
“The company will ask one employee, who is excellent with communications, to work on the online marketing activities. The company will make sure to get her buy-in first and confirm that she is passionate about taking on this new initiative.”

4.  How much time will we devote?
“The one key employee will devote herself full-time to online marketing activities until such time that the company needs more people to come on board to assist her.”

5.  How will we make it happen (which tools will work best)?
“That gets us to the plan! The first step of creating that plan is to figure out where our customers are most likely to look for us.
“OBC will devote time and energy to all online platforms, with heavy emphasis on search engine optimization, since that is where consumers worldwide search and find information. OBC will support the SEM efforts with quality blog posts, podcasts, Tweet chats, Skypecasts, webinars, published articles, and e-books that will help to further promote our business to the world as well as transact business in every corner of the planet.”

The above is an excerpt from my book.  To learn more, purchase the book.