The Traditional Export Misconception:

A common misconception for companies is to assume that the markets they have done well exporting to traditionally are good targets for their online marketing strategies. Firstly it is important to understand that the UK is arguably one of the most sophisticated e-retail markets in the world, with highly active online consumers across all age profiles as well as one of the highest annual spend per capita (€ 1,300/y). This is not necessarily the case for other countries that have traditionally been lucrative export targets and have proven to have a large “high street” demand as they might not have evolved accordingly in the digital space.

When researching international digital markets, it is imperative to understand the target country’s online connectivity, smart phone adoption and online spend to be able to measure the size of the opportunity and make educated investments or budget allocations. For example, a British brand that traditionally has done very well exporting to the Italian market but not as well to the Swedish markets might assume it should spend larger budgets in the Italian digital strategy.  However if you look in to the online statistics you will see how Italy’s connectivity levels are 50% lower than the British and that their average annual online spend per capita is one of the lowest in Europe (€ 400/annum). On the other hand Sweedish connectivity levels are higher than the British and their internet spend per capita one of the highest in the world (€ 1,100/annum). Sweden suddenly becomes a much more attractive market for the online strategy. Additionally national search trends have to be taken in to consideration before making any conclusions, which brings me to my next point.

The Translation Misconception:

Surprisingly one of the most common misconceptions I have come across is the idea that if a website is ranking well in a specific language, a like for like translation should get good SEO results for the translated language. Unfortunately it is slightly more complicated than a simple translation; cultural idiosyncrasies are potentially the wild card that makes this process much more complex.

Prior to engaging in the actual translation the most important part of the strategy should be to identify “the critical path” of your target market, this will tell you what areas of the website actually need to be translated. By identifying what the target market requires you can avoid translating the whole website and considerably reduce translation costs further down the line. This can be particularly beneficial for the larger e-commerce websites were ongoing translations are a common requirement and can amount to a surprisingly large part of the marketing budget. The critical path has to be identified by traditional market knowledge as well as keyword research that will identify cultural digital trends that might be surprisingly different to what you would expect. Ultimately the objective is to identifying how do different cultures and countries actually refer to your product/service and more importantly what keywords do they actually type when searching for them.

In the example below we can see the differences in how Spaniards and Brits search for a holiday destination like the island of Ibiza. Highlighted in green we can see the search terms that are common for both countries;  “cheap hotels Ibiza”  “flights to Ibiza” which have exact equivalents in Spanish “hotels baratos ibiza” and “vuelos Ibiza”. However these are not the most popular search terms for either country; while Brits seem to me more interested in the complete package “holidays in Ibiza” Spaniards who potentially are more familiar with this holiday destination are more interested in the actual accommodation to the extent of searching for apartments and nearby more secluded islands like “Formentera”.

The Buying Habit Misconception:

Last but not least, what a lot of companies fail to identify in their international marketing strategies,  is the buying behaviour of different countries. Even though it may be well integrated to other marketing channels a lot of companies fail to apply the same logic online. In some cases were differences are identified the misconception is to believe that the job can be done by grouping countries in to areas (north vs south) or categories (Mediterranean vs Scandinavian) and applying a common seasonality rule without taking in to consideration individual differentiators.

Some main seasonality factors that have to be taken in to consideration are things like working hours, national holidays or search trends that may not be that obvious or explainable.

For example, it is a well known fact that northern European countries typically have lunch much earlier and quicker than their Mediterranean neighbours who would rather take a long break out of the office rather than eat a quick sandwich in front of their computers, consequently creating two distinct daily search trends.   Differences in traditional holidays can have a big impact in online traffic as well; in the UK and most other European countries online Christmas shopping happens before Christmas day on the 25^th of December, while in a country like Spain that celebrate Kings Day on the 6^th of January the shopping peak is delayed by a few weeks. Similarly some countries celebrate Halloween in October while some others celebrate Carnival in February or have   different dates for mothers and fathers day.

In some cases differences in buying behaviour are less obvious. Referring back to a previous example on the differences in how Spanish and British search for “hotels in Ibiza”  the graphs below show main differences that may not have a logical explanation apart from Spaniards leaving their holiday bookings to the last minute.

There are many more things to consider when developing international online marketing strategies, but these are three most common areas I found businesses struggling with. To this I would add that although e-commerce has been around since the early 90’s, it is only recently that we have seen an explosion in international digital marketing. The rules of the game are far from being written in stone there is still a lot to learn, making this space much more exiting.

3 Main Misconceptions of International Online Marketing is a post from: Response Marketing Blog - Search Engine Marketing by Mediarun

For those of you who are not familiar with the event, “El Clasico” is the nickname given to one of the biggest football matches in the world: Real Madrid v FC Barcelona. The two will clash Saturday night at Real Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu for their first match of the season. The event sees us football enthusiasts/online marketers hunting for historical stats to back our theories of who will win this year.

The reality is that Real Madrid have faced FC Barcelona in 215 official matches. Real Madrid has so far won 86 times, while the Catalan team have emerged victorious on 84 occasions. At home in the Bernabeau, Madrid has faced Barcelona 85 times, with 45 victories, 19 defeats and 21 draws making them statistically, marginally the best team… I am sure many Barcelona supporters will disagree.

In the battle of statistics to prove who is the better team I came across a very interesting article in the sports magazine, Sport. The article takes the argument to the social media arena by measuring the two teams’ popularity and makes some interesting points that I feel can equally apply to any company’s social strategy.

Amongst some of the more interesting conclusions the article highlights the following:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Madrid) is the football player with the biggest following (40 million fans on Facebook and Twitter) although Leo Messi (Barcelona) with half the followers is 4 times more spoken about.

2. Real Madrid, as a team again is the most followed but is not the best spoken about with only 45% of its comments being positive rivalled by Barcelona’s 64%. This might reflect the negative media that both Cristiano Ronaldo and trainer Jose Mourinho seem to attract.

3. Although not leader in terms of followers Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas is one of the players that best manages his personal social reputation with one of the highest engagement levels in up to three languages: Spanish, English and Catalan.

In my opinion this research highlights a few truths of social media. First, it’s not always about the number of followers but the engagement and how this can positively be steered to communicate and improve a brand’s reputation. Second, social media is becoming increasingly a more important tool and asset for a brand to communicate and engage with its customers. In football when a club is thinking of signing up a player it will consider how the player can contribute to the team winning trophies but will also asses how many shirts and tickets the individual can sell. I wonder if in the very near future when clubs look in to signing players their social media profiles will be viewed as an asset the team can exploit to build their own reputation and therefore quantified monetarily. Furthermore I wonder how long this will take to translate to the rest of the business environment.

Source: Sports Reputation Ranking Report – Comunicar es Ganar

El Clasico Explained through Social Media is a post from: Response Marketing Blog - Search Engine Marketing by Mediarun