Five Things You Must Know to Expand Your Business and Make it More Profitable

by A. Ray Thomas

You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 company to expand your business globally! With the numerous resources and methods available through ZANA Business Network, expanding into the international marketplace may be easier than you realize. If you’re like most small business owners, you’ve entertained visions of running a successful company that meets increasing customer demand for your product or service. Maybe you’ve dreamed of regional, national or international expansion that would garner huge profits. That this is a typical entrepreneur’s dream is not surprising. What may shock you is that only four percent of American businesses export their products and services around the world. That translates to about 230,000 companies that do business overseas. No doubt, the percentage is low compared to other countries because many small and midsize companies don’t seriously consider international trade for the following reasons: • They are doing well domestically and don’t see a need to market overseas. • They don’t know the economic and political climates, the culture or the language in other countries. • They assume that international transactions are too risky. Now, these are all valid concerns and if you share any of them, you may be surprised to know that you can find everything you need to enter the inter-national marketplace from the U.S. government – including support. The key is making sure you do your homework beforehand. Here are five global marketing tips that will help you determine if going global is right for you and your company. If you would like to dig deeper to learn how you can access more ways to go global, become a free member simply by visiting our website: www.zananetwork.com. Global Marketing Tip No. 1: Utilize Government Resources to Identify Opportunities and Support Tools There are many U.S. government resources that SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) should utilize prior to exporting their goods and services. No doubt, through them you will find numerous international trade opportunities in developed and emerging markets. Many small businesses in developed and emerging markets are constantly looking to partner and do business with American companies. You will find free access to these government websites all in one easy to use portal (see location below). • Department of State • Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) • Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) • U.S. Export Assistance Center • U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service • International Trade Administration, • U.S. Department of Commerce • Office of Intellectual Property Rights, U.S. Department of Commerce • Caribbean-Central American Action (CCAA) Global Marketing Tip No. 2: Know the Benefits of Emerging and Developed Markets In emerging markets, there are privatization opportunities due to governments divesting from state-owned firms. In addition, there are often high rates of growth. If a market doesn’t have what you’re selling, that could be an excellent opportunity to export new consumer goods to that market. Even better, the greatest opportunities in emerging markets are with small businesses looking for partners for joint ventures to import and export. Now naturally, developed markets in English-speaking countries, such as Canada, Mexico and England, are often recommended for SMEs just starting out. These particular countries fall under the North American Free Trade Agreement, so the rules and regulations help with strategy. Beginning in a developed country will be far more comfortable for you and your business. Global Marketing Tip No. 3: Consider Becoming a Sub-Supplier to a Larger Company In emerging markets, there is often a high demand for infrastructure projects, such as waste disposal and energy. Think about it. The larger companies often come into these regions first for these jobs, but they need suppliers. These projects often last years and allow you to become part of the supply chain. It is also a good way to test the marketplace while mitigating your risk. Identify the Risks The perception is that greater risk comes with international trade. In actuality, the risks are just different. Government agencies and thousands of companies offer tools to help you, as well as propose other areas of concern that you may not have contemplated. Know this: The more questions you ask your resources, the better prepared you are to market your products and services internationally. Below are just a few areas you need to consider: • Time and distance it takes to ship products • Making sure that you’re going to get paid for the transaction • The political climate • Restrictive trade policies • Calculating your sale properly so that you don’t lose on foreign exchange • The local legal practices of a foreign country Global Marketing Tip No. 4: Know Who Your Foreign Partners Are It is important that you get to know your foreign customers or partners. You will want to pre-qualify them by using international credit-report services through companies, such as Atradius or Dun & Bradstreet (available via ZANA Business Network). You will also want to know if they have lawsuits against them in their country, including liens. Global Marketing Tip No. 5: Use the U.S. Government Resources, Foreign Commercial Service, State Department and the Various Publications That Are Available Make it your business to be briefed on the local political and business community, which is fairly small and closed. In addition, you will want to know who your U.S. contacts are in that country, should you need their help. Follow these global marketing tips and leave your competitors to battle each other for the limited profits. And now we would like to invite you to claim your free membership and the opportunity to market your products, services and ideas at no cost when you go to http://www.zananetwork.com Are you a small to medium business that is tired of struggling to market your products, services and ideas globally? Do you want to maximize your global business opportunities? Now you can! Combine your business talents with the power of Global Internet Marketing and watch your income soar! Visit http://www.zananetwork.com and join the new revolution of international business.

Article source: ArticlePros.com

How Much Do You Really Know About Your Customers?

by Sarah Clements

I recently met a new client who told me that he knows very little about his customers or the reasons they buy one product in preference to another. As shocking as this might sound, I am almost certain he's not alone. A great number of businesses we speak to can tell you all about their sales figures, about their average order values or about the number of new customers they have acquired. But when it comes to actually knowing what a customer thinks of them or perhaps more importantly, the business perception of themselves compared to that of their customers, then very few have a clear understanding of what makes their customers tick.

Perception mapping

In our experience, a simple solution to this problem can be to conduct a questionnaire to both internal stakeholders and a business customers and then analysing the results using perception mapping. Perception mapping uses survey data to provide a visual representation of the perceptions of diverse segments, in particular, highlighting key differences. It is particularly useful when analysing the differences in perceptions from a company and customer point of view in areas such as service levels and product quality. Perception mapping can help prove or disprove the perceptions or assumptions of a business and identify gaps in the service or product offering.

Are customer surveys a little "old hat"?

People may argue however, that customer surveys are a little "old hat" or that they struggle to get significant enough responses to allow accurate analysis. Again in our experience, if the right questions are asked in a non-intrusive way, using the most appropriate medium and to the right customers (and by that I mean ones who have an existing relationship with the business), then response rates can be surprising. We have seen response rates from online customer surveys as high as 75% and that's without offering an incentive to respond. Clearly it helps to have a very receptive and loyal customer base in order to see response rates that high but other surveys we have run on behalf of clients regularly get response rates in excess of 25% which gives more than enough accurate data to perform detailed analysis -providing enough questionnaires were sent in the first place obviously!

Questionnaires - a great way of getting customer insight

Questionnaires are also a great tool for cleansing or filling gaps in your customer profile information without customers feeling as though they are being interrogated by the Spanish Inquisition. Any analyst will tell you that having information like date of birth, occupation or postcode in customer data is invaluable when it comes to accurate profiling and segmentation or building customer insight initiatives such as propensity models. By clearly stating the purpose of the questionnaire (i.e. to improve customer service or help with product development) and asking carefully planned, relevant questions, detailed information on customers can be built-up and incorporated into database profiles.

...And to conclude

So in summary, here are a few points to remember and some advice about the successful use of customer questionnaires and surveys:

- Planning - think about why you want to perform a survey in the first place. Is it to address a specific business objective, to prove or disprove a theory or to gather valuable profiling data?

- Relevance - Make sure the questions reflect the information you want to gather and that they are relevant to the customers purchase behaviour... there is no point in asking a question if no action can result from its answer!

- Objectivity - Try and make your surveys and questionnaire as objective as possible, after all you want your customers to be honest in their responses even if the results make for difficult reading.

- Channel - If all your customer interactions are conducted online or via email, then it's a good idea (if not an obvious one!) to conduct a survey via the same channels. Online surveys give the added benefit of direction integration into marketing database systems without the need to data capture the results.

- Format - Complicated questions in a poorly designed format will only serve to dissuade customers from responding. Equally, complicated questionnaires with lots of free text will make data.

- Analysis - Most companies would say that they analyse the results of the surveys they have conducted but in our experience, very few actually get the most from the data they capture. Using a specialist data analyst or customer insight company can really help unlock intelligence in data and help you get the most from a customer survey.

About the Author

EWA are an award winning relationship management agency who provide professional outsourced marketing and communication services including contact centres, customer insight and database marketing.

Article Source: Content for Reprint