I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but business today is truly global.
Growing up I probably had the idea that businesses did business with customers and clients in a pretty local area. You had the local gas station and grocery store. The customer base was limited by location, but it was still a good way to make a living.
As I grew older it became obvious that you could do business throughout the state and from there throughout the US.
Now I look back on the history of Ghost Blog Writers and realize it’s been a global business from the beginning. In fact, the very first GBW client was located in Singapore.
Today, GBW clients are located all over the world from Asia to Australia to the UK and all across the US. It’s really great because you realize just how big the potential market is for your business.
With that realization comes the concept of global marketing and how you can take your brand to customers and clients throughout the world.
Global Marketing: Where To Start
It never really occurred to me before that GBW was a global business. I just never thought about it very much. I was focused on growing the company and would listen to business owners from anywhere. You can’t put boundaries on things when you’re trying to grow. Later on I think you have to so you have only the best clients in the world.
The obvious reason for the change in the world is the Internet. It’s broken down the barrier that was location. It’s no longer important where you are in the world whether it’s for business, friendship or family. You might not be able to work during the same time of day, but with email and messaging you can get quite a bit done in a global business setting.
The place to start is to accept the opportunity of global business and global marketing. It breaks down that location barrier and really opens things up to the entire world.
Global Marketing Strategy
Search and social are really the drivers for global marketing strategy. People everywhere are using search and social media. They’re searching for all kinds of information and with social they’re getting information from friends, family and other trusted sources.
This leads into the idea of a global marketing strategy. When all these people around the world are using the Internet then that’s where your need to go to capture their attention.
Before we dig into this it’s important to note that online marketing is still very dependent on your ideal customer. If your customer is over 35 years old their use of the Internet is very different than those under 35 years old.
Figure out if your customer is using the Internet. Figure out how they’re using the Internet. Then come back and setup your global marketing or online marketing strategy. You can fight all you want to do well with online marketing, but if your ideal customer is 75 years old you’re going to have a very limited base in the online world.
Okay, back to search and social and how people find information online. This is the opportunity for businesses.
Our belief at Ghost Blog Writers is you can reach people searching and using social media by creating a business blog.
The blog here on GBW has been the source of nearly all leads and clients along with referrals from existing clients.
About 35% of the traffic on the site is on blog posts and on the blog. That number could be even higher if you want to throw in the visitors that find the site though a blog post and visit the homepage or about page after reading the blog post.
The business blog here on GBW has been the driver of the global marketing strategy at GBW. It’s brought us clients from all over the world. Really we didn’t set out to create a global business, but the Internet and our business blog have turned the business into a global one.
Conclusion
The world is a big place and if you want a global company you need to think about how to market to the world.
Global marketing can be effective if you’re reaching people where they spend time when they’re online. People are searching, using social media and checking email.
Business blogging and a complementary email program can capture the attention of your target customer and move them down the path to an eventual sale.
That’s how global marketing works at GBW – for us and for our clients.
It can work for you too.
Image Credit: Satoru Kikuchi