USE THESE 10 TIPS FOR MARKETING YOUR STARTUP GLOBALLY

Are you ready to take your startup worldwide?

It’s easier to do than ever thanks to online Kickstarter campaigns, crowdfunding, social media platforms, and the overall move to digital over old school brick and mortar. However, that doesn’t mean it’s actually easy—globalizing your startup comes with an entirely new set of challenges. Plus, it’s even tougher for entrepreneurs because you don’t have the same deep pockets as corporations who can hire entire translation teams to take care of communication. How can you compete in taking your startup global?

There are 10 easy, budget-friendly ways to stay competitive even on a startup’s budget. Here’s how to go global even when your bottom line is playing boss:

Learn a New Language

Learning a new language yourself helps you show respect for the culture you’re marketing to. Even if you make a faux pas or can’t communicate like a native speaker, making an effort is what really counts. It might be what makes an investor in Japan choose you over a bigger company that didn’t bother to learn basic greetings.

Get on the Right Social Media Platforms

Facebook and Twitter aren’t the be-all, end-all of social media. In fact, the platforms used by other countries for connecting, marketing, and producing might vary widely. Accessing Western social media from China is banned, though not impossible; instead, the local market has developed its own competitors like WeChat and Sina Weibo. Find out what the most popular SM platforms are in the countries you’re targeting and get on board.

Hire Smart, Hire Local

As a growing company, you’ll probably soon have an opportunity to bring on a new worker or contractor. Hiring someone who’s from the region you’re targeting, or at least is highly experienced in the culture, can give you an edge. Plus, it helps diversify your startup, which is a plus no matter how you look at it.

Tell Your Story in Pictures

If you can’t afford a certified translator right now, remember that pictures are worth 1,000 words and need no translation. Use an infographic, image, or short (wordless video) to convey your message. It’s creative and more appealing than a dry document anyway.

Go Fully Digital

There are some founders who are experienced in old school marketing strategies and stay in that realm because that’s where they’re comfortable. Stop. It’s a digital world and marketing is changing, which allows you to reach all corners of the world—plus it’s more affordable, so it’s a win-win.

Research the Culture

It’s not just about the language, but also the culture when marketing. You can easily creative an offensive marketing campaign in another country and never know it. Know the culture and the language if you’re delving into that territory.

Take Holidays into Account

If you really want to tap into a culture or region, make sure to plan your marketing around their biggest holidays. For example, who wouldn’t jump on the holiday marketing bandwagon in the US? However, in India it’s Diwali in October/November that’s the big ticket item. It makes your marketing relevant and gives you a free competitive edge. 

Give Them Their Own Domain

In some cases, you might want to pick up multiple domains and create content for each region. If it requires another language, it needs expert translation. If not, just make sure the content is different and appropriate to the country. For example, you might want to get both the .com and the .ca for your American and Canadian audiences. 

Drop the Slang

Many startups want to be seen as young and trending, which means using a lot of slang. It’s lost on some Americans, so just imagine how confusing it can be to other markets outside the country. Even some “staple” slang like “jones” (i.e. “jonesing” for some chocolate) makes zero sense in other English-speaking countries.

Don’t take Short Cuts

There are no short cuts around certifiable translations. If you can’t afford to go global now in some regards, don’t. There are many other ways to reach audiences besides butchering a language.

While it’s simpler to go global now more than ever, don’t dive in without doing your research. Just like starting your venture, preparation is key. Know who your audience is, why you selected that market, and how they want to be approached before you ever create a first impression. 

 Source : http://bit.ly/2c3Jpex

The Three Pillars of Content Marketing for 2016

For the past few years, content has been establishing itself as the dominant form of marketing, and in 2016, it will likely achieve that goal. Every year, more and more businesses are making quality content a higher priority and putting more money behind its creation.

And while this is great news for writers, it does create a bit of a problem.

The digital revolution has produced hundreds of thousands of millions of businesses, marketers, advertisers, etc. vying for consumer attention through social media, email, ads, blogs, and more. And with so much information floating around, it's becoming harder and harder for someone to get noticed online and to have their message heard. Even worse, so much of what's being thrown at the consumer is utter garbage.

And this isn't going to stop. So how do businesses find exposure in the face of information overload?

By building great content!

Of course, as it is with most things, creating great content is easier said than done. In order to be truly effective in our modern market, you have to build your content atop the Three Pillars: Curation, Information, and Authenticity.

Let's explore.

Curation
As the overall pool of information grows wider and deeper, the consumers' catalogue of source material grows smaller. Basically, the more information that's available, the more labor intensive it becomes to sift through it all and find the information one is looking for. Therefore, people are more likely to stick to a handful of trusted sources, often ones that deal specifically with their particular interests or career.

For years, there have been numerous blogs, self-help books, advice columns, etc. that attempt to provide blanket information to cover a wide range of possible situations. But too much broad appeal is a bad thing.

When you're creating content for your marketing strategy this year--be it social media, email, or blogs--you want to focus on curating that content for very specific audiences, demographics, career paths, and industries.

Example: Check out this Q&A blog geared towards the financial industry.

Instruction
Truly informative, educational, or instructional content trumps entertainment all day, every day (at least when it comes to business).

True value in your content comes from showing someone HOW to do something. Teach them how to navigate a particularly difficult task. Help them solve a problem. Show them how to gain a new skill. Instructional content is highly sought after in this day and age. And if you'd like some examples, check out some of these blogs:

How to Run AdWords on a Tight Budget

A Blogging Process That Actually Works

3 Editing Tips to Make Your Content Pop

You Have a Computer Virus. Now What?

Authenticity
I actually touched on this topic in a previous blog, but it bears repeating. The current generation of workers, voters, and (increasingly) owners and entrepreneurs crave authenticity. Advertisements, even from Google and Facebook, are slowly circling the drain and will likely be all but obsolete in the next 5 years. Rather than focusing your money and efforts on a dying breed of marketing, invest in authentic content.

It may sound elusive, but really, authentic content simply means creating content that:

A: Is honest.
B: Has the best interest of the reader in mind.
C: Shows you care about more than just profit.
D: Reflects something you truly, honestly believe in.

Make no mistake; the current generation of consumers can sniff out dishonest and fake content from a mile away. So be authentic.

Source : http://huff.to/21oPL6Z

How to Make the Jump From Employee to Entrepreneur in 5 Steps

What I have to say may upset you, or it may inspire you: We all have amazing dreams and aspirations, but many people will never achieve them because they were set up to live a mediocre life.

When you look at our society and the way you were raised, you were taught to get good grades in school so you could get into a good college. Once you got your acceptance letter you studied hard so you could get a good job. The day came where you put on your cap and gown, walked across the stage and began your life in the professional world with the hopes of climbing the corporate ladder fast.

You work hard so one day you can save up enough money to retire. Fast-forward 20 years and you’re in your 40s working a job that doesn’t fulfill you and you ask: Is this all life is? Am I doomed to a life of mediocrity?

1. Recognize that you have a clean slate in front of you.

If you’re still reading this, then you probably want to have the choice of leaving your current job for your own business. Great!

First, you first have to recognize that you have a clean slate in front of you. I have a lot of friends who began their careers as CPAs and do not feel that they spend their days living their true calling. Yet so many of them feel that if they were to start a business, they would have to leverage their CPA.

Don’t let your past experience be a weight that holds you down from doing what you were born to do!

2. Identify what you were born to do.

How do you figure this out? While there is no cookie-cutter approach, Justin recommended the following:

• Identify your passions. What do you love to do?
• Identify your skills. What are you really good at?
• Identify your values. What really matters to you?
• Find the intersection of those three.

This exercise does not work like a gumball machine where you put a quarter in and out pops your life’s calling. What it will do is help you ask yourself the right questions every day, which over time will build your awareness and help you navigate your path.

3. Find the right mentors.

At this point you have a choice. You can try to navigate this process on your own and waste a lot of time and money, or you can find people who have done this before and let them help you.

4. Turn your day job into a game.

We all have 24 hours in a day, yet how is it that some people are able to get so much more done? It all boils down to efficiency. The faster and better you get something done, the more time you free up to take on the next task.

Now that you have set the intention of starting your own business you will need to free up some time. The best way to do this is to turn your day job into a game. With my sales job, I ask myself every day, “How can I earn twice as much income working half the time?”

Questions such as this will change the way you view your job and get you excited about getting things done. This will help you multiply your time exponentially.

Go ahead and come up with your own empowering questions and turn your job into a game!

5. Give yourself the choice to burn the ship once you’re got another boat.

Many people preach burning the ships so you have no option other than to succeed. That has worked for some and compromised others. When you have to put a roof over your family’s head and food on the table, you may want to take a more conservative approach.

You’ve committed to performing at your day job at the highest level so you can free up time to build your business on the side. Once your business gets to a point where you have replaced your income you can choose to burn the ship, or not. Either way, you have the choice.

While society has set you up to live a mediocre life, at the end of the day it’s your life and you are accountable for it. You have made the investment in yourself, now go take action and live an extraordinary life!

Source : http://entm.ag/1hEJyCX