With almost three billion users and tens
of millions of businesses online, the Internet offers a unique
opportunity for companies to reach their potential customers more easily
than ever before. Exporting, or globally expanding using the Internet,
can be profitable for businesses of all sizes including SMEs. On the
average, sales grow faster, more jobs are created, and employees earn
more than in non-exporting firms.
Exports will play a key role in the
recovery of the Nigerian economy. Every day we see Nigerian businesses
using Google not just as a search engine, but also as a growth engine
powering their businesses to sell overseas. Whether they use our tools
to find new markets, advertise to new customers or communicate in
multiple languages, these businesses are finding great opportunities in
digitally-led exports.
Here is some advice for companies that
have an established presence online but which have yet to take the
plunge to begin exporting:
First, find new target markets.
Powerful marketing tools and free
translation tools already exist online to help businesses attract,
communicate with, and sell to audiences everywhere in the world. For
example, by using Google Global Market Finder, businesses can find
audiences around the world that are likely to be interested in their
products or services. It uses data from Internet searches around the
world to show the number of times people search for keywords relevant to
your business. It covers 56 languages and also provides cost and
competitive estimates. This information can help a business to review
the estimated cost of acquiring a new customer and to determine whether
targeting a particular market is a good investment. You’ll find this if
you search for Google Global Market Finder in your Internet browser.
It’s also worth checking out another
free service, Google Trends at google.com/trends. This lets you see what
people have been searching for, from anywhere in the world. For
example, if you want to find out if anyone in the US searched over the
last month for Aso Oke, Google Trends gives you an instant snapshot of
the interest in Aso Oke.
Secondly, connect locally
When you’re exporting in particular to
non-English speaking markets, it’s necessary for a business to adapt to
local consumer needs. To help with this, Google commissioned an online
survey of consumers in 56 countries, with around 3000 interviews in each
country to produce a consumer barometer. For your business, this means
that, whenever you want to dig into the data for a specific
demographic/product in a target country, you will be able to consult
good quality data which will help you make the right decision. This data
is freely available at www.consumerbarometer.com.
You can then use these insights to adapt
your site, marketing materials, and advertisements to the local
languages of its target markets. This is recommended business practice,
even in countries where a high percentage of the population speaks
English fluently.
So, whether you’re looking for a quick
translation to test your site with different audiences or a more formal
translation, free online tools such as Google’s Website Translator
plugin for websites can save you time and money. This tool will make
your website instantly international. You can control which parts of
your site are translated, adding a snippet of code to any sections you
want to leave in their current language. By tracking page views on your
translated site, you can decide whether to invest in the complete
localisation of your website. For example, if your site receives lots of
French or Spanish speakers, you may want to translate it into French
and Spanish to improve the user experience for these potential
customers.
Thirdly, help potential customers to find your business online
By using online advertising, your
business can reach relevant audiences of scale. No matter what the
advertising budget may be you can show ads when people search online.
Showing ads next to relevant search results means that a business is
advertising to an audience that’s already interested in their product or
service.
Finally, internationalise your business
There are some logistical and legal
requirements to operating in an international environment. Here is a
quick checklist for your business – We at Google haven’t covered
everything here so come and talk to us if you have more specific
questions:
Electronic payments
Simplify your international sales with
electronic payments. You should make sure that you can process
transactions with the most common international cards, such as Visa or
MasterCard. Payment options are an important element of online shopping
so investigate the various online payment systems common to different
countries.
At Google, we are optimistic of the
opportunities for growth in Nigeria and of the vibrant entrepreneurial
ecosystems that are supported by the Internet.
Companies need to learn how to use these
online tools to develop insights to understand the export opportunities
and to navigate language, cultural and commercial differences in
external markets. The potential rewards of doing so make good business
sense and can help turn a good business into a stellar performing one.
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