International e-business and online marketing channels: some quick thoughts

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Today, I am in the mood for writing something. Just a quick blog post today about international e-business. A few things to take into account when practicing international e-commerce.
  • Email marketing
E-mail marketing is an excellent channel to use for generating traffic to your website. A lot of people often forget about "deliverability". Deliverability means the percentage of the e-mails you sent out, that arrives at the subscribers. I won't go into details now. But if you go abroad with your email marketing campaigns, make sure you focus at deliverability.

If your  e-mail does not arrive at many people of your database, you lose a lot of money! Make sure your e-mail service provider can help you with e-mail deliverability in the countries you are active.
  • Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing can be a good alternative source for traffic and sales.
At this moment there are no global affiliate marketing agency's. Note that the affiliate marketing matureness can differ enormously per country and per branch. Make sure you investigate this before you sign a contract. Maybe small local affiliate marketing agency's have better publishers then the big agency, you already are in contact with.
  • Search Engine Optimization
Coming from Western Europe or the USA, people often think, Google is the only search engine that really matters. This is not true. Several local (and international) search engines, you might have never heard of, are very important if you look at it from an international perspective. Think of "Baidu" in China, "Seznam" in the Czech Republic or "Yandex" in Russia. Make sure you follow their guidelines and do research in the possibilities.
  • Search Engine Advertising
The same that goes for Search Engine Optimization, as written above, is also valid for search engine advertising. There are many different options to advertise at international and local search engines. Also keywords that you advertise at, might be a lot cheaper or more expensive in another country even with the same search engine. The same word you advertise at in Google Germany, might be 50% cheaper in Sweden.
  • Social Media Marketing
There are many social media networks, besides Facebook. Investigate the usage of the social networks in the countries you focus at, but also study the culture of these users. Especially in social media, cultural differences and cultural dilemma's appear in the open. Be prepared.

Global penetration of social media networks in 2013

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