Achieving success in your domestic market is encouraging, but expanding into the international market is even more exciting. If you have been doing well in your local market, you might want to consider taking your business global. Although breaking into new markets can be challenging, if you succeed, you could significantly increase your company's revenue.
This guide will begin by discussing the reasons why you should take your company global. Then, we will explore practical strategies for entering a new market. Our goal is to provide you with actionable insights that can help you expand your business internationally.
6 Tips for Breaking into New Markets
When you have made up your mind to enter a new market, it is important to spend time planning, preparing, and executing a well-crafted growth strategy. In order to ensure the most effective strategy for expanding into a new market, you can follow these six tips.
1. Understand Customer Pain Points
To successfully enter a new market, the first step is to understand the pain points of potential customers. This involves conducting market research to analyse the specific challenges and needs of the industry you aim to target.
By doing so, you can position your company as a solution provider and demonstrate that you understand their unique problems. Creating a targeted USP (unique selling proposition) that directly addresses the pain points of your new market can also help you stand out and gain traction.
2. Establish Value in Your Business
To successfully expand your business into a new market, you must understand the value your business brings to customers. This includes your offerings, unique factors, and mission.
Once you've established your unique value proposition, you'll need to develop a clear plan for expanding your reach and showcasing your company's strengths. This involves demonstrating how your company solves problems in a unique way that resonates with your target market. Once you have this clarity, you can develop strategies that effectively showcase your strengths and differentiate your company from the competition.
3. Create Brand Awareness
To increase your reach and connect with more customers, it is important to make your brand easily identifiable. This means that your target audience should be able to recognise who you are and what you have to offer. One way to achieve this is by implementing awareness tactics, which can help you break into new markets and tailor your company to a specific audience.
This includes identifying your specific target audience, understanding what matters to them, and designing brand elements that speak to them. Create a message and values that will stand out to this new market and use unique branding elements to showcase your brand. Remember, the key is to be authentic, provide value, and consistently engage with your audience.
4. Create Demand for Your Product
To generate demand for your product or service, consider running digital campaigns allowing potential customers to sign up and be first to know when your product/service is available. This approach creates a list you can use for future marketing efforts.
When creating your messaging, storytelling is a powerful tool to engage your target audience emotionally. By emphasising how your product will benefit your target market, you can build anticipation and stimulate demand. Plan your marketing strategies based on customers' journey, creating a flow that takes your customers from awareness to purchase to loyalty. Tailor your approach to your specific market for maximum effectiveness.
5. Assess Your Business’ Finances
Breaking into new markets can bring success to many businesses, but it often requires a significant investment. Before starting, it's essential to do the math and understand how your cash flow will be affected by the new venture and whether you can afford it.
Common expenses for market expansion include market research, product development, marketing investment, sales and distribution, customer support, and overhead costs like office space, equipment, and tools. Even if you have a well-researched business plan, there's always a chance of running into unexpected expenses. That's why it's essential to have enough cash reserves on hand to cover any hiccups. A business line of credit can also be helpful.
6. Monitor and Measure Market Expansion Strategy
After creating a market expansion strategy, it's essential to evaluate your success. By tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), assessing financial results, and measuring customer satisfaction. The KPIs should be specific, measurable, and aligned with the objectives of the market expansion strategy.
For instance, you could calculate the revenue generated by a new market or other costs that you will incur when investing in the new market. It's crucial to monitor and report your progress regularly. Doing so will help you determine the effectiveness of your market expansion strategies and make necessary adjustments as required.
How gigCMO Can Help Your Business Break into New Markets
We understand that expanding your business operations globally can be complex and challenging, which is why gigCMO's Fractional CMO Service simplify your international expansion strategy.
We have developed a Business Growth Playbook containing a set of instructions for entering a new market. By following tried-and-tested procedures and using best practices and comparative data, our gigCMO Playbook can help you evaluate and consolidate your business foundations and pricing model and develop campaigns.
The Playbook provides a blueprint for the most effective way to enter a new market, which your team can modify to suit the specifics of the target market. Our goal is to help you save time and money while expanding your business globally.
- Develop an international marketing strategy that is aligned with business objectives.
- Create well-defined value propositions, long-term objectives, and SMART goals.
- Prepare for localisation and identify priority markets.
- Select marketing technologies wisely and plan for future tools and needs.
If you're looking to expand into international markets and need marketing leadership to help you achieve your goals, gigCMO's Fractional CMO Service is the perfect partner for you. Contact us and learn more on how we can help you grow your business and revenue in international markets.
