niti shah - the marketers checklist for going global
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THE MARKETER’S CHECKLIST FORGOING GLOBALWhat to do (and not to do)when entering a new market.
Niti Shah, Senior Marketing Manager, HubSpot
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1. How to decide where you’re taking your business
2. Which marketing activities to prioritize for a new region
3. How to work effectively as a global marketing team
4. Basic need-to-knows
AGENDA.
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The MARACA model is a framework that
provides a clear, at-a-glance view of the relative
value of a given country to your company, to
facilitate international strategy decisions.
Do the MARACA!
Nataly KellyVP International Ops & StrategyHubSpot
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OFFICE LOCATIONWill you be operating out of your headquarters or establishing a local office? Which functions will be run out of that office?
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REGIONAL TALENTIs there a large enough talent pool in the region that fits various teams’ requirements and culture?
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KNOW YOUR METRICS.You need to know what you’re getting yourself into, which means you need some data.
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TRAFFIC• What countries are driving
traffic to your website?
• What sources in a region
contribute to traffic?
• What content is driving
regional traffic?
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LEADS• How many leads are you
currently generating in that
region?
• What topics and types of
content are generating leads?
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CUSTOMERS• What is your lead to customer
conversion rate in region?
• What traffic and lead sources
are resulting in the best (and
worst) customer close rates in
region?
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NOTHING ELSE MATTERS IF……Your marketing and sales teams
aren’t aligned.
Meet with regional sales managers
and set expectations and a Service
Level Agreement (SLA).
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TRIAGE FIRST• Address immediate blockers to
sales, such as lack of collateral
• Understand major influencers
in the sales process, such as
local business customs and
government incentives
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PERSONA RESEARCH.Your marketing can’t be one-size-fits-all:understand who your regional personas are.
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IDENTIFY KEY DIFFERENCES• Do local keyword research
• Read regional blogs and pubs
• Talk to existing customers
• Attend industry events
• Network with local companies
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HOW THEY CONSUME CONTENT• Where do they find their
content?
• What formats are most
popular?
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HOW THEY COMMUNICATE• Do they use email or
messenger tools such as
Whatsapp?
• What social media platforms
do they prefer?
• Memes or no memes?
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HOW THEY PURCHASE• How much online research do
they conduct?
• Is there an expectation of face-
to-face meetings?
• How important is guanxi?
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CREATE DIGITAL ESSENTIALS.Can you support multiple regions and languages on your website? What assets do you need to create?
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SALES COLLATERALMake sure your sales reps have
essential localized whitepapers
and resources they need to sell.
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TOP-LEVEL DOMAINIf you’re expanding into different
languages, you’ll want to use
country-specific top level
domains (TLDs) for that language.
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SEOConduct keyword research to
understand where your keywords
rank in local online search.
Create content to rank for local
search terms.
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BLOGCreate language-specific blogs
for secondary languages you’re
selling in.
This is the biggest organic lever
you can pull in a region.
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CONTENTDo an audit of existing content
and localize any that fit with your
new market.
When in doubt, repurpose!
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SOCIALDo you need local handles? Do
you have the resources to
maintain additional social?
Which networks are your ideal
customers on?
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ESTABLISH A LOCAL PRESENCE.Understand and integrate your company into the local industry landscape.
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PRHire a PR agency that has done
work in your industry in that
region, at least at the start.
Their connections will give you a
leg up with brand recognition.
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COMPETITORSWho are your competitors in the
region?
Some will be the same, but others
might be regional competitors
you’ll need to prepare for.
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INFLUENCERSWho are the influencers in your
region and industry?
Connect with them, involve them
in your content, webinars, and
events.
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COMARKETINGPARTNERSAre there local companies or
regional divisions of global
companies you could form
strategic partnerships with?
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EVENTS & NETWORKINGFind out what events are
happening in your regional
industry.
Cultivate thought-leadership
through speaking engagements.
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LEGAL STUFFDifferent countries have different
laws around IP and marketing
activities.
Running a contest? Check with
legal first!
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CREATE GLOBAL SYSTEMS.Set up effective communication and processes so teams can work across regions.
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OPERATIONS• Internal naming conventions
for your digital assets• Documentation of brand
guidelines, marketing processes
• Go-to troubleshooting resources
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COLLABORATION• Have a centralized location for
all teams’ resources
• Share team projects, research,
and experiments
• Regular check-ins for same
functions across regions
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OPEN ACCESS TO GLOBAL RESOURCES.Make sure regional teams don’t have to resort to hackymethods to get by.
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DON’T LOCKUP THE FANCY STUFFMake sure regional teams have
equal access to high-value
resources that might be in HQ,
such as design, video, and
developers.
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INCORPORATE FREELANCERSIt’s not always economical to share
resources from HQ due to
travel/equipment costs.
Budget freelancer costs for projects
that require resources beyond local
in-house capabilities.
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LEAD WITH LOCALSYou’re going to have a mix of expats and locals – but incorporate local hires into each level, especially management.
They’ll bring local perspective, and that’s invaluable to growth.
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CREATE A REGIONAL PIPELINE• Have a recruiter on the ground
• Attend networking events and
career fairs
• Incentivize local hires to refer
people in their networks
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LET REGIONS INNOVATEGive regional marketers autonomy and the ability to take the lead on global collaborations.
Just because you’re in a regional office doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to global goals.
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GIVE LOCAL EMPLOYEES AUTONOMYThe sad fact is most global orgs
bring in expats as leaders, who
then hire local teams to execute.
Try to foster leadership within a
region to create a strong culture.
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AMERICAN VERSUS BRITISH ENGLISH• It’s “zed” not “zee”• Use “s” instead of “z”
(personalise/optimise/agonise)• Use “ou” instead of “o”
(favourite, glamour, colour)• Stay away from American
idioms (baseball references)
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CULTURAL AWARENESS• Local business customs
• Cultural norms
• Social ettiquette
• Rules and laws
• Basic language skills
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HOUSE-KEEPING• Provide an immigration lawyer
• Choose serviced apartments in
residential areas for expats
• Know expat tax laws for new
country and back home
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GO WITH AN OPEN MINDYou’re bound to have your
perceptions and assumptions
turned upside down, and that’s
okay.
Going global is a journey, so
enjoy the ride.
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1. Market availability alone isn’t justification for expanding to a new country
2. Smarketing should be the most important focus of a regional marketing team
3. Create local personas: they’re not the same as they are back home
4. Prioritize which marketing activities to focus on first, repurpose what you can
5. Create global systems and give autonomy and responsibility to local teams
6. Be culturally aware and open to change
Takeaways.