4 Steps to Take Your Business to the Global Digital Market

If you own a business or are thinking of starting one, consider the benefits of taking your business to the global digital market. Why limit it to a local marketplace when you can sell your products and services around the world. If you have a brick-and-mortar business that sells tangible products, you can use a fulfillment service to dropship products to your customer’s doorstep. And, if you have a service, hire representatives in other countries to provide the services on your behalf.

When setting up your business, research the best, most expedient way to send money online. This will then make it possible for you to manage international financial transactions. You will now be in a position to outsource any kind of work that you need to create your digital business; for instance, hiring a freelance web developer from India to build your website or a freelance copywriter from the UK to write your website’s sales copy.

While you may, as a small business owner, fully appreciate the logic of digitally transforming your business from a local to a global market, you may be curious how to set up an Internet-based digital business presence. Fortunately, over the course of many years, the four essential steps to take have been well-mapped out by numerous marketers. Let’s take a closer look at each step:

Step # 1. Fulfill an existing consumer need.

Although it might appear obvious that the purpose of a business is to fulfill an existing consumer need, it’s necessary to point out that this advice is not always followed by the smartest investors and technologists. If you recall, the dotcom bubble in the 1990s occurred after venture capitalists provided Internet startups with abundant capital. Theoretically, it should have worked: the emerging technology of the internet made it possible for the creation of a global digital marketplace and the generous cash infusion made it possible for smart technologists and creative marketers to create the best infrastructure. Yet, despite this perfect storm, the entire dot-com industry collapsed. So, here’s the takeaway lesson: it doesn’t matter if a digital business has fresh, new ideas, cutting-edge technology, sophisticated marketing, remarkable products, and big money financing if the final product or service is not something that fulfills a consumer need then the business will fail.

2. Build an effective website.

Many small business owners are quickly persuaded by web developers on the value of building a website with gorgeous graphics or impressive flash presentations. However, from a marketing point-of-view, aesthetics don’t necessarily translate into profits. Instead, all that really matters is a website that is easy for a visitor to navigate. In other words, usability, not aesthetics, makes a website effective. For instance, when you type in Google’s address into your browser, you land on a bare-bones website that allows you to search for anything on the Internet. By minimizing graphics and links, Google has created a highly effective website.

3. Drive traffic to your website.

There are numerous ways to drive traffic to your website. Here are just a few examples of ways to drive traffic to your website.

• · You can advertise online using pay-per-click or social media advertising options.
• · You can develop a following on a social media platform.
• · You can apply on-page and off-page SEO techniques.
• · You can start guest blogging on popular blogs with a huge audience, ranging from 10,000 to 1,000,000 visitors a month.
• · You can interview top influencers in a niche on your YouTube channel.

4. Write persuasive sales copy to increase conversions.

While conversion tactics are often delivered through print, it can also be delivered through videos or teleseminars. Often, conversion tactics utilize a mixture of different media. However, regardless of the media, the root cause of the conversion is the efficacy of the message, and this is often based on persuasive sales copy, which can either be a script for the listener or an open letter to the reader. Highly persuasive sales copy often has the following elements in place: there is one big idea, a single audience, a conversational tone, an absence of jargon, and an invisible outline that guides the reader or listener to a specific conclusion.

In summary, the basic structure to build a profitable global business is to fulfill an existing consumer need, build an effective website, drive traffic to the website, and write persuasive sales copy to increase conversions.