So the moment you have been waiting for is here and you are taking your company abroad. Congratulations first of all, you have made a very sound decision for the business and I hope it goes well. – Türk SEM SEO Manager Tahir Dinç

I wanted to open with a good wish. What I am about to write matters, because we have spent a long time helping exporters through exactly this. In this piece we will pass on our experience in 6 points.

1. Plan a Long Way Ahead

When you carry the work you do at home into another country, you have to be able to pour a great deal of energy into that new market. Do not forget that adapting to it will demand high energy, especially in the early stretch.

And do not forget you risk losing the customers you already have because of a badly planned expansion. Building risk management properly is the most critical part of the job. Once you are ready for every eventuality, your new global venture succeeding is the natural outcome. So what have we learned: work out every condition, get the risk management right, and act on a long term plan.

2. Use a Translator for the Website

Potential customers in another country may not easily forgive the small translation errors they meet on their first visit to your site. Whether they notice they are doing it or hold it against you at a more subconscious level, a few simple mistakes in the translation (images included) can make a large difference. Do not let that pull your sales down in a market you have only just entered.

Translation for another country is a more delicate matter than rendering it word by word. Change country and the spoken language, the symbols and the other cultural differences can mean something completely different from what you had in mind. And then there are idioms.

At Türk SEM we would like to enter into partnerships with translation firms. If anything comes of it we will announce it on our international SEO page.

Also, make sure you use a website name that says this is a local site. For instance, if your site in Turkey ends in .com.tr and you are opening up in South Africa, changing that to .co.za will bring you real advantages.

3. Someone Who Speaks the Language, for the Other Jobs Too

If you are entering a new market, translating your website alone will not be enough. You will also need a customer service function for email, chat, or however your customers reach you.

You know better than anyone how to solve that in your own case. To move forward on it, once you start the advertising and web work, having someone in the office with a command of the target market’s language is the healthy way to run it.

4. Raise the Company’s Standing Through Social Media

Remember that every country uses different social media platforms. Most of your customers may be on Facebook, but in some places Facebook may be blocked. Depending on the target demographic where you are expanding, some platforms will serve you better than others, and you have to find the right one through proper research.

To find out whether Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter or some other platform will get your company the most visibility in the new country you are marketing to, and to reach current information about it, you have to do your research in the local language.

5. Hello, SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) changes from country to country. You have to be sure this is the most important part of your work abroad. And keep this in mind: someone from Turkey may not know American SEO practice as well as someone working inside a US SEO company, and the same holds all over the world. We do SEO work in America, but; an American SEO company (and I mean a sound, properly run one here) may bring your firm a different kind of benefit.

Türk SEM’s core area of expertise is SEO carried out in another language. Arabic SEO and Turkish SEO, or Danish SEO and English SEO, are very different pieces of work.

6. Take the Target Country’s Laws Into Account

Working out every piece of regulation is hard enough even at home. Doing it in a foreign country whose language you do not speak is harder still. Import and export across borders carries a whole set of new laws, so do not rush it.

Get support on this from a firm that gives import and export legal advice. It will be far healthier for your company.

Wild Card: Run Google Ads

When it is all done, come to our agency and let us start winning your first customers together. Türk SEM is a Google Ads Partner and we can target any language and any country you want. Doing this work is not only our job, it is something we genuinely enjoy.

And keep in mind that Google Ads advertising policies can differ from country to country.

Second Wild Card – the Things You Must Do

Work with local partners: in markets abroad, working with local partners you trust can help you get past regional obstacles.

Cultural fit: shape your marketing strategy around the cultural differences of the target country. Keep local sensitivities in mind, particularly when you introduce a product or service.

Presence on digital platforms: to be effective in the global market, make active use of social media and e-commerce platforms. Produce content in the local languages above all.

We wish you well on the export road.