Work outside Turkey is one of our core areas at Türk SEM. We have built up serious experience in international SEO and we keep putting it to work for a good many established companies. Among the markets we care about most is Germany.
With a population of more than 83 million and a contribution of over a quarter of the EU’s total annual GDP, expanding into Germany is a sound decision for your company. Approached correctly, the move can win you loyal, dependable customers. The German market and the German speaking countries, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, usually called the “DACH” region, offer opportunities you will not find elsewhere.
Conquering those markets calls for rigorous market analysis and a sharp understanding of German culture and German buyers. In this piece we want to go through the points that need particular attention as you expand.
Is Opening Up to the German Market Worth the Effort?
If you are reading this you are probably thinking about expanding into the DACH region. Historically a good many international companies have struggled to win German customers because of the market’s particular preferences. Getting past those difficulties, if you structure it properly, can build a loyal customer base that stays with you over the long term and can take your business to another level.
“Germans love to research. The point here is that you first have to trust your own product or service. Then you have to market the right product to the right person. Entering the German market takes more than a good advertiser: it takes one who knows the German market and can analyze the audience extremely well.”
Türk SEM CEO Tahir Dinç
Germany being one of the largest economies in Europe and in the world, combined with its advanced technology, its export driven approach and its strong infrastructure, makes it an ideal target for expansion. For Turkish firms in particular, one of the reasons it is among the most sensible countries to expand into is the tie that comes down through history.
Entering the Market
We said your German customers generally carry out thorough research and put detailed product and service information first. Your marketing has to be built on transparent, honest presentation grounded in credibility. Emphasizing your command of the sector and your successes matters, but backing that claim with credible evidence, customer references, positive feedback and certifications, matters just as much.
A clear, well structured website design is essential so customers in the German market can reach information easily. Just as vital is following the legal regulations across the whole site, particularly around the processing of personal data, contracts and agreements. Do that and you can win German customers’ trust and make a solid start toward lasting relationships.
The German Market, Step by Step
We have worked on German language SEO for a long time and we carry on doing it. Here, step by step, is what a firm entering the German market for the first time should be doing.
1. Adapt to the German Market
To adapt effectively, thorough market analysis of your product is vital. Study the local and national competition for ideas on your advertising and sales strategy. Draw up a sector by sector list of the differences between Turkey and Germany. Work out how the presence of your product or service differs between the two.
2. Targeting the DACH Countries
Tailoring your approach to the different needs, wants, interests and priorities of the DACH market will pay off. To win the trust of German prospects, back your claims with facts and set out the benefits and the value of your product or service transparently.
3. Hire Native Speakers
Language plays a very large part in Germany. A German website and checkout process is welcome, but flawless grammar and high quality language count for a great deal. To get past the language barrier it matters enormously to work with a firm that provides a German language call center. A good many firms in Turkey offer that service.
4. Optimize Your Site for the German Market
Provide flawless translations for your landing page, your ads, your terms of use, your FAQs, your guides, your social media and your video content. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the key to lifting your search rankings and your overall credibility. Google Ads offers remarkable opportunities to reach the right customer at the right moment. Türk SEM will help you use both SEO and Google Ads accurately and economically.
“Those two marketing kits are usually a very good starting kit. But; social media and channel promotion strengthen your company’s presence in the German market too.”
Türk SEM CEO Tahir Dinç
5. Choose Your Channels
To build trust among German customers, put quality and widely used platforms first, and identify the media channels that will do the most for your company in the German market.
6. Work to a Plan
Write your German content carefully and leave enough time to revise it. Using content marketing properly can produce brand fanatics in a way that will surprise you. Reading our piece on SEO friendly blog content carefully will help your content strategy.
7. Follow the Regulations and the Law
Research the processes, the paperwork and the regulations in advance and work with an adviser who knows the German bureaucratic landscape well.
Conclusion
Opening your products or services to the German market is an exciting stretch of work. Watching our clients realize at some point how right their decision was has always been a pleasure for us. The German market is a hard one, but working with an agency that knows it makes the difficulty a good deal easier. Our agency takes the German market very seriously.
Türk SEM CEO Tahir Dinç is from Aksaray, and because of the large expatriate community there he has been close to the German market since childhood.
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