International Business

Okay so you're on the web and you're building your business. You're building a global business now...or are you?

Hopping online to find out the definition of global, I came upon 26.8 million entries and all of them basically said the same thing. The definition of "Global" means "involving the entire earth; not limited or provincial in scope; international".

So if you as a professional are offering various services and are purporting yourself to be International, then are you reaching out to your entire audience and connecting with them.

I've had a 'pet peeve' for a little while because I see a lot of online businesses that state there are international or global and yet, people outside of their region cannot get access to them or their products without spending thousands of dollars.

Here are 5 tips to truly promote yourself as a truly international business:

(1) Teleseminars are easy ways to market your products or services, but quite a few international persons cannot access your live calls without paying hundreds of dollars. There are some places in the world that charge over $2 per minute to call certain countries in the world!

Make it easy for your clients or prospects.

Some marketers are now using webinars or InstantTeleseminar.com, both of which allow people to listen via the web.

(2) Review your website. Does it make it easy for ALL visitors to contact you?

Are you using a live chat feature?

Do you have any Skype contact information so international persons can use free Skype-to-Skype calling to purchase your products?

Do you have a contact form on your site so visitors can contact you NOW rather than going into their email program and creating a new message to you?

(3) Promoting your events way too late is a 'no-no'.

This is particularly upsetting when your favorite marketer is putting on a grand live event or program and has been 'seeding' it in their ezine for a while. Then you've been away from your email for a while and realize that you missed a deadline to get a great discount or the event or program actually starts next week!

Yikes!

You must remember that all your customers are not online 24-hrs per day to instantly take advantage of your promotions right away.

If you truly are an international business and not a national or regional one, then you need to give your customers time to sign up for your fabulous programs by promoting them way in advance.

Of course this advance period will depend on if it's a live one (we recommend 6 months for a live event) or at least 4-6 weeks for a program.

(4) Do you have a currency converter on your site or a link to one?

Most of the world automatically assume that any number after the dollar sign ($) is United States Dollars. The USD is in fact a globally recognized currency and persons around the world do seem to know their country's exchange rate to the USD.

However, it sends a strong psychological message to your buyers that YES, they too are important enough to include a currency converter on the site.

(5) Do you have downloadable information products or e-products for purchase?

It is a great idea to offer 2 options for every product (if you can and if it makes sense). One option is an instant download version and the other is a shippable version.

International customers LOVE downloadable products because they are quick to consume; they don't have to deal with Customs in their country which means additional money to actually get the product in their hands and they are cheaper to purchase.

I hope you've gotten some great ideas and will implement a few of them to expand your business to a more global network.

Going global means playing a bigger game.