We are an online marketing firm established in India. How do we take our services to other countries?

Hey, Aayush;

I launched a marketing consulting business in 2008 and ended up teaching marketing strategy to companies like Disney, Cox Communications, and more before the recession hit in 2010 and forced a change in career. Let me share what I learned then with you.

The easiest way to do this is to find a niche that you may feel is poorly represented and start buying clicks. Maybe you want to pr motor yourself on Facebook to game developers or target a list of 5,000 self-published authors on Twitter. Find the market you wish to enter and figure out how to reach them. Build content that's laser targeted to that market.

Optimize your landing pages, do all the smart marketing tactics that you should have learned by now and you should be able to gain some traction. That will take a decent amount of money, but you're generally better off burning money instead of time if you have a successful business. The exchange rate between USD and rupee may hurt too much to do that, though.

The alternative is to take time instead of money. Find those same audience members who you want to do marketing for online. They have hangouts somewhere: Google Plus or LinkedIn Groups or even dusty old phpbb forums. Spend a few weeks just listening. See what they need. Start offering some free advice and see how they react. Once you understand what they need and how you can economically provide it, build your landing pages and then go back to your new friends and start asking them to spread the word. Treat those first few clients like kings, because their recommendations can make all the difference between winning over your new market or struggling futilely.

For as long as you can afford to, plow all of the profits from your new market into growing that market. Eventually, after a year or three, you'll look around and realize that all the hard work has paid off in success. And then it's time to add another new market and start again. 😊

You acquire clients by being helpful and solving their problem.

The plan to expand into any of these nations is the same, but the execution is different.

Make a list of the problems facing your ideal customer, one country at a time, then set out to solve those problems.

Your client base will grow and your agency will expand.

Congratulations on your successful first year!

Here are some suggestions I can offer:

1. Focus on where you can add the most value to your targeted clients and promote what sets your organization uniquely apart from the competition. For example, India country market + social media marketing + specific market segment expertise will enable you to target potential clients more effectively than a broad approach where your message will get lost in the noise.

2. Reach out to the foreign government entities that have a presence in India and are helping foreign companies do business there. For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce has offices throughout India and these offices exist to help U.S. companies do business in India. The DOC looks for qualified local companies with expertise that can help U.S. companies coming to India. Contact them to find out how to become engaged in that process. The same is true for the UK, Singapore, and other country organizations.

3. Similarly, reach out the the India country representatives based in the U.S. (and other countries where you wish to do business). These are usually based in Washington DC or New York, with affiliate offices around the States.

Hope these suggestions help and best wishes for another great year!

I would say that the most importan things are: preparation, information, network. Study the experience of similar firm in those countries, understand where you might have an edge and also look for potential partners who are already well placed in the market whose products could be complementary to yours. This would give you a priviledged entry position and a local partner with skills.