8. Tap Your Team
Your customer service rep grew up in Portugal. Your designer lived in Paris for three years. Unlock the experience of your team to tailor your offerings to new markets.
9. Do Your Research
Be careful with your personal experience and opinions — we all suffer from a representation bias. Do research, including surveys, with an international audience. Then, narrow down “global” to what it actually means for your product: countries, regions, demographics, etc. Get to know the places you want to reach, especially around influencers — for example, journalists.
– Nacho Gonzalez, Mailtrack.io – The double-check for Gmail
10. Learn Another Language
Learning another language is the first step to doing business in other countries. You have to be able to communicate to build partnerships and develop a global business.
– Lane Campbell, Syntress SCDT
11. Collaborate
The first step to making your business more global is to identify new markets that are relevant to your business. Next, you should collaborate with groups that already influence those markets.
– Mina Chang, Linking the World
12. Localize
It’s wise to hire help from that country or area (Europe) to better understand the market there. These people will come with experience working within that market and break down language barriers. For instance, if you’re expanding to Europe, you might tap into a localized PR agency that already has relationships with local media.
13. Publish Content in Multiple Languages
We publish our website in both Spanish and English. We’ve found that if we provide content — and even speak to people — in their native tongue, it makes them feel as though we respect their culture. You never know, cultural sensitivity could be a deciding factor for prospects on the fence about which provider to work with.
– Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
14. Consider Your Options
Our lives are global nowadays. We regularly share personal and professional information on different platforms for anyone in the world to see. The question is how can we maximize those platforms to build our businesses, both locally and globally. First, define your goals then see what options are the best fit.
– Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME
15. Learn Where You Fit
If you want a global company, hire globally. When looking for employees, branch out of your immediate locality, and you’re sure to get some wonderful new team members. Use their knowledge to help you figure out new markets to expand into. And simply visit new places and figure out what they need. Learn how you fit in.