Customers
How Messaging Can Help Power Global Marketing Strategies to Unlock New Customers Around the World
November 28, 2022
The United States isn’t the only market where customers love to shop online—it’s not even the biggest. Currently, the largest ecommerce market is China, and the country accounts for 10-15% of global consumption1 of home care, packaged foods, beauty, and consumer health products. Enterprise businesses are increasingly testing and targeting new markets, and with so many online shoppers around the world, there are many opportunities that come with expanding your business globally.
But, there are also challenges. According to the Harvard Business School2, some of the most common challenges international businesses face include language barriers, cultural differences, and currency exchange.
The good news? Messaging apps can help you overcome these challenges and expand your business to new markets. Learn how to acquire, engage, and convert new customers worldwide with messaging as a primary marketing channel for growing your global brand using the tips below.
Employ multilingual chatbots for borderless marketing opportunities
According to CSA research3, 65% of online shoppers surveyed prefer shopping with companies that offer information in their native language, 73% of respondents want at least product reviews to be in their language, and 40% say they never buy from websites that aren’t in their native language. Being able to communicate with customers in their local language breaks one of the biggest barriers associated with global marketing and bolsters the customer experience by enabling customers to communicate with you according to their preferences.
With messaging apps, you can program chatbots to understand and communicate in a vast number of languages, including those spoken by your target audiences. These versatile bots allow you to unblock language barriers and build brand loyalty in new local markets.
These chatbots can also work across time zones to send asynchronous messages to customers around the world. Asynchronous messaging makes your business better able to reach customers when they want to be reached, in a timezone that’s relevant to them. This way, they don’t have to wait to speak to a customer support agent that might be halfway around the world.
Localize content to personalize international offers
Multilingual chatbots don’t just translate your marketing messages. They can also localize your campaigns. Localization involves adjusting your messages and conversations to reflect the interests and needs of your target markets—including their social values, key holidays, and regional trends.
Consumers appreciate localization as a form of content personalization. The 2021 Hispanic Digital Fact Pack report4 shows that 71% of Hispanic consumers surveyed will either have a more positive opinion of a brand or purchase its products if the brand shows that it has taken the time to understand and include elements specific to Hispanic culture in its communications.
Programming chatbots to serve localized content across the globe can help you engage and re-engage multiple audiences and segments. These bots can automatically send personalized coupons and offers for local and regional holidays and events. They can also be programmed to recognize and use regional language variations—differentiating between French spoken in France and Canada, for example—to personalize experiences even further.
Your customers want to know that they are valued, and a great way to show global customers that you care is by sending them personalized content that is meaningful and relevant to them in their daily lives.
Stay compliant in all regions with automated opt-ins
When marketing internationally, consumer data collection gets a bit more complicated since regions have different compliance requirements and regulations5 that need to be respected in order to avoid penalties and fines. Some examples of this include GDPR in the EU and APPI in Japan.
Programming messaging apps to deliver the right opt-in options6 to customers based on their region and the corresponding data helps build trust with your customers. A clear message stating that customers can opt-into marketing updates (or opt-out) reinforces to customers that your business wants to deliver the best service possible, on their terms.
Some messaging apps can also offer message templates7 that help ensure that all messages sent by your business are expected, timely, and relevant. Pre-approved templates can be used to collect customer data via:
- Marketing messages like promotional offers and product announcements
- Transactional messages like order and account updates
- Account-specific messages for changing emails or passwords
Most importantly, you can translate and localize opt-ins and other message templates like any other marketing communications you’re sending via messaging apps
Messaging apps help provide solutions for global marketing’s greatest challenges
With global marketing plans and initiatives, on-time message delivery isn’t enough. Your brand should also deliver personalized messages to customers around the world based on the cultural, social, and economic characteristics that make each foreign market and local audience unique.
Deliver successful global marketing campaigns that are localized, accurate, and timely—no matter where you’re sending them—with messaging.