To successfully market your Import Export business you must first identify who your customer is, then you research what is the best way to reach that customer, complete a financial analysis to determine what type of return you hope to accomplish, set a budget and finally monitor your campaign. By using these 5 tips, you will be able to successfully market your Import Export company.
It may sound simple to identify who your customers are but this is often where businesses fail. Review exactly what products you will be importing and exporting and determine whether your customer is male or female, what age group they fit in, where they live and what income level they are at. This information can be obtained from looking at your current customer base, researching the customers your competitors are targeting and most importantly, determining who the ideal customer is for you import export business.
Once you have identified the customer you wish to target, you can choose what tool to use to market your business. If it is an older client, more traditional means of print advertising may suffice. If it is a younger client, social media and other online tools may need to be utilized. If the audience is much broader based, other more branding type activities (event sponsorships) could be considered. Whatever tool is used, you need to differentiate yourself from your competitors and give a compelling reason for customers to choose your import export business.
When you develop a marketing plan you need to determine what type of return you expect for your investment. This will depend on what your goals of marketing the business are. If they are to promote the import export business brand, the returns will be hard to measure. A marketing plan can truly be successful when clearly defined goals are identified. An example would be to set a goal of exporting an additional one million widgets over the next year. Other goals could be to draw more people to your website, have more followers on your social media sites or to add more names to your mailing and emailing lists. All of these are examples of measurable goals for a marketing plan.
Once you have determined a return, set a budget based upon meeting your goals. Your marketing goals should be measurable against your campaign expenditures. For example, if the goal is to increase business by adding additional visitors to your website, you could calculate the total amount of import export business is generated through your website and divide that total by the number of visitors. Then determine how many additional visitors you would need to have to meet the increase import export sales and set your goals to attract additional visitors.
Finally, the most important thing with any marketing of any business is to closely monitor your marketing efforts against your goals. Do not expect immediate results as any good campaign takes a while, but do track the results closely. Produce regular reports tracking each tool used in your campaign. Be flexible and willing to make changes in your marketing plan to meet your goals.
