The document discusses the importance of putting digital marketing at the center of an international business strategy. It outlines 7 strategic building blocks for developing a strong digital strategy: 1) defining business goals for going digital, 2) understanding the sales process, 3) focusing digital efforts on target markets, 4) sharpening the value proposition, 5) doing digital research, 6) having a digital marketing plan, and 7) ensuring business alignment. The presentation provides examples of how to apply these building blocks and emphasizes having clarity of purpose and aligning the digital strategy with the sales process and target markets.

1. Putting Digital Marketing at the
Centre of your International
Business Strategy
Kevin Moran, IMS Marketing
26th March 2019

2. About Us
B2B Full Service Marketing Partner
13 years in business
Market Knowledge
Key markets: Healthcare, Medical Devices, ICT, Software, Electronics,
Industrial and Precision Engineering
International
80% of our projects assist companies in the marketing of their products and
services internationally. Combination of Irish and international client base
Digital
Web and Digital planning and implementation across 16 countries in the past 3
years
Our Team
Based in Oranmore: 15 full-time marketing people including full in-house website and
graphic design services
12
2BB

3. Purpose of my presentation this morning:
• Building a great looking website is easy.
• Putting a well developed digital strategy around this is more difficult.
• What are the fundamental building blocks of a great digital strategy?

4. 7 Strategic Digital Building Blocks
……before you build your website
1. How
do
you
want
digital
to
support
your
business
goals?
2. Understand
your
sales
and
customer
buying
process
3. Define
your
(focused)
target
market
4. Sharpen
your
value
proposiEon
5. Do
your
digital
research
6. Have
a
plan
to
promote
your
business
online
7. Ensure
your
business
processes
are
aligned
And
some
successful
client
examples…..

5. 1. Why do you want to be online?
• To sell……(e-commerce)
• To generate leads
• To support our channel partners
• To support customer service
• To increase brand awareness
• Because everyone else is………….?
Today, almost every company is online (web and
social media) but very few have clarity of purpose
regarding their online presence.

6. Confusion !
QuesEon:
What
is
this
website
trying
to
promote?
Answer:
Everything!

7. If
you
have
a
clear
goal
for
your
website,
then
your
visitors
will
also
be
clear
Clarity

8.
2.
What
is
your
sales
process?
Every
business
has
a
different
sales
process.
The
best
digital
markeEng
strategies
reflect
this:
E-­‐Commerce
Industrial
Immediate
Trial
or
Purchase
Individual
6-­‐15
months
Ini@al
Interest/
Enquiry
Team
Introducer
Infuencer
Decision
Maker
Decision
Lead
Time
Website
Goal
Stakeholders

9. Support
each
stakeholder
in
the
process:
Buyer
Personas:
• Who
is
involved
in
the
decision
making
process?
• What
are
their
personal
moEvaEons?
• What
informaEon
are
they
looking
for?
Eg.
Engineer
v
Purchasing
v
Management
OEM
v
Clinician
v
PaEent
IT
v
OperaEons
v
Finance

10. Build
your
digital
strategy
around
your
sales
funnel
• Map
out
your
sales
process
• Understand
the
steps
required
to
create
a
lead,
nurture
that
enquiry
and
close
that
sale
• Define
all
of
the
markeEng
supports
needed
to
support
that
sales
process
• Mix
of
digital
and
tradiEonal
markeEng
supports

11. 3. Defining your target market:
The Digital Market Opportunity is HUGE !!
Population of:
Ireland:
4.6m
UK:
65m
x14
Emes
USA:
321m
x70
Emes
Europe:
743m
x160
Emes
India
1.3bn
x280
Emes
However………
• 14
Emes
the
market
potenEal,
can
oben
mean
14
Emes
the
degree
of
local
compeEEon
• Being
online
doesn’t
necessarily
mean
being
visible

12. 3. Defining your target market:
In developing export markets for your products and services
you would carefully research and decide which markets you
would enter first, and why.
Your international digital strategy should be no different !
Where possible, adopt a focused approach to your
international digital expansion
An international strategy doesn’t mean a global strategy

13. Hello,
I
am
Gerhard.
I
am
45
years
old
and
live
in
Munich,
Germany.
I
have
heard
nice
things
about
Ireland
but
I
have
never
heard
of
your
company.
Tell
me
why
should
I
use
your
product
or
service?
4. Sharpen your
Value Proposition

14. Every
business
already
knows
that
every
customer
isn’t
the
same.
However
this
is
rarely
considered
in
developing
an
internaEonal
web
or
digital
strategy.
Instead
the
tendency
is
to
cast
out
a
uniform
message
and
see
what
happens…..
What
is
your
value
proposi@on?
• Do
you
understand
the
local
market
condiEons?
• Can
you
answer
how/why
you
are
beeer
than
local
compeEtors?
How
does
this
impact
communica@ons?
• English
or
translated
to
local
language
• Localised
content
based
on
local
preferences
• Choice
of
domain
names
used,
etc
4. Sharpen your
Value Proposition

15. 5. Do your Digital Research
We are entering the age of BIG DATA
Every day new technologies and tools emerge that
forensically analyse ‘all things digital’
These tools provide companies with the opportunity to
understand the international digital landscape before they
invest in campaigns

16. The 5 key elements of a Digital
Audit:
• Local search behaviour and keywords
• Competitiveness and cost of acquiring traffic
• Competitor digital landscape
• Social media audience sizes and levels of engagement
• Your present performance and the gap to compete for
online and social media visibility

17.
6.
Importance
of
a
Digital
MarkeEng
Plan
To
develop
any
export
market
requires
ongoing
resources
and
investment.
Digital
is
no
different!
1.
What
are
your
objec@ves?
Ref:
Digital
Audit
2.
What
tools
are
you
going
to
employ?
Organic:
SEO,
Blogs,
Social
Media,
E-­‐Mail,
etc
Sponsored:
Social
Media,
Adwords,
3rd
party
portals,
etc
Integrated:
Digital
supports
for
tradiEonal
markeEng
–
shows,
events,
etc
3.
What
is
your
promo@onal
calendar?
Timings
of
promoEons
to
support
key
business
acEviEes
(markets,
products,
partners,
etc)
4.
How
will
you
measure
results?
Ref:
Digital
Audit
PracEcally
everything
you
do
online
can
be
measured
Remove
subjecEvity,
use
facts
Monthly
KPI
Report
5.
Who
will
drive
this
plan
in
your
organisa@on?
You
would
not
target
new
business
development
internaEonally
without
the
necessary
sales
resources.
Have
you
the
necessary
resources
to
support
your
online
digital
strategy?

18. OK, so you have your decided
to invest in a new website. Have
you spoken to everyone else in
the company yet?

19. Logistics:
We
are
going
to
sell
to
how
many
countries
now?
Do
we
even
know
how
to
handle
shipping
to
these
parts
of
the
world?
Customer Service:
And
how
do
we
answer
the
phone
aDer
5pm
Irish
Eme
for
West
Coast
USA?
Don’t
even
suggest
I
do
it;
I’m
already
here
from
8am
every
morning
Whoopee
!!;
the
website
is
in
French
but
nobody
in
the
office
speaks
bloody
French
!!!

20. Sales:
Our
distributors
will
go
crazy.
It
looks
now
like
we
are
compeEng
against
them
in
their
own
back
yard.
This
will
never
work!
It
will
be
your
fault
when
our
sales
drop!
Quality:
Hold
on
a
minute.
Our
products
don’t
even
have
regulatory
approval
for
some
of
these
countries.
Finance:
We
need
how
much
to
spend
on
markeEng
the
website
aDer
we
build
it
??!

21. 7. Ensure your business processes are
aligned
The
decisions
you
make
around
digital
markeEng
can
impact
all
areas
of
your
business
and
sales
operaEons.
Engage
with
stakeholders
across
the
company
from
an
early
stage
Ensure
there
is
alignment
and
that
digital
fits
within
the
business
plan
and
not
outside
of
it.

22. A few examples of digital marketing
success when strategic planning
fundamentals are followed….

23.
EXAMPLE:
1
Understanding
the
importance
of
key
influencers
in
the
sales
process.
Problem:
How
to
target
design
engineers
responsible
for
packaging
design?
Solu@on:
Educate
the
Quality
teams
on
the
risks
of
non
compliance
Result:
Most
successful
lead
generaEon
tool
of
the
company.
Over
100
subscribers
to
quarterly
series
of
webinars

24.
EXAMPLE:
2
(a)
Using
media
instead
of
words
to
communicate
a
complex
technical
product
Problem:
How
to
communicate
the
uniqueness
of
a
highly
technical
soluEon
without
drowning
your
audience
in
boring
detail
Solu@on:
30
second
aeenEon
grabbing
animaEon.
Technical
details
come
second
when
you
are
interested.
Result:
#1
referenced
discussion
point
for
all
sales
enquiries
direct.
Used
globally
by
channel
partners
to
open
doors.
heps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p-­‐wnGmbtlc

25.
EXAMPLE:
2
(b)
Using
media
instead
of
words
to
communicate
a
complex
technical
product
Problem:
How
to
communicate
the
benefits
of
noise
insulaEon
in
commercial
vehicles,
to
mulEple
stakeholders
Feature:
We
can
reduce
the
noise
by
X
decibels
Benefits:
Health
&
Safety
Conformance,
Passenger
Comfort
Solu@on:
Let
them
experience
the
benefit!
Industry
Standard
Sound
Feature
(to
compliment
technical
datasheet)

26.
EXAMPLE:
3
The
power
of
social
media
to
build
early
adopters
ahead
of
product
launch
Problem:
Product
launch
of
e-­‐learning
plaporm.
How
could
we
generate
strong
pre-­‐market
interest?
Audience:
InternaEonal
medical
students
Approach:
“Pre-­‐registraEon”
campaign
aggressively
launched
via
targeted
Facebook
campaigns
in
6
internaEonal
markets.
Goal
was
to
sign-­‐up
500
trial
users
ahead
of
product
launch
in
an
8
week
period
Result:
Over
1100
students
signed
up,
far
exceeding
our
campaign
goals.
Over
20%
of
these
were
retained
for
ongoing
subsripEons.
Early
sales
pipeline
success!

27.
EXAMPLE:
4
The
power
of
a
focused
campaign
when
your
sales
reach
is
limited
Problem:
1
sales
person
travelling
to/
from
the
UK
to
develop
sales.
Highly
inefficient
Solu@on:
Targeted
online
campaigns
within
a
50
mile
radius
of
UK
sales
office.
PopulaEon
>
Rep
of
Ireland!
Result:
Highly
successful,
affordable
and
scalable
lead
generaEon.
Campaigns
were
regularly
paused
to
the
company
could
catch-­‐up

28.
EXAMPLE:
5
The
power
of
lead
nurture
campaigns
to
drive
sales
Problem:
Large
database
of
customers,
contacts
and
leads.
No
structured
sales
and
markeEng
process.
No
idea
what
worked?
Solu@on:
ImplementaEon
of
Salesforce
CRM
supported
by
ongoing
customer
research
and
highly
targeted
outreach
campaigns
in
Ireland
and
the
UK
to
nurture
contacts
Result:
Sales
leads
increased
by
70%
in
six
months.
Salesforce
became
the
driving
force
and
measure
for
sales
and
markeEng
results
in
the
company

29.
EXAMPLE:
6
Localising
your
online
campaigns
in
mul@-­‐lingual
markets
Problem:
MulE-­‐lingual
PPC
Campaigns
failing
due
to
depth
of
content
in
local
languages
and
in
fact
competed
with
larger
distributors
Solu@on:
Developed
co-­‐op
Google
PPC
campaign
strategy
with
distributors
in
8
European
markets.
Leveraging
Hubspot
landing
page
tools
Result:
Campaigns
were
consistent
and
non-­‐
compeEEve.
Openness
of
learnings
budget
efficient
for
all
stakeholders.
€50k
investment
has
delivered
>€400k
in
new
business
to-­‐date

30. What these examples highlight:
1. Your business is different. Your digital marketing
strategy needs to reflect this
2. Start with the business and sales process and
the right marketing will normally follow
3. Success is not about your company size. In our
view it is about focus and creativity

31. 7 Takeaway Points in developing an
international digital strategy:
1. Have
a
clear
goal
–
Why
do
you
want
a
website
and
what
is
its
role
in
your
overall
sales
and
markeEng
strategy?
2. Focus
on
your
sales
process
–
align
your
markeEng
strategy
around
this
3. Define
your
target
market
–
Global
ambiEon
someEmes
requires
global
resources
4. Sharpen
your
value
proposi@on
–
understand
the
markets
you
wish
to
target
and
what
it
will
take
to
be
successful
in
these
markets
5. Do
your
digital
research
–
Scope
the
opportunity
online
for
your
business
and
products
before
you
start
6. Invest
in
a
Digital
Marke@ng
Plan
–
Building
a
website
is
just
Step1
of
100
steps.
Content
is
King!
7. Ensure
your
business
processes
are
aligned
–
The
role
of
markeEng
is
support
the
business;
not
the
other
way
around.

32. Thank you
Kevin@imsmarketing.ie
www.imsmarketing.ie