When running an international business, your company needs to have a versatile marketing strategy. There’s no way out of it if you want to remain relevant and competitive. 

Global businesses around the world employ multichannel marketing strategies to target their international audiences, which, in their turn, are getting more and more demanding. To comply with the needs of their target audiences, international businesses diversify their business promotion strategies by exploring the world of multichannel marketing. 

Here are some stats to prove the rising demand for the multichannel world:

–95% of marketers recognize the importance of multichannel marketing and the role it plays in targeting

-73% of marketers already have a multichannel marketing strategy in place

-Businesses that employ multichannel marketing achieve over 90% year-to-year customer retention rates. 

Consumers support businesses that have an active multichannel marketing strategy, giving their preference to the companies that have several social media channels with customer support chatbots, a variety of content, and a branded app in addition to the desktop and mobile versions of a company website. 

So, as you can imagine, achieving all these objectives puts a lot of financial pressure on your company. Running a global business already involves substantial investment, so putting extra money and effort into a multichannel marketing strategy may seem like something secondary. 

In reality, however, your multichannel marketing efforts have a huge influence on the success of your international business. The way you run your marketing strategy affects the relationship with your target audience. Hence, if you don’t have this relationship, you won’t have success in the international market. 

So, let’s take a look at how your global business can benefit from the multichannel world (with tips and examples of how to implement a multichannel marketing strategy). 

Localized Social Media Accounts

According to Hootsuite, 40% of digital consumers use social networks to research new brands and products. When looking for a product, consumers go on a research hunt, digging as much information about a brand as possible. 

But if you’re running a global business, you need to make sure that all the information about your company can be accessible to your international audience in their native language. Thus, if you want to benefit from the multichannel world, you need to take your marketing strategy a step further and create localized social media accounts. 

You have definitely already seen many examples of this strategy in action. IKEA, for instance, runs several Instagram accounts in different languages. Here are the examples of their Instagram accounts in French:

… and in Polish:

Image credit: IKEA Polska

If you visit IKEA’s international Instagram pages, you’ll see that all their content is localized, including stories, hashtags, and, of course, image descriptions. 

Having a localized social media marketing strategy helps your global business:

-You create personalized connections with your international audience

-You help them reach your business faster, which gives you a competitive advantage

-It increases your website traffic on the local markets

On top of that, having localized social media profiles helps you diversify your multichannel marketing strategy and strengthen your global presence. 

Mobile App, Available Worldwide

Running a multichannel marketing strategy presupposes the launch of mobile app as well. Desktop Internet usage is falling, mobile internet usage is rising, and hence, the demand for apps keeps growing. 

There are three main reasons why your international brand needs an app:

-Better user experience – when targeting a foreign market, you need your target audience to perceive you not as a someone alien and unknown but as a trustworthy brand that caters to the needs of its target audience;

-A more personalized approach – having an app allows you to analyze and better understand each user’s individual session, understand their needs, and create a more personalized user experience;

-Creating a direct marketing channel – with an app, special offers and promotions will be right at your target user’s fingertips. 

For international business, having an app also presupposes app localization for every country, where the business operates. For instance, Flatfy, an international real estate company, has translated its app Korter to cater to the needs of their audience in Kazakhstan, Romania, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. 

Having a localized app helps a global business build brand recognition and cultivate customer loyalty by improving customer experience. 

Multilanguage Customer Support

Internet users often contact brands through social media. Thus, the need for accessing customer support through social media keeps growing. The growing demand for chatbots shows how traditional marketing and customer support can benefit from a digital twist and improve the brand-customer relationship. 

From the standpoint of multichannel marketing, a chatbot is another channel for the customers to access your brand. For global businesses, however, creating a chatbot that can speak different languages is a must since, for the seamless customer support experience, your audience needs to feel confident when communicating any issues with your customer service. 

Sephora is one of the brands that run their Facebook chatbot in the world’s most spoken languages, including English and Spanish:

Having a localized customer support channel is another step to establishing a strong and long-lasting relationship with your international audience. 

Localization is Key

If you take a closer look at all the three above-mentioned points, you’ll notice that localization is a prerequisite of running a multichannel marketing strategy on an international scale. 

Since multichannel marketing involves a variety of channels, which (unlike in omnichannel marketing) operate individually, you need to make sure that all these channels have high quality in order to perform to their full capacity and bring value to your international audience. 

So, take your global business’s multichannel marketing strategy to the next level and start speaking the languages of your foreign audiences. This way you’ll ensure the success of your marketing efforts and remain competitive on the global market. 

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Ryan is a passionate writer who likes sharing his thoughts and experience with the readers. Currently, he works as a digital marketing specialist, you can check his website https://flatfy.ro. He likes everything related to traveling and new countries.