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Top International Search Marketing Failures to Avoid in 2010
As we begin a new decade, our best chance for success in 2010 is to
look back over the failures of our past in order to succeed with our
programs in the future. Samuel Smiles
once wrote, "We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.
We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and
probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery."
Although it's nearly impossible to list all the failures I've seen over the last 15 years since our beloved industry emerged, I've seen five big ones. We'll look at two today, and three more in our next installment.
Failure 1: Misguided Research
I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, like many, I've often dreamed of selling something for a dollar profit to every Chinese and Indian citizen, but I would never base population as a target market strategy. Although it isn't entirely impossible, there are many things to consider when researching your markets.
It all starts with your primary objective. Branding a product, versus selling a product, versus obtaining a lead for your product would almost all have different strategies.
Log files can be used as a factor in target market research, but they aren't necessarily accurate. Some clients have discovered that even though China delivered the most non-U.S. traffic to their site, it was the French, number seven on their list, which converted 10 times more than their Chinese counterparts.
The key is to use analytics to figure out where your successful markets are, as well as what keywords they use to find you. You might be surprised to find out that your translated keyword was never properly localized to the market and you've been missing out on huge opportunities.
Basing your target audience on e-commerce research would also be a failure. When you compare a country's percent of online shoppers, their average amount spent, and the average amount of items purchased with their favorite items, your research may lead you to a different strategy.
For example, if you were selling airline tickets targeting the German market that, according to a Forrester European Technographic Benchmark Survey, has 83 percent of their Internet pollution considered as online shoppers spending €520 on average every six.. Read More
Although it's nearly impossible to list all the failures I've seen over the last 15 years since our beloved industry emerged, I've seen five big ones. We'll look at two today, and three more in our next installment.
Failure 1: Misguided Research
I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, like many, I've often dreamed of selling something for a dollar profit to every Chinese and Indian citizen, but I would never base population as a target market strategy. Although it isn't entirely impossible, there are many things to consider when researching your markets.
It all starts with your primary objective. Branding a product, versus selling a product, versus obtaining a lead for your product would almost all have different strategies.
Log files can be used as a factor in target market research, but they aren't necessarily accurate. Some clients have discovered that even though China delivered the most non-U.S. traffic to their site, it was the French, number seven on their list, which converted 10 times more than their Chinese counterparts.
The key is to use analytics to figure out where your successful markets are, as well as what keywords they use to find you. You might be surprised to find out that your translated keyword was never properly localized to the market and you've been missing out on huge opportunities.
Basing your target audience on e-commerce research would also be a failure. When you compare a country's percent of online shoppers, their average amount spent, and the average amount of items purchased with their favorite items, your research may lead you to a different strategy.
For example, if you were selling airline tickets targeting the German market that, according to a Forrester European Technographic Benchmark Survey, has 83 percent of their Internet pollution considered as online shoppers spending €520 on average every six.. Read More
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