Reade set Go!
Before deciding on such a difficult step, you must ask yourself 3 questions: "where?", "When?" And How?".
When? - you must understand the time when your company should enter the international market. Are the conditions favorable for this step now? Is this the right time for your product in specific markets? And won't you become a “follower” by offering better service and prices compared to competitors, the market with which is already oversaturated without you.
How? - here you must understand how you will enter the market. What strategy will you use for this: aggressive capture or gradual sequential expansion? What tools will you use for this?
Where?- you need to decide which markets and which segments are most profitable to enter at a given time, while establishing a balance between the attractiveness of the industry, the risks and costs of entering such markets.
Having received answers to these questions, it is necessary to study the market. There is nothing new in this step, here you conduct research and work out hypotheses that will need to be tested in further work.
You can do the research yourself using open sources and resources, but there is a risk of inaccurate information and understanding of the market. The second way is to contact a specialist. This option is reasonable, but we warn you that not every specialist or agency based in Russia will be able to provide you with accurate data, because often the same methods are used as when searching on your own. The ideal option would be an agency that works directly with specialists in the market you need. Yes, it can be expensive, but it is a necessary investment so that your business can then recoup it many times over. Agree that it's better to get reliable data than blindly rely on intuition.
“Of course, when entering international markets, it is extremely important to rely on local partners who have more experience and understand the cultural and linguistic nuances of the market. They will help you enter the market with the least risk. Thanks to our cooperation with the international network GlobalCom PR Network, we "open an international window" for Russian business, because we have access to local agencies in Europe, Asia, North and Latin America ” , - Natalya Belkova, General Director, 4D Communication Agency.
This approach is also noted by Dmitry Malin, General Director, ASD Technologies. He believes that before entering a new market, it is better to conduct analytics, since without it, you may have additional difficulties.
Senior Vice President of FirstLineSoftware, Vladimir Litoshenko recommends using a partnership that will allow you to confidently enter foreign markets at first:
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The next problem on your way can be company perception. We know that a person sees himself as one, and those around him are completely different. When entering the foreign market, the story is almost the same. The owners of the company can see the company as strong, with excellent service, many years of experience, etc. But for future clients and partners, the picture is different. They do not know you and they will most likely not trust a company about which nothing is known. For this, hypotheses are needed in order to better build your plan of work in a new market.
Alexey Lapirov, Sales Manager at Tech Global (Rosinfokominvest), recommends testing such hypotheses with the following questions:
- What makes you different from your competitors?
- Is the client already solving this problem? How?
- Who is already selling to the client? Why?
- Is there a place for you on the market?
“Test hypotheses with Customer Development. It involves drawing up questions for potential customers, the answers to which will allow you to narrow down and sharpen your offer as much as possible for this audience and for this particular market ” , - Alexey Lapirov, Sales Manager at Tech Global (Rosinfokominvest)
After conducting all the necessary research and testing the hypotheses of analytics, the stage of localization of your company goes. There is a need to adapt absolutely everything for other countries and work with all information, graphics and keys, taking into account language differences, cultural characteristics and the mentality of potential customers and partners. You shouldn't skimp on this either, it is better to order a high-quality translation of your texts than to blush before clients with a translation from a Google translator.
And finally, at the final stage, a budget is calculated for the selected market, a sales plan is drawn up, responsibilities are assigned and communication tools for promotion are determined. Let us dwell on the latter in more detail.
Why do I need PR if I have a good product?
Indeed, why do you need PR? As we said, many are striving to enter the international market, but few understand the role of PR in this. Let's take a look at a simple example.
Your company has a good product, provides the highest service in Russia, the professionalism of the employees impresses many, and the name is already ahead of you. Everything's cool, isn't it? But there is one "but" - all of the above in Russia. In foreign countries, everything is different. We have not heard about you and there is no information from future clients and partners, what you are.
Despite the fact that PR is often perceived as an optional part of expenses in business, it just plays the role of that very “assistant” for delivering key information and USP of your company to target audiences.
The study of the international network GlobalCom PR Network for assessing business risks showed that communications specialists are an integral part of anti-crisis teams, participating in decision-making. This confirms that the attitude towards PR as an optional part of expenses has changed.
We have already figured out that PR is necessary. What tasks does it solve? First of all, this is everything related to the recognition of the brand, product and top officials of the company in the international arena. In particular, PR solves the problems of establishing contacts with external stakeholders, providing information support to the organization's activities in foreign markets and positioning the company as respecting local customs and traditions. Secondly, it is the formation of the image. PR takes over all the work with the perception of your company, including the information field that surrounds it. This can include anti-crisis measures when it is necessary to protect or correct a reputation that has been shaken as a result of any action. Individually, all of the above will not work, you need a well-structured plan, or a communication strategy.It is a key factor in successfully entering such markets, because when it is developed, the target audience of the company is taken into account, key messages are developed for placement in foreign media, tools and KPi are determined.
Also, the strategy needs to take into account anti-crisis measures. Their goal will be to maintain and promptly correct the image of a company or person, adapt to changing market conditions, neutralize the negative consequences of a crisis or scandal, and restore business reputation. What is important to do when incorporating anti-crisis measures into a communication strategy:
- Identify all possible scenarios (at this stage it is necessary to identify the company's weaknesses and vulnerabilities);
- Develop anti-crisis programs (note that they will need to be developed for all possible crisis situations. For this, we recommend compiling a list of likely incoming questions and the most effective answers for them. We recommend that all companies develop commentary programs);
- Determine the first actions of the company in the event of a crisis (what is the first statement you will make? What will be the next steps in building communications with your audience? Who is the speaker? All this must be written).
However, before all these steps, Yulia Poslavskaya, director of marketing and communications at Nexign, recommends that customers first answer 2 questions: when do we plan to get results from PR? And what investments are we ready to make for this? Depending on this, it will be possible to decide whether you are attracting a PR agency from outside or will rely on an internal PR resource. After that, it will already be possible to build a plan for PR activities.
“I always urge business owners to look at PR as an investment in terms of time or financial resources. Local market expertise and deep knowledge of the media community and its features are important. So, if there is a need to "launch" quickly, we involve a local PR agency and are preparing to allocate our personal time, including, since many details are important for successful promotion, for example, a good speaker. And most often it is the first person of the company. If resources are limited, then you can start by hiring a PR specialist for your team and move forward. In any case, PR should be done by professionals, and you will be able to see the results not earlier than in 3-4 months, ” - Yulia Poslavskaya, Marketing and Communications Director, Nexign.
First steps when working on international PR
In our experience, we can say that as such there is no secret of international PR in the IT sphere. Often this is a fruitful work of the customer and the contractor on a clear understanding of how he wants to see his company or product in the international arena. To do this, you need to develop a description of the business and its products, unique characteristics, what goals the company will pursue, its positioning in the selected market, etc. Only after working through these fundamentals, you can choose which channels will be used and calculate the budgets.
After getting to know the market, we determine which segment the customer company belongs to, select specialized media, get to know them and then follow the standard scheme for the development of public relations:
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“There is no one recipe for all countries in Europe or Southeast Asia. Each country is unique, has its own mental characteristics, its own specifics of doing business. For example, in Saudi Arabia, decisions are not made quickly and taking into account the holidays, including religious ones. There is a period of time when activity dies down. We take this into account and work with partners taking into account these aspects, ” - Pavel Stepanov, Deputy General Director, Geoscan.
Attracting large investments, any deal involving your company, entering into a partnership with one of the key market players, current market analytics or conducted research, launching a new product on the market, cases applicable to other companies, etc., can become excellent news feeds for the media in any country of the world. others.
For effective work, you will need to communicate with media representatives, look for news reasons, hold meetings, answer inquiries, give comments, show the company to journalists, possibly even online. My colleagues and I practiced the latter very often during the pandemic.
When working with the media, you don't have to chase the top publications like the Wall Street Journal or Forbes right away. To get started, go to the niche publications your customers read.
According to Yulia Poslavskaya, the key elements of a PR strategy that will help you enter the international market are working with the media, using social networks and participating in events.
In working with the media, the following points can be noted. It is important to understand which publications your target audience reads and build long-term relationships with them. It is also important to nominate your company or your solutions for industry awards and take into account the regional specifics so that interaction with journalists is as effective as possible (for example, Twitter and LinkedIn are actively used in the USA, and there are restrictions on the use of Facebook and Youtube in the Middle East). Participating in international exhibitions and conferences or organizing your own events also helps build relationships with media and analysts. Moreover, through events, you maintain negotiations with potential customers and demonstrate interest in the market and working with local partners.
Trends in the promotion of IT products on international markets
During our work on the promotion of international IT projects, we have identified the most effective PR technologies:
- Distribution of samples and test drives of products for the release of reviews of specialized IT media
- Conducting your own research
- Native special projects and gamification of special projects in specialized media
- Participation and creation of your own events (webinars, offline seminars, press tours)
- Digital tools: bloggers and social media seeding to expand the reach of your PR campaign
- Integration of top officials into profile podcasts and other Internet projects
- Sending press releases with company news (classic PR)
- Press tours to the company
- Working with comments (proactive and reactive).
“All major industry representatives attend events, which allows us to visit their stands, show our booth, exchange business cards and other materials to follow up after the event. Newsletters also help you get a certain number of leads. For example, we use a mailing list at an MWC (Mobile World Congress) event. We are also looking for local partners or resellers who know the market well. We keep our pages in social networks up to date. And we are looking for leads on LinkedIn ”, - Igor Filatov, Product Director, Cloudike.com
Tools in Action
Over 15 years of our work in the communications services market, we have gained rich experience in working with large international IT companies.
For example, we provided PR support for one of the world's largest high-tech companies, Cisco. Our work included: translation and adaptation of company press releases, distribution of news to relevant IT publications in the North-West region, organization and holding of events, PR-support of events. As a result, we received 417 publications in the media, reaching about 10 million people, and the Media Index was 3903 points.
Also, our colleagues from the GlobalCom PR Network in the UK worked with CDNetwork's, a company specializing in video acceleration, DDoS protection, cloud storage, etc. The main goal of the company was to create a PR activity around the lack of DDoS preparedness that would attract the attention of IT professionals and security decision-makers throughout the UK and DACH regions. ) from D (Germany, Deutschland), A (Austria) and CH (Switzerland).
To implement it, it was decided to conduct a study “Businesses are dangerously overconfident in their DDoS mitigation”, which tells about the neglect and underestimation of large cybercrime companies through DDoS attacks. The main results of the study were sent to the target media, a total of 13 press releases were issued, active contacts were established with local journalists, several native articles were posted, and coverage of 98 leads was obtained in the German market (Germany, Switzerland, Austria).
Our other partner, an agency from sunny Italy, worked with KasperskyLab. The goal of the campaign was to draw the attention of parents and children aged 6 to 10 to the issue of cybersecurity. It is based on a children's book, which the company specially ordered from the Dutch author Marlies Slegers.
PR specialists from Italy decided to make a creative move by turning the book into a theatrical play. The premiere took place on the stage of a theater in the center of Milan in partnership with the Giffoni Film Festival for Children and Adolescents to reach a wider audience. The media and representatives of the public were invited to it. The main spectators were, of course, children, including the children of journalists. This became the key event of the campaign.
The production told the story of a magical green bear who helps a 10-year-old boy Kasper and his friend Sky to master the most important safety rules in the online world, to understand how to behave on the Internet. The book's plot, adapted for the scene, also aimed to encourage the youngest netizens to be open with their parents and teachers, rather than being silent if threatened or bullied on the internet.
The children of the Giffoni Dream Team, gifted in film and digital technology, have helped develop a game application based on the book for primary school students in Italy and also teaches how to use digital media responsibly.
At the festival, journalists were looking for young talents in order to make them heroes of their articles and stories. Our Italian colleagues came up with such a move: the child prodigy Flavia Riza entered the working group on the digital application. This fact attracted journalists, and they talked about it in their stories on national TV channels, mentioning the project. In addition, as part of the information campaign, parent bloggers were provided with a KUMA Safe Kit, which included: a book, a teddy bear, a presentation letter, a Christmas calendar with educational tips on safe Internet use and branded sweets.
Next, the hashtag #alsicuroconKuma (#SafeWithKuma) was used, according to which bloggers and opinion leaders discussed this campaign, shared safety recommendations on social networks and blogs.
It was the first PR campaign in Italy to target primary school students. Most cybersecurity projects target older children. It is always difficult to talk about this topic with young children, but the agency has managed to find effective solutions to this problem. Through a small group of children who participated in the production and development of the application, it was possible to establish contact with thousands of children, speaking with them in the same language. The information was presented in an easy, playful way, so the effect of the training was high. The success of the campaign lies in the balanced combination of digital and event PR and media relations. As a result, 260 publications were published in the media, and the educational project was included in the curricula of primary schools in Italy.
Also, as part of the international project team GlobalCom PR Network, we carried out work on PR-support of the German company FotoFinder as part of the presentation of the new Bodystudio ATBM master system. The project team also included agencies from Australia, the Baltic countries, Brazil, China, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latin America, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scandinavia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Great Britain and the USA.
FotoFinder specializes in high-tech methods of detecting melanoma, psoriasis and other skin diseases at the earliest stage. For the first time, the system allowed physicians to use a standardized full-body imaging based on artificial intelligence technologies to assess microscopic birthmarks and moles. The global results of the work were: 34 mass media mailings, 16 interviews organized, 265 publications in 230 mass media were initiated.
In conclusion, every year thousands of Russian companies try to conquer the foreign market, but only a few achieve positive results. Before deciding to expand your presence, think about whether you understand the market well enough, and if not, can you find those who understand?