Today I am going to show you how another current business best practice can grow your international business.

Competitive Business Today

There is a very similar parallel with the evolution in the need for market segmentation to be competitive in the business world today, and the skills you need to build an international business.

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation used to be easier. You only had a few criteria: products, distinct communications channels and locations. Businesses had control of how their clients heard about their products.

Today, customers have control. And they initiate contact with businesses at varying stages of buyer readiness. As a business today, if you do not increase your marketing segmentation your customers know it. And you can appear totally out of synch with their needs.

Segmentation gives you more effective multichannel marketing to get your message right when it matters most.

Some people may think this only concerns web marketing. But don’t forget, your customers use the web to look up more information.

All online statistics also come from segmentation. If you want to get any benefit out of this you need to be able to take action… in segments. This is how web statistics can help you make more sales.

International Business Today

Market segmentation has always played an inherent part of international business development.

International business development always starts with one country. And you need to adapt your marketing, communication and sales to this one country.

Have a look at The 7 Traditional Paths To International Business Development.

After you know how to do this in one country, you go into another country.

Prior to internet, international business development often meant opening offices in different countries. A visual example of segmentation.

And today? With international web marketing?

A few years ago international web marketing followed the traditional international business development paths. It was all about:

• Localized websites – websites with top level domains in each different country.
• Local language websites as soon as possible, often before getting to know foreign markets well enough to write culture-customized content.

Today the improvements in search engine algorithms give more reason towards creating a “first step” or “initial phase”:

• Country-specific categories or sub-domains on your main website or an international website.
• Creating the connection, mainly with English language content that you progressively culture-customize as you learn more from you web statistics.
• Using web statistic analysis to improve your international marketing, communication and sales and investing in translations once you have the viability statistics.

Where Current Marketing And International Best Practices MeetCan you see how there is even more segmentation in international business development today?

The evolution of consumer practices today means that businesses need segmentation to get the right marketing message across at the right time.

And these skills of knowing how to segment your marketing efforts are the same skills you need to carry out effective international marketing today.