Is Your Website Sabotaging Your International Business Development?

Last updated 20 August 2008

Well, your website probably is sabotaging your international business development. Especially if you have not given thought to your international visitors.

This is one of the first trials small businesses face when reaching international markets.

You see, when you first created your website you probably made it for the market you know well. And that’s normal. Nothing wrong there. The thing is, as your website grows you attract a wider audience. An international audience. And this international audience, well, it will not respond to your website the same way as your current audience.

Your website can even create negative effects on your international readers. This is all about the intrinsic barriers in cross cultural communication.

Business practices are different in different cultures. We are all used to doing things in a certain way. We all get used to doing business this way and it is easy to think that it’s the best way and everyone does or should do things the same way.

Your online business is visible to people with different business practices and expectations.

No More Sabotage

Here are a few frustrating experiences international prospects have when visiting online businesses in different countries:

No way to reach you.

International visitors often need additional assurance that your company can be trusted. They may also need further clarification. Having a standard telephone number, not a toll free number, clearly placed on your website is critical. If they cannot reach you, or see they can reach you, it puts them off.

Not fully understanding what you have to offer.

Have a very clear, easy to understand statement of your business activity right up top on the front page. Give clear explanations of what it is you are selling, what comes with it and what doesn’t. Of course this is a good practice for your current business. It is even more critical for your international readers. Cultural communication blunders happen fast. A clearly expressed offer positioned prominently puts weight on the other side of the balance.

Being turned off by use of slang and national expressions.

Use explanations everyone can understand instead. Foreigners might have a hard time figuring out exactly what you want them to do. There are cultural expressions that severely limit comprehension. A website with too much slang and too many national expressions makes the international reader feel excluded from your website and your business.

Using too many synonyms to say one thing.

Use a consistent vocabulary throughout the website. Don’t start calling your “report” a “guide” elsewhere in the website. Your international readers can start hunting for two different things, get frustrated and leave. Again, clarity is what you need to aim for.

No idea where you are located.

International visitors are curious about where you are located. Chances are that if they have landed on your web page they have an idea which country you are in. They will be curious and want to visualize where you are located. If your international reader wants to buy from you, your address provides reassurance. So put your address someplace easy to see, not hidden and in small print.

An order form incompatible with foreign orders.

Many orders get abandoned because the order form only processes country specific addresses. Check your order form out. Pay attention to any online orders. Do your international clients like using the credit card payment options? Do they like to use PayPal?

Audio sales pitches that don’t cross cultures.

Written text with a strong cultural flavor will be obvious to international readers. Audios with a strong cultural flavor come across as even more aggressive. Sales audios will probably also shock through different sales styles in different cultures. The best thing to do is to make your audio links easy to turn off. Just in case your international clients find your great sales pitch reminds them of a frenzied crazy man and they feel an electro culture shock.

Website animation that doesn’t cross cultures.

Keep your web site’s upload times reasonable. Different countries have different infrastructures. And do all international markets really appreciate your artistic endeavors or is it a sure way to lose a sale?

No More Massive Culture Shock

Here is a brief guideline on how you can actually improve your foreign visitors experience on your website:

1. Keep these things in mind. Listen to what your international clients are saying…or not saying to you.
2. Internationalize your website. Adapt your website so it doesn’t turn away too many international clients.
3. Culture customize your website. Once can identify the main countries your business is appealing to abroad, study the different cultural behaviors and test further changes to your current website.

This simple guideline will get your website to stop sabotaging your international business expansion. This is also a good place to start learning how to communicate with all of your market. And of course, the more you communicate with all of your markets, the more you learn about your international business potential.