As an international business developer, one of your primary concerns should be to use all available tools to build trust with your foreign prospects and clients.
Most cross-cultural communication barriers are a direct result in lack of trust. So not only do you have to actively work on building trust building, you also need to highlight your current trust-building efforts and continually bring them to your clients attention.
Building trust can seem vague. But it becomes easy when you learn that you build trust through clarity and consistency.
This means you need to communicate clearly and consistently. If you are building a business you also need to be proactive in your communication.
A Monthly Newsletter
It is no surprise that one of the oldest communication tools is also a good trust-building communication tool.
Newsletters have been around for a long time. Although some people may think their market is tired of newsletters, market fatigue is usually not at fault.
If you feel your newsletter is not working for you, your newsletter is probably not addressing a key element.
Let’s look at why a newsletter is a great tool for your international business development. This list will help you understand what needs to go into a good newsletter.
Building Trust Through Consistency
A newsletter gives you a tool to provide consistent information on a regular, and again consistent, basis.
The content you provide in your newsletter should be consistent. Consistent with your topic and with your readers expectations.
Your newsletter’s publication schedule should also be consistent. Your consistency will reinforce the reasons why your readers should listen to you.
Newsletters are a great tool to build trust in your international markets.
Business Clarity And Specificity
Your newsletter also gives you a tool to communicate clarity in your business objectives.
- Avoid mixed signals.
- Create a congruent message.
- Provide proof to your claims.
This is a very important part of successful newsletters for either domestic or international audiences. Many people do not make their newsletter congruent with their markets.
Successful use of congruency in your international marketing is one of the determining factors in successful international business development.
Newsletters are a great tool to communicate with clarity about the specificity and congruency of what you do.
Cultures Where Newsletters Work Best
According to the 5 different cultural behavioral scales there are some countries where newsletters should be promoted more.
I do not want to list countries here, because the statistics that are available are old. I also feel that generalizations in business can easily lead to big mistakes. The theory that concerns us here is:
- Some cultures have a high tendency towards individualism, the United States and Great Britain for example.
- Some cultures have a high tendency towards collectivism, China, several other far eastern countries and also several South American countries.
The important thing to remember is that high collectivism cultures are where people respond better to a group.
Newsletters bring people together, so they should give you good results in high collectivism countries.
This does not mean that newsletters do not work as well in the other countries.
This does mean that your high collectivism market should react well to newsletters. So if you want to expand into these countries, try creating a culture targeted newsletter for these countries. Also remember to pay attention to responses within these markets when promoting your newsletter.
Newsletters are a cultural communication tool.
Multichannel Marketing Element
If you are serious about developing your international markets, you will need to use a few different marketing channels to communicate with your foreign markets. There are several reasons why multichannel marketing is important:
- To find the best way to communicate with foreign markets
- To create presence when you are not physically there
- To give you good communication tools to stimulate market feedback
- To continue your conversation elsewhere and stay in front of your prospects
Newsletters are an easy way to touch your markets on a large scale. You can easily use your newsletter within an integrated marketing program or international lead generation strategy.
Newsletters are a key component in many multichannel marketing strategies.
Easy To Culture Customize
One of the best reasons to create a newsletter specifically for one target country, is that it is an easy option. In todays world, people do not want long articles.
One very cost-effective way to create a culture-customized presence in a foreign country on a small budget, is create a monthly newsletter for each country you are targeting.
A simple, monthly, 2 page newsletter, with 4 short articles will not cost you a fortune.
The plus side, is that you will get more mileage out of your investment with minimal planning.
You can easily re-purpose the 4 articles in your monthly newsletter and use them in different marketing channels. Each month this could give you the following culturally customized touches in your target country:
- 1 2-page newsletter
- 4 weekly articles on your country specific website
- 4 weekly blog posts
- 4 weekly emails
- 4 weekly audio blasts if you take the time to have someone read them.
You can even print out your newsletter on one double sided piece of paper and mail it to your prospects your clients, or distribute it out at events.
And, if you think strategically about the subjects you cover each month, a year later you could have 12 useful evergreen product sheets, or case studies to help you develop your international sales.
Culture customized newsletters are great value when developing your business in different countries.
International Communication Tools
If you currently do not have a newsletter targeted to your international audience, consider the points above and give it a try.
Instead of thinking of newsletters as company communication, look at newsletters as a culture targeted communication tool.
Change your perspective of newsletters for an even better understanding of how you can use your newsletter to build you business.
