The
International Website
Making
your website work for you, not
against you
Let's face it! There
are a lot of really bad
websites on the World Wide
Web. As many as 75%
(maybe more) of all existing
websites need improvements.
These are some of the problems
associated with websites in
the international arena.
Really
Bad Websites
You've spent,
at the minimum, a lot of time
and maybe a lot of money to
establish your web presence.
You've heard about your
competitors who've tapped
foreign markets as a result of
their website. The
following are some hints to
make your web all that it can
be.
No contact information
- If I hadn't seen it myself,
I wouldn't have believed it.
I had received an inquiry from
an overseas importer and was
trying to forward it to the
appropriate US supplier, a
"Fortune 50"
corporation. In visiting
their website, there was a
listing of the various
divisions and responsibilities
but no phone number for the
person I needed to talk to or
for anyone else for that
matter. I had to call
information assistance.
The only contact mechanism was
their information request form
which really didn't lend
itself to my need.
No
corporate information - If
a potential customer (whether
in India or Idaho) wants to do
business with you, they want
to know as much about your
company as you would want to
know about them. These
are some of the essential
elements of a good
international website:
- DUNS (Dunn
and Bradstreet) Number
- Bank
Reference
- Corporate
History
- Standard
Payment Terms
- Trademarks
and Tradenames
- Other
names associated with your
company
- Links to
outside information
sources about your
company; newspaper
articles, magazine
reviews, etc.
- Telephone
Numbers and Email
addresses to the person
responsible for
international sales.
If a direct number can be
listed as opposed to an
automated switchboard, the
direct number is
preferred. Your
international customer
doesn't have the time,
patience or the language
skills to successfully
navigate you company's
first line of defense, the
automated switchboard.
Clutter
- I've looked a few websites
that make your skin crawl.
Don't get me wrong. The
tasteful use of animation in a
website can be a good
web-tool. Two or more
animations per page both
dramatically slows your pages
load time and makes your page
look tacky. The same
holds true with too many
images per page.
Load Time -
Any web page that has a
load time exceeding 45 seconds
at 28.8 modem speed runs the
risk of losing your potential
customer. Time is money
and so it is with
telecommunications costs.
In designing your site, use
the K.I.S.S. method - Keep It
Simple, Stupid.
Forms - The
use of forms is common to many
web pages. The correct
use of forms can make your
website an effective marketing
tool. Using forms as the
only way to send your company
and email is both
inconsiderate to your foreign
customer and presumptuous that
their language skills are
adequate. List at least
one email address where all
the viewer has to do is click
on "send an email"
I had mentioned that the
correct use of forms can help.
The primary reason that you
have a website is to advertise
your product and hopefully
generate additional sales.
Are you looking for additional
agents or distributors (either
domestically or
internationally)? I
don't know any exporter who
isn't. The steps to
effective form use are simple:
-
Tell your
website visitor that
you're seeking additional
distributors by
prominently displaying
that fact on your homepage
with a hyperlink to your
questionnaire.
-
Develop a
questionnaire that will
help you to assess the
relative strengths and
weaknesses of prospective
agents or distributors.
The first rule in
developing a questionnaire
is "What makes my
best agent/distributor
successful?" It
might be technical skills,
education, customer base,
programming languages,
number of sales people,
etc. Your
questionnaire is probably
something that you might
want to do at the beach,
the back yard or wherever.
Just get out of the
interruption of the office
to create the best
questionnaire that you
can. The answers
that you receive will have
strong indicators as to
whether or not you might
want top consider this
firm as a business
partner. You can
find out more about
questionnaire design by
visiting: Package
39. Additional
samples are available
through the Ypsilanti
US Export Assistance
Center.
-
Be
responsive - don't delay
in answering someone who
has taken the time and
effort to fill in your
form. If you already
have a distributor, refer
this contact to them.
If you're not interested
in this contact as a
possible distributor, tell
them why. If you are
interested, that interest
will be mirrored by your
responsiveness.
Navigation
- Experts in the field of
web design will tell you that
you should be able to navigate
to all pages of any web by no
more than three hyper-linked
clicks. The availability
of a good search engine will
help, but not all servers will
support a search engine.
The same can be said for a
"Table of Contents."
How well can you navigate your
site?
Web Site
Localization - This is a
huge topic and very complex in
nature. It effects every
site including many of the
very best sites. For
more information on this
topic, please visit: Web
Site Localization.
Hint: This site uses
Bablefish to provide limited
translation of this
website. Here's what it
can do for you:
Numerous exporters will
attest to the success of the
WWW as a marketing tool.
Can you?
Date Updated: October 04, 2008
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