The American marketplace is huge, but for some businesses, it is not enough and they want to expand worldwide. There are advantages to this such as being able to extend the sales life of existing products by selling them in other countries. Businesses can reduce their dependence on the home market, which means they will be less affected by seasonal fluctuations and political decisions. However, it is not as simple as just starting to sell somewhere else. There are things you need to be aware of, and things you need to do if you want your venture into the rest of the world to be a success.

Licensing Your Brand

Brand licensing is a marketing tool that allows you to pay for the use of a well-known brand and put it on your products. It can increase your products exposure to consumers on a day-to-day basis and is a way for brand owners to make their current customer base larger. Using a leading brand licensing agency is the best way to do this, as they will understand all the ins and outs of moving into other countries with your products. They will have the experience and knowledge to give your global expansion more chance of being successful.

Take It a Step At A Time

You should not attempt to start selling your products all over the world at once but should move into one market at a time. For example, you will already know that Europe and Asia have different cultures and what will work in one may not work in another.

You need to consider the culture of each market you are moving into and if you think your product will sell there adjust the marketing strategy to suit.

It can take a while to know if each new market is going to work for your business, and when you are sure it does, then you can move onto the next. You cannot assume that because a product has sold well in the US that consumer’s in the rest of the world will buy it.

It can be difficult to answer questions from a country you know very little about, and the waiting time you have before each expansion will give you the time to learn about your next target country. Research shows that less than 25% of American businesses that try to break into the markets of other countries are successful. It is thought this is because they do not do enough homework about the countries they are trying to sell in, and they assume everyone will speak English, which of course they don’t.

Financing Your International Expansion

As with any expansion plan, finance will be needed to go ahead. If your business already has the money that is great, but if it does not there are places you can raise finance from. The Federal Government wants to encourage overseas sales and the Export-Import Bank of the United States is a government agency that has been helping people do this since 1934. As long as your product has at least 50% US content, they will be able to assist you by guaranteeing loans, among other things.

Becoming an international company opens doors for a whole range of things, and many that are successful at it find they also expand into more products.

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