The Internet has made it easier than ever to market products and services around the globe. Most companies today are so focused on their domestic market that they do not pay much attention to overseas markets. Nevertheless, international markets represent an immense potential. (A North American company can triple its business by properly addressing the world market). Of course, one must budget sufficiently for marketing to achieve this goal. 

Things become more complicated when dealing with countries where English is not the official language. Our main point here is that most everyone accesses the Internet in their own language. If they live in a non-English country, they are likely not to access the Internet in English. In order to market to them, you have to determine where they congregate (i.e. other language areas of the Internet) and market to them there. A Web site needs to be able to attract visitors from many countries without them having to wonder whether they will understand the message once they arrive at your site. This idea is equally true for translated Web sites. No one overseas can possibly find yours site (even if translated) unless you make an effort to make it visible in their language(s). 

Looking back on Internet developments in the last year, there has been impressive growth from the non-English part of the Internet, which has tripled in size over the year. From 10 million two years ago to 45 million now (see http://www.euromktg.com/globstats/). Given that this is 45 million out of 5.5 billion people on the planet who do not read English, it's a drop in the bucket... but a drop with huge potential, as they're coming online faster and faster. The Internet is finally filling out to its global potential. By this time next year, there will probably be around equal numbers of people accessing the Web in English and not in English. 

This impressive growth from non-English countries points to a real need to address other online populations who do not consult the Net in English. A mature company often achieves these portions of its world sales in international markets: N. America (38%), Europe (32%), Asia/Japan (24%), other (6%). This means that a company has to use other languages than English in marketing its products and services to 55-65% of the world that does not speak English to achieve this result. 

Articles are frequently seen leading us to think that we are on the edge of an explosive boom in online global commerce. Estimates of global online trade for 2001 vary from $220 B (International Data Corp.), which represents nearly 1% of the global economy, to $1 trillion (Nicolas Negroponte, head of the M.I.T.'s Media Laboratory), which represents over 3% of the global economy. 

An extremely enlightening article about the international aspect of online business is in Hambricht and Quist's online e-zine, "I-Word", at http://www.hamquist.com/iword/iword23/istory23.html. It is one of the best articles on the subject, underlining the need for American companies to seriously address international markets. 

Excerpt: 
"One of the best ways for maturing U.S. businesses to maintain or exceed their historic rates of growth is to expand internationally by targeting under-served markets overseas. This has been the case for myriad U.S. companies ranging from Ford and McDonald's to US West and Walt Disney. 

The same now holds true for high-growth U.S. Internet companies. While we would be the last to suggest that growth opportunities for Internet content and service providers in the U.S. market are anywhere close to being fully exploited, many are now investing significant sums of capital to extend their services into regional markets around the globe. 

"Because Internet adoption has-as a whole-been slower worldwide than in the United States, a number of emerging foreign markets represent unique opportunities for American Internet companies to be first to market, a key competitive advantage. Some will be able to establish their brands at even earlier stages of market development than they were able to do in the United States. 

"The international appetite for such services is unquestionable; today most major U.S. Internet companies report that fully 25% to 35% of their customers access their U.S.-based English language services from overseas. Yahoo! reports that users from 110 different countries access its core English language site at www.yahoo.com on a daily basis. While European sources tell us that their markets are anywhere from 18 months to two years behind the United States in terms of Internet adoption, this should be viewed as an opportunity for U.S. Internet companies looking to expand overseas. In fact, we at Hambrecht & Quist believe it portends the type of explosive growth in Internet use that swept the United States between 1995 and 1996, especially as telecommunications deregulation begins to take effect in countries around the world. 

"We believe prevailing market research supports our contention. SIMBA Information, a market research firm in Wilton, Conn., predicts that non-North American international markets will produce 30% of all consumer online revenue by 2000, up from just 15% in 1995. Jupiter Communications, a market research firm in New York City, forecasts that fully 40% of the world's online households will reside in Europe and Asia/Pacific Rim by 2000, up from 29% today." 

To understand the true potential of international Internet sales let's look at online shopping. Several countries in Europe were doing online shopping long before the Web became popular. Their various teletext systems have had varying degrees of success in e-commerce, with the French Minitel leading the pack (20% of the French adult population have made purchases by Minitel, in comparison with 3% of the same population in the U.S.). There are 18 million people using the Minitel in France, the English and Dutch have teletext systems, and 2 million people use T-Online in Germany. It will take some time to migrate their habits onto the Web, as well as invest in online stores on the Web (which mirror what they already have on Minitel and T-Online). Once the French and Germans migrate to the Web, their online spending habits should naturally follow and e-commerce should see a bonanza. 

Each country in Europe is starting to establish its own shopping web sites and payment mechanisms. The European Union has invested in a test web site, called e-Christmas (http://www.e-christmas.com), available in 6 languages, to encourage online shopping, and to see what the reaction is. IBM-France is behind a French e-commerce site (with the very un-French name of "SurfAndBuy": http://www.SurfAndBuy.com). German has a very popular shopping web site "Shop24" (http://www.shopping24.de), with 1.4 million articles. 

Germany: E-cash software was put into beta-test in October 1997 by Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank: 

(http://www.deutsche-bank.de/wwwforum/e-cash/). German people do not use checks and credit cards to pay for merchandise or services they purchase; they use bank transfers instead. E-cash had to devise a secure method for customers to fill out a form on a Web page, which debits their bank account for the amount of the purchase. This is the only such application for debit payments to date in Germany. 

U.S. software vendor Cybercash (http://www.cybercash.de) has made deals with the Dresdner Bank and Landesbank Sachsen to provide online payment solutions, and more banks should be added to this list soon. 

"InternetWorld" magazine (Germany) tested 6 e-commerce solutions in their Dec., '97 edition. Intershop, who makes software for creating an online store, happens to be from Germany (they just moved their main headquarters to San Francisco last year.) Their German operation continues to be the top supplier for this application in Germany. 

A recent survey of people online in Germany and Austria showed that 40% of those who were surveyed have already bought something online. Most popular was the automobile/motorcycle/sport area (16%), followed by the computer area (15%). (source: "Global Online" magazine, http://www.global-online.de, 11/97, p. 8). 

France: Kleline software (http://www.kleline.fr) is the French leader in financial transaction software. Online shoppers can pay for their purchases in 20 different currencies, and Kleline is currently testing the "millicent" feature (for spending very small amounts). 

Virtual shopping centers that have chosen Kleline's software for payment mechanism include Globe Online (http://www.globeonline.fr), 3 Suisses (a large French mail-order store) and BR Shopping (in Brazil - http://www.br.homeshopping.com.br). It works by means of a virtual wallet kept on the user's desktop to make purchases. Elsewhere in Europe: 

· Finland: UUnet is working with Merita Bank to provide e-commerce. · Norway: The Norske Bank provides a platform for e-commerce. · Austria: Bank Austria provides a platform for e-commerce. An excellent example of a multi-lingual version of a shopping site is Dell-Europe, at http://www.euro.dell.com/intl/euro/. 

Considering this, the importance of indigenous language marketing cannot be overemphasized. Recent statistics show that some large American corporations are actually cutting their budget for Internet business, since they did not achieve the results they expected a year or so after they launched their Web site. The real reason for lack of online business is a lack of marketing, not lack of interest from those online. Even in English-speaking countries, there has not been enough marketing and promotion of the existing web sites. It is strongly recommended to budget just as much for promoting one's Web site as for creating it. 

The acceptance of anything new usually follows these three phases. With any new technology, most companies sit back and let the early adopters take the 'risks': a new product or trend might be accepted, or it might not. The PC itself was in this phase in 1981-84, which meant that it was too early for IBM to take personal computers seriously. This created the opportunity for other companies to come in and become successful. Phase two occurs when the early adopters have shown a clear business case. Today this means using the Internet. Only then does a new idea actually take hold and become accepted by the mainstream.xx · Early adapters (those who have heard about the development) (3%), · The next wave of curious ones, after which point a novelty is accepted and is no longer new (27%), · Everyone else (70%). 

In Europe, 34 million people have Internet access now (6+% of its population). The first phase of early adapters has consolidated in Europe now, and tickled the curiosity of the second wave: this will confirm the importance of the Internet in Europe. Japan is on its way through phase II (10% of its population is online). 1998 will be the year many more Europeans and Asians will come online. Then the Internet will take its place with other business and entertainment appliances. The price of PCs is sinking in these countries, television access to the Net is becoming available, and the actual connection costs are decreasing. On the other hand, the U.S. has nearly made it through phase II by now, with one-quarter of the population (over 12 years old) online. This has given the credibility to the Internet that is needed in order for companies to make major investments to bring their business to the next level. 

The good news from France and Germany is that PCs costing less than $1000 have arrived and are to be found in everything from electronic stores to supermarkets. The penetration of the PC in the home market has been very low historically, and now that the price of PCs is approaching that of a VCR, we should see more PCs in European homes. This is quite important, since at work, European bosses confine their employee's online work to email, and many people still have not seen the Web. And if $900 PCs are too expensive, new set-top boxes at $300-400 are arriving, which Europeans can attach to their TV and surf the Web. 

Telecom Deregulation in Europe. 
Good news also comes from the deregulation of the European telecom industry-no more monopolies, as of January 1998. This will give rise to the competition needed in order to drive online access prices down to an affordable level for home use. Each country is seeing new telecom companies establish competitive service to the national monopolies. Several alternatives to national long-distance carriers are now advertising their competitive services, and the price of Internet access is expected to drop very soon.  

The price Europeans pay to go online. 
Currently, it costs around $3-4/hour (during business hours) to access the Internet in Europe, or $1-1.50/hour at night-although one can subscribe to special phone company program to get the price down to $1/hour (compare this to American business accounts, paying $0.60/hour). In France, one can use the Minitel (there are some 14 million of these terminals in France) to correspond by email, at $0.07/minute. An alternative to using the telephone to access the Net is coming very soon, in the form of TV cable companies. They have tested cable access, and are now ready to begin deployment of their cable networks for Internet access (typically $30/month for unlimited access). Obviously, these lower prices will have enormous impact on the masses who have used price as a reason not to go online. 

European Web Site Development and Promotion 
On a recent trip to Europe (Dec., '97), top online marketers told me that many companies in Europe have a low web site budget, around $4-6 K, with no funds budgeted for the ongoing promotion of the site. European web site developers usually enter them in the local and international directories and indexes, but not much more. There is still no consciousness that one has to actively promote a web site in order to attract people to it. Everyone I spoke with made (this comment.) Only large companies pay for web site promotion, which costs them several times the equivalent U.S. prices for the same work. This is strong contrast with the U.S. market, where some web site promotion companies, such as MMG, have so much demand for their services that they reject 80% of the prospects who come to them (I-Sales Digest #581, http://www.mmgco.com/i-sales/). One can easily see the trend that will hit Europe in a few years. 

It seems that, in Europe, the job of a web site promoter has not separated away from the job of the web site developer. I addressed a distinguished group of web site developers in Germany on a recent trip, and there seems to be little awareness among clients that a web site must be promoted. However, they are aware that launching a web site without promotion will limit its visibility and success, and they read about how important Web site promotion has become in the U.S. "It's coming", they say. 

Here are some basic points that need to be understood and followed to achieve success in international online marketing. 

1. Whether to translate? Which languages? 2. Don't forget email marketing. 3. Make sure you have established your logistics in advance. 4. Promote and advertise your Web site abroad. 5. Other techniques. 

1. Choose which countries (or languages) to target 
As you start using the Web to present your company's products or services to the international market, your analysis needs to keep in mind two factors: · which countries you already sell to · which countries are sufficiently online to attract clients 

a. To translate or not to translate:  
Not all Web sites have to be translated. It depends on who your market is and what you are selling, and how much English your target market already understands. For technical products and services, English is commonly understood, and only a "jumper" page (linking to your English pages) needs to be translated. A "jumper" page is a summary of your offer, translated, so that the Web page can be registered with the local indexes of the countries you are targeting. Typical translation costs are $50-$100 for a short page (200-300 words). 

If you choose not to translate your site, but still want to draw visitors from Northern Europe where English is widely understood, at least promote your web site in the country's own language(s). They will find their way to your Web site and usually be able to understand it adequately in English.xx At the opposite extreme are products and services that are marketed to everyone abroad: entertainment, household products, CDs, etc. Here you need to translate as much as you can afford; to make as much of your site as accessible as possible. You cannot simply create your Web site in English for the world market and assume it will be understood. The attitude that "visitors will have to read English or nothing!" Will get you exactly that. . . nothing. 

Most web sites, however, fall between these two extremes. For them it is good to translate part of the Web site. Not translating will always make a portion of your audience click elsewhere, since they cannot understand English or do not want to read it in English at that time. 

The importance of language can never be overemphasized. Overall, only 15% of Europe's population speaks English as a first language, and only 28% speaks English at all. A recent major research study of almost 38,000 European Internet users (http://www.blueskyinc.com/langues.htm) found that English is cited as the first language by 55% of all European users. Not counting the U.K./Ireland, English is used by only 32% of users, followed by German at 22% and French at 17%. 

There is no reason for shrinking away from translating your Web site because of expense. Instead, translate part of it at a time, and increase the marketing efforts on the language sections where you feel most confident, and see the results in your sales. You can translate part of your Web site at a time, so that you start with, say, two languages, and gradually develop more. Remember: "You can sell in any language you want, but you only buy in your own language." 

b. Which languages?  
Once you're convinced to translate part of your Web site to attract visitors. Which languages are? Make your decision based on which countries you already sell in, as well as the logical conclusions from the figures of how many people are online there. If you already sell in most of these countries, then let the online language figures guide you. Certainly you need to provide translations of as many Web pages as you can afford into Japanese, German and French, and if you can, at least one page in Swedish, Finnish and Dutch (because of the high concentration of online population in these three countries). Next in importance come Spanish, Dutch and Chinese. 

As of this writing, there were approximately the following major language families. These figures reflect the number of email accounts, not those with Web access (which generally represent one-third of these figures): 

· 10.2 million Japanese online (Japan, U.S./Canada) · 6.5 million German-speaking, French-speaking, Swedish and Finns (Norwegians and Danes can understand a Swedish presentation too) · 2.2 million Dutch-speakers and Chinese-speakers (China, U.S./Canada, Europe, Australia) · 11.2 million Spanish-speakers (U.S. Hispanic, Spain, and Latin America) and Italians · 1 million Brazilians (Portuguese language). 

The most recent figures are available at: (http://www.euromktg.com/eurostats.html.) 

There is a growing interest in bringing Web sites not only into European languages, but into Asian ones as well, especially Japanese. Don't think all these native language Web sites are aimed at Asia. There are more Chinese online in the U.S. than in China (one-third of the 2 million Chinese-Americans), and there are many Japanese, Koreans and Filipinos living in the U.S. and Europe-all of whom prefer to access various media in their own native language. 

According to a recent study, around 45 million Americans change language when they come home from work at night. And, given that more Web surfing takes place at home than at work, they come online and get news about their own culture, in their own language (as they do with printed publications too). This implies that more online marketing efforts have to be made in other languages, especially for consumer products and services. The U.S. Census Bureau publishes a detailed study they did on these micro-populations in the U.S. (should we say "niche markets"?), at: 

http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/language/table4.txt. These figures translate to 4 million Americans who access the Internet at home in other languages than English. (The overall percentages is low because only 4% of Latinos are online in the U.S., and Latinos make up two-thirds of the non-English-speaking U.S. population) 

2. Email marketing in other languages  

The figures for language groups online (above) represent how many people can receive email in each language. According to Netscape, the number of those with Web access is generally one-third of these figures (with certain exceptions). That means you can target overseas markets by certain Internet environments with far better results than using only the Web. 

Two acceptable techniques for email marketing are Newsgroups and online forums, both in the languages of your target group. Although both areas are just developing for the first time now, both are accessible for those people abroad who have access only to email. You can see German Newsgroups at "de.*", French ones at "fr.*" (or at http://www.fr.net/news-fr/liste.html), Dutch ones at "nl.*", etc. 

Lists of discussion groups can be found at: 

German-http://www.snafu.de/~klinger/einigeml.htm French-http://www.cru.fr/listes/ (other languages at the bottom of http://www.euromktg.com/eng/res/cybmktg/maillistex.html) 

Though successful in English language countries, Newsgroups don't necessarily work in the rest of the world. For instance there are not enough online discussion groups in Europe to use them for web site promotion. European Newsgroups are no place to advertise a new web site, and a post to one of them is usually rejected if it concerns a new web site. Germany has extremely tight privacy laws, which make it totally impossible to use even "opt-in" mailing lists to broadcast news about certain subjects. (This technique may work in France, however, where no such laws exist.) The best way at present to promote European web sites, after the site has been registered in country-specific indexes, is via printed media, PR and advertising. 

Of course, you should always have auto-responders ready for prospective customers who request information, and the text of one auto-responder can refer to other documents that the prospect can "pull" in the same way. 

Whereas there are starting to be acceptable means of targeting "opt-in" email databases, for people interested in something quite specific, there is not yet any equivalent outside the English language. These direct marketing lists will surely develop, but they are not prevalent yet. This being said, it is my experience that Europeans are far more tolerant of direct marketing by email than Americans are, as long as the presentation is professional. 

3. Establish your logistics in advance 
Just because the Internet is global in scope does not mean that international business is easy. The goal of overseas marketing is to motivate potential buyers to identify themselves. The rest is traditional international business practice, and is quite straightforward. If you are not used to selling abroad, you need to consider issues that have been part of international business for centuries. 

Correspondence. 
If you are already doing business overseas, you have already encountered these issues, and should skip on to the next section. If not, however, you need to think clearly about each step in the sales cycle, and how your company will meet each challenge. Do you have people who speak other languages in your company. If so, they can translate and answer email from interested prospects and established customers? If not, the best and most economical solution is to use an automatic translator software, such as Globalink (http://www.globalink.com), Transparent Language (www.transparent.com), and Systran Software 

Payment Mechanisms. 
Once the prospect is prepared to place an order, there are several mechanisms that exist for payment. For all amounts over $10, it is simply necessary to take a credit card number-either by email by using a secure form on your web site, by fax, or by telephone. If you are not set up to accept credit cards First Virtual (www.fv.com) can provide this service at a reasonable charge. Be sure to have your bank references handy if the amount is over, say, $500, in which case a wire transfer is more appropriate. However, many overseas people online do not have credit cards (Germany and Switzerland in particular). Bank transfers are more in order in these countries. If you are serious about doing business in these countries long-term, you might consider opening up a branch office in Holland. (The cost is less than $100, plus $35 annual renewal). This will give you the right to have a bank account in Europe and accept electronic transfers. 

Thomas Cook has an online transfer procedure, "Virtual Trading Desk" (http://www.fx4business.com), and your customers who order frequently can save money by using their service. A draft (check) from a regular customer will cost them only $3. 

International Delivery 
This is probably the most difficult problem to tackle for most products, as it needs to be reasonable in both price and delivery time. International delivery is quite expensive, with top services such as Federal Express, UPS, DHL, etc. You need to research this area well and analyze your options. Consideration vary from city to city; there is no general solution. It all depends on the size, weight of deliveries to which city in which countries. (Services and software do not present this difficulty, of course.) After-sales service 

The most effective solution for this is a geographically local warehouse, where defective products can be exchanged. If you are targeting Europe, there are countless such warehouses in Holland. They will stock replacement products in a duty-free zone and respond to your customers in their own languages. 

4. Promote and advertise your Web site abroad 
Now that you have established the beginnings of your non-English Web pages, how do you attract visitors from other countries to them? The techniques are similar to the way you would promote your Web site in English-speaking countries, except that you need to perform the actions in other languages now: 

• Index registration
• Press releases
• Working the local Newsgroups and forums
• Strategic links
• Banner advertising 

Registering one's Web site in international indexes, then, goes without saying: of course it is necessary. Actively marketing the web site involves ongoing activity in press releases, strategic linking and banner advertising. 

A word about non-English-language banner advertising, which is perhaps the most effective way of advertising your Web site, since the reaction is immediate and emotional. Using this technique abroad works best when the words on the banner are translated and placed on web sites best suited aimed at your target market. Your click-through rate will be much higher if it is in the local language than if it is in English. Contrary to what you may hear, there are many people online in Europe who do not read English. Though banner ads have started to become more common in countries outside the U.S./Canada. One cannot demand the sophistication of auditing techniques and banner rotation that is common in the U.S. If you decide to place banners abroad, consider that a banner seen by someone overseas might even be considered unusual, since advertising is not very pervasive outside the U.S./Canada... which means that more people may be attracted to click on your banner, to see what it is. (Remember your own reaction in 1994 or 1995 when you started seeing banners for the first time on the Web. In those days, some banners resulted in nearly 80%-90% click through rate since no one understood what they were.) 

5. Other techniques of promoting your Web site overseas 

Cyber cafes. 
Europe is considerably under-equipped in PCs in the home, and there are hundreds of cyber cafes that offer Internet connectivity in a social setting. What better environment for you to approach people, as they are being introduced to the Internet in their early days online? You can put your URL on the mouse pads used at cyber cafes (a mouse pad is as much an advertising space as a newspaper ad). Or you can even put your URL on the screensavers at the cyber cafes, so that when the PC is not in use, your URL will be one of those passing across the screen. 

Trade shows. 
If you have distributors abroad, involve them in promoting your site in their language at a local trade show. Handouts, product literature, or anything that people can take home and use to find your Web site in their own language can only help. 

Magazine ads in overseas publications. 
Creating community in the languages of your target market. 

Email and Web-based discussion groups are now common in English. They are still quite new abroad. If your product or service lends itself to this form of discussion, your company can become the online authority of the subject at hand. Of course, it will require native speakers to lead the discussion and give it life, but they can be found. 

Another key reason American corporations have failed to get results from International Internet marketing is the lack of cross-promotion across all forms of advertising and marketing in your overseas markets. You should consider putting your URL and information about your web site everywhere in your overseas operations: in all your ads, on the in-store advertising, your logos, stationery, receipts, in addition to press releases, direct mail pieces, etc. This kind of cross-pollination is essential to get the message out to everyone who is potentially reachable, in any country. 

Examples of Successful Global Companies Using Languages Other then English on their Web Site 

Hardware: Apple Computer (http://www.euro.apple.com) (13 languages); Cisco (http://www.cisco.com) (15 languages) 

Software: Gif Wizard (http://www.gifwizard.com) (4 languages); Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com) (50 languages); Adobe (http://www.adobe.com) (9 languages) 

Online computer store: Cyberian Outpost (13 languages): (http://www.cybout.com/cyberian.html) Marfesa (a Spanish marble company) (http://www.andalexport.arrakis.es/marfesa (5 languages) 

Internet: Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com) (4 languages); Lycos (http://www.lycos.com) (7 languages); Altavista (http://www.altavista.telia.com) (23 languages) 

Marketing your Web site is like marketing anything else. You need to keep at it. Make sure that you continue monitoring the international index sites where you list your URL to make sure that it is still listed. Send more press releases. Add more online promotion work in the countries that you are targeting. It is an excellent idea to establish a monthly budget for your international Web site promotion, as more visitors turn into sales. Internet marketing is not static, it is an ongoing process. 

The Internet as a marketing medium is still quite young. Even in the U.S., there was very little marketing done on the Internet before 1995, and in Europe and Asia the Internet is just starting to be known as a marketing medium. (So don't think that you have missed the boat.) However, with the ever-rapid growth of the online population, you should not wait: online history has proven that early entrants "lock up" key positions in their market. The sooner you take your company marketing international, the sooner you will move up the learning curve and your online marketing will begin turning into sales. Start now... before your competition does. 

A white paper on international online marketing is available on the Web at (http://www.euromktg.com/eng/ed/art/rep-eur4.html) or by sending a blank email to mailto:rep-eur4@euromktg.com. If you are interested in these techniques of web site promotion and in determining what they cost to implement for your Web site, go to the Global Reach Web site at http://www.euromktg.com/eng/GR/. The service currently covers all countries of the online world. 

Auto-responders. 

For a full description, send a blank email to ema-eng@euromktg.com 

Bill Dunlap is the Managing Director and founder of Euro-Marketing Associates in San Francisco, CA, US. Tel./fax: 1/415/680-2423 (U.S.) or +44/171/681-1027 (Europe) email: ema@euromktg.com Web: http://www.euromktg.com Autoresponder: ema-eng@euromktg.com 

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