uktisw websites-distr

(c) Jan Klin & Associates 2011

Your Export Strategy and the Internet


Course Structure Web sites and International trade

– Best practice– Localisation issues

Automated Trading with Customers and Suppliers– E-Commerce

On-line marketing techniques– Email Marketing– Attracting relevant international traffic– Search Marketing – optimisation (SEO) and pay per click

(PPC)– Link Building– Social Media Marketing


Effective Websites for International Trading

MODULE 1


‘ Like it or not, nowadays people will judge the quality of your products and your company by the quality of your website’

– Jakob Nielsen, web design guru

Using the Web to Develop your Brand


Your Web Site – Your Brand

Newcomers, and existing customers, will form an impression very quickly– 3-5 seconds?– At a subconscious level

Your website is your most important marketing communications medium

It has to communicate your brand values– What do you want your site to say about you?

Good service, professional, low prices, cheap and cheerful, etc

For overseas companies your site may be their first exposure to your company

It will be communicated through a blend of design, content, functionality and navigation


First impressions?

http://www.antarcticabound.com/ http://www.worklifebarrow.co.uk/ http://www.burton-on-trent.com/ http://www.themailingroom.com/ Lafayette ambulance service www.clixresearch.com/


Exercise A good example of ‘best practice’

– Make a note of the key points

Chester Grosvenor Hotel

Other examples Mytton fold hotel langho Burton on Trent official website

http://www.chestergrosvenor.com/



http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=mytton+fold+hotel+langho&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB



http://www.burton-on-trent.com/


Site strategy How will we deliver the benefits? A blend of CONTENT, DESIGN,

FUNCTIONALITY and NAVIGATION

Brand Values – what are our key brand values we can

communicate to our visitors

Site benefits – what will the site do for them?

Target Customer Profile (s) – a description of the specific type of visitors we are looking to attract (no more than 2 profiles)

PositioningStatement

Web Brand Positioning Pyramid

A statement encapsulating the missionfor the site with particular emphasis on how it is differentiated from others

-What is our website for?-What are our objectives?-Who is our target audience?-What value does the site offer?

-To customers, visitors

NB: The content, functionality, design and navigation features will not necessarily be unique BUT…

CONTENT+DESIGN+FUNCTIONALITY+NAVIGATION=UNIQUE POSITIONING


The Four Key Areas

We need to consider the following key areas….

Navigation Content Design Functionality

Marketing and Visibility


Navigation some best practice points

Navigation tabs– top or left hand side– Same position on every page –

consistency id important

Include a search mechanism – Eg www.Atomz.com – or

even google!

Include a site map– Search engines like site

maps – allows them to navigate and index the site more easily

http://www.vintagetub.com/

http://www.atomz.com/


Site Maps


Navigation by atlas or flags for international visitors?


Navigation– some best practice points Follow the 3 click rule

Make sure the homepage is accessible from all other pages

A good designer will know how to lay out content for ease of navigation

No more than 3 nested levels – search engines may not index below 3 levels

Use a ‘crumbtrail’ so people know where they are


An example-www.lucywillow.co.uk


The Four Key Areas




Content – ‘Best Practice’ Content will be determined by the site objectives

Comprehensive content– wider than just product/company information –

like the Chester Grosvenor– People develop trust in websites which provide

them with added value information

Relevant to audience– Focused– No inappropriate content

Contact details at all relevant points– Telephone, email, fax

Capability of signing up (by email) for ongoing contact

– Eg Newsletters, product promotions

For e-commerce sites – terms and conditions, privacy statements

‘Calls to action’ at relevant points


Examples of “Calls for action”


Landing Pages Its not just the home

page which needs to engage your audience

Pages searchers and browsers land on which are ‘call to action’ rich

Designed to get visitors to contact you or buy from you


An Ideal Landing Page…www.free-employer-advice.co.uk

-Many ‘calls to action’

-Include words which reflect what has been searched for -eg ‘employment law’

-Build trust eg customer testimonials

-appropriate images


An Ideal Landing Page…www.free-employer-advice.co.uk


Translated and localised content where relevant


Content– has to be compelling, relevant and up-to-date

– Has to be well written

– Use multimedia – video, flash , sound etc– Get the balance right between video, text and graphics

Eg www.slholidays.co.uk

– does not have to be our own eg bbc – where I live, Using multimap

– Content needs to be managed Content management tools and technologies Is is Search engine compliant? Eg Adobe Contribute

Eg www.slholidays.co.uk


User Generated Content (UGC) Web 2.0 concept – get

users to contribute– Add their own videos,

testimonials etc– reviews– Eg

www.antarcticabound.com

For small businesses can be achieved via…– Blogs– Facebook– Twitter links


The Four Key Areas




Design – some best practice points

Needs to reflect your brand and be compatible with offline marketing materials

Make sure your designer has appropriate creativity to match your target market – see examples, produce ideas

A light background – preferable white– We are accustomed to reading dark text on a light background– Dark colours tiring on the eyes

Uncluttered – effective use of space

Make sure your web designer will provide alternatives

Crisp images

Appropriate use of multimedia – images, sound, flash technology, streaming and online video– Advantages – adds interest and additional functionality– Disadvantages – can impact the effectiveness of search engine indexing ; can slow down responsiveness and download time


Design – is always a compromise…http://www.youreventsltd.com/


www.liquidplastics.co.uk


www.dancewearcentral.co.uk


www.wideshoes4u.co.uk


The Four Key Areas




The Functionality of your site will depend on the objectives

Simple site

Ecommerce sitePassword

Retailers site - content from database eg stock and pricing

Wholesaler’s extranet

Dynamic pages


Store contents & templatesseparately in databaseQuery database & contentsEg www.cloggs.co.uk

Dynamically assemblepersonalised web pages when requested

Import various information & media types

User 1

User 2

User 3

Database Driven or HTML?

http://www.cloggs.co.uk/


Would you use this architect again?

Or this web site designer? Check their portfolio

– Call a couple of their customers Understand what goes on

behind the scenes– What technologies will be employed– Consultants and advisers can help

Choosing and with Suppliers

http://www.harrison-silverdale.co.uk/inserts_index.htm


A plan or specification –to cover… Include in written document signed off between you and the web company

Design, content, navigation, functionality, marketing

Functional requirement - eg mechanism for payment

Non functional requirement - eg hosting and security

Operational admin and requirements - eg content management, updating processes

Future requirements - eg integration plans for suppliers, internal systems, bank, etc

Marketing – online marketing of the site – SEO work

Transition between old site and new – eg 301 redirection work

The design and build process - Eg how many design iterations?


Measuring our Effectiveness

The good news for marketing on the web is that virtually everything can be measured

‘ I doubt that there is any other function in industry where management bases so much

expenditure on such scanty knowledge.......probably no more than 0.2% of

total advertising expenditure is used to achieve an enduring understanding of how to spend the

other 99.8%

Forrester ‘Advertising’ p.102 Kotler M.Mgt


Your Web Site and ‘Best Practice’


Exercise There are many factors to take into

consideration when ‘localising’ websites for international trading.

What are they?


World languages by size


Websites and Localisation – Why bother with translation?


Websites and Localisation Not just translation – nuances of language and appreciation of cultural

tastes and taboos– Localised in terms of currencies, business practices, laws, regulation and

taxes, iconography, colour association, technology available

Words and phrases have different meanings

– 'General Motors' was very successful in marketing its automobile, the Nova, in the United States. When they decided to export their product south of the border however, they were baffled when the car sold very, very slowly. Finally, someone let them in on the secret. In Spanish, "No va" is an entire sentence that means: "It does not go.“

– In German, "Mist" is a slang word, which means "manure". Many companies have had problems marketing their products in Germany as a result of this. Clairol, for example, experienced difficulties when trying to launch their "Mist Stick" curling iron in Germany.

– The Irish alcoholic beverage, "Irish Mist" did not sell very well in Germany either.


An example www.noisekiller.co.uk

European focus with Italian distributor

Part of website translated into Italian

Used Italian web designer to produce Italian pages

Use UKTI services for website localisation– ECR services


Mistranslation Examples

“Please dial 7 to retrieve your auto from the garbage”

Mistranslation: Hotel Rome



“Why go somewhere else to be cheated when you can come here”

Mistranslation: Indian shop window



“Please hang yourself here”

Mistranslation: Hotel cloakroom, Berlin



“Nothing sucks like an Electrolux”

Mistranslation: Ad targeting the US



“You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists and writers are buried daily except Thursdays”

Mistranslation: Moscow hotel lobby


Websites and Localisation

Iconography – US mailboxes and shopping cart icons may have no meaning in certain countries

– An example:

– Gerber, a well-known food company, made a big mistake when they began to market their baby food in Africa. The label on the food packaging, the same as that used in the USA, displayed a picture of a Caucasian Baby.

– The problem arises from the fact that in Africa the majority of people cannot read. As a result, it is common practice for companies to put a picture on the label that clearly illustrates what is inside the packaging


Websites and Localisation

Some images may be offensive – eg open palms in Greece

Protocol: Certain cultural subtleties will need to be observed, such as presenting the male on the left in Asian family pictures, and showing only one child in Chinese

Numbers: Can be problematic, eg “4” in Japanese, and various numbers in Chinese

Colour associations – green has religious connotations in Islamic countries, black is sombre /mourning in most countries but white has same meaning in Japan, names written in red in Korea mean the person is dead


International Sites – B2B See IBM – Planet wide

– http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/select/selector.html– See locations which prefer English


International Sites – B2CCoca Cola


International Sites – B2B-eg Coca Cola Syria


Search Engine Issueseg -Submitting to Yandex

http://webmaster.yandex.ru/addurl.xml


Action Planning

Effective Web Sites for International Trading


Automating your Trading with Customers and Suppliers

MODULE 2


www.actinic.co.uk

Market leader for small businesses

From less than £400 – buy and DIY

Use their recommended partners

http://www.actinic.co.uk/


Open source software

Free of charge – no license fees whatsoever

Good reputation

Continuously improved by the open community

www.oscommerce.com


Getting paid -using payment service providers

Acquirer

Merchant

Acquirer-Acting on

behalf of creditcard companies- eg Worldpay, BT KwikPay

Credit card details sentin encrypted form

Credit cardcompany

Bank

http://www.ukonlineforbusiness.gov.uk/epayments


Using payment service providers

Worldpay, Netbanx, SassPay, SecureTrading, Datacash, ….

All provide secure payment facilities and on line authorisation

All offer slightly different services and different charging methods – affiliated with different banks, handle different cards, different currencies etc

See www.electronic-payments.co.uk

A useful by-product is that we are trading via a secure server

All require that you have a separate e-trading bank account – merchant account– Apply through PSP’s or your bank

http://www.electronic-payments.co.uk/

http://www.shopassistant.net/pages/worldpay.htm


Security -using the technology

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) - the ‘padlock’ Information passed between browser and web site is encrypted It’s unreadable to anyone else A good storebuilder application will do this for you

http://www.google.co.uk/


Legislation and tax – a moving target!

On line traders need to adhere to ‘Distance Selling Regulations’

– http://www.oft.gov.uk/about-the-oft/legal-powers/legal/distance-selling-regulations/

See Office of Fair Trading site for full details– www.oft.gov.uk/default.htm

Key points:-– 1. Clear information to consumers on products,

delivery, payment, cancellation rights…– 2. Information has to be provided in writing– 3 Consumer has 7 day cooling off period

http://www.oft.gov.uk/default.htm


Creating a trusted environment

Get an etrading accreditation– And show the ‘code of practice’– New from Google ‘ Google

Trusted Stores’

Get a Digital Identity


Safebuy Assured Eg

www.blushingbuyer.com

Get a trading accreditation – www.safebuy.org.uk

Eg – www.blushingbuyer.co.uk

http://www.safebuy.org.uk/


http://www.blushingbuyer.com/

http://www.blushingbuyer.com/



http://www.blushingbuyer.co.uk/


Building confidence and trust- Digital Identity - Verisign


Some shortcuts… Get an ecommerce trading accreditation and conform with the

‘code of practice’– See later slides - TrustUK, Safebuy

Download and follow the email marketing (and SMS) code of practice form www.dma.org.uk

Follow the processes and postings of major etailers– Eg http://www.virginwines.co.uk/– Eg www.johnlewis.com

http://www.virginwines.co.uk/



http://www.johnlewis.com/


Examples of High Performing Ecommerce sites

www.plumbnation.co.uk www.millyskitchenstore.co.uk www.cloggs.co.uk and .eu

http://www.plumbnation.co.uk/

http://www.millyskitchenstore.co.uk/

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