How to Make Your Products and Services Stand Out on a Global Scale

Mandy runs her small business on Etsy, where she sells handmade candles. She markets her products or services through her Instagram page, e-commerce website, and email marketing campaigns. By leveraging these three channels, she’s opened the door to land customers globally.

But not everyone is like Mandy. Not everyone knows the proper marketing strategies to reach a global audience.

And with 60 million people shopping online, the sad truth is only a tiny percentage of e-commerce businesses tap into the full potential of these potential customers.  

Why? Because most businesses have no idea how to effectively reach them. And that means most businesses are ultimately losing out on revenue – a lot of revenue. 

But don’t worry. That’s why you’ll want to bookmark this article. Today we’ll discuss five tips for marketing your products or services globally.

Let’s dive in. 

5 Tips for Globalizing Products and Services

Here are five tips you must implement if you want to skyrocket your business globally.

Tip #1 — Create a Professional Website

When you market your products or services via third-party websites like Etsy and Shopify — for sure, your business is likely to make sales, but with these sales also come the fees these third-party websites charge you. 

Enter: a professional website.

Unlike a third-party website, your professional website gives you a platform to sell to your customers directly and consistently get visibility — thanks to search engine optimization (SEO).

A fantastic example is ecommerce gaming site, YUPLAY. Its interactive website lists PC games for sale and offers a choice not only for payment options but currency types. By offering their games for sale in US Dollars (USD), British Pounds (GBP), Euros (EUR), and Canadian Dollars (CAD), YUPLAY caters to a global audience of gamers.

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You can follow suit and create a website that wows your visitors by following some simple steps. 

Here’s how:

• Pick your e-commerce platform. WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, or Webflow. Some offer free-to-start options with templates and themes that make getting started easy. Others, like WordPress, also offer greater customization, including full access to code, so if you want to hire web developer (or know how to code yourself), you can have a fully-customized website.
• Choose your domain name. Make sure your domain name and brand name are the same (or complement each other). If the domain name you want isn’t available at .com, try other domain suffixes, such as .io, .net, or .biz.  
• Develop your website’s main pages. Craft the main pages of your website, like the About section, product pages, and a Contact Us page. Remember to include relevant keywords in product descriptions and on your Home Page. Hiring a professional copywriter with experience in web copy can help a great deal in this process. 
• Set up payment options. Decide how customers will pay you and integrate those payment methods. Examples of payment methods are traditional credit cards (Visa, Mastercard), ShopPay, and PayPal.
• Optimize your website. Search engine optimization goes beyond adding the right keywords here and there. To optimize your website, you’ll need to consult with or hire an SEO specialist or agency to make sure you don’t overlook anything, such as alt text, meta titles and descriptions, image optimizations, and page speed. 
• Preview, test, and publish. Once everything is done, preview to see how the website will look before going live. If everything looks good, hit publish. But don’t forget to track analytics and improve when needed.  

Tip #2 — Build a PR-First Mentality

Imagine if your products and services had the power to generate buzz and garner more traction simply through people praising your products or services.

Sounds idyllic, right? 

That’s what you get when you utilize a PR-first mentality. In other words, prioritize building a real endorsement of your brand based on influencers and reviews.

Here are some reasons how PR can help you reach a global audience:

• Improves visibility: It amplifies your purpose and explains how you serve customers — establishing trust and staying consistent in the market.
• Creates a brand narrative: It allows you to convey your brand’s voice and position it in the way you want to establish yourself in the global market.
• Brings third-party validation: It puts you at the forefront when an authority organization or influencer speaks highly and positively of your brand, products, or services.

For example, MetLife dental insurance has achieved remarkable growth, expanded its reach, and gained substantial exposure through a PR-first mentality. If you go to their website, you’ll see their Better Business Bureau and Trustpilot reviews that build credibility and help them stand out from the crowd.

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Furthermore, they’ve been published in global publications like Fortune and Forbes, which amplifies their reach and trust among their audience.

Now, if you also want to leverage PR for your business, here are some ways to do this:

• Collaborate with influencers in your space — ask them to write a sponsored post on their social media platform, review your product, or feature your brand in their Youtube videos or podcasts.
• Add your business to third-party review sites like Trustpilot and Google Business Profile so your customers can endorse you publicly.
• Reach out to authoritative publications who could cover your brand in a future press release. You can even get published in their magazine to help reach your ideal customer. 

Tip #3 — Create a Winning Customer Experience

Brands that focus on creating high-quality products and services that also provide winning customer experiences can achieve higher customer satisfaction rates and reduce customer churn. 

Using CRM software can provide insights into preferences, behaviors, and engagement history of customers and enable businesses to tailor their communications, offer personalized recommendations, and deliver efficient customer support. Even if you are a construction company, using construction CRM can help you make more informed decisions and deliver exceptional customer service.

The result? A better bottom line.

If you want to create a winning customer experience, you must:

• Be transparent about how customers can reach out to your customer support — across social media channels, chat support, emails, or phone.
• Actively listen to your customers’ problems and come up with a solution and address their concerns.
• Respond quickly and resolve customer queries as soon as possible.

Take a peek at how Liquid Home Uganda shares on its Twitter handle how its customers can contact customer support for dedicated assistance. They have mapped out the entire process, which makes it clear to the customer what to expect from them.

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Tip #4 — Use Storytelling to Sell Your Products and Services

The days of salespeople directly pitching products and services to customers are long gone. 

Today’s consumers are savvy and prefer to make purchases without feeling pressured. They appreciate buying from a place of genuine interest rather than being subjected to traditional sales tactics.

Here are two major reasons you should leverage storytelling: 

Reason #1: Showcases Product Value

Customers who are price-conscious and have limited budgets may not want to purchase “luxury” apparel brands just to fit in with the Joneses. 

But, if they knew that certain apparel was precisely knitted by hand and used organic, environment-friendly fabric, they might consider otherwise. 

Why? The product itself is a good investment due to the high quality of construction that’ll last longer than the cheaper alternative, which can justify its value to customers.

All in all, you need to show potential customers the value your product holds and how it can transform their lives. And it’ll push them further down the sales funnel. To do this, you need to humanize your brand by telling stories and experiences about your business and product.

Take SoFi, an innovative mortgage lender, as the perfect example. They feature customer success stories on their YouTube channel about how they bring value to the home-buying process. Exploring options with mortgage lenders can help you find the best financing solution for your dream home. 

For instance, a SoFi home loan helped Luis afford his family’s dream home. Without the loan, he wouldn’t be able to better his children’s lives. Now, Luis is a loyal customer. 

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Reason #2: Highlight Your Brand Values

Humans connect through stories — and it’s no different for brands. For example, your audience may not remember you because your business provides another weight-loss solution. But they’ll remember you if your brand spotlights its values of helping people live healthier, happier lives.

Form Health does this with their real client stories from patients who’ve taken the weight-loss medication, Wegovy, and had amazing results. The company’s focus isn’t on a hard sell. It’s on providing life-changing results for their clients that will last a lifetime. 

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So, how can you implement storytelling to connect with your audience? Here’s how:

• Define your target audience: Be clear on who you’re targeting. Is your target audience male, female, adults, or children? Does this audience already use your product? Or are they unaware of how to use your product? Once you have analyzed these points, you can craft a story.
• Focus on emotions: Think about how you want your target audience to feel after listening to the story — happy, inspired, joyful, confident, scared, or fearful. Focus on what your customers feel when using your products or services. Showcase that feeling of your customers in your storyline when they benefit or find the solution to their problems through your brand.
• Craft the story: Don’t just tell your story, but show parts of it by giving details of what and how it happened — make the experience descriptive.

Tip #5 — Leverage Paid Ad Campaigns

That’s right — paid ads are a helpful tool used by business owners to drive traffic to your website. Since most e-commerce advertising happens online, it becomes easier to target global audiences and generate more leads.

Before thinking globally, however, you must ensure that your product or service is ready to scale beyond a local or national level.

For instance, consider a lawyer specializing in divorce in Arizona. Initially, their ad campaigns were customized for their target customers, the Arizona market.

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But to have a chance of expanding on a national scale, they’d need to broaden their practice into other states. Only then could they cast a wider net and reach a more diverse demographic.

And that’s where paid ads come into play. They’re a powerful tool for reaching audiences that are outside of your immediate sphere. Paid ads offer you the ability to target specific demographics, behaviors, and interests, which can be particularly valuable when promoting your products and services on a global scale. 

And there are plenty of platforms available at your fingertips. Each advertising platform has its strengths. For instance, Google Ads are excellent for reaching users who are actively searching for your type of product or service directly in a search engine. 

Meanwhile, social media marketing ads (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are ideal for brand exposure and engagement. 

Remember, some platforms might be more popular in certain regions, so researching the preferred platforms in your target markets can ensure your ads are seen by the right people.

Wrapping Up

There’s no hard and fast rule for your brand to reach a global audience.

Always remember that your brand’s uniqueness is your ultimate competitive advantage.

So keep your customer’s needs at the core of everything that you do and deliver value consistently. And before you know it, your products and services will stand out above the rest, and you’ll reap the rewards.