New Ways to Tackle the Order Drought in Overseas Markets

Ways to Address Order Shortage in Foreign Markets

For the offshore industry, many companies did not have an easy time in 2022. According to data from the “2023 White Paper on Offshore Activities of Small and Micro Foreign Trade Enterprises”, about 49% of small and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises experienced varying degrees of revenue decline compared to 2021. “Order drought” has been going on for a long time.

Your peers have already started acquiring customers online.

When it comes to offshore activities for B2C companies, they often refer to domestic sales methods and start with third-party platforms, but while bringing in sales performance, they are also subject to various restrictions of the platform. For example, in the large category of luggage, countless competitors have become extremely fierce in the price war on the platform, making it difficult for brand characteristics to be noticed by people. Secondly, due to the limited amount of data deposited from platform sales, when you want to refine and segment your consumer groups and plan future marketing models, you often encounter bottlenecks.

Unlike the many acquisition channels for B2C, B2B companies rely more on offline channels such as industry exhibitions to sell their products. In recent years, this traditional method of acquiring customers has become increasingly difficult. With the trend of orders shifting towards small and short orders, B2B companies need to find channels to establish cooperative relationships with more customers, better understand customer needs, provide solutions, and ultimately bring more business opportunities.

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The aforementioned white paper also reveals a huge change in reality: according to statistics, 45.3% of respondents said that they will increase their budget for independent station marketing in 2023. For offshore companies that are already developing online channels, “starting with an independent station” is an important customer acquisition strategy for them. Gradually shifting acquisition methods online reduces time, location, and personnel limitations, bringing wider coverage, relatively lower costs, and higher efficiency for companies to acquire customers. Companies that open up new online channels above traditional offline channels seize the opportunity to transform.

In the era of information explosion, the consumer shopping decision-making process is no longer as simple as “like it, buy it”. It has developed into a complex and winding psychological path. For consumers, they can weigh and compare various types of information to make the right purchasing decision; but for To C merchants, how to sell products to consumers has become more complicated.

Buyers of To B enterprises will need more time to understand the scale of your enterprise, product quality, delivery capability, after-sales service, and other details. Establishing long-term relationships with customers, paying more attention to personalized customization and service to meet the needs of different customers. Whether it is response speed, communication efficiency, customized service, and so on, the communication chain between buyers and sellers is constantly shortened. When opening up private channels in completely unfamiliar overseas markets, the independent website model is more in line with the shopping habits of overseas users, and has better effects after long-term operation. It is an effective online customer acquisition path preferred by many enterprises at present.

Fast website construction, efficient online customer acquisition

To be honest, the difficulty of website construction is not high, and there are already many website building products. But it does not mean that once the website is built, everything is worry-free. Internally, it is necessary to continuously update product content, optimize display positions and materials, review website data, and interact with customers; externally, it is necessary to attract traffic and make the independent website a “living” part of the enterprise’s private ecosystem. If internal operation requires the persistence of the enterprise, then external operation requires a reliable and professional partner to solve problems such as traffic, data tracking, and performance optimization after website construction. For example, Labotrix, as a leading global manufacturer and one-stop education product and solution provider, after cooperating with Google Ads, invested resources in independent websites and advertising placement to open up sales channels and bring in a large number of inquiries in a short period of time.

“Bidders and private school clients who rarely interacted with Labotrix came to the door, allowing Labotrix to receive nearly $150,000 in orders.”

If you also want to expand your business through an independent website and have clients come to you actively, click 【Read Original Article】 at the bottom of the article and submit your business information in just 1 minute to get exclusive independent website customization services provided by Google’s overseas expansion plan and overseas customer acquisition advice.

Precise drainage, allowing customers to come to you actively

48% ¹ of consumers indicate that they will obtain shopping inspiration through online channels. 31% ² of consumers also indicate that they will collect various information online before shopping to avoid related issues such as whether the product is out of stock and whether shipping is convenient. They will also use Google to find the best products in the products they need, compare prices, and view the latest reviews to prepare for shopping.

A survey shows that 71% ³ of B2B buyers’ purchasing work begins with online searches. It is not difficult to understand that the focus of B2B purchasing work is to find professional and reliable suppliers. Under such a strong purposeful demand, compared with social and entertainment platforms, search engines can present more professional, efficient, and reliable content, making it more convenient to research and compare cooperative enterprises. Without emphasis on promotion, it is difficult for websites to be searched by target customers.

Google search ads can make every user search become a potential conversion, accurately reach high-intention customers, and allow customers to come to you actively. Here are some practical tips for setting up Google search ads that several business friends have shared, making it more efficient to receive online orders.

1. Set more accurate keywords, such as “manufacturer supplier”, “wholesale”, “for your company”, and other keywords that B-side purchasers will search for, to improve accuracy of targeting and let users who are truly interested see your ads, avoiding spending advertising budget on C-end consumers.

2. Utilize Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool, and analyze the popularity and trend of keywords to more accurately target the core audience. The forecast results of the keyword planner are refreshed daily based on data from the past 7-10 days and adjusted for seasonal factors, achieving more precise placement and better advertising results.

3. Enable broad match keyword function, and the system will automatically recommend more search terms related to user needs, but not in the brand or precise positioning keyword library, thereby expanding its impact range, broadening traffic access, and capturing more potential consumer needs and purchasing conversions.

Online supports offline, running with two legs

Developing overseas markets through dual channels

As digital transformation deepens, online is not an isolated digital transformation channel, but complements traditional offline channels. With proper coordination, the DTC model can become a “DTC+” model, becoming a combination of joint efforts to expand markets and attract customers. If the combination of online and offline channels is “walking with two legs,” then better coordination between the two channels is “running with two legs.”

For example, before, during, and after offline exhibitions, better linkage can be done with online advertising and independent sites. By combining digital transformation with traditional business models, online and offline channels complement each other and cooperate to achieve more efficient and sustainable customer acquisition, enabling companies to improve competitiveness and better adapt to market changes.

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