Marketing your business in Europe

There are a number of marketing challenges that come with expanding your business into Europe. Take steps to plan carefully and avoid the pitfalls.

Do your research 

While you never know exactly how your marketing is going to be received, you can minimise your risks by researching the market first.

Marketing mistakes include making assumptions about what your customers want, ignoring the competition, trying to compete on price alone and relying on too few customers.

There is a variety of tools available to understand and measure customers' attitudes in different countries. These include:

• online survey tools
• customer focus groups
• website analytic software
• competitors' advertising

These methods offer free or relatively low cost ways to understand how your customers are interacting with your brand. Compare and contrast different messages to see which works best.

See market research and market reports. 

Penalties and fines

As well as cultural marketing differences between countries, there are also big differences between the penalties and fines you could receive.

While a complaint about your advertising in the UK might only result in a warning from the Advertising Standards Agency, in Germany the same complaint could result in you paying extensive damages. In Belgium, the same advert could mean you having to additionally publish (and pay for) corrective advertising.

There is no simple solution to understanding marketing regulations - as countries that are strict in one area may be very lax in other legislation. If you are running a campaign, always make sure that you comply with the law in every country where it is running.

Overcome language barriers

Getting the right tone is vital when marketing your business abroad. Never assume that you can simply translate existing material word for word. Always check with native speakers to gauge their reaction to your marketing. Even if your campaign is grammatically correct it may not be giving the message you think or want to convey.