Networking at the East Midlands Day

The East Midlands Day in Chongqing, China took place at the Marriott Hotel on the 18th of October 2010. It was arranged by the East Midlands China Business Bureau with the aim to promote companies from Nottingham to governmental and industrial organisations from Chongqing, particularly from the automotive sector.

Representatives from COFTEC (Chongqing Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Commission), UNIDO (United Nations Industrial

Alan presenting at the East Midlands Day

Development Organisation) and UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) were among the different organisations that attended the event.

General Manager, Mr. Xiaoyu Zhang, of the Chinese automotive company Chana, who recently moved their R&D Department to Nottingham, gave a presentation on the successful cooperation between East Midlands and Chana Automobile. Furtermore, Romax Technology gave a presentation on their different projects such as wind turbines and new energy development.
Finally, our MD Alan took to the stage and presented the progress in providing a global internet marketing strategy to several Chongqing manufacturers including Russian website build and marketing for LIFAN Auto as well as international website build and marketing for Haifu and Chengdu Hitech.

Alan explaining the importance of International Online Marketing

Changhong representatives picked up Alan and our China sales manager Tonny from Chengdu train station on the 21st of October. After a 2-hour drive, they arrived at the city of Mianyang, which is dominated by the huge Changhong factory and complex. The complex included the hotel where Alan and Tonny stayed for the night.

Changhong invited Metafocus to a fabulous meal in the evening. Here, they met Mr. Yorkson Wang, Managing Director of Changhong’s Overseas Strategy & Development Department and Susumu Nakajima, Consultant to Changhong, as well as Sha Bin, a patent & copywright lawyer from Createop & Co.

Alan and Tonny were again invited to Changhong Electric the following day for Changhong’s Annual Branding Conference. The audience included around 35 of the companies’ international brand managers. Metafocus was one of the key speakers due to Changhong’s need to revise their global marketing strategy. Through Alan’s talk, Changhong realised that the Internet is one of the most powerful marketing tools and that the Internet could further help in improving communication between their overseas marketing networks.

It is true that the Internet is a global forum but it is one that is navigated by local people with local needs. Localised online marketing is the key to creating a website that is really in tune with the markets you are targeting.

Metafocus are a global online marketing company with experience in providing sites in markets across the world. Here we have compiled 5 key considerations for an international online marketing campaign if you want to find out more please contact us using the details provided below.

1. Only 25% of world wide internet searches are in English

Living on a diet of Hollywood movies and British pop songs it’s easy to assume that the world speaks English. This simply isn’t true. English is an international language but it is far from a universal one. In fact only 25% of internet searches are made in English.

Achieving good search engine optimisation is critical to have a successful international website. This requires a good understanding of the language and culture, understanding the needs of your customers and the keywords they will use to search for your product.

2. Google is not the only search engine

Here in the UK Google takes the lion’s share (90%) of the internet search market. This is not true in all markets. In some countries, such as China, Google is a distant competitor and the local search engine Baidu has more than 70% of the market.

It is important that you know which search engines are the most popular in the market you are targeting. Each search engine categorises key words differently. Having good international search engine optimisation and coordinating effective pay per click campaigns requires a detailed understanding of the search engines that are used locally.

3. Translation is about impact as well as meaning

You only have to paste a piece of translated text back into a free online translation engine to see how random some translation software can be. It is also important to realise that just because a word has a literal translation that word may have completely the wrong cultural associations in the language it is written.

We recently worked on an English Language website for Chinese motorcycle company, Zongshen. A literal translation of some of their promotional material described their bikes as being Dextourous and Firm. Whilst technically correct this means very little to the British market. UK bikers are looking for ‘Awesome Performance’ and ‘Superior Engineering’; the copy was changed accordingly.

4.Keep it local

One result of potential customers using local search engines is that the results they obtain are weighted towards the country they are in. Websites with ‘.co.uk’ achieve higher prominence when searched via Google.co.uk, and Chinese sites are displayed higher on Baidu.

An additional bias is given in favour of sites that are hosted locally. This means that a Chinese domain website that is hosted in the UK will not reach as higher search engine position as an identical site hosted in China. To achieve the best results you need to have a locally hosted website with a local domain.

5. Design is cultural

In the same way as people from different cultures enjoy different food and fashions they have different likes and dislikes when it comes to web design. A good site is easy to navigate and understand. Doing this requires a web design that is sensitive to the aesthetic expectations of different cultures.

Chinese websites for example tend to be image rich. They feature significantly more content than is appreciated by European consumers. Chinese web users prefer to see all the information they require on one page rather than navigating through lots of links and subpages.

In summary good international online marketing rewards companies who take the time to produce websites sensitive to local needs, that understand the language and culture of its consumers and use local hosts and domains.

Here at Metafocus we have built a highly skilled international team who have experience and understanding of delivering online marketing campaigns that successfully reach international audiences. If you would like to find out more about what we can offer for your company please contact us either by email: info@metafocusglobal.com , or phone +44 (0) 115 947 00 11 we will be more than happy to discuss this with you.

Established in 1989 by world renowned bearing expert Dr SY Poon (MBE), Romax has been supplying genuinely innovative technical solutions to the engineering industry for 20 years.

With 20 years experience in gearbox, bearing and drivetrain design, Romax Technology is a world leading technical consultancy. Their expert engineering teams and conceptually advanced virtual product development and simulation suite provide world class solutions that improve product development and extend the life of your product and improve your product’s performance across the wind energy and transportation industries.

Romax Technology

Metafocus invites you to their Driving Global Trade Through Internet Marketing forum on Thursday May 27th 2010 at 8:30am till 12 noon. This forum will be held at the Novotel hotel Nottingham East Midlands.

The launch of a new forum, not to be missed by business professionals trading overseas.

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This forum has been developed for decision makers in International & Export Companies to help them use the Internet to reach overseas markets, expand their business and drive profit.

Time – 8.30am – 12 noon

Fee – £55 per head (inc VAT)

RSVP Register online at www.metafocus.co.uk/workshops before 20 May 2010 .

Or to make further enquiries,

call Alan on 0115 947 0011.

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Schedule

8:30 – Arrival

9.00 – Andrew Schlich – Successful Communication with Overseas Clients

9:20 – Anja Nelskamp – Why Language and Culture Matters?

9:35 – Ian Lockwood – The Importance of Ongoing Online Promotion

10:05 – Alan Clements – Why You Need a Global Internet Marketing Strategy?

10:50 – Panel Q&A – Joined by Thomas Schaal, Senior International Trade Advisor for the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)

11:15 – An opportunity for Networking

Further Information

The event is attracting many high profile International businesses from the

East Midlands region. There will be plenty of time for networking and opportunities

to do business.

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Register online at www.metafocus.co.uk/workshops.

Or to make further enquiries, call Alan on 0115 947 0011.

Metafocus Ltd – 2 Broadway, The Lace Market, Nottingham, NG1 1PS.

E: events@metafocus.co.uk – W: www.metafocus.co.uk

Here are some images from a presentation in Chengdu to over 50 local businesses where Alan described:

1.      International website design
2.      Translation as an essential search marketing tool
3.      The importance of localizing your overseas internet marketing
4.      Multilingual search engine optimisation
5.      Other international online marketing techniques

As part of continuing growth into building and promoting international websites, a team from Metafocus attended the prestigious International Search Summit at the British Library,  London recently.

It was a really interesting day, with speakers covering topics as diverse as customer retention on a global scale, the internet market in Japan and optimising for Baidu, something which we know a fair about already through all our Chinese website projects.

All the speakers were of a very high standard and had some real insights into not only the internet markets in various countries around the world but also the technical issues behind international internet marketing and website creation.

If you’re interested in promoting your products or service online, around the world, please get in touch and we’d be happy to talk it through with you.