How Marketing Can Take Your Startup Global

Throughout COVID-19, small businesses and startups across Canada have been hit hard, with nearly 60% of the country’s small businesses reporting declines in revenue of 20% or more. For Canadian startups, only 0.5% of potential customers actually reside inside of Canada. This makes access to the global market absolutely vital for the survival and growth of many small businesses. While sales methods, cash flow, and inventory can all affect a startups success as a global business, one crucial factor is too often left out of the conversation: marketing.

The recent ‘How to Market Your Startup Globally’ bootcamp, co-presented by Startup Canada and Publicize, included vital information for startups and entrepreneurs looking to take their business to the global stage. In this article we’ll explore the impact marketing can have on the success of global startups, and some of the most pertinent advice that was shared during the bootcamp.

The Importance of Market Research

Before implementing communications campaigns or pitching content to international news publications, every startup should be conducting ample market research. First, you should ask yourself the question “why do I want to go global?” — helping you solidify your company’s goal when entering the global marketplace. Next, all entrepreneurs should know what exporting their goods or services means to them, whether that be a physical international presence or accessing these markets virtually. Finally, you’re ready to begin researching for market fit. When entering a new global market, entrepreneurs should expect entirely different cultures, languages and consumer habits than those found in Canada’s marketplace. Given these factors, in-depth analysis is necessary to avoid lost capital and damage to a business’s brand. A few tips on market fit research include:

1. Problem solving: Focus on the reason why you’re choosing to expand into global markets, i.e. the problem you’re solving for a specific new market.
2. Target audience: How does your audience change in other markets?
3. Competitor analysis: How can you stand out from the competition?
4. Clear messaging: What variances in language should you have to properly communicate your value proposition while keeping it consistent?
5. Targeted outreach: What media lists and outlets should you target to get the attention you deserve?

Using Storytelling as a Tool

Once entrepreneurs have a good sense of their market fit, storytelling is the next key step in globally marketing their business. For a startup, mastering and sharing the brand’s story can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool. If done well, this step can help connect customers to a brand and inspire action. “The goal is connection, not perfection,” explained the facilitator during the bootcamp. The basis of all good storytelling is reliability and credibility — a publication and its audience must trust the information you are providing and believe in the story you are telling. A number of useful tips for startups looking to craft their story include:

1. The fact that a company exists is not a story. Use newshooks, analogies, trends and events to create something newsworthy.
2. Find an angle that works for everyone, not just the company. What value does the story give to the journalist or the reader?
3. Don’t copy and paste campaigns. Be cautious of language barriers and alternative meanings to phrases or business names.
4. Public relations is the vehicle to drive your story once formed.
5. Advertising an overly promotional story costs money. Advertising through a well planned news story that avoids being overly promotional is free.

The Art of the Pitch

When attempting to get a story circulated in the media space, the most frustrating stage for entrepreneurs is often getting the article published. During the bootcamp, facilitators discussed the elements of a good story pitch when looking for media placements globally. Worldwide, the media space is incredibly competitive, with some journalists getting over 1,000 pitch emails a day. For this reason, it is incredibly important to build relationships with journalists and editors within your target geographic location, conduct ample research, be strategic in what publications you reach out to, and find a balance between personal and mass outreach. Detailed pitch guidelines include:

1. Do your homework. You are not the only one with story ideas. What publication writes on the topic of your story? Is there a specific journalist that covers that topic repeatedly?
2. Do not send promo-heavy pitches. While press releases are meant to be copy and pasted by staff writers at these publications, pitches are provided stories. These stories must abide by publication guidelines and journalism ethics, which often exclude obviously promotional material for a for-profit business.
3. Convey why the story is important. If the journalist can’t find this information in the first few sentences, you risk them moving onto another story.
4. Get to the point clearly and quickly. Reporters are incredibly busy — if they can’t digest your pitch quickly, you again risk them moving onto another story.
5. Avoid passive voice. Journalistic writing is almost always in active voice — show them from the get go that they will have limited work to do in the editing stage!
6. Double-check spelling and grammar.
7. Your subject line is your first point of contact. Make it stand out from the crowd.
8. Avoid being too wordy in your pitch. Aim for approximately 150 words.
9. Don’t be aggressive in your follow up. The journalist should enjoy working with you. If they do, they may reach out to you the next time they need a quote or story on the topic.
10. Your timing makes a difference. Send your pitches early in the morning and early in the week. Also avoid sending pitches during peak vacation dates.

Other Tools & Resources

To learn more about global marketing tactics from industry experts, you can follow along to the Twitter-based #StartupChats event ‘Communication Strategy for Startups’.

• Twitter – Many journalists, especially in North America, welcome direct pitches via Twitter.
• SimilarWeb – Find similar websites/publications to pitch on a certain topic.
• At Your Service, VoilaNorbert – Subscription service to access the contact details of journalists.
• CISION – Public Relations software company that helps with audience targeting, engagement, measurement and integration.

Another resource for entrepreneurs looking to enter the global market is UPS Canada’s ecommerce support. As the result of a recent survey which asked Canadian entrepreneurs to identify their most significant challenges, two webinars were developed: Small Business Road to Recovery from COVID-19 and Pulse of the Online Shopper.

“Over the past few months, the forced need for more consumers to order online for delivery to their homes has reshaped the model for many businesses,” said Paul Gaspar, director of small business, UPS Canada. “Our goal is to help those businesses adapt and grow in this new commerce era.”

Despite the many differences that exist across cultures and languages, a good story has the power to move and connect an audience regardless of their location. Through thorough market research, the identification of a story that fits your new global market’s consumer landscape, and mastering the art of the pitch, all entrepreneurs have the power to use marketing to take their product or service to the global stage.