You are in the right place to start the process of expanding your business into new countries, but before you start selling your products or services abroad, it is very important to identify the right countries for you, the most in-demand markets for what your business has to offer, and whether some of them pose logistical challenges or legal you should be familiar with?
How analytics and tools can help you identify the markets that offer you the greatest opportunity
Suppose you own a shop that sells rare old records, and it works very well in your country, Egypt; Let's say you're starting to wonder if expanding into new markets is your next big step forward. The question now is: Where will you expand?
1- Select the right countries for you
From the Emirates to Jordan, and from Morocco to Algeria, there are several markets in which your products can achieve great success, and others in which your chances of success are low.
How do you determine? Fortunately, there are many tools you can use to assess the situation beforehand.
For example, you can start by previewing Google's Global Market Finder or Google's Global Market Finder.
This free tool allows you to quickly analyze traffic from search results for keywords important to your business.
Like where do you find old cylinders often? Thus, you will know which countries are showing high search traffic and which may represent high demand markets for your products.
2- Most popular markets
Conversely, countries that don't tend to do a lot of searching for these terms may not be your winning bet.
With this tool, you can make well-informed decisions about where to invest in expanding your business.
And when you find countries that do a lot of searching for your products, use tools like Google's Keyword Planner or Bing Keyword Research to see how much competition the ads appear in search results.
This will help you know if you are entering a market with few or many competitors.
Another useful method is your web analytics, so if you use Google Analytics or other popular analytics tools, you can see if people in other markets are showing interest in your business.
For example, imagine that you have shipped your products only inside Egypt so far, and you notice that you have a lot of visitors to your website from Morocco who browse and follow your news, this means that you have a customer base waiting for you in Morocco.
3- Market challenges
Now that we've talked about tools that help you understand market demand and competition, there are other considerations you should take into account when deciding which markets to focus on.
For example, some countries may pose more legal, regulatory, or tax challenges than others; So you should have a background on this before you start investing in your business expansion project.
Some markets may look attractive “on paper”, but doing some research into this sort of thing will help you avoid any nasty surprises.
Fortunately, many governments have websites where you can find resources to help you answer these questions.
Summary
Expanding your business into a new market can be a great way to grow, but before you take that step use online tools to help you see where there is strong demand for your products.
Then make sure you don't run into legal or regulatory issues by doing a general search first. Once you do, you are on your way to expanding your business into new markets.
See: What Support Systems Will You Need to Expand the Business