How Are Your International Customers Reaching You?
Knowledge is power. And the knowledge of how your customers are reaching your business can bring new levels of potentiality to your organization — especially when you can capitalize on happy accidents and change your methods with the data and feedback that you receive.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to track where your customers are coming from and how to reach a wider audience.
Tracking Analytics
Without any solid data, your business is merely playing a guessing game. For instance, you may have launched a social media marketing campaign and noticed that international customers are reaching your business. You could reasonably assume that they are influenced this way, but what happens when you’re running multiple campaigns? The truth is that you need solid data to draw conclusions from. The more exact and less abstract your methodology is, the easier you’ll be able to find out how international customers are finding your business.
While going into the particulars of each method, here are a few channels you can use to explore:
- Google Analytics
- Kissmetrics
- CrazyEgg
- Facebook Page Insights
- Twitter Analytics
- A customized landing page for select marketing campaigns (unique URLs)
This list can go on, but these are just starters. The trick is to determine from which countries customers are finding your business, and then work backward to find out how. For instance, you may find that your Italian customers are peaking on your website at 6 AM EST. From this observation, you can reasonably draw the conclusion that Italians are responding to your content during their lunch hour (12pm in Italy). This can help you find the “how." The same can go for inbound phone calls and emails. By paying attention to how customers are finding out about your business and taking action to reach you, you can draw conclusions that are better than just “spray and pray" attempts.
Opening Up Lines of Communication
So, once you have an idea of how your customers are reaching you, it’s time to look at your business and determine just how easy it is to get in contact. In short, you need to offer customers as many options as possible to get in contact with you. After all, international customers may use email predominantly, or they might prefer to speak with a representative. Some may even DM you on your Instagram account to find out more.
As an example, let’s take a look at phone communication:
First, ask yourself whether you have a phone number for international customers to contact you on. Well, do you? If the answer is that you only list your domestic phone numbers on your website (even if it is a toll free number), you should know that you’re actually stunting your efforts.
Domestic toll free numbers present a problem for international callers. When dialed, the caller will be billed as if the call was a long-distance phone number (defeating the purpose of toll free numbers) or they may not be able to get through at all. Additionally, some international customers may be put off by having to dial outside of their country, preferring their country’s own familiar toll free numbers. Is there a way around this?
There is, if your business uses international toll free numbers. Formally known as “International Toll Free Service" numbers (ITFS), these numbers allow international callers to reach your business in exactly the same manner as phone numbers found in each country. Behind the scenes, ITFS numbers are powered by the latest developments in cloud computing, particularly with VoIP (“Voice over Internet Protocol"). A robust virtual phone system opens up lines of communication you had previously not realized.
Of course, this concept can be extrapolated to all facets of your business. It’s up to you to analyze your analytics, trace where customers may be coming from, and opening up lines of communication to encompass the widest audience. If you do this, you can use this knowledge to make your business more competitive in the global marketplace.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to track where your customers are coming from and how to reach a wider audience.
Tracking Analytics
Without any solid data, your business is merely playing a guessing game. For instance, you may have launched a social media marketing campaign and noticed that international customers are reaching your business. You could reasonably assume that they are influenced this way, but what happens when you’re running multiple campaigns? The truth is that you need solid data to draw conclusions from. The more exact and less abstract your methodology is, the easier you’ll be able to find out how international customers are finding your business.
While going into the particulars of each method, here are a few channels you can use to explore:
- Google Analytics
- Kissmetrics
- CrazyEgg
- Facebook Page Insights
- Twitter Analytics
- A customized landing page for select marketing campaigns (unique URLs)
This list can go on, but these are just starters. The trick is to determine from which countries customers are finding your business, and then work backward to find out how. For instance, you may find that your Italian customers are peaking on your website at 6 AM EST. From this observation, you can reasonably draw the conclusion that Italians are responding to your content during their lunch hour (12pm in Italy). This can help you find the “how." The same can go for inbound phone calls and emails. By paying attention to how customers are finding out about your business and taking action to reach you, you can draw conclusions that are better than just “spray and pray" attempts.
Opening Up Lines of Communication
So, once you have an idea of how your customers are reaching you, it’s time to look at your business and determine just how easy it is to get in contact. In short, you need to offer customers as many options as possible to get in contact with you. After all, international customers may use email predominantly, or they might prefer to speak with a representative. Some may even DM you on your Instagram account to find out more.
As an example, let’s take a look at phone communication:
First, ask yourself whether you have a phone number for international customers to contact you on. Well, do you? If the answer is that you only list your domestic phone numbers on your website (even if it is a toll free number), you should know that you’re actually stunting your efforts.
Domestic toll free numbers present a problem for international callers. When dialed, the caller will be billed as if the call was a long-distance phone number (defeating the purpose of toll free numbers) or they may not be able to get through at all. Additionally, some international customers may be put off by having to dial outside of their country, preferring their country’s own familiar toll free numbers. Is there a way around this?
There is, if your business uses international toll free numbers. Formally known as “International Toll Free Service" numbers (ITFS), these numbers allow international callers to reach your business in exactly the same manner as phone numbers found in each country. Behind the scenes, ITFS numbers are powered by the latest developments in cloud computing, particularly with VoIP (“Voice over Internet Protocol"). A robust virtual phone system opens up lines of communication you had previously not realized.
Of course, this concept can be extrapolated to all facets of your business. It’s up to you to analyze your analytics, trace where customers may be coming from, and opening up lines of communication to encompass the widest audience. If you do this, you can use this knowledge to make your business more competitive in the global marketplace.
