Europe to USA

Now that you have established a website and spent some time marketing in the U.S., it’s time to take your content marketing strategy seriously. The reason for this is because of the paradigm change in how prospects look for solutions in your market.

Old Paradigm

Sales representatives and advertising had control. Enterprise buyers would get numerous sales calls to learn about the technology sales reps were offering, or they would see an ad that related to something they needed. Customers would go to trade shows and spend hours visiting all the booths.

New Paradigm

The buyer is in the driver’s seat. They are making their own decisions about what products to explore and purchase. They use Google and other channels to discover what they want.

This new paradigm is showing up in marketing stats for the U.S. As an example, 91% of prospects unsubscribe from automated emails, 20% of direct mail is never opened, and 48% of prospects in the U.S. are on “do not call” lists—and so on.

Content Marketing in Today’s Market

You need to create content that will attract buyers.  Buyers are researching solutions to their problem or need. The idea of creating content to attract prospects for your technology product or service might give you pause, however, when you consider some of the following stats:

1. There has been a content explosion over the last few years. 

There has been an 800% increase in blog posts created by companies over the past 5 years. For the most part, only a very small portion of this content is shared. The chances of someone reading your content is pretty slim.
Source: Trackmaven

2. In 2017, 1,440 blog posts were published every 60 seconds. 

Your competition is probably publishing a lot of articles, every day.
Source: Martech

3. Almost 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the top 10 ranking in Google within a year.

As a matter of fact, the average “top 10” ranking in Google is 2+ years old, and position #1 is in the 3-years-old range. The whole purpose of content marketing is to get found by prospects who use keywords or keyword phrases that define what they are looking for. Given these stats and how long content takes to rise and be noticed, it may be years before you get traction.

Source: HREFS

4. 83% percent of B2B buyers find themselves “overwhelmed” by the amount of content available.

Your content is only adding to their feeling of being overwhelmed.

Source: DemanGen

5. Companies spend 25–43% of their marketing budget on content, but only 23% of CMOs feel it is the best content for the right audience at the right time and in the right format. 

Knowing where, when, and what to publish to whom is very hard to figure out.

Source: Business2Community

6. The average reader spends 37 seconds reading an article or post.

Prospects may find your content but spend very little time absorbing it, let alone following up on it.

Source: NewsCred

7. Paid content promotion (basically, AdWords) is up 5x since 2014.

That’s because 98% of businesses choose a business on page 1 of Google, whether it is paid or organic. Your content on page 7 will not make the cut.

Source: Orbit Media

So, there is some bad news about content marketing, and you may have heard other things as well. But, what’s the good news?

There is an assumption by European companies that all it takes to succeed in the U.S. market is to do what everyone else does. That usually consists of building a U.S.-based website, paying for a booth at a few industry trade shows, and doing some prospecting with mailing lists to generate buying interest. 

Often, these activities do not produce anything close to an ROI and immediately become sunk costs. After spending a considerable amount of time and money on Google ads, booth graphics, hotel rooms, and mailing lists, many European companies wonder what it will take to be seen and heard in the USA—and at what cost.

The way we see it, there are three major forces shaping marketing for European companies entering the US market today:

• Pay per click advertising has become more expensive and prospects only provide a gmail address if they opt-in on your website – and that’s if they opt-in at all
• Purchased mailing lists based on demographics and territories have very low rates of response because prospects are overwhelmed with unsolicited email
• U.S. trade shows have become more of a social and professional meeting place where participants visit vendors they already have a relationship with, listen to one or two speakers on the schedule and then go out to dinner with the team

For companies that want to grow on the US market and are dissatisfied with the results they have gotten with trade shows, mailing lists, and advertising, B2B Marketing to the USA for European Companies presents a proven content marketing system that attracts enterprise prospects who are looking to buy. Unlike content marketing strategies that are resource intensive and overwhelming in scope, our methods are low-cost, fast, and laser-focused.

This strategy is designed for companies that are already established in their own country and are looking for growth on the U.S. and international markets. You’ve done well at home—now it’s time to grow abroad.

Growing outside your home market presents a challenge, however, quite possibly because:

• you’re up against bigger, richer U.S. and international competitors
• you have limited (or no) brand recognition outside your home market
• you don’t have a large sales or marketing team

While all these factors can work against you, I will help you get the same exposure and the status bigger competitors have—even without brand recognition or a large presence in the U.S.

The strategies work well for technology companies that serve the enterprise market. If your industry is considered to be unglamorous, under the radar, or misunderstood…all the better!

After studying some of the concepts in this blog or the book, you’ll know how to:

• be visible next to bigger and richer competitors without blowing your budget
• create surprisingly inexpensive brand awareness campaigns
• be extensively published in the business press
• attract enterprise prospects who are looking to buy