You know they call it “the world wide web” for a reason. And as the infrastructure to support it expands around the globe – and as the technology to access it becomes more affordable and readily available – the Internet truly is facilitating communication across widely dispersed geo-political boundaries. So visitors to your website could be coming from anywhere on earth, really.

Lots of smart interactive marketing professionals recognize the Internet’s burgeoning capability to facilitate international transactions. Recently, 200+ members of the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (and guests) met at W Minneapolis for our July event, featuring a presentation by Joe Kutchera an expert in online marketing and building sales in Latin American markets and founder of dotGlobal, an international e-commerce and media consultancy.

Joe spoke to the group about concepts related to localization and internationalization, using Latin American markets as an example. Here are select highlights from his full presentation.

Localization trends
Joe gave us some examples of how geographic boundaries can affect shopping behavior.

Price. According to Joe, who lives in New York City, many people in Manhattan cross the Hudson River to save on groceries and gas, because prices are less expensive and taxes are lower in New Jersey. Or compare the prices for the same products available on Dell’s U.S and Mexican online stores (both prices given in USD).
• Inspiron 13” – Dell.com: $499; Dell.com.mx: $665
• Studio Slim Desktop – Dell.com: $399; Dell.com.mx: $702
• Dell V305 Printer – Dell.com: $99; Dell.com.mx: $132
(Sources: Dell.com and Dell.com.mx, July 2009)

Availability. Joe shared several anecdotes about Latin American friends who frequently seek out U.S. sources to buy products because they often have greater selection and better quality. For a local example, who among us as creative and enterprising MIMA members have not crossed the St. Croix River on a Sunday afternoon at least once to replenish the liquor cabinet after a rollicking party the night before, because of Minnesota blue laws prohibiting alcohol sales on Sunday?

Internationalization trends
Joe provided a variety of figures verifying what we already know: the Internet is an increasingly international space. A look at the top 50 ostensibly U.S. websites shows that many are getting more traffic from abroad than from U.S. visitors. The New York Times web edition gets 42% of its readers from abroad, Twitter 51%, YouTube 81% and Facebook 82%.

Where could these visitors be browsing your website from? According to Internet World Stats, the top five most used languages on the Internet are: English (430.8 million), Mandarin (276.2 million), Spanish (124.7 million), Japanese (94.0 million) and French (68.2 million).

Indeed. For those of you who think visually — or for you verbal people like me who need context to put large numbers into perspective — try this on. The Minneapolis Star Tribune print edition reported two days after Joe’s presentation that China now has more people who are online than the entire population of the United States.

Opportunities for marketers
How are Latin Americans and Spanish-speaking people in the United States finding your website? By typing Spanish terms into their favorite search engines. Joe suggests making sure your SEO strategies include optimizing your site for Spanish (and other important international languages).

Look at your media plan. Joe said to think about your audience’s international language needs or professional interests horizontally across the vertical media channels in your strategy.

Target your messaging. Joe said there are a lot of ways to deliver messages to international audiences.
• By IP address or geographic region
• Re-target (follow up)
• Behavioral/linguistic
• Contextual (by subject)
• Profession/company/social network
• Country

Explore emerging g-commerce best practices. Joe said there is tremendous opportunity for marketers in the United States who make it easier for customers from around the world to buy their products.
• Give your visitors a choice of geographic denominations to transact in and make your offers available in multiple denominations.
• Give your visitors a choice of geographic locations to pick up products they order. If you do not have a physical presence in a foreign market where consumers are looking for your product or service, partner with a business there who can serve as a distributor for you.

• Search Engine Land
• Marketing Pilgrim
• Search Engine Journal
• Search Engine Roundtable
• Web Pro News

Danny Sullivan with Search Engine Land has in my opinion improved on what he previously had with Search Engine Watch. Search Engine Land pumps out loads of search engine news daily, announcing the breaking news and providing in depth commentary and opinion. He has a top-notch staff and a stable of writers that cover all aspects of the field. Danny also has the Daily Search Cast where you can catch the daily news with a live podcast on Webmaster Radio or download the archived version. If you want only one source for search news, Search Engine Land is it.

Andy Beal has built The Marketing Pilgrim into a first class search marketing news and analysis source. The Marketing Pilgrim covers all the top stories of the day with the help of a fine collection of writers. A great hook for the Pilgrim is a job board and the recently reintroduced search marketing weekly podcast. Andy does a great job sharing his knowledge and can be hired for his expert search marketing services.

The Search Engine Journal by Loren Baker also dishes out the top daily search news items. Loren delivers the goods on search marketing with high-performance style and substance and I like to read the stuff he writes. The Search Engine Journal also carries a cast of reporters to make sure all the deserving stories are covered.

Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable is a blogging madman. I don’t know how he has time for his Rusty Brick web design business with all the reading, research and writing he does for Search Engine Roundtable(seroundtable) and Search Engine Land. With seroundtable.com Barry and his comrades pick out and show you the most interesting search marketing threads from the top webmaster forums. Consider this the search marketing word on the street with Barry and CO cutting through the BS and delivering the worthwhile stuff.

Web Pro News by iEntry has a less personal feel with a network presentation of the news. The hook I keep going back for are the video clips and interviews. When a major conference is going on Mike McDonald does a great job with video interviews on the current issues in search marketing.

Of course there are many other blogs out there that deliver great news and articles on search marketing. I don’t mean to leave them out but here I wanted to focus on the news sites, the sites that are about getting the news out on a daily basis and are often some of the first to report on it. If you have a favorite search marketing news site you want to share please let us know with a comment. I’ll get to sharing other groups and categories of sites down the road. Til then,… later!

The Direct Marketing Associaton national DMA-06 pre conference sessions started this weekend with the new Search Engine Marketing Certification program. Saturday morning started off with Jeannette Kocsis, VP of Digital Marketing at Harte-Hanks,  presenting on "Introduction to Search Engine Marketing" and MIMA boardmember Lee Odden from TopRank Online Marketing following up with "Search Engine Basics".

Here’s the description of Jeannett’s module:

Introduction to Search Engine Marketing: Explore search engine marketing and what it takes for a marketer to achieve search engine marketing results. Learn how to identify ethical search engine marketing practices and how search engines define spam. Learn how to shape the business case for search marketing for your business, and how to staff this valuable marketing function.

Lee Odden’s session:

Search Engine Basics: If you have ever wondered how a search engine builds its database, adds new sites to its index or chooses which results to show, this is the session for you. Learn to identify paid from algorithmic search listings and where search listings appear beyond the search results page. You will also learn how the search marketers’ efforts can impact what the user sees on the page.

Michael Bloom (born and raised in Minnesota!) from the DMA Washington DC office did a short introduction and then Dr. Amanda Watlington presented information about the details of the certification program.

All of the modules were recorded so participants in the certification program will have access as well as to the presentations.

Sunday morning Matt Bailey of Site Logic Marketing presented his module:

Site Indexing Challenges and How to Fix Them: Is your site beautiful to behold, but invisible to search engines? This program focuses on the specific page elements and design technologies that can prevent a site from being included in a search engine database. You will learn how to identify the barriers and what must be done to overcome them.

Which was followed up by Detlev Johnson of Position Tech with:

Search Engine and Directory Submission/Inclusion Tactics: Want to know how to get your Web site indexed in the search engines using the newest and best practices? This session will outline the newest tactics available for ensuring rapid and complete site submissions. Learn how to get your site included in Google using Sitemaps and explore the many features of Yahoo! Site Explorer as well as other highly effective methods.

Find out more information about the DMA’s new Search Engine Marketing Certification program.

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