Importing and Exporting
2-Step Process to Marketing Your Import/Export Business
Find out how you can convince prospective clients that they have a product worth importing or exporting and that your company can be the one to help.
A surprisingly small percentage of domestic producers export their wares. Your marketing goal is to convince the huge remainder that they can increase profits by exporting — with your guidance — to specific target countries. You can accomplish this with emails to their websites, making connections through networking and via social media and by making follow-up phone calls to anyone who responds.
If you’re starting with imports, don’t ignore the following information; you’ll work in basically the same manner.
Your first step, before you initiate contact with any manufacturer, is to do some basic market research:
- What products are hot sellers in the domestic marketplace? Focus your attention on products that you know well or are bestsellers in their market niches.
- Are these products hot sellers in your target countries?
- If not, are there situations or markets that would put these products in great demand if the products were available?
- Who manufactures these products?
- What’s the selling price of each product, and of competing products or brands, domestically and in your target countries?