Start up automates international marketing
A start up has introduced analytics tools that it says will help businesses communicate more effectively in new global markets and identify which countries to prioritize.
GinzaMetrics today announced an update to its SaaS (software as a service) SEO platform that assembles intelligence about how competitors are reaching customers in target markets. It accomplishes this by scouring competitors' Web site content and social media handles to assess what topics were most effective at building a local audience. This capability extends the platform beyond search analytics and into content marketing.
GinzaMetrics was founded in 2010 and financed by Y Combinator and 500 Startups. It also today announced the arrival of LaunchRock co-founder Sean McCullough as its new CTO. Its advisors are established figures at other technology companies and some are venture capitalists.
"This is really important when going after new markets because it is almost always a bad idea to simply localize / translate your content," a GinzaMetrics spokesperson wrote in an e-mail message. The spokesperson said that a "large company in Japan" used GinzaMetrics to expand into other Asian markets. It learned which countries were best to enter first and what topics were relevant to culture of the local audiences.
"Things are going great now and they are growing in several Southeastern Asian countries, where the markets are still emerging but growing very quickly," the spokesperson said. "This particular customer was able to get into those markets in the first place is a pretty big feat. They are growing their audience in those countries by 100 percent every three months." Another customer that began to sell SaaS services in Europe, also unnamed, hit 70 percent of its annual targets during the first five months, the spokesperson said.
There are many case studies (or post-mortems) about failed marketing campaigns. Even the global fast food giant McDonalds has stumbled into culturally inappropriate marketing. Having a tool that offers more information about what is "safe" and effective to talk about may be useful for engaging prospects.
(image credit: GinzaMetrics)
Related on SmartPlanet:
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com