Successful Mail Order in Europe
Successful Mail Order in Europe
If you have a successful mail order product in one country, then chances are that you will be able to sell that product in many European countries.
What makes Europe interesting for mail order
Well for starters the European community consists of 27 countries with a combined population of 492.9 million potential consumers. Direct mail and direct marketing techniques are sophisticated and well entrenched in many countries.
How to start a mail order campaign for Europe
The nature of direct marketing is to test and roll. In the case of embarking on a European strategy it is always best to focus on one test market and make things work there. Then, once a model is working in one country, look to roll out to additional markets.
If you test you product in one market, it keep the complexity of the test more manageable. As an example, marketing materials, packaging, manuals, instructions and other materials need to be translated and localized for each country and language version. The more complex the test, the more room for errors. By testing one market you are also able to focus the budget and go for the best of the best.
When deciding on the first country to test, I always recommend either Germany or the United Kingdom. If you are coming form an English speaking country then the UK sounds like the natural first shot. My preference is to go for Germany and immediately become accustomed to working in different languages. Imagine it a s part of the test. If you can do one foreign language, then the next will be easy.
The big 3 mail order markets; Germany, France & the United Kingdom
After the test, the first consideration is which countries to roll out to. The big 3 countries of Germany, France and the United Kingdom are a natural progression for 2 key reasons; 1.) they cover a substantial part of European consumers and 2.) they are well developed mail order infrastructure and consumer are regularly purchasing via the mail.
So basically, the big 3 give you the most bang for your start up money with the least amount of language versions.
More details to follow in future stories as time permits...
If you have a successful mail order product in one country, then chances are that you will be able to sell that product in many European countries.
What makes Europe interesting for mail order
Well for starters the European community consists of 27 countries with a combined population of 492.9 million potential consumers. Direct mail and direct marketing techniques are sophisticated and well entrenched in many countries.
How to start a mail order campaign for Europe
The nature of direct marketing is to test and roll. In the case of embarking on a European strategy it is always best to focus on one test market and make things work there. Then, once a model is working in one country, look to roll out to additional markets.
If you test you product in one market, it keep the complexity of the test more manageable. As an example, marketing materials, packaging, manuals, instructions and other materials need to be translated and localized for each country and language version. The more complex the test, the more room for errors. By testing one market you are also able to focus the budget and go for the best of the best.
When deciding on the first country to test, I always recommend either Germany or the United Kingdom. If you are coming form an English speaking country then the UK sounds like the natural first shot. My preference is to go for Germany and immediately become accustomed to working in different languages. Imagine it a s part of the test. If you can do one foreign language, then the next will be easy.
The big 3 mail order markets; Germany, France & the United Kingdom
After the test, the first consideration is which countries to roll out to. The big 3 countries of Germany, France and the United Kingdom are a natural progression for 2 key reasons; 1.) they cover a substantial part of European consumers and 2.) they are well developed mail order infrastructure and consumer are regularly purchasing via the mail.
So basically, the big 3 give you the most bang for your start up money with the least amount of language versions.
More details to follow in future stories as time permits...
Labels: Mail Order
posted by Jim Foster at
3:27 PM
1 Comments
