Career Development: Recommended Reading to Make the Most of your Career

Career Development: Recommended Reading to Make the Most of Your Career

By Mary Gormandy White

No matter where you are in your career, you can always benefit from keeping up with the latest literature related to career and professional development. Whether you would benefit from learning how to land the job of your dreams, how to get a promotion, or just how to function more effectively in your current career, there are excellent career development books that can be of great benefit to you.

As a professional it’s important to continue learning and growing throughout your career, and keeping up with the latest professional development literature is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. The time you spend reading career development books is an investment in your long-term career success.

Reading career development books enables you to learn from leading experts in the field from the comfort of your own home. No matter what professional or personal challenges you face related to your career, you’ll be able to find books that can provide valuable insights and tips regarding your employment-related concerns.

Suggested Topics Include:

The following list includes a selection of current career development literature. These books are great tools for individuals seeking to grow as professionals. They are a great starting point, but just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the many publications that can provide guidance for building the career of your dreams.

Career Advancement: Whether you are just starting out in your career, seeking a promotion, or are thinking about taking your career in a new direction, you will benefit from the practical tips and suggestions in Stepping Up: 12 Ways to Rev Up, Revitalize, or Renew Your Career by S. Gary Snodgrass.

Take Charge of Your Career: Have you ever been faced with a difficult career situation that literally seemed to come out of nowhere? I Didn’t See It Coming: The Only Book You’ll Ever Need to Avoid Being Blindsided in Business by Nancy C. Widmann, Elaine J. Eisenman, and Amy Dorn Kopelan is a unique career guide designed to help professionals anticipate and effectively deal with these types of situations.

Personal Branding: Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand by William Arruda and Kristen Dixson explains how to position yourself for career success by building your personal brand. The book provides readers with step-by-step tips for improving your career karma by building and managing your own brand.

Success Secrets: Too many people unintentionally sabotage their career success potential because they don’t understand how to position themselves for success within their organizations. Help! Was That a Career Limiting Move? By Pamela J. Holland and Marjorie Brody is a practical guide designed to help professionals recognize and understand workplace behaviors that negatively impact their ability to get a ahead. This is a must-read for people who find themselves being overlooked for promotions or who want to be sure that this never happens to them.

Your Career is Worth The Time

Keep in mind that becoming a successful professional involves more than just getting the basic training you need to enter the workplace. Successful professionals who want to fulfill their potential invest time and energy in learning how to grow in their careers. The time you spend learning how to improve your ability to advance in your career can result in exponential rewards.

Career Development – Planning Your Success

Today, it is fairly common to have people changing careers more than once. In fact, there are people who choose careers that are entirely different from those that they have previously held before. There will come a point when you will have to consider a career change, so it is a good idea to know about career development beforehand. Of course, you don’t have to change jobs just to have career advancement. You can make it your goal to climb the ranks in the same company.

Working on Your Career Development

Career development is actually a path that helps you choose the career that you would like to pursue. It includes all the various steps that you would have to undertake in order to advance in your chosen career.

The concept of career development basically includes testing your stress management capabilities and your inherent skills. If you want to have a better shot at some career that you would particularly like to pursue, you need to make sure that you do well at the present position you hold. You should take the opportunity to enrich your knowledge and develop your capabilities. These things will influence the success of your career development. You can’t afford to resent your present job because this will not help you advance in your career. Learn to love your job and embrace the responsibilities attached to it. You would have better chances of succeeding.

Educate Yourself and Strengthen Your Chances

Once you have determined the career development path that you would like to pursue, you can then direct your attention to preparing for it. You need to educate yourself. You will strengthen your chances of succeeding if you take up classes, join seminars or undergo training sessions.

There are many colleges, institutes, schools and universities that are offering career development courses. In fact, there are courses for practically every career that is out there. You will even find these courses online. This is perfect if you can’t afford to go to regular classes.

To advance in your chosen career, you need to show to people that you are dependable. You need to show that you are a trustworthy employee who is capable of producing quality work. To do this, you need to strengthen your knowledge, skills and capabilities. Career development is a continual process of learning and working. Therefore, it is very important that you know what you are getting yourself into. You need to be committed to it. It will help if you choose a job that you would enjoy. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have a shot at succeeding.

Creating a Career Development Plan

You need to plan your career growth if you want to keep track of your progress. This will also help you analyze your aspirations and motivations. Successful individuals do not just develop a plan for promotions or salary raises. They look beyond these things and create an entire plan for career development or advancement.

A career development plan is something that should be done continuously. You cannot just focus on specific goals. You need to be continually reviewing and revising your plan if needed. This way, you can easily keep track of changes or improvements. You won’t be confined to anything. You will keep your options open and you will have more shot at succeeding.

To start off, you need to make sure that you have practicalities covered. You need to have an updated resume at all times. This is just the practical aspect of your plan. What is important is your vision for yourself. Regardless of whether you are pursuing a career goal in the same company or you are looking for change of career, you need to make sure that you know what you want.

There are a lot of things that you need to take into consideration, so make sure that you have considered everything before you start making your “things to do” list. You should have considered the things that could hinder your progress. You should have determined the driving force behind your career choice. You should also know what can motivate you to succeed.

If you want to succeed in your choice of career, you should prepare for it. You should equip yourself with the knowledge and skills required for it. You should also create a career development plan to guide you to succeed.

Career Development Using Online Education

One of the biggest difficulties that is faced by people who are seeking career development is that it is difficult to find the time to balance career development with their everyday career responsibilities. Luckily, many career oriented people can now find time for career development using online education to further their career skills while working during the day. This makes the balance between your career and the development of further career skills much easier to strike up, because you can work when you need to, and go through career development courses through online education in your spare time. By making it possible to achieve career development using online education, career oriented people can now learn new career skills and further their career capabilities without causing their normal work to suffer. If you are serious about furthering your career, career development using online education is a wise path to take. Here is more information about the benefits of career development using online education as a foundation.

 The purpose of career development using online education is to give you the training that you need over the internet in order to meet the needs of your career or a future career that you hope to become a part of in the future. Most career development services include full training and full testing for individuals that want to develop their careers into something more. Some of the skill sets that are covered when seeking career development using online education include safety skills and industrial based technologies, computers, internet and information technologies, management and leadership skills and small business operation skills, professional development and personal development, though there are many other skills that can be developed in the realm of career development using online education.

 What makes the idea of career development using online education so useful is that career oriented people can develop their careers outside of work and do not need to sacrifice time or focus at work to gain new career skills. Rather than having to leave your job to seek a new skill set, you can develop the career skill set that you need over the internet, in the comfort of your own home and best of all, on your own personal schedule, which means that you can work days and study at night, or work nights and study during the day, and everything is on your own time and at your own convenience, which means that you will be able to benefit exponentially from what the career development courses and training have to offer you.

 Sometimes career development using online classes means visiting a specific public computer lab, while other times it simply means logging in from home. Different programs have different requirements, but the same focus is always there: Career development using online classes is designed to let people further their careers by developing new career skill sets over the internet, which is one of the best ways to create job security, especially in these uncertain economic times.

International Business Development Using Foreign Language E-communication Tools

International business expansion can be expensive and laden with risks. Well this is true when companies limit themselves to only using traditional marketing methods in their international business development.

This can also be the case when companies use some internet marketing but rely heavily on traditional marketing methods.

Creating foreign language content for one internet marketing communication medium is a good way to start.

Traditional & Internet Marketing Mix

Today’s best marketing practices are based on implementing both internet marketing and traditional marketing campaigns. Companies rarely rely on both methods to the same extent. One marketing environment is often used more than the other.

The emphasis of either of these marketing methods depends on several factors including the company’s culture and history. It can be said that traditional, long standing companies now have to develop real internet marketing strategies, beyond the brochure website. And it is recognized that internet companies will get better results with some traditional marketing added to their marketing mix.

Internet Marketing Reduces Risk In International Expansion

When considering your international business expansion internet marketing reduces the risk in international expansion. But how can you really develop your business with internet methods? Some companies put up a website and think this opens their doors to international clients. Yes, it may. But the results will be very limited.

An interactive internet marketing campaign must be carried out in each and every foreign market you want to target. Simply having your website written in a way that communicates with you will not get you many international clients.

A Single Foreign Language Blog Can Start Your International Development

Today most businesses understand the value of having a blog. Instead of thinking with traditional marketing mindset, why not use today’s trend in social media and start off your international business expansion with a single communication tool specifically targeting one foreign country.

For example, Abercrombie & Fitch has a blog in French specifically targeting the French market. They are not physically present in France. It is getting recognition.

Creating foreign language content for one internet communication medium will greatly reduce your costs. It would be easier to keep control on from where you are now and reduce a large percentage of the risk involved with your international expansion.

Companies seeking international business development should look at how they can use this to their advantage. Internet marketing can be used as the sole marketing strategy when targeting a foreign market in the beginning.

A Dynamic Foreign Lead Generation System

Once you get some feedback from your foreign market you would be in a position to adjust your offer to fit better with your foreign market and develop your first foreign client base using only internet marketing strategies. Your first clients could finance further foreign language communication to create a more dynamic internet marketing lead generation system.

An effective internet marketing campaign will give your company the knowledge you need to make the international business decisions. You will then be able to choose which traditional marketing you should use to further your expansion. As your international business you will then move towards localized websites in all of your foreign markets. This is how to become a truly international company.

Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map.

Easy International Business Development With the Right Marketing Mix

Easy International Business Development With The Right Marketing Mix

Internet can toot the “Global” horn. But businesses often just don’t see how internet can help them expand internationally with their products and their markets.

Businesses tend to limit their horizons all by themselves with regards to their products and markets.

They still to think of international development strategies in the traditional way of doing business: foreign staff and offices, with foreign client profiles similar to their domestic client profiles.

The problem lies in the traditional background of the staff caught up in their domestic markets and the traditional nature of the business.

Old International Development Strategies

Traditional international business development used to be all about hiring overseas staff, setting up offices in foreign countries or hiring unfamiliar third parties. Those were your only choices for international development.

And real international development through the internet? That just does not seem to be a serious player. The vast majority of the first successful international business stories seemed so far from the standard business world.

Yet internet marketing today can play a significant role in making a business international. In fact it can be a whole new means of international development for just about any traditional business, if they use international business skills and expertise.

Easy International Development Phase

Internet is simply a means of communication.

You need to incorporate international sales and marketing skills within this communication tool to actually get international clients. And you will need to use different touches of traditional international marketing.

This does not involve hiring foreign staff or opening foreign offices immediately.

But you will need to create targeted foreign marketing campaigns, delivered in a format that works in your foreign markets, in order to develop your foreign markets from your current location.

Three Different Factors To Find The Right Marketing Mix

And things are a little bit more varied than standard internet marketing. Here are the different factors you have to find the right international marketing mix:

There are in fact different means of communication using the internet: emails, websites, ezines, podcasts, blogs, and more.
There are different channels of traditional communication: direct mail, radio, magazines, flyers, and so on.
There are different skills in international marketing: traditional international marketing skills, multicultural communication, cross cultural communication, cultural sales negotiation.

All of these factors need to come into play at some stage of your international internet marketing. You will need to tweak your mix, stimulate foreign market feedback and readjust further, until you create real communication with your foreign markets.

Finding the right mix for your particular markets gets you more international clients.

Two Simplifiers For International Expansion

There are two big differences with traditional international business expansion and today’s international internet business development:

Internet marketing can be tested and adjusted in real time at no cost.
Internet marketing is great for information product marketing and sales

These two differences make international expansion is easier than ever before. Any business can find a way to use internet marketing for foreign lead generation.

An initial international internet marketing strategy with the right marketing mix is an ideal starting phase for any international development program.

Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map

Would you like to develop your international business?
Are you a beginner at international sales and marketing?
Read the Beginners Guide Discover Your International Business

Career Development Centre: Guiding you towards a right career track

Career Development has become a primary responsibility and an essential requirement for every individual in any organization. A profound career development skill can help an individual to meet the constantly changing needs of the market.

Career Development can be discussed under two perspectives- organizational and personal career development. Organizational development looks at how concerned individuals manage their careers within and between organizations. Personal career development aims at individual career development to bridge his skills with his career objectives.

Decision making is one of the toughest obstacles that an individual faces before he finally gives a kick start to his career. A right Career Development Centre can provide a great deal of help and support while launching one’s career. An individual’s career skill varies from another. So, choosing a right career needs proper counselling and lots of research works. An ideal Career Development Centre will help you sort out your professional skills, launching your career towards a right track. For a successful career path, it’s advisable to take counseling and guidelines from a renowned career development centre.

Why Career Development Centre has become a great demand in the market?

Career Development Centre has become a great demand in the market because:

It provides individual learning solutions and job search services Provides unique enterprise learning solutions for career oriented students and professionals Affords learning solutions for students, employees, academic institutions etc Provides help in decision making strategies for individuals Assists you to take charge and supervise your future Moves forwards your career, add new skills, or build up abilities

Computer Training Centre as one of the wings of Career Development Centre

Computer Training Centre has also been considered as one of the wings of Career Development Centers. Whether you want to launch a career in IT or upgrade your current desktop skill set, Computer Training Centres provide you with the right training programme to allow you achieve the desired goals. There are various computer training centres in the market that provide rich and compelling computer knowledge. Most of these computer training centres provide Red Hat certificate to ensure the privacy of communications. Red Hat Certificate system abridges enterprise-wide operation and implementation of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

The science of career development may take a new shape or role. However, with a wide range of career options for everyone, the further need for Career Development Centres will keep increasing day by day.

International Business Development – 7 Initial Market Research Ideas

You want to get more international clients but don’t know where to start? Here is a simple plan for small businesses, or businesses who are highly motivated to expand internationally, but want to do it on a very small budget. This method also has the advantage of going one step at a time, giving you and your team the time to learn to adapt your products and sales procedures to different cultures.

Start with one targeting one country. If this is the first time you are expanding your business abroad, one country at a time is best. If you cannot decide which country to target first, come up with a short list of countries and go through the steps below for each country.

At this stage, it is a very good idea to break this research into part internet research and part phone call research. Do not by-pass the phone research. Fifteen minutes a day, over Skype, can give you much valuable information. You might even develop your first overseas business relationships.

Most importantly it will help you begin to evaluate the best way to position your products for best international sales results.

Here are some ideas to help you choose which country you would like to expand your business into.

1. Research your own client and prospect data base.

Go back as far as you can, to identify any foreign clients and look for any trends.

Are there any similarities?

Can you determine a specific country or area?

Can you organize a client survey to get more information?

2. Have a brief look online at where you competitors are overseas.

Check out the same information for other companies related to your industry which might not be competitors. You might share a similar target audience.

Is there a country in particular where your competitors are located?

Can you identify a country where you competitors appear to be trying to get into?

Can you see any trends, or angles to position your products?

3. Check which Internet Search Engines are the leaders in target country.

Search for keywords in those countries – use the advanced search options

This will give you a better idea of who your real competitors are in the target country.

Can you see any trends, or angles to position your products?

4. Research industry data

Look for differences in industry standards and regulations on the foreign country

Can you identify a foreign country with many companies in the same industry linked to companies within your industry in your country?

Can you see any trends, or angles to position your products

5. Research press articles, major publications.

Look for publications in your country and in the foreign country. Use the free online instant translation tools to get a good idea of what is in the news.

Can you identify the current key players?

Try to get an up-to-date feel for your industry in the foreign country targeted

Knowledge of recent events will give you something to talk about during your networking by phone.

6. Call any international clients you may have.

Ask them why they bought from you, were they happy, why they chose your company and try to get as much background information as possible about the foreign competition.

7. Keep online research to a minimum.

Simply get the names of the players and any major trends. Then move to the telephone. Start networking on the phone and continue.

Telephone networking will help you adapt your mindset to bring your company to international markets

Telephone conversation can provide you with more background information faster than you can get over the internet

Be sure to aim to speak to people with real insider knowledge of your industry in your foreign country. And look for various sources from different angles to get a broad view.

After a week or so, you should be feeling a direction towards one particular county. Continue your networking a little longer.

After a month or two or even a few weeks, if you methodically did your research through networking, you should feel comfortable in strategizing how you can sell one of your products in one specific foreign country.

You have to recognize that you will need to jump in without all of the information you would want. But you need to feel comfortable and have enough positive feedback to move forward.

This is the half of the second part of 8 Steps To Develop Your International Business. If you would like to get this full report it is yours free when you sign up for the Get International Clients newsletter.

Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map

Would you like to develop your international business?
Are you a beginner at international sales and marketing?
Read the Beginners Guide Discover Your International Business

International Business Development With an Easy 5 Step International Marketing Plan

So you want to get more international clients, and realize that you need to do some international marketing. But you are not quite sure what to do.

Well let’s have a look at the different areas of international marketing. Companies often go through these steps one after the other, but not always. You could start an export business for example without going through the first step of Domestic Marketing.

Each step clearly explains:

where your company is selling, and

what product you are selling.

You will see very clearly where your company’s business requirements are today with regards to International Marketing. This will also give you a better understanding of what your next step is towards getting more international clients.

1 – Domestic Marketing

First of all there is Domestic Marketing. This is where most companies start. This is the marketing you do for your local market in your own country. There are no international links in this business.

Your Company:

A domestic company, buying and selling its products within one country.

Your Product:

Is a domestic product for the domestic market.

2 – Export Marketing

This is often the second step towards International Marketing. If this is effectively a company’s second step to International Marketing, the company needs to spend a little time and effort on the foreign market research and analyzing all client feedback during this phase.

Your Company:

Sells the same product for his domestic market to a few other foreign markets. There is no effort to adapt the product to the foreign market’s needs. The company remains centered on its domestic market, with minimum cross cultural marketing efforts.

Your Product:

Is a domestic product for a foreign market.

3 – International Marketing

This is a vital stage for the company. The company will have to adapt to the market on several levels. There is often a real learning curve to adapt your products, marketing and sales to foreign markets.

The good news is that most of the skills your company will acquire to adapt to one market will be used again for all of the other countries you want to target.

Your Company:

Is now adapting its marketing, communication and products to the foreign market. At this stage in International Marketing the company is only dealing with a 1 or 2 countries.

Your Product:

Becomes one foreign product for one foreign country.

4 – Multinational Marketing

This is the fourth step. It is a logical extension of International Marketing. This is a term that might be a bit obsolete today, with the internet. It seems to be used more for the large established companies.

Your Company:

Now sells to many foreign countries. And the company now has the skills to go into more countries and will naturally tend to expand into the neighboring countries.

Your Product:

Becomes one foreign product for one wider foreign region covering a group of countries.

5 – Global Marketing

This is the last phase in International Marketing. There are few companies involved. They are the companies with brand names known worldwide.

Your Company:

Operates in such a large number of countries, you could almost say it sells its products worldwide.

Your Product:

The company will naturally move towards cutting costs and will aim to find one product for all countries. In Global Marketing the product will not be created for the domestic market and sold abroad, as in Export Marketing. In Global Marketing one product is created to satisfy the needs of all markets – all foreign countries and your domestic market.

Where Is Your International Marketing Today?

By looking at where your companies markets and products are today you can identify the type of International Marketing you should be using. You can then move towards your next step in International Marketing. These steps logically follow one after the other for brick and mortar companies and the majority of todays e-businesses.

The internet makes international business development easier today than ever before. Remember, simply having a website online will not make your company global. You will have to work at it a little. You will need to apply the right international marketing for your business’ current market and product range.

Your company will get more and more international clients as it moves through the different marketing stages. The whole notion of global business become more accessible for everyone.

Small Business Action Plan for First Time International Business Development

Adapting your business to a foreign country’s culture, is not an easy process the first time you try. You will not be able to anticipate the stumbling blocks that would not happen ‘back hone’. More importantly you will not know what you need to do to adapt yourself to the new challenges and tasks at hand. You will need to develop a Small Business Action Plan for your first effort with International Business Development.

Are you a small business and want to develop your international business?
Do you have a limited budget to develop your international sales?
Do you already have domestic clients but are just starting to reach out to international clients?

There are numerous strategies that exist to get you more international clients. A lot depends on your business and your commitment.
Here is an action plan to start your first international business development strategy:

1. Internationalize your website

It is important to make sure your website is not pushing your international visitors away from you. Bad or non-existent cross cultural communication can easily do this.

You can create a website specifically targeting an international audience, in your language. This is a business decision and will depend on the nature of your business and your clients. Companies in non-English speaking countries will often create an English language website specifically to target their international markets.

You may decide to keep your main website targeted to your domestic clients. There are still ways to tweak your website, with very small touches, to give a better experience for your international readers. Have a translation tool on your website. The online translation tools are far from perfect but they do bring your clients that one extra step closer.

2. Research your international markets

International business development is all about you learning to adapt. Adapt your business, your products, your communication, and your sales pitches, to each country you market to.

How do you start if you do not have any contact with your foreign markets? Use everything you have available to you and slowly build up your foreign market research. The beginning usually requires the most effort. It does not take as long as you expect.

If you are just starting out check out all of the associations, official groups for all international data you can find. Use the phone extensively. Do some online research. The goal is to simply become familiar, and feel comfortable, with your market. This is the time to eliminate all culturally inappropriate businesses.
The research that you do at the same time as you are marketing to your audience gives you the best results, but don’t get stuck spending too much time here.

3. Track visitors and results; adjust your communication

This step is very important. The better your analysis is, the stronger your international business potential will be.

Tracking and testing are key marketing tools. Your international communication is a process of testing, adjusting, inciting feedback and learning more about your audience. You have to be sure that you establish measurable goals before you begin testing. You must have a tracking system in place for your goals. And you must also track the responses your communication is having on your international readers. Remember, you can’t manage what you can’t measure.

International business development is all about your capacity to adjust your business to the needs of people in another country. In order to make these adjustments and improvement you must know where you start and how to interpret results. You need precise things to measure.

4. Create a newsletter in English targeted for your international clients and distribute by email and on your website.

Internet marketing today is all about creating an online presence through content. Internet readers actively search for content. Your international readers are the same. One major benefit of publishing a newsletter is it provides a platform for consistency.

A newsletter helps you to stimulate market feedback, with links back to your website and other content provided through different media. Links to audio and video files, quizzes, surveys, free reports and other feedback generating tools published or advertised in your newsletter create reader interaction.

A regular newsletter targeted to a broad international audience will not be as powerful as content marketing targeted to one specific culture. But it is an easy and inexpensive way to start if you have no real idea where you want to market to.

5. Include tools to stimulate feedback

There are tools you can use to stimulate feedback. Quizzes, surveys, polls, questions, homework assignments, and contests are some tools you can use to stimulate feedback.

The key is to find out what your target readers want and need the most. As you learn more about your international prospects you will adjust your feedback tools and enticements.

You can grab hold of your readers by offering free or discounting items that are not information products, discounts available only to your readers. You will have a better response rate if you can identify what your readers really want.

You can encourage readers to participate with you feedback generating tools by offering them free white papers, case studies, reports, guides and other information useful to your readers. If your feedback enticements are information products, you have another platform to use in your internet marketing strategy.

A wise use of different media touches linked to your feedback stimulation tools strengthens your internet marketing. These tools will take some planning and strategy to put in place.

6. Track results and adjust your communication

This is a repetition of step 3. Tracking your results and analyzing your international responses is an ongoing process. International marketing is all about taking things one step and a time and making adjustments along the way.

The two processes of internet marketing and international marketing can be combined right here in the tracking and adjustment. This is also how you can learn about your foreign markets even if you live thousands of miles away and you don’t speak the language. This combination can be powerful at very first phase of your international business development.

Internet marketing is all about adjusting your message real time. It is about being present online in real time. If your communication is outdated no one will listen to you. You need to adapt to your foreign markets. When you start out, you do not know much about them. You must continually check and adjust your communication.

7. Identify a country to target specifically

You will get better results from your international communication if it is targeted to very specific markets.

This means you need to identify a country as a target to market specifically to; and there is no real way to choose which country you should start with other than saying the country with the best potential for real sales. There is no magical formula for choosing the first international target market that works across all industries. Find a country where you can reasonably expect a good client base.

There are obvious cultural obstacles for certain types of businesses. So check with all of the appropriate domestic authorities. They will have good insights into what goes on in other countries. Check with your countries embassy in the country concerned.

You can also base your decision solely on data: export data, industry revenue. You can also base your decision on where your competition is located or not located or if
they are considering entering into a market.

International business is all about changing your mindset. Choose a country and get started. The first learning curve is the hardest. So don’t be afraid, jump in and focus on the learning experience of getting to know your market in one foreign country.

8. Create either a blog or a country specific newsletter for that target country depending on your foreign market.

Now, once you have identified a specific country you want to target, you will need communication targeted to that culture. Custom content for one particular country, not old content repackaged.

A blog may be the easiest tool to get to know your target country. You can also do this with a newsletter published for one cultural audience. The important thing is to have customized content written for one cultural market.

There may be translation costs involved. A blog will probably cost you more than a simple monthly newsletter. But a newsletter can be repurposed into several different forms of customized content such as articles, emails.

If your communication is directly targeting one specific culture, you will get better results than with you broad international targeting. Having custom content in either a blog or a newsletter reaching out to one foreign country is your first real presence in a foreign market. And you do not have to have offices there.

9. Track results and adjust your communication.

OK. So now you have a real presence in your target country. Guess what you next step is?
Stimulate and entice feedback. Track results. Adjust your communication to what you learn from your readers. Give them what they want to know. Test and start over again. You need to adjust your communication to the culture and market you want to create a business relationship with.
This is a learning process. It is critical to your international success.

Your Action Plan Continues

Identifying which products and services you want to sell to your foreign markets is yet another action plan. Use good internet marketing practices based on providing information in the above plan. This gives you the possibility of creating other information products as front end sales for your foreign market.

Once you can recognize the international expertise you have acquired through this process, you are well on your way to developing your business internationally. Use this action plan to continue to expand into other countries.

After you have adapted your business to one country’s culture, the process usually gets easier. You will be able to anticipate stumbling blocks more easily. But more importantly you will know how to adapt yourself much faster than the first time around.

Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map

Would you like to develop your international business?
Are you a beginner at international sales and marketing?
Read the Beginners Guide Discover Your International Business

Legal Marketing Agency Offers Tips for Law Firms on Development of 2009 Marketing Budgets ? Advises Against Cutting Corners

With the uncertainty of the economy, legal marketing agency Beyond All Reasonable Doubt Marketing is advising law firms to take a serious look at their budgets. While marketing, advertising and public relations dollars frequently are cut to reduce expenses, marketing experts agree that a down economy is actually the time when marketing efforts should remain in place, and if anything, be enhanced.

“When other law firms reduce their spending and cut their marketing, they have less presence in the marketplace,” explains BARD Marketing founder and president, John Sailer. “This means the time is ripe for a savvy law firm to grab market share – to reach the audience that is still there but who is hearing from fewer of your competitors.”

When planning your law firm’s budget, you should start by identifying how much you want to spend. While there are no hard and fast rules across the different types and sizes of law firms, it makes sense to budget your marketing as a percentage of expected revenue. Several studies have pegged overall law firm marketing budgets to be between 2 percent and 3 percent, with leading firms spending 5 percent or more.

Second, prioritize your initiatives by looking at both costs and expected benefits. This is easy if you tracked your efforts in past years. Remember that some of the lower cost initiatives may bring strong value while some of the higher cost initiatives may bring very little value. With this said, it is imperative to track outcome of every initiative.

BARD Marketing is experienced in budgeting and planning for short- and long-term marketing and advertising plans, and enables law firms to achieve and track ROI for their marketing activities. For more information or to request a report on Yellow Page Advertising Costs and Effectiveness, please visit www.bardmarketing.