While the US is our individual largest export market, taken as a whole the European Union is without doubt the UK’s most important trading partner. In 2008 UK export of goods to Germany totalled £25 billion, and UK service exports totalled £10.3 billion. Exports to France amount to some £20 billion per year and account for nearly 10 per cent of our visible exports worldwide.
Across the whole continent there are enormous opportunities for every company. B2B companies are no exception. The recent news that France and Germany have already emerged from recession has given many B2B brands further encouragement to look across the Channel and investigate what opportunities might exist there.
In the next few years many B2B marketers will make their careers, even their fortunes, with European campaigns. However, just as many will fall flat on their faces. They will fail to take account of the many differences involved in marketing to Europe – the different laws, the data challenges, the need for individual search strategies, and the need to be sensitive to difference of language and culture.
The opportunities
In July UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) announced that European fiscal stimulus packages over the next few years will produce £12.6 billion in potential business for UK firms. It is urging UK companies to take up these opportunities.
Examples of these opportunities include France spending £700 million on four new high speed railway lines; Germany spending £2.7 million on a contract for architecture, engineering and planning in Koblenz; and Spain spending £25 million on a works contract for the construction of a University in Ceuta.
Of course all of these projects require supporting goods and services, and so produce a plethora of opportunities for UK B2B marketers. With a cheap pound we are well-placed to offer our Continental cousins the benefits of our expertise and our cutting-edge products at extremely good prices.
Danny Turnbull, European best practice leader at B2B marketing agency GyroHSR, offers this advice on where the opportunities may lie: “Germany, France and Holland are holding up better than other countries. The recession has halted the growth of some of the economies that were flying 24 months ago, including Ireland and Spain. However, opportunities in these regions will continue to emerge. Marketers need to be looking at how they can build their on-the-ground presence and knowledge in these areas in preparation.”
There is much to get right with European campaigns. However, by focussing on these five areas you will avoid many of the most common pitfalls, and ensure you get off to a good start.
1. Legislation
While an increasing number of laws are harmonised across the EU, there are still many areas where individual countries make their own laws. Furthermore many EU Directives are open to national interpretation.
Fail to take sufficient account of how laws differ and you can run into trouble. Rosemary Smith, MD at B2B data specialists RSA Direct highlights the case earlier this year in which Dun & Bradstreet had to withdraw a B2B credit ratings service which it had promoted in Switzerland after action from the Swiss Data Protection Commissioner.
Simon Lawrence, the CEO for Information Arts, offers this advice: “Privacy legislation can vary greatly from country to country. In some, an ‘opt out’ option is sufficient for DM activity. For others, much greater restrictions exist.”
He offers an example: “In Spain it is illegal to contact any non-customer business by telephone, fax or email for marketing purposes unless explicit permission is gained first. This means writing to each individual business in advance of each campaign to gain this permission. The problem is not insurmountable, but it does require careful consideration.”
2. Data
Smith at RSA Direct says that the first issue B2B marketers tend to face in most campaigns is deciding between a pan-European data source, such as the Harte Hanks list of IT buyers, which provides consistency and comparability, but might lack individual country nuances, or a specific local list that will give you exactly what is needed in that country, but which is much harder to source.
The key is to find a pan-European provider that pulls together data from local providers. These do exist, it is just a case of finding them. Per Lofgren is product manager for EuroContactPool at marketing agency Par AB, based in Copenhagen. He says, “EuroContactPool covers 22 million companies in 15 European countries. We have local partners in each country, who send us the data for us to aggregate so it is easy for our clients to use.”
Smith concludes with this advice: “When buying European data ask all the same questions that you would when buying UK data: How recent is it? How was it sourced? How is it maintained?”
3. Translation
It goes without saying that you will need to translate your marketing campaigns into the local language. You should involve specialist translation agencies as soon as possible to avoid the many small but costly mistakes that can arise from nuances of language.
To give an example, Andreas Pouros, chief operating officer of search marketing agency Greenlight, recalls an ex-client translating its European Spanish site for the Latin American market. While ‘cheap hotels’ in European Spanish means affordable hotels, in Latin American Spanish it means cheap and dirty hotels. The campaign was not a success.
Simon George, MD of translation agency Thames Translations, adds, “There is a great deal to be aware of with translation so you should bring in specialists. For example, listing certain countries next to each other can be offensive. Also be aware that you may generate enquiries in non-English languages, and so you need to have systems in place to deal with them, both in writing and over the phone.”
4. Search marketing
One frequently overlooked aspect of European B2B marketing is search engine optimisation. As Adam Stafford, MD of search specialist Fresh Egg says, “It is important to understand the local search habits and favoured search tools. For example, in Russia the most popular search engine is Yandex.ru and not Google.ru.”
There are though great opportunities in search marketing, as Pouros at Greenlight points out: “Pushing your paid search campaigns into Europe is a very quick way of breaking into those markets, and there is a great deal less competition in natural search on the Continent, so the barrier to gaining a relatively high share of voice is far less.”
5. Culture
Even if you research local laws, find great local data, translate impeccably and optimise your website successfully, you can still fall foul of cultural differences. Annika Keilhauer leads the B2B division of the German PR consultancy Talk of Town, Waechter & Waechter, which is part of the global network Worldwide Partners. She is therefore very well placed to advise B2B marketers on how to cope with the many cultural differences between the UK and Germany.
“There are two long established facts about Germany that every marketing professional in the UK knows,” she says. “Firstly all Germans speak English and secondly Germans have no sense of humour. While the first might not be true, and you should pay close attention to nuances of language, the second is by and large true. When dealing with German businesses you should cut the niceties. We like our information crisp and short. That’s the German efficiency we got famous for.”
She continues: “There are many cultural differences that are useful to UK B2B marketers. In Germany we’re hungry for your cool gadgets, creative solutions and clever products. We still have a lot to learn from the British service mentality and the thousands of convenient, easy-to-handle applications. We especially envy the 24/7 support hotlines.”
Getting help
Many marketers taking the first steps look for support and advice. Some find it from associations like the Federation of European Direct & Interactive Marketing or IAB Europe. However, their resources are limited, and so, if you are serious about taking this step you will almost certainly need to get some specialist agency advice.
The challenge is to maintain continent-wide brand consistency while remaining sensitive to local differences. Richard Bush, managing director at marketing agency Base One Group, argues for what he describes as a “hub and spoke” approach, with regional offices providing localized support, backed up by a better equipped central operation. “It is virtually impossible to have a single marketing strategy that works as well in Helsinki as it does in Highgate, or in Munich like it might in Manchester,” says Bush. “So we believe hub and spoke offers the most efficient compromise between centralisation and local marketing. By developing a single creative idea with all cultures in mind but executing that idea through local representatives gives the best of both worlds.”
Meanwhile, other agencies operating different models, such as the network of independent agencies operating under a single brand identity, will doubtless promote the importance of their chosen model. Rest assured, when it comes to sourcing agencies to help with European campaigns, there is certainly no shortage of options.
