The internet has revolutionized the scope of both advertising and expanding a business. Understanding the nature of a market becomes simpler, making targeting it through advertising a more reliable and successful practice.

Online marketing, in terms of expenditure, overtook television advertising in the UK in 2009. Through making it possible to know exactly what aspect of a marketing campaign is working, online marketing offers the opportunity to target relevant customers in a specific and profitable manner, which could only be dreamt of in the days of traditional advertising.

Online marketing is nonetheless fundamentally similar to traditional ways of advertising and expanding a business. Just as a business would target a local market by researching customers’ needs, competitors’ practices, and gaps in the market, so too a business with a strong web presence must target the same in an emerging international market.

The internet makes such research relatively simple; look at competitor’s websites, local newspapers and blogs. See what competitors are providing, and what newspapers and blogs indicate they are failing to provide. When searching on Google, make a note of which businesses come top of the search results and why, as this will help your business establish its online marketing strategy when it ventures into the emerging market.

The advantage of online marketing over traditional forms of advertising is that it enables a business to target customers in ways which will be of interest and relevance to their specific needs. If you do your research into an emerging market properly and carefully, then your online marketing campaign will quickly establish your presence in that market.

When both researching and targeting a market it is essential to understand that, although the internet has made the world a much smaller place, customers’ needs are locally distinct. This means that a business needs to appreciate the cultural and linguistic nuances of the market it is targeting.

For example, the French in France and the French in Canada (Québéquois) is largely the same, but there are enough dialectal differences between the two forms of French to mean that distinct marketing strategies are essential when targeting each market.

By way of illustration, ‘weekend’ is simply ‘le weekend’ in France, but in Canadian French it is ‘fin de semaine’ (literally, ‘end of the week’). And ‘courriel’ is email in Canadian French – a contraction of ‘courrier électronique’ – but simply ‘email’ in France.

There are many such differences between the French dialects in France, Canada, Switzerland and Belgium which help to highlight the importance of properly localizing your services for each specific target market. The same can also be said for German (Germany)/Swiss German, Portuguese (Portugal)/Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish (Spain)/Latin American Spanish and, closer to home, US/UK English. Using a professional translation services provider can eliminate guesswork and ensure your marketing message is locally understood.

The integral concept of the internet is its interconnectivity. The way to get your business noticed is by guiding customers to it through advertising and links from other similar sites. If your business sells swimsuits, it should be clear which websites potential customers will be using, which makes placing advertisements quite straightforward.

It is useful to think of the internet as both revolutionary and traditional. It enables us to connect to various parts of the globe, using many different means of communication. It has radically changed advertising, making it both cheaper and more efficient. However, although the tools may be new, the concepts remain the same: research the local target market carefully to gain a full understanding of it to ensure that you hit your targets accurately and effectively.