Writing the American Marketing & PR Playbook: Part I

Time to read: 3 minutes

Jo Detavernier, vice president of Swyft, our US partner and founding firm of our global network, First PR Alliance,  provides this two-part guide. It’s for UK tech companies on how not to get lost in translation when venturing across the pond:

Part One: UK marketing to US: Common pitfalls

At first sight, promoting services and products in the American market looks similar to how it is done in the UK. Are American B2B buyers not comparable to their counterparts across the pond? And are the best means to reach them the same as in the UK?

Perhaps surprisingly, the answer to both questions is a resounding ‘NO.’ UK companies need a dedicated American marketing and PR playbook to succeed in the American market.

So, in the next two posts, we look at what not to do and what to do to crack the US market.

What UK companies do wrong (most of the time)

1. Trying to ‘boil the ocean’

Trying to ‘boil the ocean’ is an American expression for trying to accomplish an insurmountable task or making a project unnecessarily difficult.

Here’s the thing: the American market is simply too large for any European company to attack all at once. At least not with the budget one normally allocates to attack a single European country.

Omar Mohout, a prominent Belgian professor in Enterprise who teaches at the Solvay Brussels School of Business and Economics, recommends that European companies first target one specific American socio-demographic or geographic segment.

For example, say you developed a perfect SaaS accounting solution for small and mid-sized professional services organizations in the US. You might choose to target American law offices in a handful of major metro areas first rather than attempt to sell the solution across multiple industries and geographic markets.

In other words, figure out how to thrive and be successful in one specific niche, or one geographic market (for example, the state of Texas). Then, you will have something to show when it’s time to convince investors to participate in your next big push to grow market share. Your organic growth and the extra funding will help make the next chapter in your American expansion story a reality.

2. Underfunding the effort

This second mistake is closely related to the first. Not picking a small segment to thrive in will cause you to underfund your marketing and PR efforts. However, even the ones that manage to pick a realistic segment will often commit critical budgeting mistakes.

For instance, marketing and PR agency costs run higher in the United States than in the UK. Especially if you are contracting agencies on the West and East Coast. It stands to reason that the cost of any effort aimed at brand awareness and lead generation in one European country is much smaller than attacking the EU as a whole. The same rationale applies to the US, only on a larger scale.

The per unit cost of acquiring leads may also vary in the US, if only because the degree of competition in the tech space is incredibly intense. Even sponsored posts on national trade websites will cost much more than their European counterparts. Google Adwords campaigns are tricky, given the competitive nature of many U.S. tech businesses. It’s not uncommon for bidding amounts to run so high as to make the ROI on leads untenable.

What can you do to avoid underfunding your marketing efforts? Aim for what you can reasonably afford. Don’t attempt to overreach on market size and, in the process, underfund the effort. Do plenty of research into your target market and what works and doesn’t work when it comes to marketing and PR. Also, don’t be shy about contacting local agencies for advice. What you learn from them could be the difference between success and failure.

3. Not speaking the language

We share a language, but speaking the right language doesn’t only relate to how things are said. It also concerns the core messages of your marketing campaigns and how you articulate them. American culture is different from UK culture. A simple edit of a brochure or website into American English will not suffice. You must ‘think’ like an American to authentically attract their attention. Otherwise, you risk alienating your target audience within seconds.

4. Picking the wrong channels

You have selected a segment you want to target, but now the work begins. Given your budget and target audience, you must select the best channel mix to achieve your marketing and PR objectives. If you are new to the market, you must spend most of your time creating awareness. Don’t forget to track your inbound leads and properly attribute their source (e.g., Twitter ad, Google AdWords campaign, trade show, etc.) in some kind of spreadsheet. Fortunately, many marketing automation platforms (HubSpot, Pardot, etc.) do reasonably well at lead attribution. Lead attribution will only partially help inform your marcom spending decisions. Take SEA (Search Engine Advertising), for example: For European marketers, SEA equals Google AdWords. But Bing had in January 2018 a 23.7 % share of the American search engine market (source: Statista).

While it’s not the largest search engine regarding search volumes and ad spending, you can’t afford to ignore it in the long run if you hope to pick up market share against your competitors.

Now that we know the mistakes to avoid, the next post will examine how UK companies should write their American marketing and PR playbook.