One of the most difficult issues for companies that want to expand abroad is finding customers from abroad . One of the biggest reasons for this is that they do not know how to do this or where to start. In this article, we will tell you step by step where you can find potential customers who will buy bulk products from abroad. In this way, you will be able to easily find customers for your products from abroad. In this article, we will only talk about how to find customers who can make bulk purchases from abroad . We do not have any articles regarding retail or single product sales.
Each of the topics below on finding customers from abroad are independent of each other. The efficiency obtained for each company may vary. Some companies can exhibit their products. A garment company can easily display the clothes it produces on B2B sites, but a company that produces special machines for factories cannot promote its products on B2B sites. They can generally find customers through Google searches or LinkedIn. Each company must take its own steps. If you have difficulty deciding, you can contact us.
B2B Sites
If you want to find customers from abroad, the first place you should apply is B2B Sites. B2B sites are places where you exhibit the products you produce. The most well-known B2B site is Alibaba. In these places, you first upload your products to this platform and your products will be visible abroad. In this way, customers abroad who like the visual and price of your products will send you a message. In order to get your potential customers to message your products, you need to support your products with quality images and good prices. If your product has these two features, you will generally receive messages for your products. Afterwards, the conversation usually continues via WhatsApp or e-mail. You can read our article on how to communicate via Whatsapp . Additionally, if you need to communicate by e-mail, we recommend that you read our e-mail communication article. You will be asked questions about your products, and then the company or people interested in your product may ask for information about your company. Once you satisfy your potential customers on these issues, these people will take serious steps to trade with you. After calculating the transportation cost of your products and solving issues such as money transfer with the potential customer, you will start your first commercial transaction with this customer. Generally, you have to pay annually to display your products in B2B marketplaces. You can also benefit from it for free, but your products will generally be shown last. For paid memberships, your products remain in B2B marketplaces for 1 year. At the end of 1 year, your products will be removed from the marketplaces or your products will start to be listed at the end. It is very difficult to display your products on B2B sites with free memberships. Therefore, we recommend that you sign up with a paid membership or a joint account. We provide services regarding B2B sites. You can contact us from the services section.
Google Searches
Another way to find customers is to find you through Google searches. To give an example, a company in America wants to buy shirts from Türkiye. They go to Google and then search with words like “turkey shirts wholesale” or “mens shirts from turkey” . If you ensure that these searched words reach you, you will have the opportunity to introduce your product to a potential customer. There are two ways you can be visible in these words.
The first is to advertise your website using these words with Google Ads. Let’s have a website called turketrade.com. Let’s say this website sells shirts. He wants to find customers from abroad, so he chooses Google Ads as the easiest and most expensive method. Google Ads also starts advertising for this word “mens shirts from turkey” for its own site. Google Ads is a pay-per-click system. Therefore, you pay in dollars for each click. In general, you may have to pay between $1 and $5 per click. Since you are advertising abroad, advertising fees will be more expensive than domestically. Companies can easily apply this method, but it should not be forgotten that this is the most expensive method. You may need to pay approximately $100 to $1000 to Google every month. In addition, not everyone who clicks on you is obliged to buy your product, some may have entered it in retail, some may have written because they were curious about the latest Turkish shirt models. Many situations like this may arise. Therefore, it is not a recommended method.
The other method is to prepare your site in accordance with natural SEO and prepare the pages according to the words to be searched. In this option, you first pay to have your site adjusted for natural SEO. It varies between approximately $500 and $8000, depending on your wishes. But this is generally an amount you will pay all at once. Afterwards, your site will start to appear on the first pages of the search words you want. You may have to wait at least 2 months, on average 4-5 months. Since it takes a long time for Google to trust your pages, it will not directly rank your site on the first pages. Therefore, it may take some time for you to reap the rewards of this option, but it is a permanent option. Your site may remain on the first pages for these words for years.
Our other option is the most useful and cost-effective option. Here, you generally want to be added as a reference by sharing articles on the most well-known websites instead of your own site. In this way, you can achieve the same result at very little cost. There is a price difference of 10/1 and 10/2 between the second option and this option. Their average cost is between $150 and $950. As with the second option, this service is permanent. You can find customers from Google searches for years.
Bill of Lading Database
It is one of the least known methods with the bill of lading database. Bill of lading database is the name given to the system in which the documents of trade around the world are kept. For more detailed information, you can read our bill of lading database article. To summarize briefly, company A sold products to company B abroad. States, especially customs, keep this information on the bill of lading. In this document, how many units or kilos of product did company A sell and how much did company B pay? Additionally, company information of company A and company B can be found here. Basic information such as company name, e-mail address and locations can be found in this document. Systems where many companies have documents like this are called bill of lading databases. It can be useful for very large companies. However, medium-sized companies may have difficulty finding companies that will purchase from their own scale. Because companies other than large companies use cargo companies for transportation. For this reason, buyer and seller information can generally contain information from transportation companies. Therefore, the company names you find may be cargo companies.
Finding Customers from Abroad with Lidekin
Linkedin is described as a business social media that has become popular in recent years. In this area, the first thing you can do is to open a seller account with LinkedIn and make purchases. Afterwards, you can try to search for companies that can buy your products on LinkedIn. Especially if you have competitors, you can examine the companies that follow your competitors. You can examine companies that sell the same product or service as you abroad and examine their followers. Afterwards, you need to create a list of companies where you can sell your product. After doing this, you can go to the LinkedIn profiles of these companies and try to reach the e-mails and phone numbers of people with titles such as purchasing manager and ceo. To achieve this, you have to purchase a VIP LinkedIn account or you can contact us for this situation. Once you have access to your e-mail or phone number, you can send an e-mail to the data you have collected and promote your products.
