With our focus on helping businesses grow internationally and our love of all things digital, we couldn’t help but notice the latest product developments by Facebook designed to help SMEs boost their exports and find new overseas markets, and think they are a fantastic opportunity for B2C businesses.
ECI has a longstanding track record helping UK market leaders to grow into successful international businesses, so anything that helps them achieve that – like Facebook’s four new tools which focus on cross-border growth – is of interest to us. Dynamic language optimisation, multi-country lookalike audiences, multi-city targeting and Facebook’s IQ cross-border insights finder should all help to drive extra growth in overseas revenues although won’t help businesses with already significant dependence on Facebook and Google…
In the last few months the ECI team has flown nearly 100,000 miles around the world helping MPM, Media iQ and Investis in their global expansion plans.
More than a third of the revenues generated by portfolio companies in our tenth investment fund are overseas sales, with exports going to over 120 countries around the world. We work with management teams to help them internationalise their businesses through new export markets, and by opening new channels to existing markets.
ECI’s recent 2017 Growth Survey reveals that exports remain a key focus for the majority of UK growth companies – almost three quarters of companies we surveyed want to expand overseas. Companies are specifically lifting their growth expectations because they anticipate successful entry into international markets.
Mobile has made the world more connected than ever before, and UK SMEs should embrace the right tools that can help them expand overseas, such as Facebook’s cross-border solutions. These growing businesses can create opportunities in new, overseas markets, and in turn drive the growth we are all looking for.
