Export Marketing in 2021: Adapting to the Post-Pandemic Era

Due to the epidemic this year, foreign trade has not only reduced orders for many companies, but also faced multiple blows from rising exchange rates and soaring freight costs. For foreign trade people, this year is indeed difficult, but we cannot stop doing it just because it is difficult. We still have to do what needs to be done. Persistence is victory.

In the year of the epidemic in 2020, some companies made a lot of money and were overwhelmed; some companies were ordinary; some companies could not withstand the pressure and collapsed. What is the reason for this? I think it is the company's product problems and the lack of grasp of changes in the market environment.

Let’s take a look at the top 10 products by export volume in 2020.

1.Furniture 2.Small household appliances 3.led

4. Computer 5. 3D printer 6. Bicycle

7. Toys 8. Textiles and clothing 9. Medical supplies 10. Electronic products

Take the No. 1 furniture item as an example. There were really no orders in February and March, but business started to pick up in July. In fact, the water in any industry is very deep. What would happen if you didn’t understand it at all? How do you compete with people who have accumulated or accumulated experience for more than ten years? Even if they are not doing very well in that field, they are completely different from you, a layman.

So I have always felt that we still have to focus on our own industry. There is an opportunity for any product. As long as it exists, it is reasonable. The market is there. It’s not that everyone will stop buying furniture during the epidemic. You may not buy it in the early stage, but there will definitely be demand in the future. In the United States, during the epidemic, you will find that the tool industry has exploded. Why are tools soaring when construction is clearly not started? Reason: Everyone is doing DIY at home and starting to decorate the house when they have nothing to do, so the corresponding accessories are also becoming popular. So you will find that business starts to pick up in the second half of the year.

I insist that we should focus on our own business. This is where our core competitiveness lies, and we must continue to dig deeper. If during the epidemic period, your product orders are too small, you can appropriately make some products that cater to the epidemic within your own strength to reduce the number of orders.

my country’s foreign trade situation in 2020

Looking at a set of data, it can be seen from the figure that my country's foreign trade situation is actually much better than that of other countries. Especially since June, my country's foreign trade has been the only large economy in the world with positive growth. We have controlled the epidemic well and have a strong supply chain. To a certain extent, this is also an opportunity for the world's foreign trade market to reshuffle. Those who can seize this opportunity to expand the international market are likely to be able to develop many customers that you would not normally be able to contact or negotiate with. This is both a challenge and an opportunity.

Having said so much about the situation in 2020, although some are happy and some are worried, in the post-epidemic era, how should we layout foreign trade in 2021? Here are some tips for you.

1. Take a deep look at your own abilities

When we do business, we are often taken care of by the foreign trade situation, the company's channels, and the dividends of the company's products. We can seriously think about it. If we can still do well in another company, that is our true strength.

At the current stage of the epidemic, many people may not have made any money and have deep doubts about themselves. In fact, there is no need to do so. The epidemic will pass sooner or later. Some people just made money during the storm, but they are a little drifting. Sooner or later, the storm will pass. If we think that the storm will pass, can we still do so well?

2. Carefully analyze the company’s products and industry conditions

Take advantage of the trend to do better. For example, polishing the product, supplementing the knowledge of test reports, and optimizing the branding route (returning the money earned from OEM OEM to your own brand building). Once the market normalizes and your peers collapse, you will still be able to maintain this position. You need to do these things yourself to understand them.

3. Carefully interpret national policies

Our country has been vigorously developing the One Belt and One Road policy. This is obviously a key trade area for our country in the future, especially Southeast Asian countries. At present, ASEAN’s export proportion in our country is becoming more and more important, and it has jumped to the first place, so we can follow the country’s strategy to deploy You can’t go wrong by signing up, and there will be many benefits, especially now that the opening of the China-Europe freight trains can also alleviate some of the pressure on shipping. The recent surge in shipping costs due to the epidemic has made the already difficult foreign trade even worse. Many orders with thin profits are not accepted due to the pressure of freight.

4. Take the route of product differentiation and branding

1) When you are selling goods like setting up a stall, your competitiveness is nothing more than price competition. Under the same conditions, customers may not choose you, and everything is left to fate. You don’t have much ability, you can only be Buddhist...

2) But if you have your own brand, you have your own core technology, you have a special understanding of the laws and regulations of a certain market, you are a OEM for a big brand, and you have studied their detailed operating procedures after placing an order, and you have made the ordering extremely delicate; if you use this set of procedures to make it a standardized process for your company, what will be the result? The result is that when you hit other customers, you hit them accurately. On the one hand, you have this big buyer effect to advertise, and on the other hand, you really use this big buyer order to improve your existing team. You make thorough improvements, and you analyze why others can split this link into three, four, or five steps and complete it smoothly.

I will share common methods for customer development.

Social marketing (linkedin, facebook), short video marketing (youtube)

The first thing I recommend is social marketing, because social marketing is one of the few marketing methods that can achieve one-to-many, and social accounts need to be managed. If you cultivate them slowly, the later effects will get better and better. So this is my most recommended method of developing customers. As long as you persist in it for a long time, the effects will slowly appear.

Then there is short video marketing, YouTube is very typical, the influence of videos is still very good, and short video websites in various countries and regions are also different. For example, the overseas version of Douyin used to be the dominant player in some countries, with very good traffic. Of course, to do this, you must go back to the basic operations of short videos, editing and so on.