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Britain’s universities are working hard to attract international students. With the government announcing British Universities are to expect a £950 million cut in funding over the next 3 years, higher education institutions need to look elsewhere for financial support. The average non-EU student tuition fees for arts and science undergraduate degrees are around £10,000 per year, and with the potential to reach £20,000 depending on the course and establishment, the financial benefits for cash-strapped UK universities to recruit international students is obvious.

Having a strong online presence is vital. Statistics show that 31.7% of the 338 million Internet users in China are students. It is likely that students already look to the Internet as their primary source of information on UK universities. Here are a few steps universities can take to ensure they target the right market, and that usability is optimised:

• Identify key phrases specific to the target market. Incorporating them into the site will vastly improve SEO. Oban Multilingual SEO/SEM found that in China, for example, great importance is placed on the prestige of the university. Therefore it would be beneficial to feature a section on the university’s ‘ranking’ – a popular search phrase for Chinese students.

• Localised research will give an insight into what students are looking for. A prominent London university points out that whilst business, law, and economics degrees are popular with their Chinese students, performing arts, media and psychology degrees are the chosen topics for Japanese. Marketing the subjects that are more likely to be popular within a nationality is more likely to bring ROI.

• Social network sites are an effective way to market to potential international students. A vast majority of SNS users are young people (aged 16-24). Again, it is important to keep in mind the locality of the market. Although Facebook and Twitter maybe the initial SNS that spring to mind in the UK, in China www.renren.com is popular with the student demographic.

Although Britain is currently second only to the USA in attracting overseas students, the competition is growing. France, Singapore and Germany are just a few of the countries who have employed strategies to attract potential international students, and with recent and upcoming changes to the UK’s student visa policy, it is more important than ever for the UK’s higher education institutions to up their stakes in international marketing. The key to their success is to embrace modern technological advances.

By Anna Pearce

If there’s one area of the high street that has been less affected by 2009’s financial downturn than others it is fashion retail. In fact, some high street giants such as Topshop and Miss Selfridge, both part of the Arcadia Group, reported record profits for last year.

What’s even more evident is the marked, and continuing growth reported by online fashion retailers. The e-commerce industry body IMRG reports that online sales of clothing, shoes and accessories were up by 18% from Dec 2008 – 2009, and that fashion e-tailers were the leaders in the UK online market.

It is generally acknowledged that internet shopping has provided customers with a whole new shopping experience, making it far easier and quicker for us to get our hands on the most recent must-haves, and allowing companies to maximise sales by reaching a market of consumers who might not have easy access to their stores.

By taking the notion of online retailing one step further and going international, the opportunities for growth for the retailer are taken to a whole new level. Cross-border e-commerce has proven to be hugely successful for online fashion retailer ASOS.

Launched ten years ago, ASOS (As Seen On Screen) currently sells to 150 countries. From France to Fiji and from Ireland to Iran, ASOS reports having 2.9 million registered users worldwide. These days, an image of a British celebrity wearing the latest trend can be published instantly around the world on the net, potentially creating a huge demand for the exact look. By grabbing this opportunity with both hands, ASOS managed to up their international sales by 102 % last year alone. In fact, the site has done so well in the USA that the company plan to start up a US-specific site later this year, a project fellow retail giant Topshop has already taken on, and is currently reaping the rewards of.

ASOS states that it increases its multicultural usability by sticking to the guidelines set out in the Plain English Campaign by keeping the English language on the site clear and concise. It also features a currency converter for all of the countries it markets to. By making the website as culturally ‘friendly’ as possible, ASOS broadens it potential customer base.

Ensuring a website’s usability maximises its full potential provides companies with the ability to gather far more detailed consumer data. By using the information gathered from cross-border purchases and subscriptions to e-newsletters etc, companies can target popular trends, age groups and sizes, and ensure that their sites reach a global market in the best possible way.

With such a globalised fashion and celebrity culture, now is the time for online fashion retailers to take full advantage of international e-commerce. Statistics show that shoppers are gradually becoming more and more confident buying products from abroad, with cross-border purchasing having more than doubled since 2003. And while both businesses and customers have expressed concerns over fraud, payment problems, and logistics when it comes to overseas online purchasing, with today’s advanced security software, safe payment options such as PayPal, and with the benefits of selling internationally being so evident, surely now is the time to reach out to the global fashion community.

Source http://www.imrg.org/8025741F0065E9B8/%28httpPressReleases%29/546442736834C8CE802576B200597E8A?OpenDocument

By Anna Pearce

Oban delivered another International SEO training course for E-Consultancy and its clients last week (October 8th) in London. Businesses from a range of industries were in attendance: Recruitment, Finance, Technology and Online Retail. Even internet marketing author, Dave Chaffey, was present to brush up on his International SEM skills.

The variety of companies who attended the course reflects a growing trend whereby UK companies are actively seeking overseas business via the web. Though many of the companies had been using multivariate testing, albeit in English; they got insights on Cultural Multivariate testing which was highly relevant for them!

The dreaded translation debate rearing its head once again and in many of the cases there were some real doubts on how to approach International SEO. At the end of the day, I believe the message of Do Not Translate and the reasons to justify this came across loud and clear.

I’m looking forward to the next course in 2010.

Greig

Oban Multilingual, Greig Holbrook, lead a session on key tools and tactics to achieving global online success. Hosted at the Ad-Tech conference in London – 22nd September, Greig discussed how to combine Multilingual SEO/PPC with Cultural Multivariate Testing.

As an expert in providing local solutions to global online campaigns, he highlighted best practices for conducting research and adapting one’s site to respective audiences. In this session, Greig also covered the critical issues pertaining to how to design and test websites and pages for various cultures.

These critical elements, if ignored, risk leading new entrants to peril and so… Greig’s talk offered great insight to: key factors to going global online, how-to tips on converting web templates and designs per culture, and ways to generate optimum traffic and conversions to your international websites.

We delighted to announce that Oban Multilingual Strategy Ltd. have been short-listed in the Equality and Diversity in the Workplace category for the Brighton and Hove Business Awards 2009 to be held on 9th Oct 2009

Fingers and toes crossed.

Greig Holbrook, MD of Oban Multilingual, will be making a presentation to a seminar exploring the cultural diversity of web usage at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). The seminar to be held on April 30th at Oxford University, will be attended by sponsors of the Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS) the OII’s major study of internet usage in Britain. The OII is recognized as a leading authority on Internet use in the UK, and internationally-recognised through its work on the World Internet Project.

Greig will highlight the findings from Oban’s recent multivariate testing on the Visit Jordan website. The testing software allows a website to automatically serve up variations in content, and then track user reactions to the changes, giving insight into web design elements in a live environment. The results are revealing of unique cultural responses to variations on websites, and initial results suggest the importance of designing sites for different cultures for maximum conversions and sales.

Oban Multilingual, Gomez Travel Benchmark and EyeforTravel Research have teamed up to produce an industry white paper on the online European travel industry. Entitled Maximising your online performance in the European travel market, the paper describes the growth of European online travel distribution, and provides a practical guide to maximising online performance in this market in terms of SEO and website performance.

Language is a key differentiator online and is a major consideration for companies looking to target the mix of cultures located within Europe. The paper looks at some of Europe’s leading travel websites in terms of language, and identifies a range of SEO practices to take advantage of search differences between users of different languages.

To read the full white paper, click here

Oban Multilingual, the specialist in Multilingual Search Engine Marketing, will be in attendance at the ITB in Berlin next week. (March 11th – 13th)

Are you visible online to your global audience? Do you need help with international online marketing? If so

please drop Sinead Comerford a line at the following email address sinead@obanmultilingual.com or call her on +44 7887660600.

Sinead would be delighted to meet with you to discuss all exciting opportunities further.

See you there and see you then

Oban has made it to the finals of the Gatwick Diamond Business Awards, in the International Trade category.

The awards are organised by Cadia, the Gatwick Diamond Business Association, and will be presented by BBC News front man Declan Curry.

Oban are experts in international search engine optimisation, and have offices in 26 countries.

A large percentage of Oban’s clients are multinationals (for example, Proctor & Gamble). Some are local UK companies with an international focus.

In addition, Obanners also consider themselves to be part of one of the most multicultural staff in the UK – over 80 percent of their employees are from abroad, as reported recently in Brighton’s Argus newspaper.

“We’re honoured and very excited to have made it this far in these awards,” says Greig Holbrook, Oban’s MD.

“We are trying to make the internet friendlier to the multitude of languages and cultures that are currently struggling to find online content that caters to them, and we strive to extend our reach even further across the globe in everything we do.”

The winners will be announced at a Gala dinner on March 12 at the Gatwick Hilton Hotel.

Also in the International Trade finals are Aerotron, an aviation supplier, and Genesis Forwarding Services, an independent freight forwarder.

Our FD with some insight on brand keyword bidding.

According to recent research by Forrester European online marketing is predicted to continue growing this year (albeit at a slower rate).

However as you’d expect, clients will be even more scrutinising on getting value for money (and rightly so). Further to this, I noticed that research by the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) showed the cost of bidding on major brands is getting increasingly more expensive. They tracked 90 core brand terms over a 21 month period, which showed a consistent increase in cost-per-click and declines in click-through rate. Not a good combination.

Whilst the decision by Google to allow bidding on competitor terms may be good for the search engines’ bottom line, they need to be careful that the decision doesn’t come back to bite them. Whilst its unlikely that major companies will stop using Google, they might be more inclined to look at other channels if it continues to get more and more difficult to see a payback.

The focus on return on investment for clients is nothing new for us as it has always been a priority for everyone at Oban.

Cheers! Grant.