Short Solutions to the Long Tail: What Export Portal’s Brand Ambassadors Can Do for You

The art of the sale can be a tricky craft to master, particularly when a business’s clients are other businesses. Marketing is important to both, of course, but there’s a world of difference between marketing towards an average joe looking to make a deal and marketing to a company trying to turn a profit.

Luckily for you, we know that world inside and out.

Here at Export Portal, we are building a team of Brand Ambassadors from around the globe, experts on the ins and outs of their individual country’s markets and trends. We look for seasoned professionals who have in-depth knowledge and time tested experience, ensuring they can see the small details as well as the big picture. It is these unique abilities that allow our Brand Ambassadors to craft personalized strategies for businesses of all sizes, no matter how specific an issue they may face.

Even as specific as, say, Chinese B2B marketers trying to reach Long Tail customers.

For those who are unaware, “Long Tail” refers to the long yet thin stretch of a graph similar in shape to the tail of a dinosaur. While the most successful part of the graph is arguably the "short head" at the start, the sheer length of the rest of the graph can be quite profitable as well, if it is properly utilized.

Netflix’s role in the entertainment industry is a perfect example of how the long tail can be utilized into an effective business model. While the streaming service may not broadcast the most successful blockbusters at the top of the graph, the enormous amount of niche material they show from the tail of the graph has earned them an astronomical audience. This allows movies that wouldn’t be picked up in theaters or stocked on shelves to be viewed by people around the world, and allows Netflix to have a considerably sized exclusive library that no one else can compete with. Netflix identified a niche demographic and met their needs in a way no one else could, all thanks to long tail customers.

Chinese B2B marketers are also attempting to find their fortunes through Long Tail markets, as many of their customers are businesses based outside the major metropolitan areas such as Beijing or Shanghai. It’s no secret that SMEs face difficulties when it comes to marketing, though not many realize how that hard truth cuts both ways. Just as small and isolated businesses have trouble attracting attention, so too do other companies have trouble attracting small isolated businesses. There’s a great deal of small businesses that stand to profit from doing business with one another, yet are so obscure that they have no idea their ideal business party is out there waiting for them just out of reach. They are often too inexperienced or unprepared to make their own marketing campaigns, let alone know how to look out for and follow the campaigns of others. On top of that, conventional tactics such as events and traditional media can be ineffective for more isolated businesses that either don’t hear about them or simply don’t have the means to attend.

It’s at this point that any self-proclaimed “marketer” with only a few online courses under their belt would run out of ideas and give up, but it’s also at this point where Export Portal’s Brand Ambassadors crack their knuckles and get creative. One of our team members suggested implementing loyalty programs, which would not only attract new clients but also endear established ones. Rather than wasting time and money on wide reaching campaigns like those mentioned above, these loyalty programs would garner positive word of mouth, a resource among SMEs that is never to be underestimated.

But the story doesn’t end there, and as you’ll see, neither does the scope of our Brand Ambassadors.

While the loyalty program was a good idea, another team member stepped up and refined it, suggesting the program be segmented into different forms, depending on the size and scope of each businesses. After all, a high-volume urban company is going to have very different sales figures than a low-volume rural company, and will need to set up their reward systems differently to ensure each party maximizes their benefit.

Just as SMEs bringing their own specialties and resources together allows all involved to succeed, so too do Export Portal’s Brand Ambassadors combine their personal talents and industry expertise to create targeted campaigns that no one member could craft on their own. It is this spirit of Global collaboration on such a small scale that we hope will bring about the kind of international cooperation the world so dearly needs, and it is Export Portal that is proud to set the standard for everyone else to follow.