Native market

[fduijts]

In the book Tim suggests that it's best to aim at your home market for several reasons, but what if you live in a small country like Holland...

I was thinking of either international distribution via ebooks and a dvd that people can download (quicktime movie) or local distribution via real books and real dvd's.

The reason I want to go global is the number of possible customers, is this mindset right or should I aim at the Dutch market instead?

[dking]

The dutch are an interesting people; I have the highest respect for them. I am an American, and I know close to little about them, yet based on that alone iIknow exactly what you could be selling.

PM me if your interested.

[Sven]

Tim's home market is 230 or so million, ours 16 million. So I aim at the English speaking countries, about 430 million. Remember, The Dutch have the longest history (or should i say recorded history?) of trading with foreign countries!

[fduijts]

The dutch are an interesting people; I have the highest respect for them. I am an American, and I know close to little about them, yet based on that alone iIknow exactly what you could be selling.

PM me if your interested.

Hahahaha, guess you're not talking about wooden shoes ;)

[AntonTheKhan]

I think that you can safely sell to the entire EU. You just have to have all your products in English, which is so widely spoken in the EU that it should be fine. Good luck.

In the book Tim suggests that it's best to aim at your home market for several reasons, but what if you live in a small country like Holland...

I was thinking of either international distribution via ebooks and a dvd that people can download (quicktime movie) or local distribution via real books and real dvd's.

The reason I want to go global is the number of possible customers, is this mindset right or should I aim at the Dutch market instead?

[ConquerLife]

It depends on what you're selling. Remember, when Tim says "small niche market" he's talking about market size not niche size. So it depends on how much you are niched. There are still a good amount of people in Holland, so, if you wanted to expand your niche a bit, you could sell it just to Holland. However, if you're niche is really "tight", and there aren't enough people just in Holland, then I would go ahead and expand it to the whole EU, or to English speaking countries as was previously suggested. Most ppl in Holland speak English anyways (i thnk?) so creating your products in English format would certainly put less of a cap on it's income potential.

[webgal]

I have a client in Belgium who sells to the EU market and does well.

[fduijts]

Thank you guys. This gives me some help on what I will do and how I will go from here.

[Stallion]

A late piece of advice, but sell to whatever market is going to fullfill your needs (TMI).

[andyYY]

I had the same problem

Stay local or Go global?

My suggest is to do both (weeeeeeeuuu such a genius ideaaaa)

I mean,if you make a general marketing campaign for global you can go well,and PLUS you make a snipershoot campaign in netherlands (or benelux) so you get a double hit combo :\

For example,I'm from Italy,my ability to speak english it's equal to ride a wild horse,but I founded outsourcing and someone who speak english better than me so I can provide the best for english language nations.

seriously,do both...

[Livingstone]

Hi there,

I'm new here, but have been reading for some months now.

As I am dutch I have had this issue too. This is my point of view;
Locally the market is smaller but competition is also less fierce.. So you can't tell in general what's best. There are examples of both being (extremely) succesfull!

First generate ideas as much ideas as possible, regardless if they are locally or international orientated. (the best way to have a good idea is to have many ideas!) And then check what's best for them.

Check if the whole idea holds up if marketed locally or international. Some ideas only work in a specific market. You'll know best.

Think about the consequences for the businessmodel in terms of complexity and investment. Distribution, returns, legal issues, promotion etc.

Estimate the ROI on both local and international marketing. Probably you will get more traffic through adwords, but the CPC will be higher. and then decide if it is worth the effort or maybe even necesarry to go international.

For my muse on which I'm working i have chosen to start locally. The market for my product is big enough and i keep things simple and investments low. If it works i will see then what is the easiest step forward (in terms of products or markets) to increase revenue.

I'm interested in what you end up choosing!

[ephigy]

I'm aiming to do both as there is little effort required. I'll be targetting the local french speaking populace through newspaper ads, while the english version I will simply use online ressources.