There are some work to be done before starting export activities. The most important of these is market analysis. Performing market analysis saves the exporter from a disaster, so to speak. Imagine that you spent money and time getting your company ready for export and you haven't earned any income yet. With the aim of exporting without a strategy, you have just reached the companies you find randomly through search engines without research, or you have anticipated a market with hearsay hypothetical information - usually the first countries that come to mind are the USA, Germany, England, France, respectively - and at the end of all your efforts, you understand that you will not come out. Do you feel sorry for the time that goes by now? Is it the money you spent, or is it just going to start all over again? Because even to start over, your excitement should be fresh and your motivation should be as high as the first day.

The importance of sourcing and goal setting in marketing

In the export marketing phase, you should use your resources very carefully, because when you add unforeseen expenses to the list in addition to qualified marketing personnel, personnel to carry out operations, accounting, advertising, promotion and other specific export expenses, substantial expenses may arise. You are also wasting some serious time. Of course, you have to be economical about company spending; Especially if we look at the current situation of our country, we have neither five cents nor five minutes to waste. However, this is not something that can be done by seeing everything as unnecessary expense and just saying that we need to send mail. Of course, we should make use of all kinds of tools to promote ourselves and our products properly. Here, when we say savings, we are talking about using cheaper, modern, practical and even more popular tools that will serve the same purpose, if any, in addition to the known methods. For example, when we prefer promotion and communication via social media and e-mail instead of methods such as magazine & newspaper advertisements, television advertisements, and communication via fax, we can reach our target audience faster, more effectively and cheaply. We should spend our time, energy and resources properly, as much as possible. Therefore, it is very important to determine a smart strategy when determining the countries we will export. First of all, where can we find the customer of the product we have? Which countries are easy markets for us?

How do you determine your target markets?

You can make your marketing plan in two ways.

First of all, regardless of the country, you can introduce your company and your products to all over the world by sending an e-mail, and if there are companies or companies that are interested, you can start your activities by focusing on them. Secondly, by doing detailed study and research of your product, you determine target markets and by focusing on these countries, you narrow the area and spend your energy on these targets.

Method 1

In the first method, if you are lucky, you can get customers in a very short time and start working. The scenario is this: By doing a quick search on search engines such as Google, yandex, bing, company directories, private companies indexing companies on the internet, and B2B sites, you can prepare a list of potential importers of several pages within two weeks at the latest. Then you send an e-mail to the companies in this list you have created, and luckily, one of the companies has started to search for a new supplier due to the problems with its current supplier, and that e-mail you send at the right time will bring that customer to you. If you agree on the terms, here is "how to become an exporter in a short time?" the answer to the question. If you are doing export marketing with this method and you have not yet acquired customers, do not despair, because this is not the right method.

Method 2

Usually companies are not as lucky as in the first method. It takes time to achieve permanent things. This path to follow requires a long effort, it is complicated, it can cause you to despair from time to time because after weeks you have not yet contacted your potential customers; You have personnel, advertising, promotion, fair, and basic company expenses before you have income, but if it is worked correctly despite these difficulties, of course, it will also be rewarded and it is a more grounded method. To apply this method, you must first of all do a target market study. For this, you can benefit from various sources such as seminars, conferences, scientific meetings, national and international organizations. Country desks, reports, statistics and informative articles published by exporters' associations, TIM, TOBB, the Ministry of Trade and institutions such as Tüik will guide you in this regard. In international platforms, the information provided by sites such as Comtrade and Trademap will help you create a target market.

Setting goals

After a professional and extensive study by adopting the principles of the second method, you will have eliminated most of the countries around the world and you have a certain number of countries that you are about to choose as the target market. When determining the countries you will put in the first place, again create some criteria defining questions for yourself. For example:

• Why these countries?
• Because it is rich? Is it because it is crowded? Is it because it's close? Is it because it is easy to access information? Is it because you know your language? Is it because these countries make the most imports?
• What are the political, economic and social conditions?

Politically, conflicts between the two countries directly affect trade; So, when choosing your activities in the market (direct selling, partnership, office or warehouse opening), consider the political conditions. Otherwise, wrong decisions can cause serious damage to your company. If the market you want to enter is experiencing economic imbalances, you should make your calculations carefully about pricing and payment methods. The economic situation of the people in that country is also very important. Your product may be of high quality and one of the basic needs. For example, you can be a shirt exporter and your shirts may be of very good quality and that country may be importing shirts to a large extent. But what if, to a large extent, cheap shirts that are not sought after are imported, even if the people prefer to buy second-hand shirts? Or, for example, if you think China is the country with the largest population in the world and you want to export baklava to China, and you don't know that the Chinese are people who don't like sweets, this little lack of intelligence will make you fail in a billion-populated country.

Who are your potential customers?

Agent, wholesaler, distributor? There is no such thing as the same sales channels in every country. As a result of your research, you should know what kind of channels you need to sell.

Who are the competitors?

If you know who you will be competing with, you will know how much energy you need to spend. If the distribution channels of large international companies operate in your target market, you either never enter that market or you choose tactics according to that situation. No matter how big and powerful companies they are, they also have customers that they do not provide service, are expensive or offended, or they are trading through their dealer in the region you enter. Therefore, that dealer will not give goods to its competitors. Those competitors are your potential customers. These variables do not end with counting, the important thing is: if you want to be in that market, how much of the market do you want to dominate and what is the path to follow? In short, how much money you earn from that market will make you happy? Secondly, if your competitors are small companies, it is either not a market that will attract large companies or a trade with a low return is carried out compared to the big ones. You can shape your tactic accordingly.

You have to create certain criteria when selecting these countries by eliminating them, and you will create the second and third category target countries according to the first category and the importance of the best answers. From now on you have 3 valuable lists.

Market entry

You've identified the primary markets and you'll start with the country at the top of the list. But you are not starting with importing companies yet, because it will take serious time to search for and find importing companies and index them all. In addition, if it comes to the conclusion that that market is not your market, you will be in vain and disappointed. Before starting this, you should look for answers to some questions, then find information channels where you can gather intelligence and study your course very carefully.

What should the quality and features of the product be?

Each country has different standards according to its socio-economic level. We cannot say that your customer in Switzerland has the same expectation as your customer in Nigeria. For example, one may want you to produce a more robust steel door, while the other may want a standard quality but more aesthetic door. If you are a fresh fruit exporter who will export to the same two countries, Switzerland asks you to have spotless first quality lemon, while Nigeria may not care about being a little flawed. Probably because neither of them agreed at the same price as you.

Is there any restriction in your market that will affect your price?

You may think you are ambitious about the price, but you may encounter some obstacles as a result of your research: anti-dumping, second-hand sales. If you know these in advance, you will make more rational decisions about whether to enter that market or not, and if you do, you will enter by taking their precautions.

What are the sales and promotion strategies?

If there are big fairs related to your product in the target country, this is an opportunity not to be missed. You can participate in these fairs by taking advantage of the support of the Ministry of Economy. In this way, you will have the opportunity to meet face to face with your local customers and introduce your product, you will have the opportunity to meet important buyers that you missed or could not find on the internet, and you will meet people from many countries in the sector around the world. Thanks to the recent support, the costs of participating in international fairs are no longer a serious burden. Apart from that, you need to determine your other promotion strategies. For example, you can send samples to companies with high potential, if they like and are interested, they will return to you in a short time and you will introduce yourself better. It is a cheaper method compared to fair participation. Another method is consignment sales. If the cost of your product and your capital allow for this, you can offer to send your products on consignment to your potential buyers. This situation is not valid for every product group.

What are the required documents?

Before starting the marketing activities, you should definitely find out whether you have the documents requested for that country, if not, what these documents are and how to supply them. Some procedures may affect prices or production and shipping times.

Channels and information sources you can research

The more extensive you do your work in the country you have determined as your target market, the more you will be familiar with the country's culture, language, lifestyle, needs, prejudices, tendencies and you will minimize the possibility of making mistakes.

Your target market is the battlefield where you will face your rivals. Get to know the terrain and position yourself to win.

Sources and channels you can apply for market intelligence

• Import customs legislation
• Country reports
• Associations, unions, chambers depending on the category of your product,
• Written, visual, social media
• Fairs
• Representation and connections
• State resources, demands, Tenders

INTERNATIONAL DATABASES

CBI Market Information Database

It is the database in which around 3,000 market researches are systematically indexed by the "Export Promotion Center from Developing Countries to the Netherlands" headquartered in the Netherlands. It is prepared in English and is subscribed for a fee.

WTO Trade Monitoring Database

The WTO Trade Monitoring Database provides information on trade measures implemented by WTO members. The information in the database is taken from the Trade Monitoring Reports prepared regularly by the WTO Secretariat and can be listed on the basis of the country implementing the trade measure, affected country, measure type and affected product. The relevant country is consulted to verify the data generated, and information that has not yet been verified is also specified.

Trade Helpdesk

It is a database developed to facilitate the entry of developing countries into the European Union market. It provides information support to exporters on taxation, import tariffs, trade agreements and statistics.

FITA (The Federation of International Trade Associations)

Year of foundation: 1984, number of members: 450,000, country / region served: worldwide, language options: English

Investment Map (ITC)

It brings together statistics on foreign direct investment, international trade, tariff information and activities of multinational firms.

Market Access Database

Types of Information Provided: Import Legislation, Export Legislation, Foreign Trade Statistics, Production Statistics, Investment Legislation, Customs Information, Market Reports / Statistical Resources

Market Access Map (ITC)

It covers customs tariffs (import duties) and other measures applied in 191 countries importing products from 239 countries and regions.

Standards Map (ITC)

It ensures the analysis and comparison of the information compiled from more than 70 voluntary standards organizations that certify products and services in 80 sectors.

E-Ping SPS&TBT Notification System

It provides access to information on health and technical regulations implemented by various countries.

The World Factbook

It is a weekly updated resource providing data on the history, societies and economies of 267 countries around the world.

Trade Competitiveness Map (ITC)

It offers profiles that examine the markets of 240 countries and regions. Each profile provides information about the respective country under the titles Commercial Performance Index, National Exporter Performance and National Import Profile, and Consistency of Commercial Statistics and Technical Notes in Commercial Data.