Digital Marketing: Unlocking Success for US Companies Exporting to EU

American and European companies work in environments driven by culture, language, legal and political factors. To make your digital efforts stick with the audience, marketing teams have to get a grip on the cultural, business, and geographical differences and subsequently apply different strategies.

Let's talk about the differences you might discover when entering the EU digital market. In this blog, we'll bring American marketers up to speed with the essentials of the differences in digital marketing: USA vs Europe.

Tailoring Your Marketing Strategy for the European Market

American companies spend more than their European counterparts on marketing. This is partly driven by stricter regulatory requirements in Europe (like GDPR), which causes European companies to follow a more conservative approach. Marketing in the USA is often designed to make a Big Splash, where an effective European strategy will be more targeted and tailored to the receiver. If you stick to the go-big-or-go-home approach, Europeans will perceive it as too invasive.

Language localization: Translating and adapting content for European audiences

There are 24 official languages spoken in Europe in total. Five languages have more than 50 million speakers:

• Russian (maybe not your target at the moment),
• French,
• Italian,
• German,
• English.

Even in countries where language does not seem to be the challenge, the UK and Ireland, for example, there are still spelling errors that you can make that can put an uncomfortable distance between you and the audience.

British and American English are different. Words that end with 'ize' in the UK usually end in 'ise' in American English, as is brilliantly pointed out in this sketch: click here. Approaching a German audience with a Free Gift sounds fantastic, but do you know that 'gift' in German actually means poison? You don't want to get people to get the wrong idea.

The main driver for digital success in Europe is language. That's why it is important to localize and adapt your content for European audiences rather than just literally translate.

Bonus read: The Top 5 B2B European Marketing Trends

Adapting to local consumer preferences and cultural differences

The biggest mistake is to treat the region as a single market, knowing that Europe characterizes various cultural differences and local consumer preferences. Strategizing from region to region is the way to go, as customers will want to receive your products in different ways.

For example, in Scandinavia, you want to treat every country independently. If you instruct a Norwegian, he'll ask you why he has to do it. Ask the same question to someone from Denmark, and they will agree but do the opposite. Approach the Swedish, and they'll most likely want to discuss everything with you first.

Navigating Regulatory and Legal Considerations: Complying with EU Marketing Regulations and Data Privacy Laws

Compliance with EU marketing regulations and data privacy laws is essential for your European expansion, not only for legal reasons but also for building trustworthy relationships with your customers.

No matter where your business is located, it must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if it processes personal data within the EU. With this comes EU marketing regulations, such as consent-based marketing, cookie consent, and opt-out mechanisms, ensuring transparency and customer protection. 

Navigating regulatory and legal considerations, North American companies expanding to Europe will eventually gain reputation and trust and become competitive in the European digital market.

Understanding Advertising Standards and Consumer Protection Laws in the EU

In order to engage customers with your marketing efforts in Europe, following advertising standards and consumer protection laws is essential. Although they may vary from country to country, these laws and standards bring forth ethics, fair competition and consumer protection in the European market.

Comparing digital marketing USA vs Europe, in B2B marketing in the States, it's very common to highlight your single biggest advantage over your competitors and even market their shortcomings. Europeans find this style disingenuous, overconfident, or distasteful. A safer approach is to stay humble and straight forward, but have a strong focus on your product to do the talking.

In healthcare, for example, it's much more common in the States to market by fear (Buy This, Or ELSE...), while this is a complete no-go within marketing in Europe. There are also many countries that do not allow any marketing of prescription medicine in the first place.

Conclusion

The differences between digital marketing in the USA and digital marketing in Europe are something that you might notice at once, but most times, you'll need assistance. Explore our Digital Marketing services, as getting local expertise will allow you to fully integrate into the culture and capture crucial intel, so your next campaign will stick.

In any case, it won't be a scary process if you're willing to learn and embrace the subtleties. This mindset will allow you to build a solid platform that will generate business from country to country on a continent with 600 million people waiting to hear your story.