International Marketing Strategies for SMEs in the Digital World

Introduction

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role for all countries in the world in terms of their contribution to industrial production and economic development and they account for around 90 percent of enterprises and 60 percent of the labor force in the world (Glonti et al., 2021). SMEs are especially important in the development of rural economies and in reducing poverty, inequality, unemployment and supporting neglected groups of the society such as disabled, women and uneducated people (Fiseha and Oyelana, 2015). In accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SMEs promote sustainable economic growth and encourage to reduce social inequalities (Fonseca and Carvalho, 2019). The most meaningful benefit of SMEs to the national economies is its utilization of resources, accumulation of savings and chances for self-employment and training opportunities (Asare et al. 2015). Being able to operate in the international markets is one of the best approaches that guarantee success in the long run for SMEs (Kuivalainen et al., 2012). An important number of studies have been conducted to analyze how SMEs discover and exploit the opportunities and risks in the international markets although this area is relatively new compared to multinational enterprises (MNEs) internationalization (Korsakienė and Tvaronavičienė, 2012). Managers and owners of SMEs try to figure out the opportunities in international markets and use internationalization as a strategic tool to sustain their company’s competitiveness. The main factors which help to gain success in the international markets are of great importance to the researchers and SMEs entrepreneurs (OreroBlat et al., 2020). Zahoor, Al-Tabbaa, Khan and Wood (2020) analyzed the key factors that precede the success of SMEs internationalization and they stated that entrepreneurial ability, collaboration skills, relational embeddedness, environmental ambiguity and availability of institutional capital are the anterior factors of success in internationalization (Reim et al., 2019).

This book chapter is analyzing the digital strategies for SMEs which are used in the international markets. A detailed literature review is conducted mainly from the articles and books established in the last five years about digital strategies that SMEs use in the international markets. In the first section effects of digitalization on SMEs internationalization is discussed and main digital strategies which are social media marketing, search engine optimization, content marketing and paid reseacrh are reviewed in detail. The managerial implications of the international digital strategies of SMEs are mentioned before the conclusion of the chapter.