You probably wish that you could base a business on what you love to do and have work come to you without any effort. While that sounds like a lot of fun, in the real world, you need to market your businesses so that people know what you do and remember it when they need you or their friend does. Understanding how to market a business in Israel will help you succeed and grow.
Pinpoint who you’re targeting
Before you start marketing your business, it’s crucial to figure out who you are marketing to. A major component of this question in Israel is determining whether you are targeting native Hebrew-speaking Israelis or Anglo English-speakers. This decision affects whether your marketing is in Hebrew or in English, its style and your marketing funnel. If your Hebrew is not on a high level, you are likely to find it hard to move a lead through the funnel in a language you struggle to communicate in, so you might want to consider sticking with English speakers. Although it’s a smaller niche, you can corner a larger percentage of the market.
Network
If you run a business in a particular industry in Israel for long enough, you should eventually know a large amount of professionals in that niche. Professional contacts are an excellent source of referrals, since they often have clients they can’t take on, due to time constraints or because the client is more suited to your services than theirs. Other business owners in totally different industries are also likely to refer people your way, if they believe that you are good at what you do.
You make professional connections by networking as much as possible. Obviously, you need to spend most of your time actually running your business, but it’s worth allocating some of your work time to getting to know other business owners. Conferences, workshops and meetups are all excellent ways to network. Networking also takes place on social media, in groups dedicated to an industry or to business in general.
Learn more about networking in Israel in our article, How to Build a Network in Israel.
Social media
Social media is extremely popular in Israel, particularly Facebook and Instagram. You can find Facebook groups dedicated to specific cities and neighborhoods, as well as topics like personal organization, finances, video editing and tourism. It’s important to advertise only in groups where self-promotion is permitted. Some groups allow self-promotion only at certain times or in certain threads, so be mindful of that as well.
Since Israel is a small country, you can gain a lot of attention simply by answering questions on posts. If you’re a nutritionist and consistently give good advice in answer to questions about eating healthy, eventually you will become well-known in the industry and people you’ve never worked with will refer business to you. This strategy requires that you monitor relevant groups and answer questions regularly, occasionally mentioning that you are doing so in your capacity as a professional.
Facebook and Instagram ads can be targeted only to Israelis or to specific cities, but be aware that they will reach anyone who lives in that general area and can’t be limited demographically.
SEO and blogging
Search traffic is an important component of marketing a business, especially in the small ecosystem that is Israel. Publishing website pages and blog posts about your niche can boost your visibility, especially if you follow the guidelines of search engine optimization. Research what terms people are using to search for your product or service, and use these terms in the texts you write. Focus on copy that is useful to your readers and more people will find you through search.
Neighborhood circulars
In many neighborhoods in Israel, there is a circular published weekly or monthly that is widely distributed in mailboxes and/or in stores and shuls. These circulars may contain some original writing, but are primarily based on advertisements. Since these magazines are targeted to the specific neighborhood, many people skim through them to see if there’s anything of interest that they should know about. If the neighborhood is one that fits into your target market, this might be a good avenue for getting the word out about your services or products.
Keep at it
The key to succeeding at marketing is to do it consistently. Obviously, that doesn’t mean you should keep beating a dead horse if you’re not getting results, but you have to give any marketing avenue some time before you determine whether or not it’s working. And you have to be consistent and persistent to get it off the ground and to take advantage of the momentum. Israelis are hard-wired to want to help, so once you build a network on and offline, you should start to get word of mouth referrals, which are the very best kind.