Accessing the Canadian Market

Reaching North of the Border

Whether your company already has a presence in Canada or you are just starting to branch into international business relations, reaching Canadian business owners is imperative to your success. You will need to access verified, current Canada business intelligence data or a business to business email list to aid in your attempts before even thinking about sending out promotional material. Contact a reliable business intelligence company to examine your existing data, or purchase a new list if your information is more than a year old. From there, hold meetings with your marketing department and any third party print media company you have hired to discuss the following topics with regard to the Canadian market.

Geographic Reach

Depending on your company’s size and offerings, you may already have a presence in the Canadian market. The degree of this presence will vary—you may distribute your product to a few Canadian stores, or you may have an entire branch in Vancouver. Whatever the case may be, if you are accessing Canadian business owners, you’ll want to ensure that they are aware of that presence. This will give you local credibility and convince any business owner leery of conducting international business to consider your services. When examining your business to business email list, take account of each business owner’s location—your business intelligence company may be able to arrange them by location rather than name or industry—and see if you can reference a store or company branch relevant to that particular company.

Canadian Regulations

Every country has different environmental and safety regulations, so you’ll need to ensure your products are fully compliant with Canadian regulations before conducting business there. Always do your research before attempting to access a new market, even if you are selling an innocuous product, and include international protocol in your research. When designing your brochures, be sure to note Canadian regulations so that your audience knows they can conduct business with you safely. This needn’t be a prime selling point—a bit of fine print at the bottom will do—but it is an important factor nonetheless.

Language

Obviously, if you are marketing in Quebec, all promotional materials should be printed in French. But even if you are attempting to access the English-speaking section of Canada, you’ll need to consider the language of the region. Canadian English is at a crossroads betwee
British English and American English, with spelling often closer to its British interpretation. Be sure to address this with your marketing department. Spelling “color” as “colour” isn’t difficult, and it will make your print media more accessible to your audience.