Global expansion is a huge move for your business that can complicate matters when you want to increase the size of your team. Hiring qualified employees from abroad can be complicated. Many things have to be considered, including new rules or regulations in different countries that need to be followed and cultural differences that may also arise.

In the ever-changing global business environment, the use of appropriate technologies and strategies can set apart successful firms from average or struggling ones.

In light of this, how do you then put together an amazing global team? Through my own experience, I’ve discovered 5 key strategies that can set you and your team up for success.

1. Support workplace diversity and Inclusivity

If you establish an inclusive and efficient system culture across your globally expanding enterprise, then performance will increase immediately. However, one should also bear in mind that cultural disparities exist among team members from diverse backgrounds. You will need to create a workplace that respects and recognizes each person’s culture while also fostering an understanding of various traditions and opinions.

There’s a need for companies to consider various holidays people celebrate in different countries so as not to be seen as ignorant or insensitive by their own employees who come from other places. Common concerns revolve around non-verbal communication like gestures at work, dress codes in offices and how we relate with one another socially . One way out is by employing experts who specialize in diversity issues across cultures, such as customs or traditions, to ensure a safe and respectful work culture.

Related: Life’s Too Short to Work With Incompatible People — Follow These 3 Secrets To Building High-Performing Teams

2. Leverage EOR Service

If you are expanding your business globally, it may really help to hire an Employment of Record (EOR) service provider. An Employment of Record legally employs your team members in their local country on your behalf. It enables you to access the best skills from anywhere around the world without necessarily having to go through the lengthy procedure of first establishing foreign legal entities yourself.

When you partner with a good EOR, you get a bunch of sweet benefits:

• Faster access to global talent: You can start building your team abroad as soon as possible instead of waiting months for all the legal paperwork to go through.
• Less worry about compliance: EORs take care of handling all those local employment laws and HR requirements that give you headaches.
• Cost savings: EORs have the expertise to help minimize your operational costs when hiring globally.
• Flexibility: You can easily scale your global team up or down as your business needs change.
• Specialized expertise: EORs have tons of experience helping companies expand globally the right way.

Lean on EOR specialists so you can focus less on annoying HR logistics and more on finding superstar talent around the world.

3. Invest in management training

To succeed globally, you need awesome managers across the board. That’s why strategy number three is to invest heavily in management training.

Make sure your managers are pros at leading global teams. A quality manager in a distributed team excels at nurturing career growth, making the most of their unique talents, ensuring smooth conflict resolution, and guiding through change and uncertainty. They build adaptability and psychological safety, encouraging open communication.

Additionally, the ability to encourage and inspire individuals as a manager will create an environment in which every team member feels welcomed and encouraged. Each one’s unique strengths can be recognized and leveraged for the success and cohesion of the team.

In fact, managers account for 70% of the variability in team engagement. Well-trained managers unite your global workforce and amplify your culture anywhere.

4. Focus on building trust

When your team is distributed worldwide, success depends a ton on trusting relationships. That’s why strategy number four is to focus on building trust and connections, even from afar.

Building trust in a global team requires participation in a variety of activities that promote bonding and camaraderie. Icebreaker games during meetings and setting up Slack channels for casual talk all help team members bond. Hosting virtual coffee talks or happy hours provides for socialization outside of work, whereas annual in-person offsite gatherings provide valuable face-to-face interactions.

Furthermore, it is critical to tailor communication techniques to each direct report, publicly acknowledge wins and progress, and listen deeply to understand different perspectives. These actions make team members feel appreciated, heard, and connected, ultimately building trust within the team.

When managers invest in relationships, their teams perform better. Trust accelerates team cohesion, collaboration and results.

Related: 10 Simple Steps to Build an Exceptional and Efficient Team

5. Set up clear communication channels

When organizing a clear communication protocol, time zone differences could become a major, even impactful, issue. Face-to-face meetings between team members may be nearly impossible when they work from different areas of the world. That’s where video conferences can ensure fast and efficient dialogue.

A number of video conferencing tools recently achieved global use as remote work grew in popularity. Tools like Zoom and Google Meet help businesses hold on-the-spot presentations, webinars, and team meetings with accurate, real-time visuals. They also give team managers the ability to arrange one-on-one check-in sessions with employees, allowing them to discuss workload and other relevant concerns.

Expanding your business globally does not always mean success. However, you can achieve this goal through careful planning, effective communication, and an all-inclusive corporate culture. Above all, using local collaborators in the form of an Employer of Record exponentially increases the chances of building a winning team.

Three groundbreaking Apple devices — the iPhone X, HomePod, and original AirPods — are now considered vintage. And the clock is ticking on how long they will be eligible for repairs.

Apple added the three to its vintage product list on Monday, meaning that it stopped selling the products more than five, and less than seven, years ago.

Apple customers who use these devices are now facing a limited window when it comes to repairs. Apple Stores and authorized repair shops will only offer service for the iPhone X, HomePod, and original AirPods for up to two more years max, depending on the parts available.

Related: Will Apple AI Convince You to Upgrade Your Old iPhone?

The three products are all instantly recognizable as a major shift or addition to Apple’s product lineup.

The $999 iPhone X was the first Apple phone to switch from TouchID to FaceID, allowing users to unlock the iPhone X with a glance and swapping out a home button for an entirely touch-activated screen. Apple assured customers that it kept its facial scans out of the cloud to make the feature more secure.

Apple now has the majority of smartphone market share in the U.S., with about 53% of the market.

^{Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during the launch of the iPhone X on September 17, 2017. (Photo by Qi Heng/Visual China Group via Getty Images)}

The $349 HomePod was Apple’s first smart speaker; some users have called it a “significant and risky investment.” Apple sold an estimated three million HomePods in the U.S. by 2018, according to a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners report.

Since the original HomePod’s release, Apple has expanded the product line with the 2020 HomePod mini and the 2023 HomePod 2nd Generation.

Related: What’s Next for Apple After Vision Pro? Home Robots: Report

The $159 original AirPods were Apple’s way of “reinventing” wireless headphones, per the company’s 2016 press release.

Apple introduced an “innovative” charging case and a double-tap feature that allowed users to tap their AirPods to access Siri.

Devices on the vintage list end up in Apple’s “obsolete” category after they pass the seven-year mark. At that point, Apple withdraws hardware service and service stores can no longer order replacement parts.

Related: Apple iPhone 7 Settlement: How to Make a Claim By Deadline

With new social platforms emerging every year, many entrepreneurs wonder if they should leave email behind and look ahead to new avenues. Did you know that email is still the second biggest marketing channel for startups, right behind social media? That’s right! It’s all thanks to its low cost and incredible return on investment (ROI). According to the study by Litmus, it remains one of the best ROIs out there; companies can expect to make a whopping $38 in return for every dollar they spend on email marketing.

As the CEO of Builderall, an all-in-one digital marketing platform that has supported over 2,000,000 small businesses, I often get asked if email marketing is still an effective strategy in this new phase of our digital age. Is it dead in 2024?

I’m here to debunk the biggest myths and set the record straight. Today, I’ll share my insider knowledge to help you see the light.

Defining email marketing

Before we debunk these myths, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what email marketing actually is. Many people have misconceptions about this form of digital marketing, which can turn them off — and that leads to missed opportunities.

Email marketing is a direct marketing strategy that sends promotional or informational messages to a targeted audience via email. It goes far beyond blasting promotions or cold outreach. Done right, it builds meaningful relationships between your brand and subscribers. It’s a way to keep them engaged, and ultimately, it’s another way to drive sales.

Some examples include

• Newsletters
• Promotional offers
• Product updates
• Even personalized content based on a subscriber’s interests.

Related: 8 Simple Email Marketing Tips to Improve Your Open and Click-Through Rates

Myth #1: Email marketing is dead

Let’s tackle the elephant in the room first. No — email is not dead! In fact, it’s far from it and still going strong.

According to data provided by Oberlo, 80% of businesses rely on email as their primary customer retention channel. That means they’re using email to keep their existing customers engaged and coming back for more.

But that’s not all. HubSpot found that 60% of consumers made a purchase thanks to a marketing email they received. That’s a huge testament to the power of email marketing in driving revenue for businesses.

Myth #2: People don’t read emails

I can’t tell you how often I hear this myth. Sure, our inboxes have gotten pretty crowded over the years, and many of us receive dozens or even hundreds of emails daily. It’s also true that a good chunk of those emails might get sent straight to the trash or spam folder.

However, according to HubSpot, 46% of smartphone users still prefer to hear from brands via email over other channels.

If you establish trust and send relevant content, subscribers will welcome your emails with open arms.

This stat also highlights the importance of putting care in your campaigns by using compelling subject lines and other email elements to stand out in a crowded inbox.

Myth #3: Younger audiences don’t use email

Gen Z and millennials are the next generation that will have some serious purchasing power. It’s only logical for businesses to look for new and innovative ways to approach them, as they’re often portrayed as being glued to their screens and obsessed with social media platforms.

These stereotypes lead many people to assume Gen Z and millennials are too obsessed with TikTok and Instagram for old-school strategies like email. Let me prove them wrong again. According to the Attest U.S. Consumer Trend Report, 53% of Gen-Z enjoy weekly emails from their favorite brands. For millennials, it’s 66%.

Of course, you’ll want to cater your approach to each audience (throw in some slang or a meme here and there,) but don’t count email out. These generation segments still use and prefer it.

Myth #4: Email has low open rates

The next myth I wanted to touch on is more tangible. Some say email performs poorly compared to social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram. For that, we’ll have to look at the open rate.

Open rate is an essential key performance indicator (KPI) in digital marketing because it tells you how many people are actually opening and reading your emails. MailChimp benchmarks tell us the average email open rate across all industries is 34.23%. While that might not sound amazing, it’s definitely not bad either.

With optimization, that number can grow much higher and bring benefits. As reported earlier, that’s why so many businesses still rely on email as their primary customer retention channel.

Related: This One Thing Is the Secret to Higher Email Open Rates

Myth #5: Email marketing equals spam

Finally, allow me to go full circle and return to the definition of email marketing. Too many people confuse general email marketing with a somewhat shady practice: cold outreach.

Cold emails are unsolicited messages sent to people who have not expressed interest in your brand or products. You essentially buy or scrape a list of email addresses (unbeknownst to the recipients) and blast bulk emails, hoping to catch a few leads. They’re often used for prospecting and can come across as intrusive if not done right. That’s because nobody gave you permission to contact them.

On the other hand, email marketing is about building relationships with people who have already shown interest in what you offer. They might have signed up for your newsletter through a lead magnet or opted in to receive your updates. That’s a big difference!

It is this latter form of communication that 81% of businesses use email as their primary customer acquisition channel. It drives results without spam tactics.

Final thoughts

While many entrepreneurs may feel attracted to the latest shiny object or technology, these myths cause many entrepreneurs to overlook email in 2024.

When executed correctly, email marketing remains an indispensable growth lever for startups and established businesses alike. Now that you know the truth, utilize email marketing to boost conversions and retention. With a strategic approach, you may see even higher open rates and ROI than the studies show.