The starting point: products without an export workflow
The fertilizer manufacturer had products and production capacity, but no one had connected market research, the website, lead generation, buyer conversations, and internal follow-up into one process.
An English website alone would have changed only one thing: messages could arrive. It would not tell the company who to target or what to send next. The first decision was which buyers to approach and what information would give them a reason to continue.
Narrow the market before writing the pages
I used customs data and public information to narrow the initial list of markets, then considered product fit, application, and buyer type.
Every public product statement had to trace back to real source material. When a parameter, technical document or import condition was still unclear, I recorded the gap instead of filling the page with a convenient guess.
Connect Meta, the website and WhatsApp
Once the direction was clear, I worked on multilingual pages, Meta campaigns, and the WhatsApp inquiry path. Product names, applications, and documents had to stay consistent across the ad, landing page, and conversation.
When somebody asked for a price, I first checked:
- what kind of buyer they were;
- how the product would be used;
- expected quantity;
- their import experience and destination-market requirements;
- whether the immediate need was product data, documents, logistics or a quotation.
These questions kept me from sending irrelevant material and clarified the next step.
Most of the follow-up happened inside the company
Buyer questions often required input from several people inside the company:
- product and technical teams for specifications, applications, and documents;
- logistics staff for shipping and import requirements;
- management to approve pricing and public claims;
- the customer-facing person to track each missing item and deadline.
Simply announcing an export project did not make people cooperate. I had to show which buyer decision was blocked by each missing item, then turn long internal discussions into one specific question for a named owner.
Current workflow
The website, lead generation, inquiry handling, and internal follow-up now follow one connected workflow. Across separate inquiries, next steps included:
- product matching;
- sample requests;
- sending technical documents or proposals;
- quotation discussions.
Each inquiry is tracked by stage, so an incoming message is not automatically counted as a qualified opportunity.
Confirmed / not yet confirmed
Confirmed: market research, multilingual pages, Meta campaigns, WhatsApp, and internal follow-up were connected; across separate inquiries, follow-up reached the commercial stages listed above.
Not yet confirmed: ad conversations, website visits, and customs records do not prove payment, shipment, or repeat orders. I do not report those early signals as revenue.
Related method: what I check before a business website goes live.