Getting your marketing right in your own domain is one thing, but expanding your strategy to include international markets is another entirely. Your campaigns will resonate differently across regions, and there’s also the issue of retaining your message between languages and ensuring your overarching idea remains concrete and consistent as a whole. 

International marketing is a balancing act, and it requires careful management of multiple systems to pull off. 

With enough research and planning, however, it doesn’t have to be the major stress you envisage it to be. In this article, you’ll learn about six key areas you need to get right to succeed with your global efforts, making sure you have what you need to achieve the reach you desire. 

1. Identifying Your Target Markets

Naturally, your first task is to identify the markets you want to tap into and why. You’ll need to do a deep dive into the economic conditions of the country you’ve set your sights on and the demand for products and services like yours, and it’s essential to identify what the competition is like (it could be easier or harder to compete depending on the country). 

Once you’re clear on your target market, the best way to gain further insight is to study your competitors closely. Consider their marketing campaigns and how they tap into cultural norms and values to sell, reflecting on your home campaign and how you’ll need to adapt it to do the same. 

Ultimately, you need to figure out how your value proposition might change while targeting the same kinds of customers. 

2. The Balancing Act of Localization 

When trying to localize your products as described above, you’ll need to tread lightly. This is a balance between changing your product angles ever so slightly to appeal more to those of a different country, while simultaneously retaining your core messaging. Remember: you’re not changing the product or service so much that it becomes something different; you should be targeting the same type of customers while being mindful of cultural differences. 

The changes you make could come in many different flavors. If your usual marketing material contains humor, you’ll likely need to adapt it to make sense in the target country. Some colors also work better in one place compared to another, and there are subtleties in communication style that must be taken into consideration. 

You’ll identify many important areas as you delve further, and as you learn more about the culture, what changes make the most sense will be revealed to you. 

3. Language Barriers and Translation

One of the most important elements to get right is translation. Even once you’re clear on exactly how your marketing needs to be adapted, there’s a real risk that some elements will become lost in translation when experienced in another language. This can result in minor errors, such as small parts of your message not landing exactly how you want them to, or major cultural faux pas that cause offence, so it’s critical to get this right. 

Beyond simply being careful, back translation represents the most surefire way to account for this potential problem. This process refers to the translation from your own language to another and then back again after the initial attempt. If the back translation results in a message that retains all of its original meaning, you’ve been successful, and if not, you know you need to keep trying until the message is crystal clear. 

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4. Digital Channel Performance

In today’s day and age, your digital channels are extremely important, and when expanding into a different country, many businesses fail to accurately adapt them. 

Your websites and socials will need to be optimized for the new location, and it’s vital to conduct research into the platform-specific behaviours of the target country and determine whether they’re different from those of customers in your own. 

If you’re using influencers to help you back home, you likely don’t want to be using the same individuals overseas. Spend plenty of time locating someone more appropriate for your new target audience – preferably someone bilingual who you’re able to easily convey your key concepts to so that they can be plainly translated. 

5. Economic Strategy

Your economic strategy may not be watertight in the new country and might require complete reformatting. Pricing will likely need to be adjusted based on local currency fluctuations as well as for differences in the income of your target market. 

Then, there are aspects like taxes, shipping costs, and duties to factor in, which can complicate things considerably. For these matters, it’s always a good idea to consult with an international pricing consultant. They can explain the ins and outs to you better than anything you’d read online or from a YouTube video. 

6. Logistics and Distribution

Some of the biggest challenges you’ll have to face with international marketing involve logistics and distribution. 

No matter which country you’re operating in, a big part of your campaign will hinge on reliability, so you’ll need to source high-quality local partnerships to ensure you’re delivering on your promises. 

When it comes to your campaign specifically, how you organize the physical delivery of your marketing materials is also a key consideration. If you need to place a large installation in the capital city of your target country, how are you getting it there? Would it be better to manufacture certain elements there instead of your home country? 

Even areas that don’t at first appear to have boundary considerations might do when you dig deeper. Take something as simple as email and time zones, for example: you don’t want to be sending your marketing emails when your target audience is asleep.

Wrapping Up

You should now have a good idea of the most important elements you need to consider to ensure your international marketing efforts are worth the cost. 

Of course, this isn’t everything. There’s much more to consider beyond the six points above, but the information here is enough to get you off to a solid start. Good luck!