Our 6 Tips for Entering a New International Market (Based on 30 Years' Experience)

Entering a new international market is exciting and daunting in equal measure. Exciting as it’s an opportunity for major growth. But daunting because there’s a large dose of uncertainty to deal with.

This is especially true for marketers, who often have the full weight of expectation to build the brand and sales overseas.

So, if this is you. Relax (a little) and check out our six top PR tips for entering a new international market. These are rooted in real experience we’ve gained over 30 years, helping dozens of brands do exactly this.

Just because customers in your current market(s) love your product/service, it doesn’t necessarily follow that overseas customers will respond in the same way. The features, benefits and therefore messaging which drive sales may not resonate. Their pressures and issues may be different, or there may be cultural or regulatory nuances to consider.

So, challenge all of your thinking. Don’t rely on assumptions. Flesh out a proper picture of the customer first. Attending overseas shows and having discussions with potential distributors, retailers or overseas partners – people who are already selling into this market – will help with all this.

Then test what you discover with a small group of potential customers.

Once you know there’s a market and you know which customers you will need to reach, the PR thinking can start. We always want to understand the audience fully before shaping any comms approach. But when the audience is overseas, this is even more critical. You can’t rely on gut instinct.

You need to understand where they graze for information, their media and social media habits, who influences them, who they follow etc.

Distributors and overseas partners are NOT best placed to advise you on this. They probably don’t understand the media landscape or how the media works. At best they will give you hunches, over-prioritising the media and social media channels they favour. And you mustn’t forget, they are not your target audience!

Instead, you need to do proper research. Here at Energy PR, we use a full suite of audience research tools (such as SparkToro). We also do an immense amount of desk research and social listening.

For instance for Van Walt, which provides specialist environmental monitoring equipment equipment worldwide, we conducted in-depth audience research in order to develop a social media strategy which its own teams could use to direct the company’s social media accounts to support sales in South Africa, Spain, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland.

Knowing where the audience grazes for information is part of the puzzle, the other part is knowing what to say to them.

The messaging that works in your existing territories may not resonate overseas. Again, social listening can help you get your messaging right. However, don’t just look at peoples’ posts. Also look at how they’re showing up on discussion groups, on places like Reddit, and even in book reviews.

Let’s explain this last point. Imagine your product helps SMEs tackle cyber-security. We’d recommend searching for some international books on that topic and look at the reviews. The ways people are praising the book for helping them, or berating the book for not helping enough, may well provide a brilliant insight into the top of mind issue the audience is worrying about and trying to tackle.  The thing that’s going to trigger them to buy from you – which could help you identify your strongest possible messaging.

When doing your social listening, also take care to note the language being used. Remember, jargon or buzzwords that work in your current market may be meaningless overseas.

International media varies massively country to country. Some publications will require translated materials. In others there may be a considerable requirement to ‘pay to play.’ So be prepared for this.

Set aside a portion of budget for supporting your earned media activity with potential paid opportunities.

It’s no good dabbling in an overseas market. If you’re going to succeed you need to be committed. Your brand and business weren’t built quickly, and so doing this in a market where you’re a complete unknown will certainly take time.

For instance, we’ve handled the international PR for New York Toy Fair for over 12 years. Our task is to persuade the world’s retail toy buyers to get on a plane and head to the show to meet suppliers and see trends. This involves us dealing with the media from over 18 countries.

Winning over such an array of journalists has taken time and commitment. We’ve had to nurture those relationships, take special international media delegations to the show, so they can experience it first-hand. And organise an advertising programme so the international media knew the show was serious in its desire to reach international buyers. This has taken commitment, but the work has (and continues to) pay off.

If you’re targeting a B2B audience, don’t assume you need an on-the-ground agency in every territory, or a big international agency with lots of international offices.

B2B clients, like New York Toy Fair, Siltbuster, Accessia and Penspen often ask us to handle all of their overseas PR, which we can do with considerable success.

But for consumer brands, an agency on-the-ground is a good idea. This is the approach our name label client My Nametags has adopted. We manage their UK PR and act as the lead agency, which the other agencies take their cue from. We provide the creative direction and carefully come up with campaign ideas which we know will work in overseas territories. The overseas agencies then execute the campaigns, modifying them slightly to suit their territory.  This means our client’s budget and our creative ideas are maximised.

Hopefully, this has given you a little food for thought as you square up to the challenge of taking a business into a new international market. If you need any support or advice for your launch, please drop us a note at susannah@energypr.co.uk