Insight50 Takeaways: Simplifying International Marketing

2019

contentsFOREWORD 3

KEY SESSION INSIGHTS 4Global marketing is the new normal— and marketers are achieving success 4

International marketing is complex 6

Numerous challenges hold back performance 8

Localisation is more than translation 10

Tier your approaches 11

FINAL TAKEAWAYS 12Don’t do everything at once 12

Put strategy first 13

Continue to test 13

FOREWORD

As marketers, we always have too much to do and too little time.

The Insight50 series is designed to address that. In less than an hour, ON24® looks to speak to those at the cutting edge of their field, ask the questions that matter to you, and find out from them what works and what doesn’t.

April 2019’s session was on Simplifying International Marketing. Joining us for the session were Michael Meinhardt, CEO at Cloudwords, Peter Bell, Marketing Director at Marketo and Paula Morris, Founder at Pi Marketing. This takeaway report is based on the insights that these panellists passed along as well as the answers to the poll questions posed to the attendees.

Today’s connected world means that marketers can now reach anyone connected to the internet. The good news is that marketers are benefiting significantly, with attendees reporting good levels of success with their international marketing. Of those reaching buyers in other markets, more than 7 in 10 said their efforts were successful.

But even so, international marketing is far from straightforward. More than two-thirds (69%) said that they found it at least somewhat complex to run international campaigns, with the most commonly-cited challenges including aligning people and teams across markets (45%), data quality (35%) and running multi-touch campaigns (35%). Furthermore, the experience of those speaking suggests that levels of both success and difficulty varies significantly across territories.

So what can marketers do to simplify their efforts and get the most out of the international opportunity? The expert panellists suggest taking a number of smaller steps as you develop your marketing abroad.

A critical aspect is to have a strategy in place. Part of this is to identify the most important markets first, which can then be prioritised in order. Next is to make gradual approaches to translation and localisation—for example, by using landing pages in the local language with local imagery, even if the assets happen to be in English. Making continual tests can also help establish performance levels before investing in large scale expansion. And of course, webinars can help establish personal connections earlier on by creating an opportunity to speak directly to prospects in real-time, even before formal efforts have been started.

Read on for a summary of what was covered, and make sure to view the webinar on demand. We look forward to seeing you at future Insight50 sessions.

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Global marketing is the new normal—and marketers are achieving successBefore the widespread emergence of digital technology, reaching customers in different markets was both time-consuming and expensive. Today, the ready availability of technology makes it easier than ever to reach customers across the globe.

This good news is reflected in the data coming from attendees, showing that marketers

are seeing success with their international campaigns. More than half (58%) of webinar attendees said that their international marketing has been either ‘very successful’ (10%) or ‘somewhat successful’ (48%). Less than one-quarter (24%) reported that their global marketing has been ‘somewhat unsuccessful.’ The remaining attendees were not currently marketing internationally.

Key Session Insights

Very successful 10%

Somewhat successful 48%

Somewhat unsuccessful 24%

Very unsuccessful 0%

We do not do international marketing right now,but are planning to do so soon

We do not do international marketing right nowand we have no plans for the moment

14%

3%

Very complex 3%

Somewhat complex 66%

22%Neither simple nor complex

Somewhat simple

Very simple 0%

9%

Which of the following best describes your level of success with international marketing?

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The nature of business means that now, according to Michael Meinhardt, “organisations have a global-first mentality”. Many are now thinking globally but acting locally.

The other panellists agree. As Paula Morris explained, with the growing use of marketing channels like social media, there isn’t much of a choice.

“Marketing has to be global now. The world is a lot smaller as people become more connected. So, I think if a company isn’t looking at international marketing, then they won’t drive consistency. I think you have to think globally and then look at those local nuances for different markets, rather than the other way around. It should be global first, followed by tailoring your campaigns thereafter with a local feel. Then you’ll see the impact of what global campaigns can drive for an organisation.”

Because marketing global isn’t so much of a choice but the way things are, Peter Bell believes marketers need to focus on performance and the metrics that prove the impact of a campaign, such as conversion type metrics for the countries you are marketing to.

“It’s not like any of us have the option to select which countries we market into. For the most part, markets are global and, therefore, performance is expected to be global, too.”

Before you commit to particular messages in your marketing, a webinar can act as a quick way to test engagement and ask local buyers for their thoughts. For inspiration, read our blog post on Quick and Easy Webinar Formats You Can Use Right Now.

on24 TIPUse webinars to test messaging in new markets.

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Very successful 10%

Somewhat successful 48%

Somewhat unsuccessful 24%

Very unsuccessful 0%

We do not do international marketing right now,but are planning to do so soon

We do not do international marketing right nowand we have no plans for the moment

14%

3%

Very complex 3%

Somewhat complex 66%

22%Neither simple nor complex

Somewhat simple

Very simple 0%

9%

International marketing is complexWhile many of the webinar attendees are seeing success with their international campaigns, that does not mean that international marketing is simple. The majority of attendees said that running marketing campaigns in international markets was ‘very complex’ (3%) or ‘somewhat complex’ (66%), while very few (9%) found it ‘somewhat simple.’

The complexity involved in marketing internationally was of no surprise to the panel.

How simple—or complex—do you find it to run marketing campaigns in international markets?

As Peter explained, part of the reason why it is complex is that there is a difference between translation and localisation. In its simplest form, this means it’s not just about swapping out the language in the content you are using in your home country and using it internationally. The complexity comes with finding out that one size does not fit all. Marketing internationally effectively means having a more granular understanding of the region you are marketing in.

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“This can be as simple as using socially appropriate imagery. It can be an understanding of when public holidays occur, what you know, what social norms exist.”

Paula points out that another area of complexity is the planning that goes into launching a global campaign in all of your key markets simultaneously. The preparation and planning for this requires a longer lead time.

“One of the complexities is to get to a point where everything is ready in those key languages to launch on one day. That’s when you then have to listen to the markets. Certain business language or certain terminologies or phraseology doesn’t translate so you have to really be prepared and plan for that. The impact that you see by hitting that button on the same day everywhere can be up to 20%, in terms of the increase in web traffic and response rates, if you get it right.”

Having a local brand on board first can help you showcase success in new markets before you scale up local teams and resources. As such, consider taking an account-based strategy as your first step in breaking into a new market. More guidance can be found in our Webinerd’s Guide to Account-Based Marketing.

on24 TIPTarget and win local accounts as part of your go-to-market strategy.

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Aligning people and teams across markets 45%

Data quality

Running multi-touch campaigns 35%

35%

Having the people or resources needed

Translation and localisation of content

Developing the right process

30%

30%

Regulation 25%

25%

Effective segmentation 20%

Numerous challenges hold back performance When asked which challenges they were facing or expected to face with their international marketing, the challenge most attendees were experiencing was aligning their teams across markets. This is not too surprising as it’s sometimes difficult to align teams that are in the same location, let alone get everyone on the same page when they are possibly on different continents and, most definitely, in different time zones.

Data quality is another challenge marketers are facing with their international marketing. This is not lost on Peter, who described the issues involved in finding data solutions that have global reach and depth.

“ The big American vendors claim they have global reach, but they don’t have global depth. The UK vendors have reasonable reach but the data accuracy, generally, is not that great and the depth is poor. And then once you get into continental Europe, they don’t have the reach and they don’t have the depth and the data quality is terrible. You really end up having to put a jigsaw puzzle together using different vendors who have different facets of the data within a given market.”

Which of the following challenges are you facing (or except to face) with your international marketing?

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Performance also differs in every market across the funnel. This is also true with the platforms you may use for your marketing activities. So, while LinkedIn may bring in new leads in the UK, that would not necessarily work well in France, where fewer people use the platform. This means making adjustments and changing things around to find what works best for each country or region you are marketing to.

However, Paula points out that, like in the case of Germany, sometimes a metric will have more value depending on the country. So while initial leads are harder to get, the conversion to MQL or opportunity is higher.

“ Although it’s more difficult and sometimes more expensive to get inbound leads in Germany, I’ve always seen that the conversion rate of when somebody does raise their hand is significantly higher than some of the regions. A lot of the research happens offline. So when a purchaser is ready to then fill out that form that conversion rate opportunity is significantly higher.”

Whether your international marketing is more centralised or decentralised in nature, let your local staff run webinars to open up individual conversations and gain valuable feedback for future marketing efforts. If they are new to running webinars, we recommend they view ON24’s Webinar Best Practices Series to learn how to get started.

on24 TIPEmpower local marketing teams to run webinars in target markets.

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Localisation is more than translation One of the challenges attendees said they were facing was translation and localisation of content. While localisation versus translation was touched on earlier, it is a theme that ran through the entire webinar.

No one would argue that language is important. In fact, as Michael points out:

“ Individuals are six times more likely to engage with your content if they see it in their own language.”

But marketing internationally goes beyond just getting the language right. Making a campaign look and feel local has an impact. Paula is a proponent of not using the one size fits all approach but, instead, creating localised content:

“I do think the use of locally relevant imagery will make the people in the region feel that this is more of a localised campaign. I don’t think you can underestimate the value of local skylines, images of local business scenes or something that the audience knows that this is relevant for their market. I think that’s very powerful.”

Peter champions the idea of hiring locally and using a hybrid model, organisationally. But it goes beyond just hiring local citizens, it means listening to them because they will likely know best.

“If you won’t listen to your colleagues who are foreign or different from you, do listen to the campaign results because they will speak for themselves and they will probably tell you to listen to your colleagues who have been telling you this for some time.”

Personalisation improves the performance of your marketing. But while you might not yet be able to create local language versions of your website, you can create content hubs tailored to any of your target segments—including language segments. Find out how ON24 Target can help you easily bundle market-specific webinars, reports and other media in one place.

on24 TIPCreate market specific webinar hubs to improve performance.

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Tier your approaches To help ease some of the complexity that is involved in international marketing, Paula suggested taking a tiered approach. Instead of jumping in with both feet and trying to be in as many markets as possible, create a strategy and prioritise markets.

“ That will help you make the right business decisions in terms of where you put your focus, what you translate, what you don’t translate and the level of depth you go into and hook back to the growth plan of the organisation, rather than trying to do everything at one time and spreading your teams too thinly.”

The tiered approach also helps to prioritise your campaigns. As Peter explained:

“Looking at what are your tier one markets? What are your tier two markets? Where are you looking to drive growth? Within that, you’re going to understand which industries, which customers, which use cases and, therefore, which of your products or services are appropriate. If you’ve done that due diligence up front, you’ve automatically prioritised the types of campaigns which are going to be important because that’s where you’re going to fundamentally drive your business growth.”

Along the same lines, it also helps to test the market, if possible, before investing too heavily. Michael gave an example of a company which saw results by starting small and keeping their investment low by creating localised landing pages in conjunction with localised campaigns. The company was able to see high ROI before having a full team in that country.

When marketing internationally, it might not always be practical for teams to run webinars in time zones that don’t suit them. To give your prospects the feeling of a live session, consider running a simulive webinar—and to increase engagement further, have your local sales team respond to typed Q&A. For more information, read about how Aman Anandpuri at ON24 uses simulive to reach prospects internationally.

on24 TIPUse simulive webinars to reach prospects across multiple time zones.

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Don’t do everything at once Harkening back to the tiered approach, trying to do everything at once will only put added pressure on your team and, quite possibly, have a negative effect on performance. Setting priorities and aligning them to your business goal is one of Paula’s key suggestions.

“ I think strategy and prioritisation first and then you can start to roll the programs out, whether they’re very deep and wide or just translating certain assets but not all of them, it helps to make the right business decisions.”

Final Takeaways

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Continue to test As with your own local marketing, testing should be on-going. Emphasising this takeaway, Michael spoke about his own company’s experience with testing:

“ We’re testing before we go head first to see what the market receptivity to certain terminology and certain industries. That’s actually working for us. You can test, quite efficiently and certainly quite cost effectively, to see who lights up first and see if there are a different set of customers in those regions that would be interesting to your business.”

Put strategy first What Michael sees as a key component in successfully marketing on a global scale is having a strategy.

“I think what often gets overlooked is the strategy behind how you want to go to market inside of those different regions and what that global strategy truly needs to be. People generally don’t struggle with finding a translation agency, that’s actually very straightforward. What they do struggle with is the actual business process behind going to market in those specific regions, even when they have key teams in those specific markets.”

And, as Peter explained, defining roles across teams can help get colleagues working better with each other:

“ Have clear roles and responsibilities. Work it out up front. You’ll get harmony and you’ll get alignment of people across markets.”

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