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Digital marketing is a requirement for any business that wants to engage customers online. When putting together a digital marketing strategy, there are many aspects to consider, but another element has recently become important: international audiences.

More and more companies are deciding to target worldwide markets to increase their market share, boost brand visibility, and generate more sales.

Is the goal to acquire more worldwide sales for your products and services? If so, you must put together a comprehensive international digital marketing campaign.

This guide will help with making that a reality!

Which Businesses Should Use International Digital Marketing?

International expansion is not on the menu for every business type. It’s essential to be realistic and understand your limitations. For instance, there’s no sense in a local company venturing into international waters – significantly if they haven’t even expanded their operations nationally.

That said, various business types can profit from international digital marketing. It’s a natural route to take for organizations that are planning an overseas expansion. However, it can also be advantageous for small businesses to make that international leap.

After all, an international expansion opens the door to new markets and the ability to stand out from the competition. It’s also a tactic that can accelerate company growth. Add in that globalization is becoming more of a natural occurrence, and it’s not out of reach for the right small business.

With those points out of the way, now it’s time to move on to the main content of this guide: international digital marketing! We’ve listed the main tactics required to develop a comprehensive, effective marketing strategy.

International SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the foundation of any worthwhile digital marketing strategy. This remains the same with international digital marketing.

Why?

According to a research study by Forrester, 71% of consumers begin their journeys by using a search engine to discover new products and services (initiation), and 74% reported using a search engine for consideration and purchasing (research, comparison, transaction).

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What this demonstrates is that a heck of a lot of people use search engines – well, Google – to find what they’re looking for on the internet. If you want your website to be found, you must incorporate SEO into your site’s design and content.

International SEO has a few critical changes to the standard process.

To begin with, you’ll have to start fresh when researching applicable keywords. The keywords that work in your local market might not necessarily work in an international one. Not only that, but these keywords can have entirely different meanings in a foreign language.

As a result, you cannot necessarily go with a literal translation and expect your keywords to function as normal. Potential customers won’t be adding these search terms to Google if they’re irrelevant to their specific language and market.

Instead, they’ll search with other keywords – ones you’ve missed, but your competitors haven’t.

Various tools and tactics are available to find relevant, trending international keywords. A recommended slice of software is Semrush. With this tool, you can find out the most popular search terms in a specific market and learn about the keywords the competition uses to rank organically with their SEO efforts.

You must factor in content production and link building as part of your international SEO.

International Link Building

High-quality backlinks are essential for pushing your website up the Google search rankings.

The reasons for this include the following:

• It assists with promoting your international website
• It helps to build domain authority.
• It brings in local referral traffic from high-performing, relevant local sources.

As with any link-building campaign, you are finding the work’s publisher is one of the biggest challenges. This task is even trickier if you’re venturing into an international market with a foreign language.

Finding high-ranking websites that publish articles from external sources can be difficult, while convincing site owners to share your work is unlikely if you go with broken, unprofessional machine translations.

The good news: there are solutions to these issues. For instance, a quick bit of competitor research can reveal a deluge of websites that will publish your backlink.

You can also learn about the type of content these sites are happy to share via their platform.

As for getting in touch with site owners, you can again bring in a professional to craft emails that flow correctly and come across as natural. Communication is essential, and clear messages ensure you get off on the right foot toward building fruitful, long-term relationships with international influencers in your industry.

International PPC

Pay-per-click ads are another effective way to promote your business to an international audience. Unlike SEO, where you could wait weeks, months, or even years for notable results, PPC can deliver instant results. Due to this, these ads are great for bridging the gap between your brand’s international expansion and your SEO efforts paying dividends.

To ensure your international PPC ads hit the mark, there are a few points to factor into the equation. First, you must think about producing compelling ads with a solid call to action attached. That’s the case with any advert, but it is essential to feature the right tone and language when targeting an international audience—first impressions matter.

Going the extra mile makes your ads stand out and leave a lasting impression, boosting the click-through rate.

Another point to remember is to ensure your PPC ads are landing correctly. After all, if you are going with personalized ads for a specific international market, you don’t want these ads showing up in locations on the other side of the world.

Geotargeting plays an integral role. When you utilize geotargeting, you can zone in on a specific country, region, or even city, pushing your ads to the exact geographical location you’re aiming for with your digital marketing efforts.

International Organic Social

Social media is another tactic you can add to your international digital marketing strategy. It’s an excellent method for reaching new audiences, where creative, visual content can run wild – and potentially hit that viral jackpot.

However, international organic social is not something you can do with minimal commitment. It demands a lot of time and resources. Along with crafting new, regular content that follows current trends, you must engage proactively with your audience in your target country.

Due to the effort required, you must carefully select the social media platforms you wish to use.

Will you focus on just a single platform?

Perhaps you’ll combine Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn? Will you create separate profiles for each country you target?

To answer these questions, you have to account for your resources, business structure, and the prevalence of social media platforms in specific countries.

Conclusion

Digital marketing for international audiences isn’t dissimilar to a regular digital marketing campaign. It still involves the usual marketing tactics, including SEO, link building, social media, and PPC.

These will also be implemented and managed in much the same way.

However, as this guide demonstrates, there are numerous differences you must fall in line with when performing international digital marketing.

You must carefully consider each international audience, culture, trends, and much more. Although if you get it right, there’s every chance your business will become a permanent fixture in new, rewarding international markets!