In this presentation, featured at the Digital Summit Raleigh, our Head of International gave her top five tips to successfully enter a new market. Takeaways include how to: Identify which markets present the biggest opportunity Fully localize a site for users to increase ROI Understand how to implement technical onsite considerations Satisfy cultural differences (habits, behavior, buying patterns, trust signals) How to promote your websites (which channels to use in which market)

1. Nicola Winters
Going Global: Five International Marketing Fails

3. Why is this important?
Fewer than 1%
of the 30 million
companies
based in the US
export overseas
Access to local
marketplaces
and selling
platforms make
it easier to reach
new customers
Yet 58% of small
businesses
already have
international
customers

4. SEO
Budget
Localization
Five key areas
Markets
Promotion

5. Markets

6. Fail #1: Trying too
much at once

7. Identify entry markets
Online
population
Competitor
analysis
Online
spend
Search
trends

8. Identify entry markets

9. Case study
7
languages
38%
more
conversions
28%
drop in
cost-per-
conversion
Account
more than
doubled
in size

10. Markets
top tip

11. Start with existing website analytics
Which countries are
converting and what’s
the conversion rate and
revenue?
Which search engines
are driving relevant traffic
that converts?
Revenue
Traffic
Markets

12. Identify markets to test
Sales from India are
driving significant
revenue, and the
conversion rate is
second to the US
Baidu is bringing traffic,
despite no promotional
efforts – if we could match
the conversion rate of
Russia, that could be a
huge opportunity!
Markets

13. Build landing pages – test with paid
Markets

14. Localization

15. Fail #2: Using auto-
translation tools

17. Fail #2: Using auto-translation tools
Sterben means
“to die” 
High end products
searched for in
English
Intelleigent Uberwachung
Herz translates to
“intelligent monitoring
heart” 

18. What’s the consequence?
Can’t Compete in the Market
Poor Rankings
Low CTR
Low Conversion Rate
Zero Trust in Website and/or Products
Damages Brand Identity

19. Resource:
Tech
Acronyms
Tech acronyms
have different or
multiple meanings
across markets –
resulting in
irrelevant website
traffic

20. Accounts for 60% of all online spend in China
Research consumer behavior
Recognized European seals of approval
90% of Dutch customers are familiar
with this trust mark
65,000 sites on Yandex (Russia) use
this payment option

21. User behavior
Legal
requirements
Delivery
and returns
Payment
methods
Trust
signals

22. Case study
Imagery
PromotionsMessaging
Calls to
action

23. Localization
top tip

24. Put budget into SEO before translation
Localization
Let’s make sure we are
using the right
terminology, phrases and
head terms to start with
Let’s make sure the
right people are seeing
this content
Keyword research
Website translation
Technical SEO
Website launch

25. Use native speakers
Keyword
research
CategorizationMeta
descriptions
On-page
optimization
Could get to
10k
combined
Localization

26. Localization
Use native speakers
Could get to
10k
combined

27. Build out a glossary for translators
Localization
Save money in the long
run by making the site
SEO ready at launch

28. SEO

29. Fail #3: Incorrect
geo-targeting

31. Fail #3: Incorrect geo-targeting
https://www.tissotwatches.com/it-it/homepage
I’m not having a good
experience with this
brand
This doesn’t seem
trustworthy
Why is traffic to the
homepage so low?

32. International tech SEO
Widgets Widgets
Widgets Widgets

33. International tech SEO

34. Case study
50%
increase in
visibility after
hreflang was
implemented

35. SEO
top tip

36. Duplicate content with small language
variations (GB, IE, US, AU)
SEO
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/gb" hreflang="en-gb" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/ie" hreflang="en-ie" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/au" hreflang="en-au" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/us" hreflang="en-us" />
Ah! These are for
users in different
countries!
There are
alternative versions
of this content
This is where
they’re located
This is the language
of the content
Specifically for
users in this
country

37. Fully translated content in multiple
languages
SEO
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/en" hreflang="en" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/fr" hreflang="fr" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/es" hreflang="es" />
<link rel="alternate" href="http://www.example.com/it" hreflang="it" />
That’s better. Now I
know which content is
for which query
language
English users in UK
French users in France
Spanish users in Spain
Italian users in Italy

38. Remember this?
SEO
Hreflang referencing
incorrect URLs for the
homepage
“en-en” is incorrect –
needs to be language
code followed by country
https://www.tissotwatches.com/it-it/homepage

39. Budget

40. Fail #4: Spreading
budget too thinly

41. Fail #1: Spreading budget too thinly
Why aren’t we dominating
every market?
Why are we not converting
at the same rate as the US?

42. Applying the same KPIs globally
Why is it a problem?
Re-targeting
Selling to existing customers
Competitor awareness
Establishing brand awareness
Acquiring new customers
Competition varies
Existing
Markets
New
Markets

43. Site structure options
ccTLD
Sub-domain
Sub-folder
www.coca-cola.co.uk
www.coca-colaitalia.it
www.cocacola.es
www.apple.com/au/
www.apple.com/fr/
www.apple.com/de/
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://de.wikipedia.org
https://pt.wikipedia.org

44. Budget
top tip

45. Research Market
Search
engine
functionality
CompetitionMarketplaces
and resellers
Seasonality
and sales
events
Budget

46. Case study
252
pieces of
coverage
107%
of European
organic
revenue
target
Page 1
for “post-it
notes”
171
links
Budget

47. Case study
Google UK
(position 4
from 8)
No budget
spent in
Spain or
Austria
Overall
visibility
increased in
DE and IT
Google NL
(position 6
from 44)
Post it notes
Budget

48. Promotion

49. Fail #5: One-size
fits all approach

51. Fail #5: One-size fits all approach

52. Resource:
International
sales events
Without the knowledge of
key sales events, companies
put themselves at risk of
missing huge opportunities
that impact revenue.

53. Promotion
top tip

54. Research search engine algorithms
Promotion

55. Analyze the SERPs
80% of the SERP
is dominated by
ads
Click-through rate
for organic listings
low in comparison
to other search
engines
Promotion

56. Know where your customers are
WePay feature on
social media app is
used by 80% of the
Chinese population for
online purchases
Promotion

57. SEO
Budget
Localization
Five key areas
Markets
Promotion

58. Markets
Build out test landing pages and use paid
ads to test markets before investing

59. Localization
Conduct thorough keyword research by
native speakers at page level before
spending on translation

60. SEO
Implement hreflang HTML tag in the <head> section of a
page’s source code to help Google serve the correct content
to users based on their language or location

61. Budget
Perform gap analysis in each market
applying specific KPIs to campaigns based
on resource, opportunity and time

62. Promotion
Research search engine functionality and
understand the algorithm to inform
promotion plans

63. Contact us
New York | London | Leeds
(347) 763-6933
inquiries@searchlaboratory.com
www.searchlaboratory.com/us/
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@searchlabs
linkedin.com/company/search-laboratory/