subject: Marketing to International Audiences [print this page] If you've been in affiliate marketing for any length of time, you have probably at least thought about international traffic (traffic outside the U.S.). If you are running a website or two, you are probably getting some traffic from outside the U.S. already. It may be that you just consider it remnant traffic and grab a few random offers to serve up to non-domestic visitors or maybe you just ignore this traffic completely. However, many affiliates have built very successful businesses around monetizing international traffic. I know one affiliate who has been very successful promoting dating offers to consumers in a variety of Spanish speaking countries. He was successful enough that he spent a year traveling through South America while managing his affiliate business from his laptop. He was a fairly new affiliate when he launched this marketing program and achieved a lot of success in a niche that many affiliates were ignoring.
Tapping into international markets provides incredible potential for affiliates. There are hundreds of millions of consumers that you have never tried to reach in your current marketing programs. However, there are unique challenges in trying to take your promotions international, which is part of the reason that more affiliates haven't jumped into these markets. If you are interested in beginning to market to consumers outside the U.S., here are just a few very basic things to keep in mind as you take your first steps into the non-domestic market.
Start with a blank page
First and foremost, you need to approach a new international market without a bunch of preconceptions about what kinds of promotions work and don't work. While you may be an expert on marketing to the dating market in the U.S., don't expect the same tactics to work in every market and for every culture. If you decide to focus on non-English speaking countries outside of the western hemisphere these differences are likely to be more and more pronounced. While you may only make small adjustments to your promotions to market in Australia, chances are you will need to make dramatic changes to your marketing for it to work in China. This isn't to say you should put aside all of your marketing expertise and start from scratch. But, you do need to have a very open mind about your target audiences and realize that cultural behaviors and norms can vary greatly from country to country.
Learn to leverage cultural attitudes
Once you've wiped the slate clean of preconceived notions about your audience, you need to start gathering as much information as possible about the people you will be marketing to. This doesn't mean you need to go back to college and get a degree in international relations or become an expert on every country's culture and sociological makeup. But, you do need to get a basic understanding of the culture and what is likely to grab their attention and motivate them to respond to your offers. One of the keys to successful marketing is connecting with your target audience. Making that connection is a lot easier if you understand the needs and wants or your audience and the best way to get them interested in your campaigns.
Adapt to different online behavior
Just because most people in the U.S. jump on the web from their PC or laptop doesn't mean this is the way that people in other countries are most likely to access the internet. Asia, for example, is far more focused on mobile web access than the U.S. currently (although this is certainly changing). Find out everything you can about the surfing behavior (favorite devices, when they surf, etc.) and adjust your marketing campaigns to take advantage of the specific behaviors of your target audience.
Overcome the language barrier
We've all heard stories (some probably urban myths) of companies marketing in foreign countries that didn't do a very good job of translating their marketing copy into another language with sometimes unintentionally hilarious results. A lot of affiliates who promote international campaigns decide to stick with English speaking countries to avoid this potential pitfall. If you are going to market offers in a foreign language that you don't happen to be completely fluent in, you need to find some assistance. Fortunately, the internet has made this process fairly easy. There are plenty of websites (Elance, etc.) offering access to freelance copywriters who can translate your marketing copy into another language without making the kinds of mistakes that an automated translation program is likely to have. Even if you think you are fairly fluent in another language (4 years of high school Spanish doesn't make you truly fluent), you may want to have a native speaker translate your copy, as they are likely to do a better job on the small nuances of local dialect that you could very easily miss. The more accurate your marketing copy, the better it will connect with your audience.
There are certainly many other challenges involved with international marketing (legal/privacy challenges being one significant area that I haven't touched on), but if you follow these initial steps, you will be much more likely drive positive results.
