In this post
In this post
Expanding your business globally isn’t just about translating your website and hoping for the best. For instance, most of the clients I work with want to reach international markets, as this provides the greatest potential return for their efforts. Over time, I’ve learned that proper international marketing research is the foundation of any successful global expansion.
In this post, I’m going to share my insights on conducting effective international marketing research. It’s going to cover a range of topics that can help your business thrive in new markets, beginning with the importance of this type of research.
Why International Market Research Matters More Than Ever
Your business has unprecedented opportunities to reach global audiences. However, what works in your home market might not resonate elsewhere. This is a job for international market research in a few different ways:
- You can identify viable market opportunities before you invest resources.
- There’s an opportunity to understand local customer needs and preferences.
- Research is vital for navigating cultural nuances that could impact your success.
- You can look to stay ahead of regional competitors.
- You’re able to make informed decisions about your own market entry strategy.
Your objectives matter more initially though, because without them, your ship sails without a rudder.
Setting Clear Goals for Your International Research
Before diving into research methods, you need to define what you want to discover. In my experience, successful international market research usually aims to answer these key questions:
- Market viability. Is there actual demand for your products or services in the target market?
- Customer understanding. Who are your potential customers, and what are their specific needs?
- Competitive landscape. Who is the local competition, and what makes them successful?
- Entry barriers. What regulatory, cultural, or technical challenges might you face?
- Resource requirements. What investments in time, money, and infrastructure will you need?
Your research needs to maintain consistency, adapt to local nuances, account for cultural context, local market terminology, and region-specific examples. Even formatting requires careful consideration: date formats, currency symbols, and measurement units should align with local expectations.
In short, success relies on multilingual content. 75 percent of consumers prefer content in their native language, and 40 percent won’t engage with websites in other languages at all. When it comes to market research, use a culturally appropriate primary language to get accurate feedback.
However, there’s an extra layer of complexity between your typical domestic research and the global environment. This is not only about understanding customer behavior: you need to grasp many different contexts, regulations, and challenges.
The Domestic vs. International Research Divide
You’ll quickly discover that domestic research methods work differently to international ones. In my experience, these differences go far beyond simple cultural adjustments. Even so, the fundamentals are vital to get right:
- Cultural context. What seems obvious in your home market might be completely different elsewhere. For instance, color choices that work well in Western markets might have entirely different connotations in Asian markets.
- Language nuances. Direct translations often miss cultural subtleties. Product names or marketing messages can often have unintended meanings in other languages, for example.
- Market maturity. Different markets might have varying stages of adoption of your industry standards. What’stypical in one market could be cutting-edge in another.
- Research methods. The way people respond to surveys, interviews, and other research methods varies significantly across cultures, which almost needs its own translation.
Beyond this, legal and regulatory compliance is a critical area. Each market has its own framework for data collection, privacy requirements, and consumer protection. You’ll need to factor in these variations when planning your market research.
Your monetary investment could vary between domestic and international markets too. Domestic research often has predictable costs, whereas international research requires investments in translation services, local expertise, and specialized data collection methods. Risk management factors such as currency fluctuations, political instability, and the reliability of infrastructure all can also have a big impact.
Primary vs. Secondary Research: Finding the Right Balance
In international market research, you’ll need both primary and secondary research to get a complete picture. Let’s go over the differences.
Secondary Research: Your First Step
Secondary research is pre-existing data that will form the foundation of your international marketing research. I recommend you begin with this as it helps you identify which areas need deeper investigation later. It’s also cost-effective, so knowing where to find reliable data is crucial.
For example, the World Bank’s Open Data and the International Monetary Fund’s country reports are great for market statistics and economic indicators:
However, these don’t usually catch industry-specific reports and market analyses. Statista is excellent for this, as it offers extensive market data and valuable information on a wide range of global topics across different regions:
Local business publications and news sources are equally important. Platforms such as Crunchbase and CBInsights can help you understand market dynamics and competitor landscapes. Even local market insight platforms such as China’s CNKI or Japan’s J-Global offer valuable data that might not be available through Western sources.
Don’t discount the insights that competitor websites and social media conversations can provide either. These are direct, ‘feet on the ground’ ways to research your chosen target market—and will help when you begin with your primary research.
Primary Research
In contrast, primary research covers a number of areas that don’t already have data waiting to be collected:
- Online surveys. Working with global audiences from tools such as SurveyMonkey gives you access to qualified respondents across different markets. These platforms offer built-in translation capabilities and cultural adaptation features that help ensure your research is appropriate for each market.
- Interviews and focus groups. Partnering with research firms that specialize in international B2B research could yield the best results here, such as Cint. These companies understand local business etiquette and can help navigate cultural nuances that might affect your research results.
- Market testing. Market testing platforms such as Optimizely let you run split tests across different markets. Tools such as Hotjar can help you understand how those users interact with your website.
Simply throwing your budget and resources at these areas is not the most optimal step though. Instead, a more considerate approach will work better.
A Step-by-Step Guide to International Market Research
With a plan and a set of objectives, you can start to work through a number of steps and touchpoints to develop your international marketing research.
The first step is to develop an approach to choosing your markets. Basic market size and growth potential are good areas to look at first, but metrics such as adoption rates for your products, services, and industry are vital.
Cultural alignment is another crucial factor. Some markets might appear attractive on paper but present significant cultural barriers. Understanding these nuances early can save significant resources later.
This is also where you should bring in your research on language accessibility and economic stability. A market that lacks these elements can mean your strategy isn’t viable.
1. Understanding Local Context
Your economic and political analysis should include a holistic understanding of the business environment. The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings provides valuable insights here. Organizations such as Transparency International can offer data on business practices and corruption risks.
Technical infrastructure assessment should form part of your research too. Local providers, reliability, and common constraints all matter. For instance, if you sell digital services, a tool such as the Speedtest Global Index could help you understand internet speeds and reliability in different markets.
You should also take cultural values and business practices into account, as it’s important for developing relationships. This latter point is really the key to improving your global marketing success.
2. Market Segmentation and Customer Profiling
Effective segmentation in international markets requires a nuanced understanding of local business structures and decision-making processes. In some markets, small businesses might be your primary target. For others, enterprise clients could offer better opportunities.
Tools such as LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator or Crunchbase Pro can help you understand the nuances of these business demographics:
To segment your audience, break down your target market through demographics and psychographics, industry verticals, and other metrics. From here, your multilingual research becomes crucial.
Engaging with potential customers in their preferred language can give you a deeper understanding of your segments. This means creating research materials that include needs and pain points, buying behaviors, decision-making processes, and more.
TranslatePress can be invaluable here, as it lets you maintain consistent messaging while adapting to local preferences. I’ll discuss how TranslatePress can assist you later.
3. Competitive Analysis and Positioning
Understanding your competition in international markets requires you to analyze direct competitors, but also understand local alternatives and substitutes.
Tools such as SEMrush’s Market Explorer and Ahrefs’ competitive analysis features can help you understand digital competition across different markets.
Don’t forget that even basic social listening in multiple languages can be essential for understanding the competition and associated customer sentiment. Regardless, if you study your competitor’s product offerings and pricing, marketing strategies, and Unique Selling Propositions (USPs), you’ll have a good footing to proceed.
4. Data Collection Strategy
Your data collection strategy needs to account for linguistic and cultural differences from the start, and has to be consistent. I recommend using the ‘back-translation’ method.
This is where you translate materials to the target language and back to the original. This tactic has a bad reputation in some circles, especially with machine translation tools such as Google Translate:
However, it’s vital for testing and I’d always suggest you include it in your strategy. What’s more, you can update and modify your research with ease, while maintaining versions in all of your target languages.
5. Building a Market Entry Framework
Creating an entry strategy based on your research requires merging all of your findings into actionable insights. This includes understanding a few different aspects:
- Mapping the local customer journey.
- Identifying channel partners.
- Developing a pricing strategy.
- Adapting your marketing messages.
The key is to maintain flexibility while you ensure a consistent brand message across markets. TranslatePress’s core capabilities can help you maintain this balance, and let you both adapt your messaging and preserve your brand’s core values.
TranslatePress Multilingual
Implementing Your Multilingual Research Strategy In a Nutshell
A successful multilingual research implementation requires careful planning. My approach would be to begin with mapping out your language requirements. Here, consider not just primary markets but also potential expansion regions. Factor in regional variants too.
For instance, European Portuguese differs from Brazilian Portuguese in many ways, and these nuances can significantly impact your research results.
TranslatePress can assist here as it uses automatic machine translation for your initial drafts, while retaining the flexibility to refine those translations later. TranslatePress’s visual editor ensures you can maintain the proper context throughout the translation process.
This interface can also help you conduct culturally appropriate research and maintain consistency across languages. For instance, you can utilize it to create multilingual surveys that capture nuanced responses, develop localized landing pages for market testing, and design feedback forms that resonate with local audiences.
For monitoring and adaptation, look to track engagement across different language versions, gather feedback on translation quality, and refine your approach based on the results. Markets evolve, and your research methods should evolve with them. Regular strategy reviews can help you obtain the most accurate insights possible.
TranslatePress Helps to Make Your International Marketing Research Work For You
Success with your international marketing research depends on your ability to truly connect with an audience in its native language. Using tools such as TranslatePress isn’t just about translation—it’s about creating a comprehensive research strategy that resonates across cultures while maintaining the integrity of your research.
TranslatePress Multilingual
Remember, effective international research is an ongoing process. As you gather insights from different markets, continue to refine your approach and adapt your research methods to better serve each region’s unique needs.
Do you expect to face any challenges with your own international marketing research? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below!
