The Easiest International Marketing Strategy - This is "It"

How about starting your international marketing strategy like this?

Hello! I'm Josh, a marketer at Spray, an AI seeding solution that helps brands expand globally.

Recently, many companies are turning their attention to global markets to overcome domestic market limitations, secure larger consumer bases, and drive growth.

From a marketing perspective, those considering international expansion likely have the following concerns:

1. "How can we introduce our brand to overseas consumers?"

2. "What if we spend a lot on advertising but get no response?"

3. "How can we create content that resonates with local sentiments?"

In this article, we'll examine successful global expansion cases and explore how to effectively implement 'influencer marketing' - essential for initial international marketing strategy success.

Why Should International Marketing Strategy Start with Influencer Marketing?

When brands expand into overseas markets, they can target significantly more customers, increasing sales and growth potential while gaining various benefits including enhanced competitiveness and revenue diversification.

This is why many brands are turning to global markets, as mentioned earlier.

So, what is the 'core marketing strategy' that many brands consider during their initial expansion phase?

It's 'Global Influencer Marketing'!

According to a survey conducted by Matter Communications with over 1,000 US consumers, 69% of respondents said they trust recommendations from friends, family, or influencers more than brand-provided information.

This tendency becomes even more pronounced when consumers are unfamiliar with a brand.

In such situations, local influencer marketing becomes an attractive strategy for building trust with initial customers and testing reactions to our products and messages.

Moreover, since uncertainty is high during the initial phase of international market entry, a test strategy using local influencers with an appropriate budget is more efficient than executing large-scale brand advertising with substantial budgets.

Based on these advantages, many brands have already entered global markets through influencer marketing strategies.

Now, let's examine actual cases of brands that successfully entered international markets through local influencers.

What Are the International Marketing Strategies of K-Brand

The first case is the bakery brand 'Tous Les Jours', leading the K-food trend.

After withdrawing from Malaysia in late 2017, Tous Les Jours re-entered the Malaysian market in Q1 2025.

For successful re-entry, Tous Les Jours collaborated with Malaysia's leading food influencer 'kl.foodie' (1.3 million followers) to expand touchpoints with local consumers.

The post uploaded by the influencer recorded over 9,600 likes and about 100 comments within just 10 days after posting, successfully contributing to Tous Les Jours' local promotion.

Additionally, you can find more cases of brands currently expanding globally on the TikTok Ads Business page.

[View TikTok advertising success stories]

However, not all brands can build initial awareness this way. For small indie brands, it's difficult to contact mega-influencers with over 1 million followers, and the cost per campaign is quite high.

Moreover, campaigns involving visits to specific stores are even more challenging.

So, is influencer marketing impossible for small-scale brands?

The answer is 'No'.

'Beauty of Joseon', a small domestic indie beauty brand, conducted international marketing strategy through collaboration with micro-influencers.

As a result of seeding with micro-influencers, 2023 sales exceeded 200 billion won, successfully entering the global market.

Brands like COSRX, ANUA, and Skin1004, which grew based on such seeding, have created today's K-beauty trends.

Over time, brands from many more categories beyond beauty are achieving results through seeding-based international marketing strategies.

For What Purposes Should Global Seeding Marketing Be Conducted?

If an early-stage brand conducts global seeding, what purposes would be most effective? Depending on the brand's situation, the following strategies can be effective:

Purpose of Entering Local Distribution Channels

While entering online open markets like Amazon, Rakuten, Qoo10 Japan, and Shopee has low barriers, convincing local buyers or MDs is still necessary to enter offline channels that significantly impact overall sales.

At this point, if you can prove that there's substantial content created by local influencers and online sales are occurring, you can develop sales channels quite smoothly.

Testing Product and Message Compatibility

Through the response rate and actual content reactions during the process of sponsoring products to local micro-influencers, you can gauge your brand's potential in advance.

If poor performance continues from the seeding stage, reconsideration of products and brand messages may be necessary.

Conversely, if engagement metrics relative to views are favorable from initial content, you can proceed with follow-up plans like collaborating with more influential influencers or secondary advertising execution.

Driving Sales During Major Promotional Seasons

If good content is uploaded during seasons when your products can generate the most sales - for example, year-end promotional seasons or peak seasons - you can guide customers considering purchases to look at your products.

In such cases, messages emphasizing special product benefits or deadlines to increase conversions within the period can be effective.

Starting Seeding-Based International Marketing Strategy for the First Time?

Curious about how to plan and operate influencer seeding, the fastest strategy for global expansion?

You can check information to consider from initial planning to outreach and operation stages in our <Seeding Starter Guidebook>.

We've filled it with tips that even those already conducting seeding can reference!

Want to See How Many Global Influencers Fit Your Brand Perfectly?

👇Experience Spray's AI seeding solution search function for free right now

[Try Spray Search Once]

If the concept is clear, AI can execute finding the right people incredibly fast.

Spray will continue to greet you with various marketing insights for successful global market entry.

Thank you.