Which is better, local based, or international based clients?

As you know, with social media, the reach you have is global. You have the ability to reach a global audience and thus audiences in other country without being there.

I think the answer isn’t necessarily if you should focus on your online marketing efforts on acquiring clients in your local area VS another country.

But rather, the word that comes up is specificity. If you’re trying to acquire clients abroad, tailor it to a very specific region to a specific audience. Same goes to the local marketplace.

You should tailor your campaign specifically to areas where you can create trust easily. Just like perhaps in my field of work, targeting clients in Arab countries like Dubai may not be an option to me because I’ve simply no options there.

But Australia, where family is based, Bangkok, Malaysia – these countries are an option for me.

For example in your case, if you’re based in the US – then targeting clients in the US is the best. It does not matter necessarily the location which you’re working at. I’ve met people that are living the digital nomad style here in Thailand that only targets clients in the US because of their network there.

Your goal here is to build a marketplace of individuals that want your product, and in order to do that you need to focus. So, focus on one marketplace, it could be local, it could global – but this one marketplace must be one that’s accessible to you given your skillsets, network and passions.

If you’re looking to launch a new product, it vital that you research thoroughly the market that you’re trying to sell your product in. Questions like:

1. Will I be able to penetrate this market?
2. What extra equipment, staff hiring, and expenses do I need?
3. Where am I going to acquire my customers?
4. How will I use marketing to acquire those customers?
5. How long will I take to acquire my first customer?
6. How do I validate product-market-fit?

Those are some of the questions you should be asking yourself.

The question should not be international or local clients. But rather WHO is the target audience I’m aiming to leverage. To achieve finding out your target audience, here are some questions you can ask:

1. Race
2. Age range
3. Interests/hobbies
4. Gender
5. Occuptation
6. Life values
7. Challenges in daily life
8. Lifestyle

You may benefit from creating a customer avatar to know specifically who you are targeting and writing towards that one audience. Creating a customer avatar and having a grasp on the type of audience you’re going to target will help you find the answer of WHERE your ideal prospects will be hanging out.

When you can find out where they’re hanging out, where they’re congregating, especially online, is when you’re able to craft a marketing strategy to fit that need.

Understanding helps you plan your campaign to target the right message with the appropriate platform to have the highest chance for success.

To give you an example of why you shouldn’t really see this a question of international clients or local clients but rather a question of marketplace behavior. In Thailand, email marketing is pretty much dead, because we don’t use email to communicate. And email is also not used in English as the most popular language, but rather Thai.

However, a commonly more used application is called LINE and Instagram. These two platforms are hot beds in Thailand. If you were to target the Thai market just because you wanted to be international without grabbing this important information, you’ll be lost.

Taking another example, is that if you want to target customers in the US, the answer would be what state/city would you want to target? New York? SF? You want to be very specific because global marketplace could mean many things. I therefor do not like the word global, because it shows that it’s a big entity outside your local country.

But the truth is, global is many up of many local marketplaces. All of the local marketplaces put together is called the global marketplace.

Never ignore the market information, which is information that is spanning across hundreds and thousands of people. Understanding the mass market is always key here. I hope this article has served something of value of you, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you’ve any questions.