Starting out affiliate marketing in other countries than your own can be a more complex and more misterious perspective than the projects you are used to in your homecountry. There you know the brands, you can easily find out information about the local stores, how fast certain advertisers pay and it is easier to anticipate the consumers’ behavior. You may also know a few other people in the local affiliate community.

But affiliate marketing is an online activity and by its nature it knows no boundaries. Then why limit yourself only to your own country? Only because that is what you are familiar with? The same way life starts at the end of your comfort zone, so do opportunities and huge earnings start appearing on the global market.

We talked to 3 of our affiliates who have dared surpassing their homecountries’ borders and decided to throw themselves into the waves of affiliate marketing on external markets. Two of them have already tested the new 2Performant platform – Octavian Jomir and Marius Morariu and the third one – Cris del Valle Ruiz is a tenacious Dutch affiliate who enjoys making money on the Romanian market.

Each of them picked certain markets and used different marketing channels, while having to confront different challenges. But the are all sending a common message:

There is no such thing as the right time. The only right time is NOW. There are challenges, but the potential is huge and you can discover markets that will be a very pleasant surprise.

But before you start affiliate marketing in other countries, you need to consider the following:

You can use any marketing channel

You can use the same marketing channels that you perfected already and test them on the new markets. You can also try something new. Just like in your own market, there is no perfect recipe. All the 3 affiliates we talked to are using methods like paid traffic, special projects, email marketing, product agreggators or behavior targeting campaigns. Social media is another channel you should think of, especially for the strongly visual areas like Fashion, Home&Deco or Travel.

Choose the big advertisers or those with a high conversion rate

When you decide to start affiliate marketing on an external market you need to select the advertisers you will work with. In order to minimize the risk, it is recommended that at first you consider the size of the advertiser and its brand or its conversion rate. There is no success template for that either. If you are already specialized in a certain area, analyze the advertisers in that respective category and don’t be afraid to test them.

I think the easiest way to test a new market is to promote the advertisers you know for sure are highly convertible.

Marius

Subsequently, after testing the big converters on a market, you can also try the smaller advertisers to make sure you diversify your portfolio and you might find some micro niche businesses that work well with a small investment and a high ROI.

The language is a challenge, not a barrier

The first thing you can think of is how the hell you are going to communicate with people from other countries? If you are familiar with an international language, you can pick countries where that language is popular (like German in Hungary or English in Sweden).
If not and you have to find ways to communicate in the local languages, choose simple promotion methods, that don’t require many words, like pay per click and use a translation agency or online tools (Google Translate or paid tools).

Your opportunities will grow like crazy

Once you have entered a new market you will discover that you have a lot more options and you will find several advertisers which can extend your portfolio. In affiliate marketing, the income is not on a constant level. To fix these fluctuations, it is advisable that you enlarge your advertiser portfolio as much as possible, even if you are specialized on a certain niche.

Make the best out of all opportunities! There are virgin markets out there that hide a real goldmine. It is possible to discover that you can generate sales a lot easier on an external market, where competition is lower but the potential is higher.

Octavian

Make some time to investigate what works on the new market and if there are any special regulations

Don’t start with the assumption that you will deal with the same consumer behavior on the new market. Do a little research on what works well there and what are the consumer behavioral patterns in the new country and on the respective areas. You will surely notice cultural differences between advertisers from your country and the ones in the new market. But everything will still work based on communication and building a good relathionship with each of them.

You will notice a lot of cultural differences when working with advertisers from other countries. Some differences in a negative way and some differences in a positive way. It will take time and effort to build a good relationship with the advertisers you work with but it’s more than worth it. Down the line it doesn’t matter if you get paid in pounds, euros, lei, rupees or yen. Money is money.

Cris 

Also, do not overlook some of the local laws and regulations for more sensitive areas like adult stores, financial services or pharma.

Are you convinced yet?
If the answer is yes, all you have to do is check out the advertisers available in other countries, do your research, draw up you strategy and start making money! 🙂

2Performant is a self-service affiliate platform where e-shops work easily with digital marketing natives at a cost per sale model. 

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