Expanding into international markets is an exciting opportunity, but it comes with challenges—especially in content creation.
Simply translating your website into another language isn’t enough to connect with new audiences (especially when using translation software as results can vary…!).
So how do you balance the need for content to be created quickly, while also making it relevant for your regional audiences?
We’ll share the content model we deploy when we move into new regions, with examples from our recent expansion into France.
Why you need dedicated regional content strategies - not just translated websites
When entering a new market, there’s an important balance to be struck. You want content - in volume - and quickly.
Because the faster you have an SEO engine, a bank of product content and a value-adding blog, the better.
However, taking exactly what you have on your existing site and translating it into a new language won’t necessarily give you the results you want.
Just because that content has worked in one European region doesn’t mean it will work in another. And exact wording translations often come out a bit… off.
Each country and language will have its own colloquialisms and ways of wording things that won’t be represented without someone who speaks the language editing.
Amy Collins, Demand Gen Content Manager at Cognism, said:
“When companies expand into new countries, they’ll often just translate their website content. It’s low-hanging fruit, and that can be helpful to speed things up. But other times, that content just isn’t relevant, interesting, or even make sense to that new region.”
For example, launching a tech product in France using UK-centric campaigns that highlight savings may miss the mark. French audiences may value reliability and trust over cost-saving messages.
Charlotte de Beaumont, SEO Content Manager at Cognism, shared another example of where there’s a difference in perception and understanding between the UK and France:
“This market needs to be educated about what you're doing exactly. So, we have to be a bit more thorough.”
“Usually when it is innovation or a new way of work, you start in the US, then the UK, and then somehow later it will come to France.”
“We’re usually 1 or 2 years behind, which means the topics we might talk about in the UK are not relevant and will not add value to our French audience because they don’t know what we’re talking about.”
This means it can be more important to focus on educating the audience with content that goes a little deeper into a subject than you might have done for a UK or US audience.
This means that while you can speed up content processes by utilising content you have that works in other regions, it has to be done through the lens of someone who understands the local market. Tailoring the content to fit local needs, perspectives and ways of work.
Charlotte said this about pre-entry marketing:
“When we started Cognism in France, we had to try to set up quickly and learn fast. So, I think 100% of the content we created early on was localised.”
“I took all the low-hanging fruit, the generic content that was very successful in English, and I localised it. That helped us do market research, see what works, and what doesn’t.”
“Little by little, as we gained more expertise and feedback from the sales team, we’ve identified the topics that work well in France. Now, I’d say something like 30% is net new content, and by the end of the year, it will probably be more as the market matures."
The difference between localisation and translation
Quick interjection here to clarify what we mean by ‘localisation’ and how it differs from ‘translation.’
Charlotte explained:
“Localisation means going beyond translating text.”
“It involves adjusting tone of voice, calls to action, and imagery to align with cultural norms.”
“For example, in France, we realised the term ‘sales intelligence’ isn’t immediately understood as it is in the UK. We needed to explain what it meant and how it applied, sometimes even avoiding the term altogether depending on the context.”
“It’s about understanding the mindset of the audience and tailoring your content for this. Cultural relevance is as important as the content itself.”
Cognism’s international content strategy
At Cognism, we have developed a roadmap-driven content strategy, anchored by major “big rock” campaigns.
These large-scale initiatives are planned months in advance and supported by smaller assets like blogs, podcasts, and social posts delivered through our media machine in the run up.
Amy described:
“Big rock campaigns act as timestamps in our calendar for when we will run larger initiatives, and the smaller pieces help us to keep producing content to warm up audiences to the topic beforehand.”
Big rock campaigns are heavier-lift content pieces with more thought-through campaign activity planned around them. They’re designed to reach wider audiences and raise brand awareness of Cognism.
These big rocks also feed into topics that we want to be known for. In the UK, that’s:
- Marketing = Demand generation.
- Sales = Cold calling.
- GTM = European data quality.
To avoid being stuck in a rut of constantly planning and producing big rocks, with months between regular output, we focus on breaking big rocks down into smaller pieces, drip-feeding our media machine with content on these subjects while we work on big rocks in the background.
Executing our content strategy in France
Our French content follows a similar format but in less volume.
For example, they started out by creating a media machine only for one persona - sales. Now that this is up and running smoothly, our French content team has moved on to begin testing content for other personas.
Charlotte said:
“We couldn’t just spread everywhere like you were doing in the UK and US because of resources.”
“So, for us, we started with the webinars because we knew that this was a recognised format in France. Due to the type of content format it is, it has to be net new and tailored for the region.”
“When that was well installed, we did a podcast. Which again, while still a relatively new concept for the French market, has to be net new content which is made specific for our target audience in France.”
“Our podcasts and webinars are entirely in French. We come up with our own ideas, partner with French subject matter experts, and remain independent of what the UK is doing.”
“We do look at what the UK is doing, take some ideas, but we really try to be completely independent on these kinds of things.”
Localising big rocks
As the UK-based team develops ideas for big rock campaigns, the regional teams will assess and decide if the content is - or could be - relevant for local audiences.
Charlotte explained:
“We closely follow the UK content roadmap, which is mapped in Asana, to see what the UK is producing. Then decide, topic by topic, whether it’s something we can localise or whether we need to do further research and create something net new.”
“One good example is we’re working on the cold calling report for this year. Obviously, it’s data that is not French-specific. So one way we can localise it is to work with local subject matter experts.”
“We’ll just ask them to give us their opinion on those different topics that the cold calling report brought up, and compare it to the French market to see what makes sense.”
“At the same time, I plan topics I want to cover for France. If there’s anything not created in English, I ensure we make net new content to address our market’s needs.”
This strategic balance between localisation and original content allows the team to tailor their approach while leveraging existing resources.
Using SMEs
Another huge part of our content strategy is using subject matter experts to add authority to our content.
This is especially important when expanding into new markets, as working with local subject matter experts can help with the following:
- Giving content local context, making it more relevant for the audience.
- Giving the content authority, especially if you work with someone recognisable.
- Opening you up to their network, reaching new audiences.
Charlotte added:
“In France, we really like what is made in France. Listening to an English or German subject matter expert with subtitles is not really a thing that will resonate with the audience.”
“For every content project, we made sure we worked with external subject matter experts who had experience on the topic and a very good network in France. They could tell us exactly what was happening in the market and bring guests that maybe weren’t in our network.”
Regional team set up
So we have covered our content strategy and how it’s adapted regionally, but how do we set up our teams to produce content when we enter new regions?
It helps to first explain how our UK team is set up.
We have a demand generation content team and an SEO content team. While these two teams often collaborate, they’re distinctly separate.
The SEO team, as the name suggests, focuses on getting Cognism into as many relevant search results as possible.
Whereas the demand gen content team focuses on creating content to be distributed throughout our media machine and value loops (podcasts, social channels, newsletters, etc.) and big rock campaign content.
However, due to resource limitations when we move into new regions, these two roles are combined.
Charlotte said:
“In the UK, we obviously have the DG content team and an SEO team. In France and DACH, we have one person who is our dedicated content person for the region. And we do both demand generation and SEO.”
“When you start, I think it’s nice to have a better and deeper understanding of the market. Doing that, we can oversee everything and see what works and what doesn’t.”
“Having one person oversee demand generation and SEO allows us to quickly learn what resonates locally.”
Using AI to scale regional content
When it comes to creating regional content quickly, it’s hard not to mention a use case for AI.
AI can be a very useful tool when it comes to speeding up content production and helping with translations. However, it’s not perfect yet. There’s still a strong need for a local expert to review the content before it is published to the audience.
Charlotte said:
“AI marketing tools can be helpful in terms of translation—its French is quite good. I won’t spot any mistakes in the direct translations. But they’re not exactly 100% correct in terms of the message.”
“I think that’s an important distinction to make. You need to translate the message, rather than just the exact text in English.”
“AI can translate it in a weird way. And it definitely won’t translate your tone of voice. They won’t take into account all those subtleties that are super-important.”
She recommended a hybrid approach:
“If you don’t have a translator and have a small team, it’s really good to use AI for translation and then have an expert in the market review those translations and add the localisation elements.”
Not to mention that AI can be used on a wider scale to quickly produce new content pieces.
Amy said:
“I’ve been taking transcripts from our podcasts and feeding them into a custom GPT. Now, if I ask, ‘Do we have SME insights on X, Y, Z subject?’, it’ll find me a relevant quote from our hour’s worth of podcast recordings to embed into a blog post. It saves time on listening back to find one specific snippet of content.”
As AI and machine learning continue to evolve, the ability to tailor content at scale will become even more accessible. Tools like GPT-based language models will be even better placed to assist in localisation.
The last word
Regional content strategies are no longer optional—they’re a necessity for businesses aiming to succeed in today’s global economy.
As Amy and Charlotte shared, the keys to success lie in balancing global objectives with local insights, fostering collaboration between teams, and constantly refining strategies based on performance data.
Whether you’re entering your first international market or scaling to your 20th, these lessons provide a roadmap for creating content that resonates, builds trust, and drives results across diverse audiences.
