With increased online shopping around the world, many fashion brands seek to expand their business to new geographical markets. And with many success stories out there, international expansion becomes even more compelling. The question is, what is important to keep in mind when launching your brand in a new market with influencer marketing?

In this article, Frida Ekholm had a chat with Carlos Casquilho, Head of Revenue at Cure Media, about how fashion brands can succeed with launching and growing their business in new markets with influencer marketing. 

What are the risks of entering and expanding into a new market?

There can be a lot of risks associated with entering a new market – both in general, but also when you do it with influencer marketing as part of your main strategy. One of the more obvious ones is associated with costs – choosing the wrong influencers, due to lack of local knowledge, can be both time consuming and expensive. With little local knowledge, you risk overpaying for the effort as well as waste a significant amount of time negotiating if you aren’t familiar with the local pricing models and terms. From a branding perspective, it can also be challenging to know which influencer is or isn’t a brand fit, especially if you don’t have experience of that particular market.

Choosing the wrong influencer marketing strategy and approach is a big risk as well. Here it’s critical to understand what strategy works best in order to enter a new market without any brand awareness. With no brand awareness in a new market, you need to understand that everything will take time and your hit rate will probably be lower in the beginning. This is especially true if you don’t have the right measurement tools, in-house team or agency in place.

How do I minimise the risks associated with an expansion to new markets through influencers?

Good questions! It’s difficult to eliminate all risks, but some things you can do in order to minimise the risks are:

  1. Build an influencer marketing strategy that aligns with your ambitions and goals. What results do you expect from the channel?