By decade’s end the average expat is going to be younger than ever before. And while these expats will need all the same services as previous generations, they have so far proven resistant to traditional marketing strategies.

As such, we’ve spent the last two months researching this group. We’ve conducted interviews in industries from insurance to education, and have reached some important conclusions on young professionals and how to reach them.

How are young expats different?

In the course of our research and interviews, we identified a number of differences between expats aged 24-40 and their 40+ counterparts. Below we’ve boiled them down into 4 key points:

1) Young expats are all about technology. They grew up online. As a result, they are early adopters of new technology, and are turned off by companies that seem slow or outdated. The younger the expat, the stronger he exhibits this trait.

2) Young expats use media differently. They have different preferences when it comes to media (and thus marketing campaigns). The key to reaching young professionals is authenticity. Sanitized messaging and boilerplate PR-speak don’t impress this group. Companies have to think social.

3) Young expats are harder to find. Older expats still gather in the usual places: traditional “expatriation” websites and forums. Young expats tend not to congregate in these places. Instead they are spread out across social networking sites, and special communities with international members, where they have a better chance of connecting with others like them.

4) Young expats identify more with their peers than nationality. Because of the sharp divide in attitudes toward media and technology, young expats identify more strongly with people their own age than older people from the same country. Hence, appeals to their “national” or “cultural” identity are not as effective. Young professionals think of themselves as “world citizens,” not “expat Brits/Germans/Spaniards/etc.”

Targeting young expat professionals

In order to reach young professionals, marketeers first need to get on the cutting edge of technology. Print is dead and static web content will follow. Young expats want to be addressed directly and honestly. That’s the main reason they’re so fond of social media.

Marketeers also need to challenge young expats’ view of big companies as soulless profit machines. Humor is key. Make a young person laugh and you’ve gone a long way toward earning her trust (not to mention business).

Finally, companies shouldn’t limit themselves to “expat” communities to reach young professionals. It’s much more effective to think about communities of young people, then narrow focus from there. If we were looking to target young expats in Hong Kong, for example, we would start by looking at all young people in Hong Kong: What phones do they use? What do they use them for? What websites and social networks do they prefer? What kinds of bars, clubs and restaurants do they frequent?

Ultimately, you will always have more success appealing to a young expat’s generational identity than his identity as an “expatriate”. To him, expats in the traditional sense are old people. And trust us, that’s the last group he wants associated with.

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Ad networks such as Taboola, Outbrain and Google Ads offer native ad formats for advertisers. We can use these ad formats along with targeted placements to publish these advertisement on news websites that are frequented by expats. These can be news websites and publications in the country they are currently living as an expat or on news websites in their home countries which they maybe be reading to keep up to date with current affairs.

Ad networks can also provide us with various targeting options that allow us to precisely target expat audiences.

For example: If we wanted to target British expats living in Hong Kong and Singapore we could run native ads with targeted placements on British news websites such as the DailyMail and The Guardian to display to web visitors accessing the websites from Hong Kong and Singapore.

Another example could be if we wanted to target German expats living in Japan we could run native ads on news websites in both Japan and Germany with targeted placements to only display if a user visits a website from a Japan IP address using a mobile device that has the German language as the device language setting.

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These are the questions on many advertisers minds when faced with an expat campaign.

“Narrow down your advertising channels and choose media that is already targeting expats for the best results, advises Carlos Duez, business development manager at Just Landed. “Your marketing mix needs to use different channels. The Internet is the cheapest option and you can measure results. This is particularly important if you are on a limited budget.”

Optimizing campaign results

Results are measured by looking at the click through rate (CTR), and of course conversions afterwards – if you can measure these. Using these results, ads can be weighted. Meaning different priorities are assigned to different ads, thus affecting where they appear on a page.

If you are using different creatives, we recommend you manually weight your campaign after a sufficient number of impressions have been delivered. That way you can give more importance to the banners that are performing better. This will help you to optimize your campaign.

Advertising to the right demographic

Analysing your campaign results can also help you find out more about your target audience – and how inclined they are to buy your products. For example, you can find out whether your banner gets clicked rather by those expats that have already moved country or by those that are still at home.

To do this you can use a geo-analysis of your banner performance. By tracking the origin of clicks using IP addresses, ad servers can show you where people are currently located. If you are an expat tax company in France, for example, you might find out that you get a higher clickthrough rate from people seeing your banner from outside of France. In this case, your service might be more attractive to expats not yet in France (pre-move). In other cases, you might find out that you would rather target foreigners who are already in France (post-move).

Designing banners for expatriate campaigns

The design of your banners is also vital. Banners should be fairly simple, almost editorial in style but without huge amounts of text. It’s difficult to know how exactly a banner will perform which is why testing is essential. Overall banners with a complicated message and that are overly “flashy” don’t tend to perform as well as simpler designs.

Each banner needs a call to action, as people scan banners in a couple of seconds. Those with a clear “click here” message will generate a higher CTR than those with nothing. It is also important to “adapt” your advertising to the specific situation of expatriates. If you are targeting people living abroad, think which topics will be on their mind. An expatriate advertising campaign that builds on expat emotions will have more traction than a generic message. For example, as Telco provider you might want to stress your cheap rates abroad – as opposed to the other product features you communicate in national campaigns.

A campaign example

Designing a good banner is everything but easy. Take the example of an international school in the Benelux region. The client had started with relatively complicated banners, lots of small text and no call to action. The banners generated a CTR of 0.18% – not too bad but definitely worth improving.

Once we had redesigned the banners, using a simple picture and a call to action, the CTR improved to more than 0.36%. For the school, this translated into twice as many responses for every marketing Euro spent. An investment that pays off – especially if you run your banner on multiple sites and for a longer time period.

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We have experience in marketing real estate to international buyers from around the world and always ensure each campaign is tailored to those specific demographics. Depending on the demographic we are targeting, we might collect different types of contact information on our lead forms. For Chinese, we might collect the WeChat ID instead of or in addition to the email address, for Japanese we might collect the Line ID and for Americans and Europeans, we might collect the WhatsApp number for follow-up.

When marketing properties to international buyers who might not be familiar with local currencies, it helps to provide a conversion comparison into the expat’s home country’s currency or a popular currency such as the United States Dollar or the Euro.

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Part of the problem is generational. The older generation is much slower with technology. And naturally there’s always resistance to new things.

A lot of managers were afraid of Facebook and Instagram initially because they’re scared of negative comments. They wanted to control everything. But we found that when someone writes something negative, often other people will respond to disagree. Then we don’t have to do anything at all, and it comes off as more authentic and organic which of course it is.

To do it properly you need to build a tribe. Once you create a sense of community and group identity you actually end up with a very dedicated, self-sustaining marketing team.

Young expats similarly to older expats often start their purchasing process by searching Google for such products or services and then search social media platforms for any reviews or discussions to help them make their final decision.

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Research what traits, variables and data points that can help you identify and separate expats from the local populations. This is especially important when targeting English speaking expats in countries where English is also spoken by the local population, thus you cannot rely on language alone as a separation point from the non-expat population. However if you are for example targeting Italian expats in China then simply targeting the Italian language might suffice.

90% of expats surveyed said they regularly did a Google searches and spent significant time researching expat health insurance options before making a purchasing decision and again when renewing insurance policies and researching any concerns they might have such as the reliability of the insurer and coverage levels.

The post Expat Health Insurance Marketing & Targeting Tactics appeared first on Expat Marketing.

• Understand the expat community: Businesses should conduct market research to understand the expat community’s needs, preferences, and purchasing behaviors. This may involve learning about cultural norms, language barriers, and the availability of specific products or services.
• Partner with expat organizations: Businesses can partner with local expat organizations, clubs, or associations to build relationships and gain access to their networks. This can help businesses tailor their marketing strategies to the specific needs of the expat community and increase their visibility within the group.
• Use targeted advertising: Businesses can use targeted advertising through social media, search engines, and other online platforms to reach expats directly. This may involve using language-specific keywords, hashtags, and images that resonate with the expat community.
• Offer multilingual customer service: Businesses should provide multilingual customer service to accommodate expats who may not speak the local language fluently. This can help build trust and loyalty among expats who may be hesitant to do business with companies that do not offer this service.
• Participate in local events: Businesses can participate in local events and festivals that attract expats to showcase their products or services. This can help businesses connect with the expat community and build brand recognition.

Overall, marketing to expats requires businesses to be sensitive to cultural differences and tailor their strategies to meet the specific needs of this unique demographic. By doing so, businesses can build strong relationships with the expat community and drive sales and revenue growth.

More to Consider

Cultural Differences: Expats are often exposed to different cultures and ways of life, which can be challenging to adjust to. They may need to learn new languages, customs, and traditions, which can take time and effort.

Mobility: Expats tend to move frequently, either within the same country or to different countries altogether. This mobility can make it difficult for expats to establish a sense of stability and permanence in one place.

Work and Lifestyle: Expats often have jobs that require specialized skills or knowledge, such as working in international business, diplomacy, or academia. They may also have higher incomes and different lifestyles than the general population.

Social Networks: Expats often form tight-knit social networks with other expats and locals who share similar experiences and interests. These networks can provide support and a sense of community in a new and unfamiliar environment.

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Expat purchases are normally ‘high involvement’ products such as health insurance coverage, personal finance, or real estate. Interestingly, a study by Joann DeLanoy explains that for high-involvement products, people use web search before using Instagram or Facebook.

High-involvement product purchases are defined as those which cost more, are less frequent, and require more research. This rings true with many transactions that go along with relocation.

According to the study data, this would mean expats first search Google looking for product ratings, service reviews, news articles, and corporate brand pages. Much hyped social media channels such Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, seem to have very limited influence on more complex expat purchases.

Research only starts with Google

Does this mean you should spend all your money on search? Not at all. Consumers might use Google for starting their research, but they want to find additional product ratings and service reviews before making a decision.

Information about your products and services can be found many places, so you need to be aware where your customers go to learn about your brand. You can also incorporate reviews and ratings directly onto your brand page. Whatever you do, focus your energy on the most influential online channels – and remember Facebook and Twitter don’t even make it into the top five!

Outsource Social Media?

So are you just wasting your time on social media? One way to find out is to consider how much time you’re spending with them.

According to the Social Media Examiner, only 30% of companies are outsourcing all or part of their social media marketing, slightly up from 28% in 2011. But if more purchase intent comes from web searches, expat marketers should focus on SEO and limit their hours scraping for more ‘likes’. The outsourcing of social media might be an untapped strategy that frees up your time for other tasks.

However, don’t completely abandon social media quite yet. Its recent growth as a platform for consumer reviews and recommendations has given consumers more influence regarding brand perception (you might remember the Gap logo case). More companies such as Dow Jones and HSBC International are using expat-focused social networking to engage expats and better control their brand’s image. Brands are also getting involved in discussions on expat forums to encourage signing up to monthly subscriptions for products and services.

To understand how consumers find you online, you must be aware of which web pages link to yours, and on which pages people are talking about your brand. Companies such as Spiral16.com can map webpage linkages giving you deeper insight into how consumers find you.

Ultimately, all digital channels play a role in your brand’s expat marketing strategy. An understanding of which online channels have the greatest influence on your social consumer will lead to an increase in your digital return on investment.

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We run advertising campaigns to attract individual expats and ones to target HR professionals. In order to approach them, we use all kinds of online media, such as Google Adwords and specific expat sites. When targeting companies, we will mainly use client events, and global mobility and HR magazines.

Let’s take retirees for example. If we launch a new campaign for people in retirement, we would use different tools to reach them than we would use for young expats. For example, print media, lifestyle and traveling magazines that address a more wealthy and upper class society.

It’s all about positioning yourself to appeal to your desired target audience. Know who they are, know their interests and approach them in their natural environment.

The requirements of the younger expatriate are indeed usually different than those of an expat with family. The young expat will generally need only accommodation, not international schools and family insurance packages.

We target young expats with our social media channels on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We even have our own YouTube channel, so we are up to date and communicate interactively with our younger target audience. We see that younger expats are no less professional than older ones. In times of need, they will find the information they are looking for.

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The survey was devised because HSBC as a business wanted to better understand the expat community and the issues and challenges they face whilst living or relocating overseas. Expat Explorer has provided HSBC with some fascinating insights and because it covers all aspects of expat life has allowed them to better tailor the services they offer to their existing and potential customers.

What can we learn from HSBC’s expat explorer?

Don’t write off branding activities that don’t directly generate sales. The goal behind the Expat Explorer Survey was originally to prove to expats that HSBC understands their needs, Wood said. But since the survey generates a great deal of press attention it has also driven a lot of traffic to the HSBC website at no additional cost. “We are investing in compelling content designed to pull people into the website, as opposed to spending money to ‘push’ people to us,”

Keep social media personable. HSBC uses its social media platforms to interact directly with followers–the human quality of the interaction lends more credibility to the campaign itself.

Value outweighs PR-speak. Perhaps the most important takeaway from the Expat Explorer Survey is that creating a value-added product is a far more effective marketing device than flashy PR-language. The former proves a firm has expertise, the latter merely says it does. The reason HSBC’s survey generates so much media attention is that it’s a generally useful tool for understanding trends among expats worldwide, not just a mouthpiece for HSBC’s marketing department.

HSBC’s Expat Explorer is a model expat campaign in that it makes use of new media, builds both brand recognition and credibility and drives web traffic, all at a relatively fixed cost. The up-front investment in conducting the survey is therefore returned many times over each year in terms of media coverage and overall visibility.

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