Entering a new market
Get clear on the buyer, the market and the story you'll take with you, before you commit time and money to expansion.
International B2B market strategy
What sells your technology at home won't be enough overseas.
I help Finnish B2B technology companies work out what's standing in the way of international growth, and what to fix first. That could mean preparing for a new market or finding out why growth overseas is falling short.
12+ years in B2B technology marketing
Australia · Asia-Pacific · EMEA
Built from zero, more than once
Where I come in
Strong product. Big ambition. What needs to happen next?
Growth is falling short
Find the real constraint. Buyers can't tell what makes you different, or the leads arrive and none of them fit, or sales and marketing each think the other is the problem.
The approach
Find the real problem. Start with the right thing.
Whether you're preparing for a new market or trying to fix one that isn't working, the answer is rarely more activity. We start with the business question, then put effort where it has the strongest case.
I work on the decisions everything else depends on: what you say, who you say it to, and why it lands. I'll brief and review whoever implements it, whether that's a founder, a sales team or an agency.
I've also been the in-house marketer handed someone else's strategy to execute. That's why you get a plan your team can actually run, not a deck.
Step 01
Diagnose
Understand the market, the buyer, and what is actually in the way.
Step 02
Prioritise
Decide what to change first, and where effort will make the biggest difference.
Step 03
Put it to work
Make the change, document it so it can be used without me, and brief whoever takes it forward.
Where to start
Start with an International Growth Check.
It ends with something changed, not something recommended: you get a prioritised list of what needs to happen, and we do the first thing on it.
Depending on what we find, the first thing might be:
- Buyers can't tell you apart
- Messaging your team can use straight away, with the key lines rewritten
- Not sure what a new market needs
- A clear list of what to change before launch, and the first changes made
- No clear route into the market
- A decision on where to start and how to reach buyers, with briefs to act on
- Every salesperson tells it differently
- One sales story your team tells the same way, with the answers to back it up
- Leads come in and none of them fit
- An agreed definition of a good lead, and the first fixes under way
- Sales and marketing blame each other
- Agreed definitions, a clear handover and one set of numbers both teams use
Fixed scope, quoted in full before we start, and the number doesn't move.
From there we can take the next priority as its own project, or I can stay on to help steer the work. Either way the aim is to leave you able to run this without me.
Experience
International perspective, grounded in the work.
12+ years in B2B technology marketing, in-house at Intuit, Hologic and Huntsman Security, across SaaS, cybersecurity and health technology in Australia, the wider Asia-Pacific region and EMEA.
A pattern runs through all of it. I get brought in when something isn't working, or doesn't exist yet. At Hologic I spent nearly five years covering four divisions and 15+ products, including more than a year as the only marketer in the country. The business had no marketing technology in the region, so I built it piece by piece and tested it myself.
At Intuit I was asked to fix a product certification almost nobody was completing. Being told to do it clearly wasn't working, so I rebuilt it as a study programme that made the case for why it mattered, with sessions, a playlist and a book at the end. People finished it.
Huntsman Security serves some of the most sensitive intelligence, defence and criminal justice environments in the world. There I was the sole in-house marketer for three regions, working directly with the founder to build capability in markets that had none.
I've marketed portfolios worth nine figures and I've been the entire marketing department. Both teach you the same thing: what actually moves the number, and what only looks like it does.
Mentor
EriCa Reactor, the green chemistry and deep tech accelerator in Espoo.
About Elina
Twelve years away, and back where I started.
Sydney → Jyväskylä
After 12 years in Sydney's tech scene I've moved back to Finland, and I'm now based in Jyväskylä. What struck me on returning was how much good technology is built here, and how different the job of explaining it becomes when your buyer is in another market and doesn't share your context. Closing that gap is what this company is for.
Curious by nature, I'll always choose good conversation and great banter over a sales pitch. Australia ruined me for bad coffee.
Let's talk
Planning international growth, or wondering why it isn't working?
Start with a free 30-minute conversation. No pitch, no obligation.
hello@elinachung.com