CHAPTER 9 | Go Global (An Opportunity)
Beyond Borders: Where Growth Comes Cheaper
A re-reading of One Million Followers by Brendan Kane
So far, every strategy we have covered was executed within a defined geography: the market we live in, the audience whose language we speak. But in this chapter, Kane opens a new window and says: growth is no longer bound by geographic borders. Emerging markets are an opportunity that Western brands have overlooked for years.
India, Indonesia, Brazil, and many other markets have only recently come online — and the cost of acquiring an audience there is still remarkably low. This means a rare opportunity: with a budget that buys only a small campaign in Western markets, you can ignite explosive growth in these markets.
The Astonishing Economics of One Cent
Kane presents a staggering number: in some emerging markets like India, you can attract a real follower for one cent or less. By comparison, in Western markets, the same follower might cost anywhere from fifty cents to several dollars — a difference of up to a hundredfold.
This cost gap, for brands whose product or service is global, is a golden opportunity. They can use these markets for faster growth while competitors are still struggling in expensive Western markets.
“Where growth is cheaper, the opportunity is bigger — provided your message is truly global.”
Content Must Be Global, Not Local
But there is one key condition: if you want to grow in these markets, your content must be understandable to a global audience. That means using images, symbols, and messages that are not tied to any specific language or culture. A video full of local slang becomes meaningless in an emerging market; a video with universal emotion is understood in every language.
This is the principle brands like Coca-Cola and Nike have bet on for years: they build campaigns that transmit the same feeling from Tokyo to São Paulo. Not a complex message, not a local expression — just a shared human emotion.
Boosting Engagement Rate, Even for Local Markets
One hidden benefit of growing in global markets is that it helps you raise your engagement rate — even if you later decide to focus on a local audience. Why? Because international followers, on average, share your content more and comment more often.
This creates a positive loop: global growth raises engagement; high engagement satisfies the algorithms; and happy algorithms show your content more to your local audience too. So even if your ultimate goal is a single local market, the global path can be a smart shortcut.
“Sometimes the best way to grow in a local market is to start from a global one.”
An Opportunity, Not an Obligation
Kane makes it explicit: this is an opportunity, not an obligation. If your business is local and your target audience is local, you do not need to go global. Globalization is a strategic decision, not a trend.
For many managers, this sentence brings peace of mind. Brands that target a specific market succeed better by focusing on that market than by spreading themselves across several mismatched ones. Only when your product or service holds real value for a global audience does going global make sense.
Translating Content: The Key That Opens Doors
One of the simplest and most effective actions for entering global markets is translating your content into other languages. Kane says this can dramatically increase your reach to new audiences. A great video translated into ten languages has ten times the potential audience — at the same production cost.
For this global content to become a long-term strategic asset, brands need a reliable digital infrastructure — a fast website available in multiple languages, a smooth app with a consistent user experience across markets, or a page that delivers the same quality in every country. This is precisely the specialty of the Stinoment engineering team (led by Mr. Hamed Asghari); from website and mobile app design to SEO and building highly engaging pages. For a free consultation, you can visit Stinoment.com.
Global Markets as a Laboratory
And perhaps the most intriguing point of this chapter: global markets can act as a cheap laboratory. You can test several versions of a message in India, Indonesia, and Brazil and, within days, discover which version earns the highest engagement. Then you take that winning version into more expensive markets.
This is the same strategy product teams at global startups have used for years: before heavy investment in a highly competitive market, test the product in a smaller, cheaper market first. Airbnb and Uber followed the same logic — start in one small city, then scale globally.
“The global market is both an opportunity and a laboratory — both growth and learning.”
💡 Hamed Asghari’s Note (CEO of Stinoment)
The most compelling part of this chapter for me is the idea of the “global market as a laboratory.” At first glance, it sounds like a marketing trick. But it is actually a deep strategic principle. Teams that test their idea in a small, cheap market before making a heavy investment structurally reduce risk. This is exactly what Amazon did with books before expanding to everything else.
The second point is that “content must be global.” For any brand seeking cross-border growth, this is a golden rule. Brands that try to force their local slang and humor on a global audience fail quickly. But brands that narrate a shared human emotion win in every language.
And the third point is Kane’s insistence that this is an “opportunity, not an obligation.” This reminds me of a management principle: every strategic decision must match the business goal, not the trend of the day. Going global does not make sense for every brand; but for brands whose product is global, not going global means missing a rare opportunity.
If I had to summarize this chapter for the Stinoment team in one sentence, it would be: “We look at global markets as a laboratory for growth, not just a market to sell in.”
In the next session, we turn to a powerful tool that lets you combine organic growth with smart advertising and take your brand to the next level.
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