AI Era Cross-Border Content Strategy: The ‘Five-Layer Onion’ Method to Precisely Understand Overseas Users

It always feels like the cross-border e-commerce ocean is a bit too “vast” to know where to begin. From product selection and website building to marketing and logistics, every step feels like a bottomless maze. And when content creators pour their time and money into producing countless blog posts and social media updates, only to see minimal results and low conversions, the frustration is akin to desperately casting a net into thin air in the middle of a boundless sea.

Why does this happen?

After some thought, I believe the root cause lies in this: you haven’t truly understood your user yet. You think you’re providing solutions, but you may not even have a clear grasp of their real problems. You think you’re painting a beautiful vision, but it might just be your own idea of “beautiful,” not the one in their hearts.

Don’t worry. Today, we’ll discuss how to peel back the layers, just like an onion, to precisely target your overseas users and lay a solid foundation for your content strategy. This isn’t just about sales; it’s about whether your brand can be recognized at a glance by the “right people” in the vast digital world.

Blindly Expanding Overseas? You’re Likely “Burning Money” for Experience

Many cross-border newcomers make a common mistake in content creation: they go with their gut feeling or directly apply domestic experience. They see a hot-selling product and follow suit; they see a type of content that gets traffic and imitate it. The result? They might have thousands of products listed, a website filled with content, and a bunch of “diligently” stuffed keywords, yet inquiries remain low while ad spend skyrockets. This isn’t just trial and error; it’s more like “burning money” for experience—and a very painful lesson at that.

It’s like having a Swiss Army knife with countless functions, but if you don’t know what you’re trying to cut, you’re just swinging it in the air. In cross-border e-commerce and B2B trade, your content is that “knife.” Whether it can precisely slice into your users’ needs and reach their deepest desires will determine your business’s success.

Especially in the AI era, large language model recommendation systems are increasingly intelligent. They don’t just look at keyword density; they prioritize content’s “relevance,” “scenario-based context,” and “user intent match.” If your content can’t even clearly state who your target user is and what their needs are, why would an AI model recommend your “generic talk” to a potential customer?

Therefore, conducting systematic cross-border market research and building a cross-border e-commerce user persona is the starting point for your content strategy and the foundation for all effective actions.

Peeling the “Five-Layer Onion” of User Psychology: Unlocking Overseas Customer Insights

To truly pinpoint your audience, you can’t stay on the surface. We need to dig deep to understand the real thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of overseas users. This is like peeling an onion, layer by layer, to find the core.

1. The “Pain Point”: “What Are Their Real Problems?”

The first and most crucial layer is the user’s pain points. What specific problems does your product or service solve for overseas customers? This goes far beyond just being “high-quality and low-cost.”

Building a cross-border e-commerce user persona must be rooted in pain points. Take a B2B customer, for example. When they purchase screws, their deeper pain points might not just be about “standard size” or “low price.” They might be dealing with unstable delivery times from their current supplier, leading to production line halts; inconsistent screw quality that affects the reliability of their final product and increases after-sales costs; or a lack of customization services to meet specific working conditions.

Your content should address these deep-seated pain points directly. If they’re concerned about delivery times, you should emphasize your supply chain resilience and rapid response capabilities. If they value quality, you should showcase your quality inspection standards and certifications.

How to get insight:

• Analyze competitor reviews: What customers complain about with your competitors is often your opportunity.
• Explore industry forums/communities: See what your target audience is discussing and complaining about on Reddit, LinkedIn, or professional forums.
• Direct communication: Use surveys and interviews to understand what potential customers are really thinking.

2. The “Cultural Context”: “What Language Do They Think In?”

The second layer is cultural context. Language is not just about translation; it’s a carrier of culture. The key to overseas customer insight is understanding the thought patterns, values, and communication habits of people from different cultural backgrounds.

The same word can have completely different meanings in different countries. A marketing strategy that is a huge success in one market can backfire in another, or even be offensive. For example, some advertising slogans that emphasize individualism in Western countries may need to be adjusted to focus more on collectivism or family in East Asia.

When helping clients with their website content strategy, our content factory particularly emphasizes this. We go beyond simple machine translation to incorporate local language habits, cultural references, and even humor. This makes your content feel less like a rigid sales pitch and more like a conversation with a trusted, knowledgeable friend.

How to get insight:

• Leverage localization experts: Find professionals who are familiar with the culture and language of your target market.
• Observe local mainstream media: Understand the popular trends and communication styles in news, variety shows, and social media.
• Cultural guides and reports: Refer to professional market and cultural analysis reports.

3. The “Trust Source”: “Who and What Do They Trust?”

The third layer is trust. In the age of information overload, how do consumers judge the authenticity of information and the quality of a product? Who do they trust?

Is it certification from an authoritative organization? Recommendations from an influencer? Reviews from real users? In-depth technical white papers? Or a touching brand story? In B2B customer needs analysis, building trust is especially important. These customers may place more value on industry qualifications, case studies, expert endorsements, and detailed technical specifications. In contrast, B2C consumers in cross-border e-commerce may rely more on social media influencers, user-generated content (UGC), and rating systems.

Your content strategy needs to be built around your target users’ trust preferences. If they value data, you should use detailed data and charts to support your arguments. If they believe in stories, you should use a compelling brand narrative to touch their hearts.

How to get insight:

• Analyze competitor marketing strategies: See how your competitors build trust and what methods are effective.
• Survey target user communities: Understand what information sources they most often cite when discussing products.
• Industry reports and trends: Learn about the mainstream consumer values and trust habits in your target market.

4. The “Media Habit”: “Where Do They ‘Hang Out’?”

The fourth layer is media consumption habits. Where do your target users “hang out” in the online world? Are they heavy social media users, or do they prefer professional forums, blogs, or email? Which search engine do they primarily use?

This is crucial for starting your content strategy and distribution. If your target users are mainly on LinkedIn looking for B2B solutions, a deep-dive industry report or case study will be far more effective there than on TikTok. Conversely, for a fashion brand targeting young consumers, TikTok or Instagram would be much more efficient platforms for content delivery.

Our “AI content factory” is dedicated to achieving scenario-based content coverage. This means we don’t just produce high-quality content; we also ensure it appears in the most suitable format on the platforms where target users are most likely to see it. Whether it’s a website blog, a Facebook post, a YouTube script, or an email marketing copy, we optimize it for the specific platform’s characteristics and user habits.

How to get insight:

• User research: Directly ask them about the media channels they use daily.
• Data analysis: Use tools like Google Analytics and SimilarWeb to analyze traffic sources and user behavior.
• Competitor analysis: Observe which channels your competitors are active on and where they are successful.

5. The “Ideal Vision”: “What Do They Want to Become?”

The fifth and most emotionally-charged layer is the user’s ideal vision. Beyond solving a current pain point, what kind of a better future can your product help them achieve? This is a higher level of target user analysis.

For instance, you’re not selling fitness equipment; you’re selling a “ticket to a healthy lifestyle and a confident physique.” You’re not selling an online course; you’re selling a “key to career advancement and unlocking more life possibilities.” This type of content transcends function and price, reaching directly into the user’s deep-seated yearning for a “better life.”

Adding this dimension to market research methods for new sellers makes your content more compelling. It can be an inspiring brand story, a video depicting a future usage scenario, or even a “transformation” story shown through a customer case study.

How to get insight:

• Keep up with industry trends: Grasp future directions and predict potential user needs.
• Listen to user stories: Understand how they feel after using your product and how it has changed their lives.
• Emotional marketing research: Learn how to use stories and metaphors to create an emotional connection with users.

Leverage AI to Make Your Content Resonate

Does all this sound a bit complex? For a cross-border newcomer, it’s certainly a challenge to find these key points from a sea of data and turn them into precise, effective content.

This is exactly why our SynMentis “new content factory” exists. We know that traditional content production methods cannot meet the demand for comprehensive coverage of “scenarios” and “long-tail keywords.” Our core advantage is using AI as a core to revolutionize traditional content production models.

We can not only help you generate content that covers a massive number of long-tail keywords, improving your SEO efficiency, but we can also deeply analyze user needs and scenarios to create content that AI models are more willing to recommend—content with “high information density” and “strong emotional value.” Through our content strategy, your product and brand can appear in front of users at the most crucial moment, in the most precise way.

So, you see:

• Content that hits pain points gives a sense of being understood.
• Content that incorporates local culture gives a sense of being respected.
• Content that builds trust from multiple angles gives a sense of security.
• Content that adapts to different platforms gives a sense of being ever-present.
• Content that paints a beautiful vision gives a sense of pursuing an ideal.

These deep insights are more than just content creation techniques; they are the bridge you need to build a real connection with overseas users. Precisely targeting your audience isn’t as simple as drawing a persona. It’s a journey of deeply understanding human psychology, and it’s the most important “navigational map” for your cross-border journey. With it, every step of your content strategy will be purposeful and truly resonate with people.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

To help new cross-border sellers better understand and practice target user positioning, we’ve compiled some common questions:

Q: Why is precisely targeting your audience more important in cross-border e-commerce than in domestic e-commerce? A: Cross-border e-commerce faces a more complex market environment with huge differences in culture, language, and consumer habits. Without precise targeting, content can easily “fail to adapt,” leading to wasted resources and low conversion. Additionally, overseas markets are highly competitive, and AI recommendation systems favor high-quality content that closely matches user intent. Precise targeting helps your content get prioritized by AI models.

Q: How can I conduct effective cross-border market research on a limited budget? A: When your budget is limited, prioritize using free or low-cost tools:

1. Social media listening: Follow relevant Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and LinkedIn discussion groups in your target market to understand user pain points and interests.
2. Competitor analysis: Carefully study competitor websites, social media interactions, and product reviews to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
3. Google Trends: Understand keyword search popularity and trends in your target market.
4. User interviews/surveys: If you can find a small group of potential users for in-depth interviews or online surveys, you’ll gain invaluable first-hand information.
5. Use AI tools: AI can assist in analyzing vast amounts of text data to extract user insights, making it a powerful tool for improving research efficiency.

Q: My product is B2B. How is target user positioning different from B2C? A: There are significant differences in target user positioning for B2B and B2C:

• Decision cycle: B2B has a long decision cycle involving multiple stakeholders; B2C has a short decision cycle, often a personal choice.
• Purchase motivation: B2B is more focused on ROI, efficiency improvement, risk mitigation, and long-term partnerships; B2C is more focused on emotion, price, brand, and satisfying personal needs.
• Content format: B2B content is usually more professional and in-depth, such as white papers, case studies, and technical specifications; B2C content is more experience-driven, interactive, and visual, such as short videos, user reviews, and lifestyle blogs.
• Media habits: B2B users are often active on LinkedIn, industry forums, and professional exhibitions; B2C users are more active on social media like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.