What this was
I worked on a growth strategy for an exchange and money transfer service in Thailand. Not an abstract "exchange office", but a specific tool: help with exchanging money, getting cash, transferring to a Thai bank account, paying rent and everything else a person actually needs in a foreign country.
What I wanted to understand
Where's the money in this business? Who actually pays? And how do you build growth that doesn't hinge on the exchange rate and doesn't collapse at the first sign of competition?
What I did
I put together several layers of analysis.
Segmentation with JTBD
I split the market into groups by real tasks rather than demographics. Tourists, relocants, real estate agents and property investors all think about money very differently.
Growth hypotheses
I identified where demand could grow, how to improve conversion, and how to get people to come back and bring their friends.
RAT analysis
An honest inventory: where the strategy might not work, and which risky assumptions need testing before spending serious money.
Competitor analysis with 6P
I didn't just look at Google results. I looked at how competitors package their value, where they win trust and how they capture demand.
Org structure
What to keep in-house, what to outsource, and how many people you need at the start so it doesn't turn into a black hole for the budget.
The main takeaway
Thailand is two different audiences.
Russian speakers are the fast money.
They're already looking for "their people" in a foreign country, and the current product fits them very well. Trust isn't optional here. It's the foundation. People don't decide by comparing options on a website. They decide through a chat, a recommendation, and the feeling that someone will walk them through it.
Within this segment I see quick revenue from tourists staying 1–3 weeks, winter stayers, relocants, and real estate agents and visa consultants who are willing to recommend the service. They already have the audience's trust.
English speakers are an expansion for later.
That might sound contradictory, but the point is simple: the product is useful to them, but it needs different packaging. You need English landing pages, case studies, reviews, explanations of "how it works" and local SEO. Without that layer, growth among English speakers will cost more than it brings in.
What the segmentation showed
Russian speakers aren't buying "an exchange". They're buying peace of mind, speed and a process where everything is clear. Safety. The feeling that in an unfamiliar place, nobody is going to rip them off.
English speakers think differently. They care more about transparency, legitimacy, a clear explanation, and the sense that the service was built for them too.
It's not just a language difference. It's a difference in how they make decisions.
What the competition showed
In markets like this, nobody wins on the rate.
The winners are the ones who do four things better:
Trust: people need to understand who you are and why they can rely on you.
Speed: if someone needs the money "today", speed decides it.
Scenario fit: the better the product is packaged for a specific scenario (a holiday, rent, a property deal), the higher the conversion.
Human support: people need more than a button. They need to feel someone will help them if something goes wrong.
How I'd build growth
The fix is simple: build separate landing pages for specific moments in people's lives instead of one page for everyone.
Instead of "currency exchange in Thailand", go with "get baht after you land in Phuket", "help with a transfer to a Thai account when buying an apartment" or "pay your rent straight from your bank".
Why does this work? Someone whose task is "I need to pay rent for a week" isn't going to read about every exchange method. They'll read instructions for their own task.
Hypotheses I'd test first
Segmented landing pages
Separate pages for each city and scenario. Organized around the moment in a person's life, not the payment type.
Partnerships with locally trusted people
Real estate agents, relocation helpers and visa consultants already have people's trust. They won't advertise you, but they'll send clients your way if you make it easy for them.
Reviews as part of the product
In a business like this, reviews aren't just reviews. They're case studies: "how they helped a client", "why I chose them", "what happened when things got tricky". You need a system for collecting them.
Bringing clients back
Many people will come back. So you need to stay in touch, offer personal terms and catch the moments when they need you again.
English, but without a grand plan
2–3 landing pages, search demand and a WhatsApp-first funnel. Test first, then draw conclusions.
Risks
Positioning that's too broad: sell everything to everyone and the message gets fuzzy and conversion drops.
Betting only on the rate: even with a good rate, people will leave if they don't trust you.
One landing page for every case: someone with a specific task doesn't need a page about everything.
Going after English speakers unprepared: you can burn through the budget fast and get nothing back.
Growth without people: even good hypotheses don't work if nobody owns them.
The team I recommended
Not a marketing orchestra, but a small core team that can actually get things done.
In-house:
- A growth marketer who owns the strategy and hypotheses
- A content editor for segments and SEO
- A performance manager who runs the channels
- CRM support for working with returning clients
- An operations person responsible for the website and analytics
Outsourced:
Design, development, part of the SEO, video and creatives, and PR projects.
The logic is simple: the thinking happens in-house, the execution can happen outside.
What came out of it
Not "marketing ideas", but a market map that shows where to dig first: segmentation, hypotheses for each segment, a risk inventory, a competitor analysis and team recommendations.
Why this works
When a company looks at the market only through its product, it sees rates, channels, ads and competitors. But that's the surface.
When you look through JTBD and growth logic, you see something else: who pays, at what moment in their life, with what worry, in what scenario, and why they come back. That's a completely different level of conversation.
What I can do for a similar business
If you're in fintech, payments, exchange, cross-border transfers or local financial operations, I can help you find your most valuable segments, break down the market by real customer tasks, put together hypotheses, package a competitor analysis, and figure out where the real scale is and where it's an illusion.