There are eight main ways to find buyers for export: trade promotion bodies and embassies, chambers and export associations, trade fairs, B2B marketplaces and directories, LinkedIn, trade statistics, customs data platforms and researching buyers on the web. None of them is enough on its own. Most give you a company name; you still have to check whether the company really buys what you sell and who to write to.
Eight methods
| Method | What it gives you | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Trade promotion bodies and embassies | Names of importers and distributors in the target country, market briefs | Lists age at different speeds; contact people are often missing |
| 2. Chambers and export associations | Buyer delegations, matchmaking meetings, sector lists | Tied to event calendars; places are limited |
| 3. Trade fairs | Face-to-face meetings, exhibitor lists | Expensive; most exhibitors are sellers; contacts go cold quickly after the fair |
| 4. B2B marketplaces and directories | Inbound enquiries, company listings (Alibaba, IndiaMART, Europages, Kompass) | You do not choose who writes; heavy price competition; a listing is not a buyer |
| 5. LinkedIn | People at a company and their titles | Shows the person, not whether the company buys; messaging limits |
| 6. Trade statistics | How much each country imports, by HS code | No company names; used to choose a market |
| 7. Customs data platforms | Company-level shipment history (Volza, ImportGenius, Panjiva, TradeAtlas) | Many countries do not publish company names; paid; the contact and the message are up to you |
| 8. Web buyer research | What a company sells or uses today and who to write to | You have to describe the buyer well; Outfound does this work |
Which method when?
- You do not know which country to target yet. Start with trade statistics. Our Trade Map guide shows the steps with real screens.
- You have chosen the country. Collect candidates from several sources: embassy or trade office lists, fair exhibitors, sector directories and web search.
- You are looking for a distributor. Separate companies that hold stock from companies that have a sales team. Finding distributors abroad lists the questions to ask.
- You are back from a fair. Write within two weeks. After the trade fair sets out a follow-up routine.
- You want to see who your competitor sells to. Customs data platforms are strong at this. Their limits and prices are in customs data vs buyer research.
Where do you get a list of importers?
For free lists, start with your country's trade offices in the target market, export promotion councils, chambers and associations. Fair exhibitor lists and industry association member directories are often open too. On the paid side there are customs data platforms and contact databases. Whatever the source, a list is where the work starts: it gives a company name, not a buyer.
Turning a list into a first email
Whatever the source, ask five questions about each company:
- Does it sell or use your product, or something close to it?
- Does it make the product itself, or buy it in?
- Does it work with foreign suppliers? Brands on its site and country-of-origin information are clues.
- Does its size fit your capacity?
- Who decides? Purchasing, the product manager or the owner.
The answers are on the company's website, but doing this for a hundred companies takes days. Outfound asks the same questions for every candidate, lists the ones that fit with the reason and the ones that do not with why, finds the decision-maker and writes the first email in the buyer's language.
An example: 184 emails, 5 positive replies
Eska Yem makes feed ingredients from food production by-products and exports them. It sent 184 emails to importers it found and screened with Outfound. All 5 replies were positive: requests for a catalogue, a specification, an FCA price and samples. A short but accurate list set the quality of the replies.
Across the platform, 98.8% of emails sent between 25 March and 25 September 2026 were delivered.
Before you send
- Know the rules of the buyer's country; they differ. In some EU countries, Germany among them, unsolicited promotional email needs prior consent even between businesses; elsewhere a business-to-business email can rest on legitimate interest under GDPR. In every case write to a work address, say why you are writing and make it easy to opt out.
- Keep the first email short. The ideal email length explains why 50 to 125 words is enough.
- Writing to a European buyer? Read first contact with an EU buyer.
Last updated: · By: Tolga Tatar