How to rank non-English site in other countries ?

So far in my experience with trying to rank non-English sites in other countries there seems to be one major problem, I just can't seem to find enough backlinks on domains in that specific country I'm trying to rank in. I was always under the impression that this was the most important element from ranking in that country, is this really true ? And if so how does anyone really find enough links to rank or create a full link pyramid ? I mean yeah I have tried to scrape a lot but I could never find enough links to do a proper link pyramid for one small country like say France.

Or is it more important to just have backlinks on pages that are in this specific language regardless if the domain is from that country you want to rank in ?

Some of the jobs i love to do is this... Love to rank on different countries with different language. The main factors are those which you already said, linking to the specific country domains, does not matter if it is a forum, a comment or an article. Mix it up with the normal SEO done for English language, you will be there on the top soon. Also put it in the Google maps if there is an option of doing it. All the best.