Is your content having a tough time making it with a global audience? Did you know that since the mid-1990s, UNESCO reported that English-only content has dropped from 80% to 45%? It’s not surprising since 75% of the world’s population doesn’t speak English.
With how competitive digital marketing has become, maybe it’s time to expand your business strategy by creating multilingual content that is tailored to your target region. To learn more about how to reach a global audience, keep on reading!
The Perks of Multilingual Content and Marketing
Despite the pandemic, the Market Research Future stated that the market of translation had grown up to 40%. They explained that translation agency services have become vital in assisting domestic and international businesses.
Meanwhile, the Search Engine Journal wrote that about 50% of Fortune 500 companies ignore translation and your competitors may also have failed in creating content for non-English speaking users. As a result of this, you can take advantage of this and attract potential customers that would otherwise be undermarketed.
In the past, the internet was mostly used by English native speakers like the UK and the US. However, due to the growth of the internet, it has become easier to access it almost anywhere in the world. Currently, 54.3% of internet users are from Asia, which is about 2.7 billion people.
By creating multilingual content and business strategy for your target locale, you’re opening your business’s potential in a foreign market that would have been inaccessible if you were only creating English-only content.
In addition to that, over the years there has been significant research regarding consumer behavior concerning language and translation.
For example, Redokun reported that 40% of internet users said they will never buy from websites that weren’t in their mother tongue. 60% of those were confident in their English proficiency. Still, they said they still preferred content in their native language.
As digital marketers, creating multilingual content will help you in touch with your creative process. You get to research a wide range of cultures and foreign markets for content creation and building a strategy, we will talk more about this later on.
Considerations When Creating a Strategy for the Global Audience Digital Market
Now that we’ve established the importance of multilingual content, we’ve listed below some things to consider when planning to create multilingual content and marketing internationally, as follows:
Collaborating With A Translation Agency
It never hurts to find professionals, which is why I suggest that part of your multilingual content and business strategy would first involve finding a reliable translation agency that can work with you in marketing.
I suggest that you collaborate with translation experts earlier on because, besides translation, they can also help with market research. They can provide valuable input which you could incorporate into your marketing tactics.
Also, depending on the agency you will be working with, they can easily provide translation in different digital platforms. These can include websites, social media accounts, software and apps, video subtitling, etc.
I advise that when you select a translation agency, you will look through their services carefully, ask as many questions as you can regarding the kind of tools and machines they use for translation, and see to it that they offer at least a one year warranty for the translation they made.
Local Market Research
Forrester Research reported that when creating multilingual content, it shouldn’t just be about the translation aspect of it but include the cultural and social nuances to make the content more personalized.
This is where the services of a translation agency come into play. They can facilitate in conducting feasibility studies on the market and look into cultural preferences.
For instance, you’re planning to market your product to those living in mainland China. Through your research, you discovered that Chinese online consumers are more receptive to warm color palettes, like red. So, you changed your website to suit the preference of your customers.
Many times marketing campaigns failed due to a lack of research. You might be thinking to yourself that this should be a no-brainer but you’d be surprised how many well-known companies have failed over the years because they neglected to conduct proper local market research.
Local and International SEO
Understanding user intent is what makes an SEO marketing campaign successful. CareerFAQs wrote about how essential it is to focus on SEO if you ever plan to become an online digital marketer. They explained that when marketing through SEO, there’s a lot of potential data and insights you can garner from SEO consultants.
This is another area that a translation agency can help you with. Some of them are experts when it comes to international and local SEO. And so, I’ve listed some things you can look into with the agency you’re collaborating with, as follows:
- Conduct keyword research on your target locale and internationally
- For your multilingual website, consider the on-page SEO aspect of it.
- Take into account the websites: hreflangs, ccTLDs, local site hosting, etc.
Creating Multilingual Content
This process involves creativity, cultural understanding, and linguistic expertise. The translation agency you’re working with on extracting your content, incorporating SEO strategy, and implementing translation and cultural context.
I advise that after you have created your multilingual content, you will have native speakers of your target locale evaluate and test it. This is to ensure the quality of your multilingual content and avoid any embarrassing mishaps. Mistakes in front of a global audience are the worst kind!
Online Platform and Content Preference
Each country has its preference regarding social media platforms, search engines, and how they use these platforms. For instance, going back to that example, mainland China is your target locale, and you found out that Google is banned.
This scraps your SEO strategy tailored around Google. In your local market research, you found out that Baidu is the most popular search engine in mainland China. You then go to find ways on how you can optimize your website for the search engine.
Sometimes, it’s not even the search engine but the social media platform that gets between you and a global audience. For example, in Japan, Facebook isn’t very popular. This is because of how culturally reserved and private Japanese consumers are compared to other nationalities. Many Japanese perceived Facebook’s platform to be “too aggressive” while some didn’t feel safe on Facebook.
So when you conduct your local market research, be sure to consider the preference and accessibility of your target locale when it comes to online platforms.
Conclusion
For digital marketers just starting in their career, creating strategies for foreign markets will seem overwhelming. However, if you follow through with my advice and tips and seek out professional help, you’ll be able to create effective international marketing and business strategy.
