Meagan Sutton
Go Global with Email Marketing
Email marketing can be a challenge to many businesses, especially on an international scale. Reaching global markets requires research and attention to detail. This includes translating and localizing, but it’s also important to remember global consistency as well.
How can you improve your global email operations to increase open rates, clicks and call-to-action conversions while keep your brand consistent across multiple languages?
The Basics
If you’ve launched an email campaign before, you know the basics.
The subject line and first two sentences are the most important aspects of your email. Without compelling information, most people won’t read much further. Make sure your subject line is intriguing and catches readers’ attention. Your opening lines should contain your most interesting points.
Don’t make your copy too long. Emails with less text are more visually appealing and are more likely to be read. Get your point across in 75 to 100 words.
Now adjust for international markets. Subject lines and text must be translated and localized, but also tweaked and repurposed for new targets. Research what’s important to these markets. What catches their attention and how long can you keep it?
Email copy must also be relevant to each culture. Domestic copy statistics should be changed to in-market ones for a more relatable emphasis. Images may also have to be adjusted for cultural relevancy and appropriateness. These are all best practices for global campaign management.
The Mobile and Social Game
Mobile email is quickly catching up to desktop. According to a recent report by Knotice, mobile accounted for 41 percent of all email opened in the second half of 2012.
Depending on your target markets, it might make sense to adjust your email format for mobile devices. Do some research on their Internet usage habits and make appropriate adjustments for the size and Internet speed of mobile phones and tablets.
Improve your global marketing operations by including links to your company social pages at the end of email campaigns. If your social networks are already posted in your email, swap them out for country-specific accounts. For example, if you have a Facebook and Twitter account for France, include those links in the French campaign.
Most importantly, make sure readers are able to understand your landing page. Without appropriately translated landing pages, potential customers could be lost.
Delivering Globally
How do you get your email campaign translated and into international inboxes? Global marketing services such as a translation proxy or in-market translators give the most accurate and culturally relevant localizations. Most languages don’t translate word-for-word, which is why machine translators aren’t as accurate.
Centralization is a big part of global email efficiency. Creating translated campaigns in one location, rather than having each in-country team develop their own, maintains brand consistency and allows for the same marketing experience across the board.
Thinking about launching a multilingual email campaign? Check out our Global Email Operations solution to learn how you can launch global campaigns quickly and efficiently.
Expand your Website Content to Multilingual Markets
English only accounts for 26.8 percent of Internet traffic. With the increasing amount of Chinese, Arabic and Spanish speakers online, it’s becoming more important to utilize website translation to accommodate these markets.
Adapting content for new markets isn’t as simple as using a translator to spit out a word-for-word adaptation of your current website. Careful localization and strategic planning after in-market research make for multilingual success.
Create an Online Content Strategy
Content is what’s going to pull customers in and keep them there. It should be informative and valuable to consumers while representing a clear image of your brand.
Your website content strategy is your chance to show customers what you’re all about. Stand out by providing insightful information on relevant topics and services. Define your core values and brand in a way that can be understood by multiple cultures after going through website localization.
Facebook, for example, aims to connect people through mutual friends and personal experiences, no matter where they are in the world. This universal understanding has established global success.
Research International Markets
There’s no point in marketing to a region that has no use for your product. Facebook shouldn’t use resources to market to China, for example, as the social network is restricted there.
Before entering a new market, do your research. What are their buying habits when it comes to your industry? Do cultural differences play a role? Is their geographical location feasible? What language to do they speak? All of these are things to consider when evaluating opportunities in other markets.
Don’t Go it Alone
Website translation tools help businesses adapt for multilingual markets, but make sure you’re using the right one.
Google Translate offers free translations in over 60 languages and you can use it on your own, but it leaves room for lots of errors. These word-for-word translations can confuse multilingual readers as not every language translates the same. Localization is important to make sure translations are accurate and appropriate.
Using professional website translation software and seeking advice from native speakers can greatly improve the quality of multilingual content and make sure readers are getting the right information.
Adapt for New Markets
Once you’ve established your website for multilingual markets, optimize it.
Take advantage of national holidays such as the Chinese New Year or Boxing Day in the UK and Canada. In market translators are good resources, but native marketers can help immensely with country specific content and promotions.
Global SEO is another marketing strategy to think about when developing multilingual content. Translated and localized content will improve SEO results on international search engines.
Keywords may need to be localized or changed altogether. Domain names, i.e ja.wikipedia.org, should be adjusted for specific countries to improve search results as well.
Make your Best Effort
If you don’t have the budget to translate enough of your site for new markets to comprehend your message, it might be a good idea to hold off. Half-hearted translations may make international consumers feel overlooked.
To keep this audience engaged until you’re ready for a full site translation, best practices include market specific newsletters or social pages.
For more information about a fast, easy to use tool for website translation, download our free eBook, Translation Proxy: A New Option for Managing Multilingual Websites.
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