Marketing tips for global brands

Globalization has brought businesses to realize the economic benefit of breaking down national borders when marketing a product. But, there are real challenges, especially for small and medium-size organizations that market in multiple countries. Considering that one of the most effective ways to engage with a global audience is through digital marketing channels, many companies are looking for alternatives to overcome the language barrier. This post provides information that will help you meet your needs.

Work With a Reputable Language Services Provider

If you're looking for help with your multilingual marketing strategy, consider working with a reputable language services provider. These companies provide translation and localization services for clients in many industries. They can help businesses of all sizes create localized content and marketing materials in multiple languages.

An LSP that understands your global brand will help provide solutions that are tailored to your needs. They will also be able to advise you on the best ways to reach customers across geographical borders and cultural barriers. An LSP with experience working with other like-minded companies can help set you up for success by providing advice on how they market their products or services in other countries and how they attract customers globally as well as locally.

A good language service provider should have experience working with businesses like yours and offer tailored solutions based on your needs and budget. They will also be able to provide recommendations on which languages to target first — because it may not make sense to target every language right away.

Transcreation

Transcreation is the process where a company's message is tailored to a specific audience and culture. It involves an extensive amount of research and analysis to understand the nuances of each market.

This process makes sure that your brand connects with customers by speaking their language. You need to know how they speak, what they say, and how they think in order to create content that resonates with them.

Focus on Your Style Guide

A style guide is the foundation of your company's communication strategy. It's the document that defines how you talk to customers, employees and other stakeholders, including partners, investors, and media representatives. The style guide should include information about how your brand communicates with people in different countries and regions — whether through social media posts, product packaging, or website text.

Tracking Metrics

You should be tracking all of your digital marketing efforts, including PPC, SEO, social media advertising, display ads and email campaigns. A good starting point is to use Google Analytics as your main source of data. It's free and very easy to set up on any website, but there are plenty of other paid options if you want more advanced features.

It's important that you ensure you are tracking your digital marketing efforts appropriately though. If you don't know how to set up Google Analytics properly then ask someone who does or read some tutorials online (there are plenty).

Avoid Machine Translation at All Costs

Machine translation software offers many benefits, but it should never be used as the primary means of communication with customers. It has a tendency to produce results that are incomprehensible and often offensive, so if you want people to take your messages seriously, avoid machine translation at all costs!

Don't Forget About Regional Dialects

The first thing you need to do is understand the differences between dialects in different regions of the world where your product or service is available. For example, in India, while Hindi and Bengali are two of the most commonly spoken languages, there are dozens of other regional dialects that may have different pronunciations and spellings – so it's important that when you're creating content for this market, you get it right (or at least close enough).

Don't Ignore Cultural Context

Context is king when it comes to effective multilingual global marketing startegy. Language is just one piece of the puzzle; culture plays an even bigger role in how people interpret your message and respond to it.

You need to understand how different cultures view certain words or phrases so that you can create messaging that resonates with each group appropriately

Keep the core message universal (but still local)

In an effort to keep your message universal and keep it from sounding like you're talking down to the customer, you have to take a step back and ask yourself: "What do I really want to communicate?"

It's important that your message is clear, concise, and focused on one thing — in this case, how your product or service can help your prospect achieve their goals.

If you can get this right, then you'll be able to tailor the rest of your marketing efforts around that core message.

Optimize for search engines

Search engines like Google work differently in different countries and languages. For example, Google Spain prefers websites that use Spanish characters instead of English ones for their URLs (Uniform Resource Locators). The same goes for other popular search engines like Yahoo!, Bing and Baidu. If you want to rank high in these local search results, it's important that your website is optimized for each target market.

Conclusion

By definition, global marketing means targeting your audience in different geographies around the world. Some of you may be tempted to ignore these new markets, but the opportunities should be too attractive for marketers to pass up. The key to building successful global marketing campaigns is overcoming the language barrier. By adopting a multilingual approach and integrating translation services into your strategy, you can communicate effectively with global markets.