Global trade isn’t just for the big guys anymore. With the rise in ground-breaking technology that connects us on a planetary scale, businesses of all sizes can set up a global presence. And for companies looking to market their brands in other countries, the process has never been easier.
One of the first concerns when individuals start thinking about doing business in a foreign market is how to cross the language barrier. If you don’t speak the language of your target audience, how will you be able to market to them effectively?
This article will provide you with three actionable ways to surmount these obstacles and show that doing so is easier than you might think.
Understand Global Social Media Marketing Platforms and Always Use Native Translators
Establishing a solid social media presence in the country you are targeting is a must. Your first order of business should be to discover the most popular social media sites in the region. While Facebook still dominates much of the social media market in some countries, there are many hugely popular sites operating in other territories as well.
Russia, for example, has the most internet users in Europe, and their favored social media platform is Vkontakte (VK). It garners nearly 47 million monthly visitors. South Korea, meanwhile, is partial to video, so YouTube and Naver are dominant in that region.
China, on the other hand, has banned all western social media platforms; you won’t find many Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram users there. Instead, you’ll discover WeChat, which has over one billion monthly users (and no, that is not a typo!). If you plan to conduct business on a global scale, it is vital to leverage these networks.
The best way to do this is by finding a translation agency that can hook you up with translators who are native to the region of your target audience. They will have a unique perspective of the culture and can suggest practical ways of engaging your audience that will help you succeed in the long run.
A word about machine translation
While it may be tempting to use a translation tool like Google Translate to automatically change your content from the source language to the target language, don't!
Theoretically, this sounds great. In actuality, it is a terrible idea.
For starters, while machine translation is becoming increasingly sophisticated, it still cannot compete with human translators and will not render an accurate translation. Tools like this are still a long way from producing acceptable translations for business communications.
Use Localization to Ensure Your Message Is Well-received
If you want the highest chances of success when launching your global empire, part of your translation strategy should be to use a localization professional. Localization services exist to help you gear your marketing messages to each region’s culture.
To craft the right marketing materials, slogans, and advertisements in the new language, you want to know as much about your buyers and their preferences as possible. Many translators who are native to the country you are targeting specialize in localization and so can help you to understand this information.
You need to know not just what buyers will spend, but who does the spending, where they typically go to purchase a product like yours, and what value they put on it.
Additionally, words, images, and even colors need to be carefully thought out. Certain cultures associate yellow with danger, while certain symbols have important religious meanings attached to them. Not understand these subtleties from the outset can get you in some hot water. Thankfully, having a native translator and localization expert on your team will greatly assist you in sorting them out.
In addition, using machine translation means that your audience will know that your webpage has been translated (and most likely very poorly). A perfect translation is one in which the reader doesn't even know it is a translation. Using an imperfect online tool will only show your audience that your business lacks attention to detail – hardly the right message for a brand with global ambitions.
Enlist Language Service Professionals to Help You Conduct the Best Market Research
If you want to position your company as a viable option in a new country, market research is a must. To accomplish that, you need a great team to help you. A professional translation agency can help you develop surveys and questionnaires, collect information, furnish reports and more. You can then analyze all of this data to decide on your best strategies for moving forward.
From a marketing perspective, this has always been important, but it is absolutely vital when you are planning to expand to a foreign market. The cost of testing the market by conducting research first is minimal compared to the expense of going forward with an entire marketing campaign that flops because you failed to understand the basic needs of your new audience. And because you do not know the language, translators will be necessary to carry out the required research.
A language services team can expedite this process by tasking multiple people with different parts of the project. One can be translating your survey, another can be collecting and translating the results, another can be preparing reports, and so on.
Setting up shop overseas is a smart move that can really pay off and is one of the best ways to grow your business fast. As more companies enter the global marketplace, competition will become more fierce, but by utilizing the right translation services, you can ensure your company stays ahead of the game.
Bio
Ofer Tirosh is the CEO of Tomedes, a translation agency that helps companies move forward with their global plans through the provision of translation, localization, internationalization and associated services.
