The world has quickly become a global marketplace before our eyes, giving brands the potential to reach prospective customers in places that only a decade ago seemed a world away.
Now they are just words away.
Your global audience is waiting to read and hear your message, which, once carefully and meaningfully translated for each language, becomes universal.
And content is your most powerful tool to bridge that gap to develop a community of supporters around the globe.
Content marketing is how you get there, and localized content marketing is how you make sure users can extract the most value.
What is content marketing?
The foundation of any marketing campaign is useful content that helps your audience understand your brand and product quickly and clearly.
The Content Marketing Institute notes that traditional marketing strategies do not work in the new international marketplace.
The goal of content marketing is to create and distribute relevant, consistent, valuable, and useful content to reach a clearly defined audience who will become loyal customers with the right information.
Rather than sending out heavy-handed sales pitches, create blog posts, articles, white papers, and videos that show your audience that you care about their overall experience and satisfaction, whether or not they buy your product or service. Your primary objective is to help them solve their issue.
Creating a strong content marketing strategy proves to your audience that you know and understand their preferences and experiences.
When you realize that only 20% of your potential global audience speaks English, you know you have some important ground to cover to make sure you don't miss anyone since 70% of all consumers prefer content marketing to traditional advertising.
You need localized content for a global community
In the hands of skilled and thoughtful translators, people worldwide can learn about your product or service and how it can add value to a specific task or for their lives in general.
You want to communicate your message to international markets with the same nuances that you strive for in English speaking markets, including factors such as local dialects within languages, holidays celebrated, and favorite sports.
According to a NewsCred Insights poll:
- 72.1% of consumers visit websites in their local language
- 72.4% said they would visit websites with local translation.
- 56.2% of those surveyed said that they might pay more to receive translated information about a product or service.
Localization, through thoughtful translation, expands the reach of your brand's content, and expanded reach drives revenue, which is why more business leaders are turning to high-caliber translation tools that rely on talented translators.
By speaking to your audience in their language — along with a healthy dose of localized nuances — you show your commitment to their satisfaction by building trust and forming genuine connections.
Focus on creating authentic content
Content marketing is always valuable, but it has become critical during the first two quarters of 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Life has become a series of questions for everyone, from business owners to consumers. Business owners, team leaders, department heads, and decision-makers are searching for authentic content to help them find the best path forward.
That means brands, just like yours, have an amazing opportunity to deliver that valuable insight through your content:
- First and foremost, write for your audience. Understand the questions they're asking, and the solutions they're looking for. If you're unsure, get some boots on the ground and ask.
- Create content with localization in mind. Consider and incorporate those direct needs and cultural preferences from the very beginning.
- Highlight people. Brands should highlight the people not only powering their experiences, but also those using their experiences and even the talented individuals creating those experiences.
- Expand your content, explore new mediums. Write eBooks, design infographics, start a podcast. Keep spreading your message and offering it in a variety of channels for more exposure.
It all comes back to the right technology
Regardless of your type of business, expanding your global reach is essential to stay competitive. The translation tools available at Smartling can help you translate documents, games, mobile apps, or website content for peak localized content to share your brand and its mission with the world.
We are thrilled to work with our clients, bringing their content that represents their brands to the world to discover, understand, and apply to their needs. All the while, our clients find new connections and customers from places they had never imagined.
At Smartling, we want to work for you to build success! Contact us to let us know how we can help!
