If you're looking to break into new markets, or just trying to reach a wider audience, embracing multilingual content marketing is essential. By adapting your content marketing strategy to appeal to different regions and cultures, you can engage more people and boost your bottom line. From language translation tips to demographics research, here is everything you need to know about multilingual content marketing.
What is multilingual content — and why is it so important?
Multilingual content is content that is available in more than one language. This allows you to engage customers in their native language, expand into new markets and improve search engine rankings globally.
There are several benefits to this approach:
- It allows organizations to reach a global audience.
- It helps to build trust and credibility with customers who may not be familiar with the organization's primary language.
- It can help to create a more diverse and inclusive culture within the organization.
As with any marketing strategy, multilingual content should be carefully planned and executed. When done poorly, it can create confusion and turn away potential customers.
What is content localization?
Content localization goes beyond translation. It is the process of making your content relevant to a specific culture or region by understanding your target audience's customs, values and beliefs. True content localization will usually require native speakers to create the content.
For companies looking to develop a global content marketing strategy, localization is an essential part of creating an international content marketing plan.
How do you successfully localize your content?
As the old saying goes, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." The same principle applies to localized content marketing. To be successful, it's essential to create content that resonates with your audience. Here are a few tips for localizing your content marketing:
1. Know your audience
It's crucial to understand who you're talking to and what they care about: What are their pain points? What solutions are they looking for? These pain points may be different from what your domestic audience faces. For example: While most marketers care about privacy and regulations, European audiences face harsher penalties and fines for not complying with GDPR. It’s important to understand the differences between your domestic and international audiences, so you can determine how content needs to be adjusted as it is translated.
2. Speak their language — literally
Many businesses make mistakes when translating content by failing to localize product names.
In 1970, American Motors released a car called “the Matador,” which means “killer” in Spanish. This created a disconnect between their Spanish content marketing strategy and Spanish-speaking customers.
Words that may be a good fit in one culture, may be offensive in another. When creating content, use the appropriate language for your audience. When in doubt, err on the side of caution.
3. Be sensitive to cultural differences
Mistakes in language don’t just extend to product names. When hiring a translation agency, it’s important to provide clear guidelines on how content should be adjusted to meet a target audience’s needs or cultural preferences.
Most translation agencies will try to translate the content as close to the target language as possible. But exact translations can cause problems. For example, it is more common to see informal language in B2B marketing in the United States; however, in another country, informal language might be seen as unprofessional or rude. By working together with a native speaker who can clearly communicate how and why content should be adjusted according to cultural norms, you can set your team up for success.
4. Tap into local influencers, writers and publications
If you can get local influencers on board with your content, it will go a long way in helping you reach your target audience. Additionally, partnering with local writers and publications can help to ensure your content is well-written and high quality.
5 Steps to Creating a Multilingual Content Strategy
Here are a few steps to get your multilingual content marketing campaign up and running:
1. Develop your overarching strategy
Before you translate your blog posts into multiple languages, step back and develop a multilingual strategy. You should be able to answer the following questions:
- What are you trying to achieve?
- What are your KPIs?
- What is the ultimate story you want to tell?
- How are you going to accomplish your goal?
As with any content strategy, it’s important to document your approach. Your team should create an editorial calendar focused on international content. This plan should include the languages needed, the topics and who is responsible for the piece.
2. Identify what needs to be outsourced
To supplement your content production, it’s important to determine which types of pieces need to be outsourced.
First, identify which in-house staff can speak or write in the languages you are looking to target. Having a few years of university courses in a target language is not the same thing as being able to write on a professional level. Even if these writers don’t have the skills to create the content, they can be useful in coordinating with translation agencies or proofreading content to check the tone and brand message.
To ensure you are producing content on a consistent basis, consider leveraging a news licensing service, which offers insights into industry trends across a wide range of topics and languages.
3. Create a multilingual website experience
Make your website accessible to potential customers. If your target market consists of speakers of multiple languages, simply translating your website into different languages is not enough. You also need to take into account cultural differences and create a site that is tailored to the needs of each audience. When tailoring your blog strategy, consider what topics are most important for different regions.
4. Explore new channels
Once you've identified which languages you need to target, you can start investigating which channels are most popular in those markets. You might be surprised to find that some social media platforms hugely popular in your home country are hardly used in other countries. For example, while LinkedIn is a popular social network in the United States, this tool may be less effective for targeting local businesses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where XING is the platform of choice for business professionals.
Your team should also explore different regional and country specific publications. There are many European publications that may not require translation.
5. Make sure your sales team can follow up
While multilingual content is beneficial to your audiences, if you don’t have sales team members who can speak the target language, you may end up with leads your team cannot follow.
For regions where you may not have sales staff, consider focusing multilingual content on customer retention. Product information, news articles and information, as well as instructional resources, should all be in the native language. By focusing on customers, your team can build a stronger presence in the region, while your team grows its sales capabilities.
6 Benefits of Multilingual Content Marketing
In an increasingly interconnected world, it is more crucial than ever to be able to communicate in multiple languages. Here are six ways multilingual content can help your business.
1. Building solid relationships with your customers
Failing to localize your content can result in missing out on huge opportunities.
Research has shown that people are much more likely to do business with companies that offer content in their native language. In fact, 65% of respondents in one CSA survey said they would rather read content in their own language, even if it wasn’t well-written.
Not only is it important to localize your main content, but it’s also crucial to consider your auxiliary content. According to CSA research, 75% of consumers are more likely to make a repeat purchase if customer support is in their target language.
2. Attracting new customers globally
Localization isn’t just about keeping existing customers happy — it’s also about attracting new ones. If your website and marketing materials are only available in English, you’re immediately excluding anyone who doesn’t speak the language. A CSA report reveals that companies lose 40% of business opportunities simply by failing to localize their buying process. That's a significant chunk of potential customers you could be leaving behind.
3. Scaling your business
Companies that can reach beyond their local market and speak to a global audience have a distinct advantage over those that don't. By translating your content into different languages, you can open up your business to a whole new world of potential customers.
4. Increasing conversions
Increasing your online presence in multiple languages can also increase conversions. After all, if potential customers can't understand your website, they're not likely to make a purchase. According to CSA, 40% of those surveyed will not purchase from a website if the content is not in their native language.
5. Improving your website rankings globally
Search engines like Google consider the user's location when determining search results. Although English is the top language used in the world for internet users, it only accounts for 26% of internet searches. If your website is available in multiple languages, you're more likely to show up in the search results of users worldwide.
6. Facilitating communication with customers and prospects
Translation will make navigation easier for international users, and content localization will ensure that your message is communicated effectively.
Creating Multilingual Content
How do you create content that will speak to a diverse audience? Here are some fundamental steps to get you started:
Assemble a team
Creating multilingual content is not a one-person job. To provide an optimal experience for all visitors, no matter their language, it's essential to assemble a team of experts who can help you. This team (whether an outside agency or in-house) should ideally include native speakers of the target languages, as well as copywriters, designers and developers who are familiar with the process of creating multilingual content.
Note: Ensure that your team is not just “translating the content.” Content should be localized and should take cultural considerations into account.
Conduct audience research
A good performer knows that you can't put on a great show without knowing your audience. The same is true of content creators. In order to produce material that will resonate with your audience, you need to understand who they are, what they're interested in and how they prefer to consume content. You can do this through market research, surveys, website analytics and social listening. By taking the time to get to know your audience, you'll be able to create content that not only informs and entertains, but also speaks to their specific needs and interests.
Don’t make assumptions
Making assumptions is easy. It's much harder to sit down and look at the data objectively. But that's what good content marketing requires. Too often, decisions are made based on assumptions and biases instead of facts. This can lead to campaigns that miss the mark completely. Good content marketing requires a localized team that understands the market and can provide direction based on data.
Outsource your content
If you're looking to scale up your content production, there's no need to go it alone — you can outsource your content from trusted media sources. By working with a reputable source, you can be sure that your content will be of the highest quality. Plus, you'll save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run. NYTLicensing works with world-renowned media organizations across the globe, including Der Spiegel in Germany. By leveraging our copyright license, you can ensure you are providing high-quality content without the high costs that go into global content development.
Have a team dedicated to proofreading
There's nothing worse than publishing an error — especially when it's in a language you don't even speak! Create a dedicated team to ensure that translations and characters are correct. It's worth the peace of mind and the goodwill of your international customers.
3 Types of Multilingual Content
If you want to conquer the world (or at least a significant chunk of it), you need to speak multiple languages and utilize different types of content. Here are three popular types of multilingual content to help you get started:
News
News is one obvious choice. Whether local, national or international, news stories can be a great way to engage with customers and build brand awareness. But don't forget about trade publications and industry news sites — these can also be valuable sources of information for multilingual audiences.
Articles
Articles are another key content type, especially when it comes to educating your audience. By sharing your expertise and insights on a particular topic, you can position yourself as an authority in your field. Make sure your articles are well-researched, well-written and penned with your particular audience in mind — otherwise, they're likely to do more harm than good.
Thought leadership
Don't underestimate the power of thought leadership. Thought leadership pieces require a deep understanding of the topic and the audience you're writing for. These pieces are often opinionated and sometimes controversial, so it's essential to make sure they're carefully crafted for each market. Working with a professional writer or editor is often the best option when creating thought leadership content in multiple languages.
Examples of Brands Using Multilingual Content
Here are some examples of the top brands using multilingual content (including features you can emulate in your own playbook) to reach new markets below:
McDonald’s
McDonald's is one of the most well-known examples of a brand using multilingual content. Their "I'm Lovin' It" campaign features different languages, and their menus are localized to specific countries.
Disney International
Disney International has a section on their website dedicated to different languages and offers customer support in multiple languages.
Dove
Dove has significantly used multilingual content in its "Real Beauty" campaign. The brand created ads featuring women of different ages, ethnicities and body types speaking in their native languages. The result was an empowering and inclusive message that resonated with women worldwide.
IKEA
IKEA created a website that allows users to view products in their local language. This makes it easy for customers to find what they're looking for, regardless of where they are in the world.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola created ads featuring people from around the world singing "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." The result was an inspiring message of unity that helped Coke become one of the most recognizable brands in the world.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to doing business internationally, there's a lot to consider. You want to be able to connect with your existing customers, while forming new relationships.
But how can you make sure you're doing it right?
NYTLicensing can be your partner for multilingual content. We have the experience and expertise to help you navigate the complexities of entering new markets. And we're not just talking about translating your existing materials. We can also help you curate content that resonates with your audience. So whether you're just starting out or looking to take your business to the next level, we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you translate your content?
Finding the right translation partner can be a difficult endeavor. When translating content, it’s important to work with a team. Preferably someone who is in-house can read the translation to validate if it accurately reflects the brand message. If this is not possible, consider hiring a consultant who is familiar with your brand and the culture or licensing content from reputable publications.
Why is context important in translation?
When translating a piece of content, it’s important to understand the context of a piece. Not all words have a one-to-one translation, and many idioms don’t make sense in other languages. Additionally, certain languages (such as American English) tend to be less formal in professional writing. As a result, it’s important for translated work to understand what the piece is trying to accomplish.
