Localising digital content is an important part of any significant marketing strategy, but you shouldn’t just be doing this for search engines and your SEO performance. More importantly, you should be doing this to nurture your global customer base.
Customers who find content that speaks to them and their experiences are more likely to keep returning to your brand, knowing they’ll always be welcome.
A More Authentic Voice
Customising digital content to the market you’re operating in can enable you to create a more authentic voice to connect directly with your audience.
Simply translating English text word for word into another language or using an automated translation tool will inevitably mean some text is lost in translation. Clumsy, irrelevant or even inappropriate translations can make it obvious to the intended audience that this content hasn’t been designed specifically for them, which could leave them feeling second best.
However, if customers know there will be new blogs, articles or social media content especially for them on a regular basis, they’re more likely to engage with your brand over the long term, increasing their likelihood of conversion.
Brands Are Built on the Messages They Send
Brands can show that they care about their customers by investing in creating tailored content for audiences across the globe, or by using transcreation rather than direct translation when engaging with language services.
Examples of effective ways to do this can include recording videos multiple times in different languages so they’re not simply dubbed with subtitles, and making sure you have separate social media accounts for each individual territory.
Build a Global Reputation
Paying attention to the localisation of your content can help to safeguard a brand’s reputation around the world. When translations go wrong, your reputation can take a knock – and if it was a particularly big blunder, this can linger in the memory for a long time to come.
Take global drinks giant Pepsi, for instance; when it launched its ‘Come Alive with Pepsi’ campaign into China in the 1960s, this slogan unfortunately translated as ‘Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave’.
Another example comes from the American Dairy Association; its ‘Got Milk?’ slogan proved an effective way of reminding Americans to buy milk, but unfortunately sounded as though it was asking customers whether they were lactating when translated in parts of Latin America.
Work with the Experts
These translation faux pas demonstrate just how important it is to work with translation experts. At THG Fluently, we have a global network of thousands of translators and interpreters who know the culture, language and nuances of different locales inside out.
At THG Fluently, we’ve been providing translation services to businesses for more than 20 years. In that time, we’ve learned what it takes to support brand reputation and growth in international markets through linguistic and localisation services. So if you’d like to learn more about how we can support your business with nurturing customer loyalty across the globe, feel free to get in touch.