Are your competitors expanding their reach to foreign countries and regions or do you plan to do so? But to be successful, you need to communicate in multiple languages. Contrary to what you may have thought, you don’t need to be a mega conglomerate to run a successful internal business. You can do so even if you only have a few staff under you. As long as you have a winning product that people in that target market are looking for, you are good to go.
These days, it has become a common practice for businesses to market to an international audience so they can increase their sales margin, and by extension, net a larger profit percentage. So it should come as no surprise to see their marketing in multiple languages.
While English is the dominant language used online, other languages have gained prominence, particularly, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese. These four languages along with English are the most used languages on the internet. So as you can see, marketing in multiple languages, especially these five, is bound to push your brand to greater consciousness.
Here are major reasons why you should market your brand in multiple languages
Gain competitive edge
Did you know that you can gain a competitive edge if you offer your customers something different from what your competitors are offering them? While you can reach customers in your home country using a language they understand, you will have to do better if you want to reach a foreign language. This is where multiple languages come in.
The more languages you use, the more people you can reach. There is even conflicting research that shows that buyers are more likely to buy a product if it is marketed in a language they understand instead of a foreign one.
The more languages you use, the more people you can reach.
For instance, if you have a product that you plan to market to the Hong Kong market, you may decide to launch your campaign in English. If you must know, residents of the island speak English and Chinese. However, if you market it in Mandarin instead, your campaign will resonate with the target audience more because Mandarin Chinese is their first language. So marketing in multiple languages increases your reach. To make your marketing actions even more effective, you can take it a step further and aim for localization. This involves complementing your translation services with efforts aimed at making the content as consistent as possible with the local culture, social norms, and tastes.
Cost effective approach
Some entrepreneurs and companies now reduce their marketing or operation costs by integrating different languages into their platforms by spending less. For instance, rather than have different websites for English and German users, why not build a single language with both language options?
This way, you are still able to interact with users or customers from both countries without increasing your operation cost. In the same vein, you can create the same campaign and produce different copies of the same messaging in different languages rather than create different campaigns to appeal to audiences in different countries. This approach is cost effective since it achieves the same results without escalating costs.
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Expand Customer Base
As we pointed out earlier, marketing your brand in multiple languages makes your business visible to more people in the international marketplace. The internet is where most people do their buying and selling and language is like artificial boundaries. Users and buyers avoid platforms in languages they do not understand.
But when your product or service is available in different languages, you will be amazed to see just how effective your campaign is. The same is the case if you have customer service that attends to customers in multiple languages. This may seem like a small act but you will attract more customers.
Today, there are more than a billion English speaking users on the internet and over 800 million Chinese speakers. The number of Spanish speaking users is more than 400 million online. And the most goes on. If you market to these speakers, you are more than likely to increase your customer base as long as your product is valuable.
At Circle Translations, we help businesses grow by leveraging the power of language.
To avoid mistakes
Another reason why you should use multiple languages is to avoid mistakes with your marketing and other PR. Here is why.
Language is very dynamic; what will appeal to one section of your customer base may not appeal to the other. For instance, if you have customers in English speaking countries and Arab speaking countries, you may run a campaign in English that customers who understand English and Arabic may understand.
However, the English message may be offensive to native Arabic speakers. And on the internet, word gets out really fast. And before you can clean up the mess, the harm may already be done. But if you run the ad in both languages, the translator or Interpreters will alert you about sections of the ad that should be taken out. At the end of the day, you still get your message across in both languages and no one is offended by it.
Today, businesses are expanding their reach into highly populated countries like China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, and Russia to mention a few. Marketing your product in multiple languages is a sure way of establishing a significant presence in these countries and growing your customer base.
At Circle Translations, we help businesses grow by leveraging the power of language. We have experts who are skilled in multiple languages and can help your business expand to new regions. Contact us today.
