Digital marketing has changed dramatically over the years. Its development has undoubtedly been aided by the rapid expansion of the mobile web and, of course, the increasing number of people using websites to buy goods or services, or to look up information about a product or company. Given the ever-growing importance of online contact between companies and their customers, in order to be effective, marketing must keep its finger on the pulse. And even anticipate trends, where possible.
Localising marketing activities is key to the success or failure of an advertising campaign or a series of marketing activities, which is why it’s becoming increasingly important to present your brand to the global market via a high-performing multilingual site.
Winning the trust of your customers
As with traditional company–customer relationships, studies have shown that you need to do everything possible to win the trust of potential customers when using the web as a marketing and promotional tool. It’s also important to explain why a product or brand will satisfy a customer’s needs or fulfil their desires better than others.
Of course, using the web to do so comes with a fair few challenges in comparison to direct marketing methods. The web is still a very “modern” tool for a lot of users, especially those who are unfamiliar with technology.
For this reason, web marketing must be able to attract the attention of target customers, communicate content simply and effectively to those who don’t frequently use the web and, finally, win people over by encouraging them to complete a purchase or to perform various other actions. The choice of language used to convey marketing messages – from simple texts to promotional videos and podcasts – is essential to achieving these goals.
Speaking to everyone in their own language: the importance of a multilingual website
Creating multilingual websites is now a consolidated practice, but recently, web marketing has been undergoing a subtle language revolution. In fact, more and more large companies are expanding the pool of languages used on their sites. This is the case, for example, at AirBnB, which has grown its language pool from 30 to 62 different combinations.
This choice is owed to the simple analysis of statistical data. Speaking to your target customers in their own language (and not in a “universal” foreign language such as English) immediately shrinks the distance between a company and its customers, who feel “welcomed” by the company (or its website, in this case). These customers find themselves in a familiar and understandable environment that is entirely transparent when it comes to contractual clauses or technical information relating to the products or services on offer.
By translating websites into various languages, companies are able to offer tailor-made experiences, which significantly increases both customer satisfaction and conversion rates, that is, the actual purchase of goods or services by customers.
Translating websites: challenges and advantages
Translating a website is a very different task to translating a novel or legal document. In order to translate a website, you need to be familiar with SEO techniques. As such, correct translations that don’t respect the rules of SEO will not be viewed as relevant by search engines. A direct consequence being that translated sites will not rank as highly in the search results.
In addition, modern websites include audiovisual content, which needs to be translated, dubbed or subtitled (subtitles are now an indispensable tool for effective videos). Specialised translators will be able to perfectly adapt their translation to meet the various needs of the website in question.
