This guest post was written by Christian Arno, founder and Managing Director of global translations company Lingo24. His company has operations across four continents and translated over thirty million words in 2009, covering clients in over sixty countries and every industry sector. Their turnover in the twelve months to September 2009 was $6m USD.
With the advent of the Internet era, the smallest of home-based business can effectively ‘go global’. There is, of course, a lot of countries out there and knowing what geographical regions to target takes a bit of research to begin with.
You’ve probably heard of the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – referred to as the best countries to place commercial focus given that they are fast-growing, developing economies – emerging markets, in other words.
But an emerging market is ANY market that is currently untapped. This can be a particular demographic within your domestic market just as easily as it could be a number of Eastern European countries, the US, Scandinavia…anywhere where there is a growing demand for a particular product or service.
Your key target markets depend very much on your service offering – there’s little point spending a lot of money targeting the BRIC countries only to find later that there’s no demand or, indeed, your entire approach to these countries was wrong from the start.
Take Apple for instance. One of the best known consumer brands in the world, with the ubiquitous iPods, iMacs and perhaps the daddy of all gadgets the iPhone. Pretty much universally applauded in every market it has been launched, Apple unveiled the iPhone to China in November 2009 but the reception has been fairly muted so far.
Apple has been widely criticised for not localising its all singing, all dancing device for Chinese consumers – in effect, they failed to consider specific local consumer trends within China.
For example, people in China tend not to like entering into long contracts – they prefer charge cards because it’s less hassle and it’s easier to track their spending. Similarly, Chinese consumers love the newest technology, but because Apple took so long to release the iPhone in China, many local consumers had already procured ‘cracked’ versions of the phone – so in effect, most people who really wanted an iPhone already had one.
Throw into the equation poor marketing – many of the posters didn’t even mention the name ‘iPhone – then it’s perhaps easy to see why they have shifted little over 5,000 handsets at the time of writing.
Of course, your small to medium sized businesses won’t be trading anywhere near the level of Apple. But this helps to demonstrate the importance of knowing your international markets – much in the same way as you do with your domestic markets.
So how do you identify which markets you’re going to target? First of all, you must recognise a demand for your wares in a specific country. It doesn’t have to be too painstaking either, simply check for other companies operating within your industry in each country – check how long they’ve been going for, try and find as much information as you can about them. If they are thriving, then there’s every chance you can too – however, be wary of market saturation, as too much competition doesn’t bode well.
Now that you know what countries you are going to target, you can begin the process of building an online presence in these countries – and this process is two-fold. First, you must have a fully localised website in the language of the target country, then you must optimise it so that it stands out from the crowd.
The process of translating your website is reasonably straight forward. You have to ensure that the person translating the website is a professionally qualified translator who’s working INTO their native tongue. Any translation company that’s worth its salt will only hire translators who translate into their native tongue, so ensure that this is the case. If they translate into a language that they are simply ‘fluent’ in, there is likely to be subtle mistakes that will be spotted by local consumers.
Similarly, if your service or product has some highly technical terminology attached to it – for example, if you’re a B2B company that sells electrical components, you’ll need to ensure that the linguist on the job has experience of your industry. Again, translation companies should record areas of expertise against each of their translators so they should be able to identify someone who fits the bill.
You also need to consider the local dialect of the country your targeting. It’s easy to lump France, Belgium, Switzerland and French-speaking Canada into one category under ‘French’. But there are many dialectal differences between the markets. In Canada, they tend to use literal translations of English terms for many phrases, such as fin de semaine for ‘weekend’ (literally, ‘end of the week’), whereas France tends to import English terms directly – they use le weekend instead.
There are many such examples between the various French, German and Portuguese dialects of the world. Even closer to home, the differences between US English and UK English are substantial enough to merit individual marketing campaigns. Though for the sake of ease, it’s probably best to stick with one English language website and just ensure there are no colloquialisms that might not be understood in all the English-speaking countries of the world.
From an optimisation perspective, rather than translating your English keywords, you will need to research your keywords for each market. A literal and correct translation of a keyword may not be what people use to search for a product/service locally – they may use any number of variations of the phrase, including abbreviations, colloquialisms or something else entirely that means the same thing. Be sure to choose a translation company with knowledge of the SEO process, as they can help identify keywords and phrases for each of your target markets.
Armed with your fully optimised foreign language website, you may actually find that you rise a lot quicker through the ranks of in-country search engines such as Google.de, or Google.fr than you did on Google.com or Google.co.uk – simply because the saturation of the search terms is nowhere near what it is on the English language Internet.
Ultimately, don’t get lazy like Apple did. Treat each of your markets as a separate entity, don’t assume that because something worked in one country, it’ll automatically work in another. Localization is the name of the game and is at the very heart of the internationalization process. Don’t think global…think ‘local’.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:37 am
How about using a translator on your page or website? Can this method work?
February 9th, 2010 at 5:25 am
I think you are right the keywords should as per country has been organised by the company, so by this the mutual understanding will improve and then it also makes lot easy for the local people to used it.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Its a step by step process. Localization comes first then globalization, right? I think that apllies to all aspects especially in a business world.
February 9th, 2010 at 8:00 am
I respect what you are doing here.
Over time, I have come to realize that you understand that in order to do well online you have to have deep knowledge or a skill to sell once the marketing program you've adopted takes hold.
Although I am into toys (childrens), there is one opportunity for folks that you might want to check out for your readers.
My friend (a lady tired of the law thing) has been recruiting for Linda Christas and has replaced her lawyer income online.
That's all I'm going to say. If you are interested LC is online, and their human resources folks will tell all.
No gimmicks. They use credentialed teachers to provide value.
Stetson
ToysPeriod is a leading online shop specializing in lego sets and model railroad equipment.
February 10th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
I agree we have to think of the huge potential marketing to these growing economic countries can bring to the table as you mentioned China, Brazil, Russia etc… China has billions of people you would be a fool not to market to them too many people to ignore! The Internet is a worldwide market not just the countries we are from. I have also implemented a Google translation bar on my blog to cater to the non English speaking markets. Well said!
February 10th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
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February 11th, 2010 at 2:57 am
It is my first visit in your blog.It is reaaly a interesting article.Thanks Arno.
February 11th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Good post. Translation can be very expensive, and at times can cause alot of problem if your translator is not as strong as expected. If the ROI is good, this is a great idea, but in most cases I have found that its not. Adding a translator from Google and providing the option for visitors to change your site to their native language can work just ask good and at almost no cost.
Again, this is based on your budget and ROI
February 12th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Amazing insights and I must say very well conveyed. In times when the mantra seems to be think global act local or think local act global, this is a refreshing change of perceptive.
February 12th, 2010 at 11:21 am
There is however the question of translations. Perhaps not such a problem in other countries, but certainly in a place like India where there are many local languages. I anticipate this being a stumbling block, though right now English seems to be doing well there.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I just use a Wordpress plugin for my site which allows the reader to translate the into whichever language he chooses.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
That is interesting about Apple in China. You hear about companies trying to expand into new territories without learning the customs all the time. If a company really wants to be a player in a new territory, they must first learn all the customs of that place. Very good article.
February 12th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Going local is what a small business does best. For many of us local is the only way we can do business. And thank god for the internet because it has made it possible for my business to not only survive but thrive. Almost 65% of my slaes are generated off the internet. With the rest coming mainly from word of mouth and signs. Local searches are where it is at.
February 13th, 2010 at 5:00 am
Nice post, the current strategy of Coca-Cola appears to be on target with the mantra of its CEO and Chairman, Doug Daft: "Think Local. Act Local," a tweaking of former chief Roberto Goizueta's often quoted "Think global. Act local" philosophy. As you say we should think ‘local’.
February 13th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Be local, thank you for sharing it.
February 13th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Is "Think Local… Act Local" interesting to web markerters, ecommerce / content system owners?
I mean, I'm a blogger too and I see more results when I "Think global… Act Global". What do you think about it?
February 15th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
andrew , i usually use this method and it gives some very good results, by the way , very informative article
February 15th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
True enough once things developed for the global market used to be a hit in the local market too but times have changed every locality has its own set of demands and expectations.
February 16th, 2010 at 5:09 am
These are some really nice points covered. Thanx for sharing!
@Andrew
I would suggest you to always use that as if any person comes from any country will get benefit from it and it will help you decrease the bounce rate as well.
February 17th, 2010 at 8:39 pm
This is exactly why many big companies create separate sub-companies for each country they target. Then they can dig into how that market thinks and behaves.
I'm not surprised that the iphone didn't do great in China. Countries like that are on the cutting edge of technology. So most people already have an advanced phone with comparable features as the iphone. If you're going to delay a technology release in a country like that, prepare to miss out on a big share of that market.
February 18th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Good article. Thanks. I think most imported point here “From an optimisation perspective, rather than translating your English keywords, you will need to research your keywords for each market.”
February 18th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Thank you for this informational article. I am forever seeking material on particular subjects and it’s seldom far away on the internet. I’ll be coming back soon.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:25 am
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you
February 19th, 2010 at 11:34 am
Less may be the new-fangled more
February 19th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Excellent article by someone who is obviously very knowledgeable and experienced in the subject. Thanks for sharing it with us.
February 20th, 2010 at 7:29 am
thank you ,i learned.i hope
February 20th, 2010 at 7:31 am
This is exactly why expatriates have a failure rate of a whopping 77% in China.
February 21st, 2010 at 11:21 am
Those translations are really very funny.
February 24th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
thank you for the article..I learn alot from here
February 25th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
I’m glad China is starting to loosen some of their restrictions on the internet. Now more websites are accessible.
March 2nd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I tend not to comment on posts, but your blog post called on me to commend your writings. Thank you for writing up this great read, I’ll make sure to bookmark this blog and visit once in awhile. Cheers.
March 6th, 2010 at 10:01 am
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March 8th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I agree with this article, it is true that we can take advantage of the potential growing markets such as Brazil, China etc. I study marketing and as a marketer we all know you would be a fool not to target the billions of people living in countries such as China.
March 9th, 2010 at 4:40 am
good stuff, you got yourself a new reader!