Commentary

Got A B2B Website? Localize It For Spanish-Speaking Business Owners

Hispanic-owned businesses represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. economy right now. Most Hispanics are fluent in Spanish, and often speak the language with their peers and customers. Yet, B2B web content isn’t translated into Spanish nearly as often as it should be.

Savvy B2B companies can take a lesson from B2C companies. They can stand out and expand their domestic reach by serving these customers with Spanish-language websites.

The Opportunity

Hispanic business owners are like any other business owner—they want to research and evaluate potential solutions online. But they may have unique needs that aren’t necessarily met by English-language websites.

For starters, many Hispanic business owners are bilingual. They’re also dedicated to maintaining their Spanish fluency, often wanting to preserve their culture for future generations.

Further, all B2B buyers are behaving more and more like consumers. About 90% of B2B buyers use the Internet to conduct research, just like consumers. Most make purchases via digital platforms, just like consumers. Ninety percent of B2B buyers say online content has “a moderate to major” effect on purchasing decisions.

If Spanish-speaking U.S. B2B buyers prefer to search the web and make purchases on digital platforms in their language of choice, you must serve them online in Spanish.

The advantage is clear, too. By offering a world-class experience for Hispanic business owners in Spanish, you’ll:

  • Stand out as one of the few B2B organizations serving Spanish-language speakers in their preferred language
  • Enjoy lower costs for pay-per-click rates and keyword bids because there’s less competition in the Spanish-speaking B2B marketplace
  • Realize savings in paid social advertising/sponsored content, thanks to the largely untapped market and economical advertising costs associated with it

Tips for Localizing Your Site

As you move to serve the lucrative Hispanic-owned business market, don’t forget to leverage your flagship English-language site to build a powerful Spanish-language version.

Here are some localization tips to save time and money:

Use your existing content: Separate your site’s translatable content from its code to efficiently localize your website. This delivers localized content, while perfectly preserving your flagship site’s UX and functionality.

Simplify the process of updating content: Look for turn-key workflows and technologies that automatically identify and queue new content for translation, versus relying on time-consuming manual processes.  

Optimize your Spanish content for online searches: Hispanic business owners may use Spanish-language web searches to make critical purchasing decisions. Translate your keywords, “hreflang” tags and metadata to optimize your Spanish-language site for search engines.

Save on costs and efforts: Some solutions save your translations for re-use, which accelerates the delivery of future translations. They also make the translations available for offline and omnichannel use.

Final Thoughts for Engaging the B2B Market

The Spanish-speaking B2B market represents a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. economy fueled by successful, fast-moving, digitally savvy entrepreneurs.

Take advantage of this opportunity by leveraging great translation technologies, and delivering a robust Spanish-language online experience.

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