Commentary

Expanding Globally? Localized Omnichannel Is Crucial For Success

Companies are attempting to reach more international customers than ever, thanks to business globalization trends and accelerating Internet adoption rates. Most organizations understand the importance of localizing their websites for global customers, but these days, translating omnichannel content may be an even more crucial to achieve success.

Common localization challenges. Your brand presence is more than just your website. It lives on in social media profiles, emails, catalogs, offline marketing and more. Your brand voice, messaging and image must be on-point and consistent in these channels in global markets.

Maintaining brand consistency across multiple channels in multiple languages can be challenging. With so much content living on so many platforms, it’s easy to lose track of what translatable content lives where. And while some content can get totally overlooked, overlapping content can get retranslated unnecessarily. That wastes time and money. 

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Many companies also hesitate to translate all their digital content out of a desire to control costs. For instance, multimedia translation requires specialized production or design teams to localize the disparate multimedia formats—such as images, videos, podcasts, dynamic PDFs, interactive applications and more. Juggling several vendors often slows down production timelines and drives up costs.

The cost of missed opportunities. However, international customers expect targeted, authentic engagement—and in return, they’re far more likely to be loyal to brands that make the effort. Consider the following localization opportunities. Is your global brand capitalizing on them, or missing out? 

  • Translated email newsletters keep your brand relevant and credible for international customers, which can make them repeat customers. Even small increases in customer retention can increase profits by at least 25%, according to online commerce expert Neil Patel.
  • Are you localizing your social content? Consider that seven of Facebook’s top 10 largest global markets are based in Asia and Latin America, where English is often spoken as a secondary or tertiary language. Twitter is presently seeing its strongest growth in revenue and users hail from international markets, too.
  • Global smartphone and tablet adoption continues to skyrocket, especially in emerging markets where many consumers are either mobile-first or mobile-exclusive.

A translated home page or product pages alone can’t take advantage of these opportunities. Fully localized omnichannel content can.

Eliminate the language barrier. To remain relevant, companies must be present on the preferred digital channels of their customers, including: 

  • Social media
  • Mobile apps
  • Email and e-newsletters
  • Online search, via PPC and digital ads
  • Online customer support chat; and
  • Third-party marketplaces such as Amazon or China’s Tmall

Localizing content for these channels can help boost international brand awareness, cultivate customer trust and generate sales leads. Some of these benefits are obvious. For instance, translated social posts, PPC ads and email newsletters can clearly help elevate a brand’s mind share in global markets.

But the benefits extend to the less obvious, too. For example, localizing longer form, educational content—such as blog posts and thought leadership documents—do more than help move prospects through the buyer’s journey. Localized SEO-rich content often generates increased organic website traffic in regionally preferred search engines.

Ultimately, to be successful in an omnichannel world, you must ensure global customers can find your brand—and keep that brand top of mind. This means offering them authentic, localized multichannel content where they live, work and play.

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