The statistics are staggering. Close to 1.1 billion people all over the world use the internet. Yet just over 229 million of them are in North America. Imagine being able to reach that many individuals... and in their own language. Currently, fewer than 10% of websites in America offer a language option other than English.
The World Wide Web should be just that, World Wide, yet many of us are not leveraging its power. The simple fact is, if you have a website, your business could be global. The market is no longer limited to a radius of ten miles surrounding your “storeâ€. Your market is the entire world. When you effectively communicate with people in foreign countries, they will buy from you.
Today’s savvy Internet user leaves little room to be directed by companies to take a particular course of action. The consumer has become the expert and is in control. We have seen this change of power especially within the real estate industry. Consumers are on-line analyzing local markets and exploring homes via virtual tours with no help from a live individual, all the while making decisions without involving professionals. This trend has overflowed into many industries around the world. What does this mean for professional service companies that want to earn business? Be the first to offer consumers educational information about your services and give it away at no cost.
Social media is changing the way we relate to each other and how we relate to the organizations that serve us. Global social media outlets have become the new approach to marketing products and services in this fast-paced and growing worldwide market. So what are these global social media sites and how can you integrate them into your international marketing plan? Social media outlets are blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and user created content as well as social networks. However, the specific forms are not as important as their effects, and most importantly their ability to share and interact with each other. All social media sites, such as YouTube, Facebook, or Digg, are based on the idea of peer-to-peer content exchange. This concept offers businesses the opportunity to build a relationship between a brand and its consumers.
You are ready to launch your product or service into other regions of the world and you believe that your only investment is translating the content about the product. However, by doing only this, your reach may be limited. For your product to be successful you must ensure that it will acclimate properly into the culture of the target country.
With the global trend accelerating these days, international competition has increased. Products and services need to be introduced effectively in order to achieve successful entry. The cliché, "English is the official business language" is becoming obsolete.
Many believe that translation is a quick and easy process. If you lived in Germany for a year or two, or if you studied Spanish in high school, you can translate into those languages, right? Not exactly. This may be the case if you are translating personal documents, but not for the translation of business documents or any printed material that will represent your company. To achieve a quality translation, the process needs to be approached in a serious manner.
In today’s economy, building and expanding your business is more important than ever, but with limited resources, how can you expand? Reevaluate your company’s marketing strategy and identify areas where you can cut expenses without affecting the quality or marketing opportunities available. For some companies, professional translation services are substituted for cheap machine translations, but the pitfalls of an inaccurate translation can be tremendous.
As a result of our current economic state, many companies are looking for avenues to cut costs and achieve the maximum ROI. The following tips will assist you in reducing your translation costs when planning your next international marketing strategy.
In any economic state, every business-minded individual knows that one of the best tactics for growing market share is expanding into new markets. Considering our dire economic situation today, marketing budgets are shrinking not increasing. Because of this, the idea of entering new markets is seen as quite risky rather than advantageous. What can you do when funds are not available for international advertising? Website translation is your most cost effective marketing tactic to reach your foreign consumer base.