Digital Marketing Translation Service: Your Key to a Winning Marketing Strategy

Your marketing plan might seem complete if you’re reaching the 1.5 billion English speakers worldwide. But what about the other billions of potential customers who speak other languages? Statista’s research shows these numbers:

How much could your business grow this year if you reached just a fraction of non-English speakers? How much more robust could your ROI be with a small investment in digital marketing translation service? Learn about five key reasons your team should use a digital marketing translation service as part of your 2023 marketing strategy.

#1 Marketing Translation Helps You Reach a Wider Customer Base

As noted, there are billions and billions of non-English speakers in the world. Recent research indicates many of these people will likely never hear of your company and its products and services if you neglect to use marketing translation services. Avoid slashing your chances of winning their dollar – or yen, euro, franc, pound, etc. Here are some significant statistics about consumer linguistic preferences from the June 2020 CSA Research report, “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy – B2C”:

• 65% prefer content in their language, even if it’s poor quality
• 73% want product reviews in their language
• 76% prefer products with information in their own language
• 40% will not buy from websites in other languages

#2 Marketing Translation Helps You Improve SEO

Your customers prefer consumer information and marketing in their own language, and so do their search engines. You’ll have a more robust digital presence when you use digital marketing translation services. Your content will be translated with new keywords, making it easier for people to find your company in other countries, cities, and other locations. A Language Service Provider (LSP) can also enhance your digital marketing strategy by optimizing your website for geotargeting. Geotargeting ensures users see your company’s content built specifically for their region. Google, Bing, and other search engines will favor your content for two reasons. Note that an LSP can also help ensure that, as part of your global SEO strategy, your company’s marketing content ranks higher in the right search engine for the locations you’re targeting: Yandex in Russia, Baidu in China, Google in Europe, etc.

The first reason your content will rank higher in your target search engine is simply that you translated it and used locally-relevant keywords. Secondly, you’ll rank higher because more content will be attributed to your company and its web presence. The more (quality) content you publish, the better for optimal SEO. It’s ideal to work with professional digital marketing translation experts who understand best practices for SEO, cultural norms, and the languages they’re translating between. Using a lay translator who makes grammatical mistakes or translates your content clumsily might actually harm your corporate identity and digital presence.

#3 Boost Customer Trust with a Digital Marketing Translation Service

Whether you work in the B2B or B2C space, trust is essential. People want to work with companies that understand them, their pain points, and their internet behavior. When you use localization and translation services for your marketing material, you take a step closer to earning their trust. You’re literally speaking their language to them. Unlike translation, ad localization means your message will be modified based on cultural norms. It’s more than a word-for-word change. Ad localization may include transcreation, a creative process that develops new content. The new content is different, but it preserves the feeling or message of the original. This practice is vital. Creating tone-deaf material isn’t just a waste of money; it could actually damage your company’s branding. It’s crucial to ensure material is translated with these considerations for cultural differences:

• Images and symbols
• Colors
• Humor
• Idioms and metaphors
• Slang
• Linguistic conventions
• Generational and socioeconomic differences

Some companies boost their brand image just by making the effort to translate their marketing materials. For instance, customers who know the brand is based in the U.S., Canada, UK, or other English-speaking country, will appreciate the company’s efforts to make its materials accessible in other languages. It signals a higher commitment to the customer and customer service.

To meet consumers’ expectations online, some companies alter the URL structure for their international content. Cyberattacks happen more frequently every year, and companies should consider their consumers’ concerns for safety and privacy. Alterations to the URL help organizations look more trustworthy. From country to country, the most secure URL will significantly differ. Trustworthy domain names and subdomains vary across the globe. Working with localization and global SEO experts to review and update URL structures is an impactful way to build consumer trust.

On a more subconscious level, digital marketing translation boosts customer trust by improving the user experience. With expertly translated and localized content, people experience a significantly improved customer journey — something they may not even think about. Sometimes the localization infuses the user’s experience with deeper cultural values via the visual language. This will include subtle cues people may not be consciously aware of, such as colors in the design, how busy or loud it is, or what the content omits. For example, in Japanese culture, it’s important not to over-explain (or simply explain, per Western standards) a product or service. This choice may feel insulting to customers. It may imply that they’re unintelligent, can’t make sound judgments, and don’t know what they want. Another example: In Chinese culture, the color red reminds viewers of good luck, happiness, and fortune. So does the number eight. Including both in advertising builds a positive association. Even if this customer journey is invisibly improved, it will still yield something highly visible: ROI. Organizations should consider many elements when using a digital marketing translation service.

#4 Enhance the Brand Image with Digital Marketing Translation Service

Companies that use marketing translation services often benefit from looking more international — even if they don’t have customers anywhere but their original markets (yet). Per a Harvard Business Review article, consumers are familiar with global companies that often dominate their industry. These are companies consumers select over and over again. They win consumer dollars (euros, yen, etc.) — not just in their city or country, but also worldwide. Being a company with translations for consumers worldwide may confer that image of success to your company. Consumers may also want to work with global companies because they usually have financial and personnel resources that allow them to serve customers everywhere. Consumers assume a global brand offers an impeccable product or service, as well as organized and reliable customer support. All of this caché with customers makes digital marketing translation well worth the investment.

#5 Digital Marketing Translation is a Cost-Effective Addition to Your Marketing Strategy.

Using a Language Service Provider for digital marketing translation is a highly cost-effective way to promote your business. The material for translation has already been created. Content has been written, web pages have been laid out, and graphics have been designed. The comparatively small cost of digital marketing translation allows a business to potentially double, triple, or even quadruple its reach to the global market. (The impact size depends upon how many and which languages an LSP translates your website or marketing materials into.) When every marketing dollar counts, this kind of ROI increase is profound.