This Monday (21 February) we celebrated International Mother Language Day: a yearly initiative organised by Unesco to promote cultural diversity and multilingualism. For businesses, offering content in multiple languages is an essential element of a successful B2B marketing strategy. With a massive increase in digital communications, speaking your customer’s language is a cost-efficient way to reach a wider, international audience.
Online content is provided by default – and at times even exclusively – in English. Yet, surveys indicate that only 25% of Internet users are English natives*. Furthermore, 46% of website visitors say that it provides trust when content is available in their native language*. It is a deciding factor for many customers when choosing a company, product or service. They will also be more likely to return and tell like-minded people.
Implementing a multilingual marketing strategy gives your company a competitive edge. It is a cost-effective and reliable way of engaging customers when entering emerging markets, as it can increase lead generation – potentially leading to higher sales numbers – and will positively impact customer support and business continuity. Companies that don’t offer their content in multiple languages are missing out on a large number of potential customers.
Of course, as multilingual communication grows in importance, expectations also increase. As you reach more international customers, they expect the same content and quality of communication that you offer to native English-speaking customers to be available in their own language. Besides, adding multiple languages to your website gives it a higher chance of getting picked up by different search engines.
At Vintage, the ability to add content in multiple languages is a basic feature of every communication tool that we provide. While we usually start from an English ‘master’ version, we always make sure that translations can be added easily. This includes making sure that the design can be adapted for various text lengths and fonts (some languages, such as German and Russian, usually have a higher word count than English and therefore need more space). At the development stage, we make sure that the entire translation flow can be coordinated from the CMS system with minimal effort.
We are experienced in helping businesses to translate their communication tools, either by managing the input of translations delivered by our clients, or by taking care of the full translation process. In case of the latter, we do not just translate your content; we localise it. We take into account the cultural views of the local reader, as well as regional formatting, during the translation process to make sure the message is communicated fully and precisely.
*Source: https://lingmointernational.com/blog/6-ways-a-multilingual-website-can-increase-web-traffic
