From Chinese investment in Africa, to Starbucks’ presence in over 70 countries, businesses are always looking to expand into unchartered territories. Even the popularity of the Premier League in places as far flung as Cameroon and Thailand is a testament to the fact that if you want to sell more, you need a global business strategy. But translating your UK marketing material into Spanish or Urdu and hoping that the sales opportunities in Latin America and Pakistan will come flooding in is misguided. For every market you want to expand into, you need to formulate a unique strategy that includes multilingual marketing. In this blog, I’m going to discuss why it’s so crucial to have multilingual marketing as part of your global business strategy.
Buyers are more likely to make a purchasing decision if product information is in their native language
English content might make up almost half the internet, but only 27% of internet users are native speakers. Add this to the fact that 70% of people will only make an important buying decision if product specs are in their native language and you’ve got a compelling case to add multilingual marketing to your global expansion strategy. If your business goes further and speaks to your prospects in their native tongue, the chances that they’ll take notice of your product are far greater.
Multilingual marketing ensures you have the best chance at making sales in new territories
Carrying out sales and marketing in multiple languages opens up your business to new markets. It can be challenging to grow sales on home territory – you’re always bound to hit a wall when it comes to finding new clients, and might find that relying on current clients to maintain sales quotas is not a sustainable strategy. Expanding into foreign markets not only diversifies your sales portfolio, it can create yet more sales possibilities within each new market. You might find that a new territory is even more profitable than your current ones. Not only this, but venturing into new markets can be an extremely cost-effective exercise – you don’t need a physical presence within each new country to grow revenue, as much of the sales process can be done online or through telemarketing.
Some of the world’s largest companies haven’t translated their websites – will you be the first in your industry?
A study carried out by One Hour Translation found that around half of Fortune 500 companies have not translated their websites from English into any other language. Delve further into the study and it’s apparent that B2B industries are the worst when it comes to translating their websites into multiple languages. If these figures are anything to go by, your competitors probably haven’t cottoned on to the benefits of multilingual marketing either. This creates a huge chance for B2B companies to enjoy the first-mover advantages of communicating with their prospects in their own language.
Accurately conveying your marketing messages is key in closing deals
The more personalised any communication is with your prospect – speaking to them in their own language, for example – the more trust can be built and the higher your chances of closing deals. By using channels like multilingual telemarketing and multilingual content, there’s less risk of core messages and sales pitches being misunderstood, even though some of the biggest companies get it wrong! When HSBC decided to take its “Assume Nothing” campaign abroad, it flopped after its slogan was translated into “Do Nothing” in several languages. Not only did they miss out on countless sales opportunities outside of the UK, it cost them £6.8 million to rebrand their private banking operations. This highlights the importance of selecting the right vendor to assist you with multilingual marketing.
International telemarketing, when used as part of a global business strategy, has the potential to open up new markets and gives your team the opportunity to sell globally. Download the guide for insights into how to expand your sales into foreign markets:
Image Credits: Oxforddictionaries
