Frontline Perspectives

As global sales continue to rise for most of our clients, the need to translate (and localize) has become increasingly important. It seems like a daunting and expensive venture. As with most marketing efforts, walking before you run will help you make the right decisions and keep information about your company’s solutions from getting lost in translation.

First, what do your international customers look like? It is not uncommon to find that the size of the company, the titles and functional responsibilities of decision maker(s), and the buying cycles are different from your customers in the U.S. You can’t effectively target new business without understanding who’s buying.

Second, what language(s) are spoken in that geographic areas? In many countries, multiple languages are spoken. Spanish is spoken in almost all Latin American countries except Brazil, where they speak Portuguese (and it’s not the same as what is spoken in Portugal). In Belgium there are three official languages: Dutch, French and German. And of course, English should be modified to account for language differentiation if you’re targeting the United Kingdom.

Third, “globalize” your content before you translate. Be sure you aren’t translating American content for a global market. This includes understanding what trademarks and other legal references your firm has in global markets, as well as normalizing slang and buzz words. It also includes regulations, associations, certifications, guidelines and measurements.

Fourth, who in your company knows the target market best? It might be your in-market direct sales reps, a distributor or other sales channel partner. Having an in-country team will be extremely important as you determine appropriate tactics, write and translate copy, choose photos and graphics, and determine lead follow-up procedures. Locate these team members early in your process.

We often recommend starting translation efforts with your company’s website. A large percentage (often more than 50%) of B2B leads come from this marketing tactic. You can see some reflection of this by looking at your site’s traffic now. Most site reporting, including Google Analytics, which is a free tool, will provide you with insight into current visitor nationality. Just keep in mind that this is only a reflection of what is happening on your site now, not where your best prospects are.

Whether you determine that all of your site, or just a portion of it (which is a highly cost-effective way to start) should be translated, you will want to have your in-country team review the translations before taking them live, to determine what changes are needed to localize the translations. All good translation projects include the creation of a glossary of terms, phrases and descriptions to guide the translation team as they work on content changes. But even with this, the in-country team will be best suited to help with the nuances that can make the information appropriate, relevant and effective.

Your site’s translation should also include the translation of keyword and key phrases to help with the organic and paid search efforts you’ll use to support the site. Research should be done to determine if these are the same keywords as those used in your American English site, because in many instances, they won’t be. It is also important to do your research on the appropriate search engines for your target markets. Knowing that Baidu is the prominent search engine in China, and Yandex in Russia, will help inform your optimizing decisions.

Globalizing your marketing tactics is not a small undertaking, but it is an extremely important step based on the growing importance of international sales in today’s B2B markets. Doing your research, including the right members on your team and staying focused on the right elements for each of your target markets will help you create a powerful presence for your company.

Anyone else have some tips to add, or questions about translations they’d like to add?