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No comprendo: why content localisation is key to speaking with your global audience.

You’re no doubt familiar with the principle of delivering the right message, to the right people at the right time.

Its sound advice, but what’s missing?

The need to deliver the right message, in the right language.

You must recognise the language barrier:

It’s no secret that to talk to your audience, you need to speak their language. Yet, how much of your content is limited to the English-speakers within your target audience? How many existing and potential clients, across EMEA and beyond, are you missing the chance to talk with, as a result?

But translation isn’t enough:

It’s not just about translating your content. To pack the same punch across different regions, it needs to be localised – it needs to reflect the differences in the way people live and work, including their customs, idioms and cultural references.

Should you use the formal or informal ‘you’ in a language where both forms exist? Will everyone be familiar with recent news headline you mention in your article? Will your foreign audience need some extra background information to understand the subtleties of your case study with a British client?

Accounting for these kinds of differences means that you’re not only speaking their language, you’re retaining the impact in what you say.

Does content localisation work?

IT solutions provider, Barracuda, is a great example of a B2B brand that’s benefitting from far greater engagement with their European audience. Their critical monthly newsletter, originally delivered in English with no content variation, is now localised — distributed in six languages, with unique content for each region. This move has seen unique open rates rise by 39% and unique click-through rates by 75%.

This just goes to show how content localisation can help you fuel conversations with your audience and lay the foundations to nurture valuable relationships.

Key Takeaway:

To best fuel conversations with your audience across different regions, you need to deliver the right message, in the right language.

Click here to find out more about Barracuda’s success with content localisation.

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The post No Comprendo: why content localisation is key to speaking with your global audience. appeared first on HN Marketing.

One of the UK’s largest retailers, Argos, is a company that understands the importance of solidifying customer relationships through online engagements. Recently, its customer service team replied to a tweet from a potential customer who was complaining about the availability of the PS4 in his local store:

To which @ArgosHelpers replied (presumably after consulting their teenage children):

The result? issue dealt with, an extra 1,500 followers (in one day) and a happy customer:

Apart from the baffling language that sent even us running for the Urban Dictionary, Argos showed how the combination of humour, content and medium can be combined to solve customers’ problems, communicate clearly and promote their business to new audiences. By matching the tone of the original tweet, the company generated a positive response from a complaint, without being offensive — a perfect example of peer language adoption.

Even if Argos’s use of slang is too ‘left field’ for your organisation right now, there are still lessons to be learnt here. The importance of knowing and applying your customers’ preferred language, whether they spend their day thinking about cloud architecture or PS4 availability, is something every organisation needs to acknowledge — y’get me?

The post Using customers’ language to grow your brand appeared first on HN Marketing.

Sometimes, however, you need something more or different.

Gimme more

By more, we mean that a translation isn’t always enough. The text needs to be rewritten in the local language to convey the same subtleties of meaning as the original—and this is not a function of language but of messaging. To illustrate: a good quality proofer would be able to correct ambiguities and inconsistencies in your copy, and may rework whole paragraphs of the original (20–30% is typical) but they’re not able to originate copy with flair; and the same is true of a good translator.

A bilingual writer, on the other hand, can take a brief about the messaging and purpose of the piece to be created and then use the original English text as source to effectively create a new piece of copy that’s fit for purpose.

Vive la différence

By different, it could be that you don’t have and don’t need the copy in English at all—so why spend time and money creating an English version? Our mother-tongue writers work to the same exacting standards as our English-language team. They can interview in the local language to get all the information they need and write persuasive content that will convey your messaging with authority.

Zusammenarbeiten

We work as a team despite the geographic distances; you enjoy a single point of contact for your content development activity while we make sure any style preference or process changes are consistently applied across all languages. This is especially valuable for case study programmes and newswires where a uniformity of style or approach is required.

Language options

Alongside our English writing capabilities we also provide French, German, Spanish and Dutch origination. Get in touch to tell us more about what you need +44 1628 622187.

The post Sprechen Sie français? appeared first on HN Marketing.