How localising your marketing content can help you boost your business in 2018 | Polish Localisation

• January 3, 2018

How localising your marketing content can help you boost your business in 2018

The beginning of a new year is a perfect time to analyse your marketing strategy and look at the ways to boost your business in the coming months.

If reaching new markets is one of your goals for 2018, your to-do list should also include localisation of marketing content. Why and how will it help to boost your business?

1. Content marketing will continue to grow in 2018

According to many forecasts, content marketing will continue to have a significant impact on businesses and clients in the coming year. The key to success here is to make your content relevant and have a clearly defined audience.

Now, your social media posts, blog articles, infographics or videos can also be helpful in growing your business abroad and entering new markets. To do this, you’ll need to localise your content first, which means – adapt it to the language, culture and buying habits of your target customers in the selected markets.

With an adjusted and translated content your brand will be more likely to catch the attention of your audience, gain their trust and provide the best possible experience – be it on your website, in sales messages, on social media or in marketing videos.

In this way you’ll make your content relevant also for the online users and potential customers abroad, which is the first step to growing your business in a foreign market.

2. Messaging apps will be the key in communication between businesses and customers

Many businesses already take advantage of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat or Viber to send direct and personalised messages to their potential and existing customers. In fact, in 2017 the four most popular messaging apps became larger in terms of user base than the four most popular social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook).

What does it mean for your business?

To have better relations with your customers, offer them a quick way to address a complaint or share feedback, you’ll need to focus on communication via messaging apps as well.

For businesses that send direct messages in an app, 53% of their users are more likely to shop with them.

Now, you don’t have to limit this strategy to your home market only.

Sending messages to your customers located in other markets and countries should be one of your top priorities if you plan to grow your business abroad.

But to do it successfully, your message has to be clear to your target users. And that’s where localisation comes in. Your messaging app campaign will be efficient only when your message is crafted in the language of your customers and adapted to their reality and buying habits.

To make your brand more approachable, you can provide your foreign customers with the possibility to send their complaint or feedback in their local language too.

Or you can follow the path of brands such as Starbucks or Pizza Hut that use chatbots for fast order placement. Again, remember to use a customised tool that will communicate in the language of your customers.

3. Voice search will become increasingly significant

Many consumers already heavily depend on voice search, not only in their smartphones, but also on tablets, desktop computers or smart speakers.

According to ComScore, within the next two years 50% of all searches will be voice searches.

What does it mean for your growing business?

Voice search affects SEO because the content used for voice search differs from the content used for text search. It’s more conversational, based on sentences and questions, not only on short phrases or keywords, and it’s usually more local (“Where is the nearest coffee shop?”, “What restaurants are open for dinner now?”).

That’s why you might want to adapt your website content to be more findable by your users. To do this, you need to think about building the right context that is related to answers to these potential questions.

You can also create website and social media content that gives answers to the most common questions in simple sentences. Focus on “who”, “what”, “when”, “where” and “how”, but don’t limit your efforts to your home market only.

You customers abroad will probably use voice search in their local language. So, if you want to take your content to the next level and increase your reach in a foreign market, find out more about your target audience and its searching habits.

Will your target users ask the same questions as the customers in your home market? What sentences, context and information will you have to include to adapt your website to another language and consumer’s behaviour?

Find the answer to these questions and localise your content accordingly to become an even more successful brand that listens to the needs of its target customers.

To prepare for 2018 and grow your business globally, you’ll need to focus on marketing trends and adapt your game plan to the new markets. No matter which strategies are crucial for your business, remember to analyse the behaviour of your target customers and tweak your content to their language and buying habits.