According to a survey conducted by Common Sense Advisory, 75% of people who don’t speak English prefer to purchase products which have product descriptions and marketing material in their own native language. In the same group of people 60% said they either rarely or never bought goods from websites that were just in English. This is a good reason for you as a business to adopt a global marketing strategy in order to maintain a competitive edge and grow your revenue and get access to the global market. You won’t be successful unless you translate your website into the languages of your likely customers. This should be part of every business’s global marketing strategy.

Translation is without a doubt a major part of making your brand comfortable with your customers so they make a purchase. You should always use a professional human translator as this means there are less errors in the translation and the language used matches your new customer’s context far better than if you used software or machine translation to do your translations for you.

Translation is however not the only part of a global marketing strategy. There is localization that should be considered as well. This is quite simply understanding the values of a customer who doesn’t speak English. This entails adapting your marketing tactics to suit this new customer in another country. There may be symbols and even colours that can be used in your marketing strategy as well as the translation that will draw the customer to your brand.

Customers from other cultures need to be able to see your product in the same way as a local company in their own country markets their products. Part of localisation is ensuring your website quotes prices in the currency of your targeted country. Payment options need to be compatible with your new customer’s experience.

The key to success in the global market is finding the best way to ensure your product is relatable to your customers without losing the heart of your brand. Translating each single word is not sufficient. You need a human translator who will look at your brand as a whole and will target the translation to suit the needs of your new customer. Striking the right balance between translation and localization is the global marketing strategy that can mean success can take place in multiple markets so your brand stands out from the rest.