Multilingual content is growing increasingly popular as a marketing tactic, and it’s no surprise. As a business owner or marketing specialist, you already know the importance of reaching people in their own language. Especially here in Canada, where people speak many languages and come from various cultures.
So, how do you reach customers in today’s interconnected world? One surefire solution is multilingual content!
Businesses that will thrive in today’s global market must embrace an essential fact — language is a bridge and not a barrier. Therefore, creating marketing content in different languages increases your chances of attracting and converting more customers.
In the following paragraphs, we share insights into how you can leverage multilingual content to connect your business with diverse cultures and expand your reach.
What Does Multilingual Content Mean?
Multilingual content generally refers to any form of content — from written to audio and visual — that is presented in multiple languages to cater to a diverse audience. Typically, this involves translating the content from the original language into several others.
Investing in multilingual marketing can achieve a much wider business reach and communicate effectively with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
However, you should note that multilingual content is not only necessary if you are selling products or services to an international audience. After all, you will find a multicultural society even in the same country or region.
For instance, in Canada and the US alone, you will find communities where languages like Chinese, Spanish, and Punjabi are widely spoken.
Therefore, by including multilingual content in your marketing strategy, you can break down language barriers and engage with potential customers who might not have connected with the content in English. In addition to contributing to your business growth, multilingual content demonstrates your commitment to inclusivity and cultural sensitivity.
Here’s a pro tip for you:
Effective multilingual marketing should not be about translation alone. Instead, you should also factor in cultural nuances and context to ensure your message resonates with the target audience.
6 Benefits of Multilingual Content for Your Business
In a study by CSA Research, 76% of online shoppers are more likely to buy a product or service from a business that offers content in their language. However, this is just one of the many advantages of multicultural marketing.
Here are some more benefits of multilingual content for businesses:
1. Expanded Global Reach
This is perhaps the most obvious advantage of marketing in different languages. Translating your marketing materials into multiple languages improves your communication with a diverse range of audiences from various cultures. It increases your business reach and allows you to tap into a much larger customer base.
As a result, you are more likely to experience a boost in your company’s growth and generate revenue. However, you should note multilingual content not only increases your reach on a global level but can also open up new cultural markets even within your specific region.
For instance, in the Greater Toronto area of Canada, you will find several French and Chinese-speaking communities aside from the general English-speaking community.
2. Increased Customer Engagement
Sometimes, customers are more likely to engage with your brand if you produce content in their native language. More importantly, it encourages a deeper connection with your customers and increases retention rates. After all, when people can access content in a language they understand and relate to, they are more likely to trust the business and engage with it.
You should also note that going the extra mile and offering customer support in multiple languages is an excellent way to win new customers while keeping your existing ones.
3. Improved Brand Perception
Offering your customers multilingual content can also improve what they think about your brand. It is because investing resources to create content in multiple languages demonstrates a commitment to cultural sensitivity and inclusivity.
In addition, it also shows that your business respects and values its customers from different cultures and backgrounds, thereby positively influencing your brand perception and building a positive brand image.
An example is the “Meet Me at Starbucks” campaign created by Starbucks.
This marketing campaign features a video compilation of short clips of Starbucks customers across 28 countries recounting their experiences in different languages. The simple message was you can experience love and cheer in our coffeehouse regardless of language, and customers loved it!
4. Enhanced SEO and Visibility
Aside from optimizing your content with keywords and other SEO tactics, creating content in multiple languages can also contribute to better search engine ranking. Whether you are appealing to an international audience or different cultural groups in your region, multilingual marketing can boost your SEO.
Since you offer marketing content in various languages, you can rank higher in local search results. This boost in visibility can help you attract more potential customers and improve your sales numbers. Besides, more relatable content can also increase how long customers spend on your website and prevent them from exiting the moment they land on your site.
5. Competitive Advantage
In markets where competitors may not offer multilingual content, communicating in multiple languages can be a significant competitive advantage. After all, it sets your business apart as an accessible and customer-centric brand. In other words, you can win some customers over to your side by offering them content in their preferred language.
An example is the marketing strategy of the global chocolate brand Snickers in India.
By localizing their marketing tagline – ‘you are not you when you’re hungry’ – for their Indian consumers, they experienced skyrocketed sales. Here’s the direction for that strategy, “Hunger acche acho ko badal deta hai” in Hindi translates to “Hunger gets to the best of us.” Based on this, the tagline was more related to their Indian audience.
They also translated several of their taglines and CTA into various Indian languages.
6. Better User Experience
One of the perks of leveraging multilingual content is that it eliminates language barriers. As a result, international visitors and non-locals can easily navigate through your website and access valuable information without stumbling on language-related obstacles.
Therefore, investing in multilingual content can also help visitors and shoppers on your website enjoy a much better experience.
Besides, since they can navigate your website and access information in their native language, they are more likely to have a more seamless and enjoyable experience. It can lead to higher conversion rates and better customer retention.
Tips for Effective Multilingual Marketing
While there are several advantages that multilingual content offers you, you must get it right. Here are some tips to help you engage in effective multilingual marketing:
- Leverage professional translators and native speakers to achieve accurate translations
- Avoid literal translations; instead, focus on conveying the intended meaning and context
- Be culturally sensitive and adapt content to suit different cultural norms
- Conduct thorough keyword research for each target language and market
- Optimize meta tags, URLs, and alt text for multilingual SEO
- Ensure consistent branding and messaging across all languages
- Provide language options for users to switch between languages easily
- Update multilingual content regularly to stay relevant and up-to-date
Bringing It Together
Multilingual content is an excellent way to break language barriers and push your business to a more range of target customers from various cultural backgrounds. By leveraging multilingual marketing, you can increase your customer acquisition rates, improve customer retention, and boost sales and revenue.
If you need help optimizing your website with multilingual content, we have experts that can help. Reach out to Lat Multilingual, and we will get you started on your journey to acquiring global customers.
