If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught businesses anything, it’s that digital marketing is more important than ever. All businesses, both small and large, are likely to be doing some form of digital marketing. Smaller businesses and start-ups are likely to just have a basic website and a small social media presence whereas more established businesses will have a complete multichannel strategy spanning across multiple markets. If a business currently operates in both domestic and international markets, then it is likely that investing in website translation services will have been considered in order to establish a better connection to its foreign audience. As a brand’s website is often considered the backbone of all digital marketing activity, it is only fitting that website translation is often the go-to service that international businesses invest in. But how does website translation actually improve a business’s digital marketing? We have taken the well-known digital marketing framework ‘RACE’ from SMART Insights to see how website translation affects each stage of the customer lifecycle. For those who aren’t familiar with the framework, please see a copy of the RACE model below: As you can see above, the framework covers 4 stages of the customer lifecycle starting with the ‘Reach’ phase and ending with the ‘Engage’ phase. Here’s how website translation can improve your business’s digital marketing at each of these key stages: Reach The Reach stage is where the customer is exploring their options and browsing the market to see which product or service meets their needs the best. Marketing activities during the reach phase will mainly focus on building brand awareness. One of the most important parts of the Reach phase is getting the product or service to be visible to customers on the channels that they use to browse the market. Usually, this is via search engines such as Google or Baidu, or on social media. According to a 2011 study from the European Commission, 9 out of 10 Internet users said that, when given a choice of languages, they always visited a website in their own language. By having your website available in your customer’s native language, you will have a better chance at the customer noticing your website over your competitors who may not have translated their website yet. Act The second stage of the RACE framework is ‘act’. This is where the customer has an awareness of your business, they may have seen your website in search results or seen your post on social media, but they are yet to have any proper engagement with you. The phrase ‘content is king’ can be applied here as producing engaging, relevant content for your target audience is likely to increase the number of visits from warm leads to your website, as well as boost your social media following. Having content translated into your customer’s native language is another way to boost engagement, especially as nearly one in five Europeans (19%) said they never browse in a language other than their own and 72.1% of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language. Convert After the ‘act’ phase the customer then moves into the ‘convert’ section of the framework. The convert phase is where the customer makes the decision to purchase from your business. Whilst there are many factors that can influence a customer’s buying decision, CSA Research found in their study that 56.2% of consumers said that the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price. This is because having a translated website builds trust with the consumer and allows them to properly understand key information about your product or service, which otherwise may get lost in translation. Website translation also allows brands to customise their marketing messages to make sure the translated version of the website contains information that will increase the conversion rate of consumers in that market. This is key as some markets are likely to value different factors, i.e price or quality, over others. Engage Sales that are a result of engaging, relevant content are more likely to lead to customers becoming brand advocates and this is what the ‘engage’ phase is all about. Having customers that have turned into brand advocates means they will not only repeat purchases with you but also recommend your brand to others in the market through word-of-mouth or by sharing your content online. Of course, there are many factors that result in loyal, engaged customers who repeatedly purchase from your business, but translation can often be overlooked as an important part of a business’s international marketing strategy. Language Insight has over 12 years of experience as a professional language service provider and has partnered up with WPML to make it simple for you to translate your website. For more information about our website translation service click here.
