The current COVID-19 global pandemic has quite literally changed how a great many people around the world live and work in their everyday lives. Companies that had never before even thought about going digital are now looking for ways to automate, digitize and move their businesses online. As just one example of this, medical translation has been an integral part of the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, and those translation agencies that are working online are thriving while many other translation agencies that are office based are suffering. The key to global success in an online marketing campaign will require website localization and other proven marketing strategies online.
Moving into the online economy also allows the more entrepreneurial inclined to immediately work to capture a more global audience through a process known as globalization and the implementation of localization strategies into their online marketing campaign. What this means in short, is that anyone starting an online business will not only be able to work from home and stay out of the way of global pandemics, but also have the entire world at their doorstep as a customer base, figuratively speaking of course. What it involves is a little bit more complex, but really not so different from marketing to the local audience online in reality.
What are Translation and Localization Services?
Reaching out to a more global audience successfully will require localization, internationalization and globalization if you want to capture and retain an active customer base online. If you are offering a product or service online that has a far wider potential than just the local marketplace, localization, internationalization and globalization are the way with which you speak to your expanded audience in a language they understand while reaching their hearts and emotional core. Even if you are offering a local service online, the localization strategies will serve you well in making a living working online at home.
Localization Strategies are all about talking to every audience member as if you were one of them. While the basic principles of most online advertising will focus on language, that is only a part of the overall picture of localization strategies. Fortunately, Google AdWords (Now just “Google Ads”) and other marketing tools allow for you to focus on a very specific audience, targeting it geographically and even selecting the times that you would like to have your ads posted. Time is not only of the essence, but also an important part of your localization campaign.
What are localization services? Think about the person selling teen fashions online. An ad run at two in the morning may receive a larger CTR or Click Through Rate, but it is probably not going to result in an increase in sales. At the end of the day, localization strategies are all about understanding the target demographic and their habits, their individual idioms and vernacular, and even local sources of pride, in addition to being able to avoid any local taboos.
A good example of this online marketing theory in action would be someone selling barbecues. Featuring someone grilling steaks and burgers may be a great way to market in US and Canadian markets, but such a campaign would be considered highly offensive in India where the cows are considered to be sacred animals. Why is localization used for translation services? Website localization strategies are not just about language but are part of a much larger campaign to create the same emotional triggers and generate the same desired response no matter where the marketplace is located.
What is the best translation company? A larger part of your globalization localization strategies for successful marketing online may include a translation company that specializes in localization strategies like Tomedes. By using such resources, there is a small fee that will be involved, but the internet marketer will also be assured of having all of their work completed on budget and on time, with assurances that most, if not all of the localization strategies are carried out by native speakers, intimately familiar with the areas and the audience being targeted in the marketing campaign. Learning how to target foreign markets is an imperative part of any successful internet marketing campaign.
Services To Translate Your Website and Marketing Material
It may be tempting to use any of the free translation tools online when you want to translate all of your materials, but there are so many problems with this theory that it would be difficult to list all of them in a single article. If this is true with the website, it is even more so with the marketing materials which must be specific if they are going to be successful in promoting your website, your products or your services online. When looked at from an international marketing online perspective, translation should be less about a chore and more about an amazing opportunity to build your online audience, your followers and your influence.
When translating your website, it is generally a good idea to focus on the larger, more vague aspects of language. Manual translation and document translation page by page of the website may seem a bit daunting but it is important for drawing in a more global audience. There are also some opportunities for the inclusion of localization strategies and successful marketing tactics for website translations but they are a smaller portion of the translation and localization process. Think of the website as your business location online or the online version of a brick and mortar business. The website should be attractive and well-designed in order to get people in, but ultimately, your target market is going to be buying your product or service, not the website itself.
By focusing on larger, more general domestic languages, it is possible to attract a larger, though somewhat diverse audience. For the sake of general information, there will be very little relevance in the difference between British English and American English. The inclusion of British specific references in the bigger picture may cause some hesitation among the American portion of the audience, and vice versa. Trying to determine which one of the variants of Spanish is best, may depend on your target market, but for a more global audience, again, a more global approach is preferable when translating your website.
The key marketing opportunities gained by using professional translation services, and the true potential of your localization strategies should be focused on the marketing materials themselves. This is not just about document translation services and going through and translating brochures and other marketing materials. Successful internet marketing strategies focus on the ability to establish both a personal and emotional relationship with the target audience. This emotionally based interaction can then be used to induce a desired response from the target audience. It is at this level that both translation and localization strategies reveal their true strengths.
Google Ads is just one way to fully localize your online marketing campaign and focus on the little cues and translating marketing materials that are directly targeted to the intended audience. It is here that the services of a certified translation agency that specializes in localization strategies will prove invaluable in your online marketing campaign. Native speakers who are intimately familiar with their own culture can then translate the materials more specifically. A person in a small town will react to different jokes than a person from the big city will. Even the language will have local vernacular and idioms that are unique to a more localized areas. The use of a translation agency specializing in localization will help you to create ads that can then be placed locally, convincing the local people that you not only speak in their language, but are familiar with their area, even knowing local expressions, and understand their personal problems. This will give them a great deal more trust and confidence in your online business brand and whatever products or services that you are marketing online.
Website Platforms That Allow You To Build A Website In Multi-Languages
In the days of old it was necessary to build each page of the website individually in whatever language you wanted to use, and this is made somewhat easier with the CMS or Content Management System platforms used for building websites.
One of the more popular methods of translating a website is to create different installations, each in its own directory. While this can be an ideal localization solution for your website, it can be challenging and has some bad in along with the good. Perhaps the biggest challenge is the need for a separate database for each installation which can be a very expensive server requirement and slow down every one of the websites. In the digital age, a slow moving website is not going to be part of any successful marketing strategy.
Another option, and one that remains a viable options, is the inclusion of pages in separate directories, though all part of the same website. In this way, there is only a need for a single sql database on the website, though the individual sites will all seemingly be in their own language. Generally the transition for these linguistic variations of the same website will be marked by small flags indicating the language. The individual portions of the site will then each be included in their own subdirectories like en.website.com or website.es.com or some similar variation.
Of all of the advances in CMS platforms however, one of the most promising is from the people at WordPress who have developed the BuddyPress Multilingual platform. “The plugin allows building multilingual BuddyPress sites with WPML. It works with single-site or multi-site BuddyPress installations. Both the main site and child blogs can run multilingual. Guest blogs can choose their language and create multilingual contents. Additionally, each guest can choose the admin language individually.” If forced to build a new multilingual website from scratch, this little tool may be one of the best available on the market today. That however, also precludes the need to learn how to accept international payment online.
How To Accept International Payment
There are a great many options for accepting international payments online, with PayPal being among the most popular and commonly used. One thing to keep in mind however, is that PayPal is not a financial institution and is not subject to the same regulations as financial institutions are. As such, PayPal can (and might) lock up everything from your bank account to your online payment processor, leaving you with no recourse to continue earning more money online and working from home. Worse still? They do not need any reason for doing so.
This does not mean that PayPal is not a good place to start, only that it may not be a viable long term solution for accepting international payments online. PayPal also offers people instant access to the ability to be able to accept credit card payments for their ecommerce sites or any other sales venue online. While there may be more ideal solutions for large online vendors, for the person learning how to sell products online, PayPal may not be a bad first stage tool for accepting international payments.
For those online ecommerce marketing people looking for global marketing solutions, but who have already established their ecommerce sites, there may be better options than PayPal. It may be a good idea to consider working with an online merchant account that is already accepted to conduct international transactions online. Many of the larger merchant accounts online like Square, offer full POS or Point Of Sale options without the fees associated with some of the other large merchant account providers online.
Some of these international merchant account services online will require a substantial amount of money from the ecommerce sites every month unless online sales exceed their minimum limits. For those international eccomerce sites online who are ready to move up to a merchant account, it is best to shop around a little bit and determine which one fits your individual needs.
Shipping Internationally
There are some ecommerce solutions that focus solely on selling third party items online that will be “dropshipped”. That is to say that the person running the international ecommerce sites will list products being manufactured and shipped by somebody else. About the only problem with these types of international ecommerce solutions is that the seller has no control over any aspect of the sale and their reputations as international ecommerce experts rests in the hands of people they have never met in lands they probably will never get to. While many people have made a good living learning how to sell international drop-shipping items online, it is not always the best solution, especially for someone who likes to take a more hands-on approach learning how to become an international success online.
The three most popular companies for global shipping and especially when it comes to shipping internationally from your ecommerce website, are DHL, FedEx and UPS. Not all of these companies will be readily accessible in every area of the globe, but for those that happen to live within range of one of their international shipping centers, international package delivery should be a breeze. All of these companies offer pickup service, though each has different requirements. Among the benefits of using these international shipping services for online sales, is that they will provide all of the packaging requested as a means to ensure that they continue to get your business.
On days when pickups are required, a phone call or text may be necessary, but as long as the packages are properly packed and labeled, you can handle all of your international shipping needs for your online sales without ever leaving the comfort of home. That alone makes these three companies ideal for international shipping solutions for online sales.
Legal Considerations
There are always going to be legal considerations when selling items internationally online or off. Fortunately, unless you are blatantly scamming people, you are not going to have to worry about most of these. The primary concerns for any international ecommerce sites are going to be the tax laws, import and export laws, and the DMCA or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998.
In terms of tax laws, it may be a good idea to get an indication of what the tax laws are in the nations where you are conducting business. This is not and should not be construed in any way to be legal advice, but many nations do not have any regulations or restrictions for the sale of goods online or for people earning money in other nations. In short, you probably are not going to have to worry about filing taxes in every nation just because you sold a package deal online. However, if there is any doubt, please consult a professional tax attorney in the nation in question.
Import and Export laws can be equally as challenging as international tax laws, but this process is already resolved for most international ecommerce marketing sites. With the exception of some types of international restrictions on pornography, most digital products and services online can be conducted without fear of running afoul of the law. When it comes to marketing physical goods in an international marketplace, the Departments of State for most nations will have a comprehensive list of any items that are banned from being imported or exported. This should make the job of the online ecommerce marketer much easier in terms of determining what is and is not allowed through international shipping restrictions put in place by state government agencies.
This leaves only the DMCA or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which is important to any and all website owners regardless of whether or not they are entering into international ecommerce sites. Just because you see a really cool picture somewhere on the internet does not mean you can just copy and paste it on to your website. The same holds true with website content, regardless of whether or not it is something so simple as a product description for your ecommerce site. Intellectual Property Rights and the theft of intellectual property are just as severe as any other criminal activity, and in the case of ecommerce sites, the potential fines will far exceed anything that most people will be able of earning online.
With all that being said, you should now be ready to build or expand your ecommerce site internationally, focus on earning money online, working from home and staying safe, not only from the COVID-19 global pandemic, but through the ensuing economic crisis that we are told is imminent at this stage. Just create your own materials, use your own content, implement localization strategies in your marketing, and focus on expanding your potential for online sales and you should be fine!
