Marketing a business online is a complicated process. It’s also frequently evolving, which only increases the challenge ahead for any business owner.
To help navigate these issues, here are four essential global online marketing tips that still work today.
1. Translate the Website
Websites often aim at a single market and ignore the global perspective.
For instance, many people are Spanish or French speakers, so would benefit from content that’s been worked on using a translation service. By doing so, a website can offer product information that they can access, understand, and take action based upon it.
Using a translation agency, it’s possible to expand beyond a single-country market to cross international borders. Multiple rankings in Google are possible when providing alternative pages in different languages. A translation company like Global Voices can help to increase the potential of a website beyond its initial restrictive scope. Also, they understand exactly what online marketers need to be successful.
2. Embrace Video Content
Video is becoming a larger part of the media that internet users consume. For some types of searches, answers provided in video form are better than the written word. Also, Google now selects small clips within existing videos if it answers a searcher’s question well.
Services like Lumen5 allow for quicker video editing in a browser without the need for advanced, confusing software video editors. This is great for owners of underpowered laptops, which won’t run complex editors that require faster processors and dedicated graphics cards to edit and render video in an acceptable time.
Video subtitles can also be added for multiple languages, so videos are useful across global markets.
3. Adjust to the Local Culture
While products might be global in reach, differentiating between different countries and cultures can lead to more successful results.
Consider whether a ‘hard push’ on marketing is going to be rejected as too sales-oriented compared to what people are used to. Sometimes, more subtle marketing can play better.
Also, look at the different meanings of words, including brands, marketing slogans, and product names. It’s all too easy to make a grave error when naming something, and not appreciate that it has a double meaning or a different one in a certain country.
One good example of this was carmaker Chevrolet marketing their Nova vehicle in Spain; “No Va” loosely translated in Spanish means to not go… Needless to say, the product didn’t fly out of the car dealerships.
4. Match Mobile Site Performance to Phone Capabilities
Not everyone has a state-of-the-art smartphone. When targeting Asia or other global markets where the earnings per capita are lower than your domestic country, reconsider the mobile strategy.
While it’s well known now that a mobile version of a site must be designed well and load quickly, fewer people are lucky enough to own the latest Apple or Android phone. Instead, many are still using smaller, economy Android phones that load web pages slower.
Subsequently, any website that’s targeting such markets should lighten the site’s weight to help pages load faster. Using local content delivery networks also allows images and other static resources to download faster too.
While global marketing is important, there are benefits to taking a regional or country-based approach. It allows for better results on a per-country basis to deliver growing regional success. Trying an identical online marketing approach globally is a failing strategy.
