A lot of research and effort goes into thinking like your target market, how they shop, what time of day they are likely to make a purchase…but what about how you communicate with them?
Are you trying to increase your global reach and appeal to customers abroad? Being online is the best way to reach international consumers, but in a continent as linguistically diverse as Europe, what does this mean for the language barrier?
What language is your target market using online?
The decline in English speakers learning foreign languages, coupled with the fact that it is no longer compulsory to take these subjects at GCSE in schools, means there are fewer and fewer English speakers learning the language of your business.
A study carried out by the Gallup Organisation into user language preferences online in the EU reported that 44% of users only used their own language to read or watch content on the internet. In the UK and Ireland however, the figure is much more dramatic: a staggering 85% and 81% respectively would not use a language other than their own to read or watch content on the internet.
Just over half of respondents (55%) said they used a language other than their own for browsing the internet, but when they did, English was by far the most frequently used, with 48% of non-native English speakers choosing English for these online activities.
More crucially, when it comes to online shopping, services and tourism, 42% said they never use a language other than their own to make a purchase.
Implications for your business
With a high proportion of the UK market not willing to browse content, or more importantly, make purchases from websites not in their own language, you could be missing out on a substantial portion of the English-speaking market.
How to successfully break into the international market
Translating your website, communications documents and branding goes a long way towards overcoming these issues. It is absolutely vital to speak to customers in their own language if you are going to be able to effectively communicate details of your company and its products. However, it goes without saying that it has to be translated properly and authentically. Think about the poor translations you’ve spotted in the past and how it has made you lose faith in the company. It takes something as small as a grammatical mistake to lose trust in a piece of writing, so just imagine how readers feel about a document which has obviously been poorly translated. And finding a translator isn’t as daunting a process as it might first appear, as I described in my post on how to find a translator.
If you think like your target market and communicate with them in their own language, you’re sure to find global success.