Surely, online content is a great way to make people interested in your brand. People will find something useful or entertaining in your publication, which will positively influence your brand image. True, when you give people something useful, your brand value grows. It is also true that with informative online content, the audience should be as broad as possible. Many people turn to means of advertising to promote their pages. However, there are many other ways to bring the site information to a broader audience, such as translation. This promising method has many advantages of reaching the broader audience by simply altering the language of already existing content. It is convenient, easy, and helps to build your brand image effectively abroad. Here are the five reasons why you should translate your online content right now.
1. Conversion Rate
This term means, basically, the proportion between the visitors of the site and the sales you have. Everyone wants these numbers to plunge. Some good news: translating your content will help you to increase this rate. Namely, 55 percent of users prefer to shop online in their mother tongue, and 53 percent of people find that online content is more convenient. You can draw easy conclusions that translating a site boosts sales, and your conversion rates go high.
2. Larger Audience
The most obvious reason for online content translation is reaching your target audiences in the other language. Using translation, you can contact over 955 million native speakers if you translate into Mandarin. Spanish audience will give you another 405 million native speakers, whereas Hindi possesses the potential of 310 million. Such languages as Portuguese, Japanese, and Arabic are also considerable. The online audience is what you need if you already have content. Remember that the help of Thewordpoint allows you to localize your texts, which will positively impact the foreign audience. Although not all of these audiences will be equally beneficial, do research, and establish your target one.
3. Staying Competitive
The recent data says than 94 percent of multinational corporations are planning to spend more funds on localization in the nearest future. Thus, translating your content is not about taking advantage of the competitors, but about staying afloat. The point is, what exactly to translate and for whom. Most of the companies consider already existing markets where people possess high buying capability, such as China. This country has a rising middle class, which means more purchases of foreign goods. However, not everyone pays attention to the markets that only begin to establish. Many Asian and African countries go unnoticed; in the meantime, they spend more and more on imported services and products. Emerging markets such as India also possess vast potential in the nearest future. Still, remember that according to African business experts, 72.4 percent of consumers would rather buy a product that is translated into their native language. Thus, think about the markets which no one has reached yet.
4. Legal Reasons.
In certain countries, markets, and industries, you have to translate your product description or the whole website page, because the law says so. If you fail to provide an accurate, proper translation, you may be banned from doing business. Also, it may bring fines and penalties. Surely, it is better to translate to do business legally and safely. Do your research on the foreign market requirements to make sure which kind of translation or legalization do your need.
5. Localization.
Wait, didn’t we talk about translation all this time? Yes, we did, but localization is not the same. If the translation is, literally, conversion from one language to another, localization is altering your content to fit another culture. Before you start localizing, it is better to have marketing research. How do people see your product abroad? What is in their “part” of the Internet? These questions will help you to adjust the page to your customer’s view. The point is that you don’t just translate, but also alter the content to look like websites which people are used to seeing. For example, a localized text does not contain English idioms or quotes that the customer won’t understand. Instead, the content has local jokes or cultural links. That helps to win customers, who feel at ease when they browse your site.
As you can see, having a website only in English is unprofitable in the world of globalization and shared Internet culture. Many people may access your site via the Net, but many would leave if they simply don’t understand what is there. Remember than more than half of your visitors feel it hard to buy from foreign places. To increase your conversion rate, translate your content. The more languages you have, the more visitors will stay and buy. You will be more competitive if you translate, as similar firms already think about it. Remember to translate if the law demands so. And don’t forget to localize. In this case, customers would feel your care and become your loyal customers.
BIO
Henry Mcdowell is a translator and researcher who is keen on blogging. In his blog, he mainly writes about the challenges of the modern translation. Sometimes, he shares his life with followers, shows his travel photos, and writes book reviews.