In past posts, we’ve briefly mentioned the power of moving successful marketing campaigns from a domestic audience to an international one. If you’re making a profit at home, the next step should be making a profit abroad – assuming you already have the delivery infrastructure in place to do so.
This is your pocket 5-step plan to taking a domestic campaign and ensuring that it is a global success. If you’re considering expanding your marketing efforts, read on.
Step 1: Plan a strategy around your content assets
It’s always more cost effective to translate the content assets you already have, as it’ll be cheaper and you’ve already probably researched the required content consumer’s need to make their purchase decision. But be aware: different countries digest content in different ways via different media. Your regular blog-style articles are always going to be popular, but certain assets that are popular in the UK are not always popular abroad.
Social media is less popular in some countries, and more popular in others. Same with infographics. As far as assets like videos, keep in mind that in order to use them effectively, you will need to create new videos, or at least translated voiceovers or subtitles for every different culture and language you wish to appeal to.
Step 2: Getting organised!
When your marketing goes international, it’s easy to get disorganised – and you’d be surprised at just how quickly it happens especially if you have third party agents acting on your behalf.
You don’t need to be obsessive compulsive, but it’s good to get everything in a central location.
A simple Dropbox folder or Wiki-style page will allow you to post as much of your content as you’d like, and you’ll be able to organise it in a somewhat-neat fashion.
Existing team members will be able to find what they need in a second, and new international team members will be able to catch up with the rest of your staff almost immediately.
We often work with geographically dispersed marketing teams to provide translation services via this type of portal – saving you time and effort too.
Step 3: Time your campaigns for maximum exposure
Some of this is obvious, but you’d be surprised at some of the mistakes billion-dollar corporations make abroad.
The obvious part of timing your campaigns is not running them during anything that will take away from interest in your ad. For example, if you’re trying to break into a market that speaks Arabic, it’s probably best to not run your campaigns during Ramadan.
The not-so-obvious part of timing your campaigns is aligning them with cultural norms based on the demographic you’re targeting. Let’s say you’re going after the affluent part of many European markets – don’t run your first campaign during summer. Those who have money are usually not working during the summer, not looking at B2B ads or consuming media. It’s entirely possible to have winners during summer months, but on your first try, go for spring, autumn, or winter.
Step 4: Set firm goals (based on domestic results) and stick to them
International campaigns are just like domestic campaigns… you’re spending a certain amount of money, and you need a certain amount of results.
Set firm goals for your international campaigns based on how the domestic part of your business is performing. Remember that not every campaign will catch internationally, but don’t give up, even if you don’t reach your goal the first time around.
Step 5: During rollout, make sure everyone knows everything
One of the easiest ways to mess up an international campaign (or just slow it down) is by having your international stakeholders not communicating and make mistakes. On an international stage, every move counts – make sure that your team is in constant communication.
This often means translation of not only the marketing materials themselves, but detailed briefing documents for staff and agents around the world.
Hold more meetings, and send more translated emails, than you regularly would.
- You did something big?
- You did something bad?
- Your competitor did something?
Your team has a certain level of productivity and effectiveness that it can reach – try to max that out and your international marketing campaigns will be taken to a whole new level.
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Starting to market on an international level is hard – and we’re here to help with fast, accurate translation services.
It’s also a vital component to growth. There’s only so much you can do with your domestic market… when you’re ready to expand, keep the five thoughts above in your back pocket for reference.
And of course, if you need translated material for your new marketing campaign, we always have our doors open. Bubbles Translation can perfectly translate marketing and other company material to ensure your international marketing campaign is a smash hit.
Contact us today to get started!
