Your business is looking to go global, to expand its horizons and win the affections of new customers across the globe. This is the start of an exciting journey, but there will be many pitfalls and challenges along the way.
One of the most important steps your business can take is establishing a global digital marketing campaign to identify and target new leads.
We’ve created a series of articles exploring how to get the most out of a global marketing campaign. Each month we’ll take on a different channel, covering everything from email campaigns to social media and video.
This month we’ll begin with your website. Let’s dive into the role your website plays in a global digital marketing campaign, and everything you need to know about the delicate process of translating a website for a new market.
Choosing the right CMS for localisation
The first step for translating a website is to assess the platform you’re running it from.
If you’re looking for a new Content Management System (CMS) for your move into overseas markets, there are a lot of considerations to take into account.
One way you can narrow down your choices is to think from the point of view of the users of the CMS from your organisation. Consider which team members will need to use it and the functionality they will value from it which will make their jobs easier.
From our experience, when an organisation expands to new markets, their website requires translation and content localisation. There are a number of employees from different disciplines who’ll need to get involved.
First of all are the content writers, whether they are in-house or work freelance or for a translation agency. Also likely to be involved are project managers, engineers and, of course, the marketing team!
Each of these disparate specialisms have different skill sets and usage requirements, so it’s very important to not base your CMS choice on just one of these groups, as this is a sure route towards failure.
What are the most common capabilities needed for localisation?
The ideal CMS will need to have the following capabilities. It will need to store content, so that you can store all the data that makes up your website. It will need to have content authoring and editing functionality, so your writers can craft compelling sentences in their mother tongue to resonate with a different and unique audience.
You’ll also be looking for a CMS that can store multiple versions of the same content across your target market languages, so that the correct version can be called up where and when it’s needed.
The ideal CMS will also need to include translation workflow management tools, so that your teams know what the project priorities are.
It will also need to syndicate content where possible to reduce workload.
Which CMS platforms are localisation friendly?
WordPress and Drupal are the two most popular CMS platforms in the world today. They are also two of the most-well equipped for website localisation.
WordPress
WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. 32 per cent of websites use it. One of its localisation-friendly features is the ability to translate pages and website categories by using a plugin. This takes some of the admin out of the localisation effort.
There are many localisation plugins available on WordPress because it is an open-source community, so it’s likely someone has developed a plugin you’ll find useful.
Drupal
Drupal helps your staff work in their own language. Drupal can be installed in over 90 languages. Users are able to assign a language to backend administration features and taxonomies. This is useful, as it allows users to work in their own language. This saves times when users navigate the CMS and upload content.
Website localisation best practice
Global gateway – if you are translating into many different languages, a global gateway can help users find your website in their local language. A global gateway is a simple landing page offering users the option of which version of your website they’d like to visit. Remember to list the names of the languages as locals would say them, rather than in English.
Redirecting users – when you have multiple websites for different languages, you may find that users accidentally land on the wrong website. Rather than automatically redirecting them to the website you think they want to see based on their IP address, give them an option of which site to choose.
Use skilled translators – the best translators are locally based. At Bubbles we have networks of translators based all over the world. That’s why we can translate into more than 280 languages.
Begin your global digital campaign
If your organisation is going global this year, having skilled local translators will be a huge part of your success. Get in touch with us today to hear about our expertise and how we can help.
