The world’s economy is on the move and with the Government investing over £5 billion in the next few years to the export market (in particular the manufacturing industry) there has never been a better time to consider what foreign climes can do for you.
However, in a world that is ever more connected through digital means, mastering the media at your disposal should serve as vital to seeing overseas success. Here we look at the key considerations when starting out in the world of international digital marketing.
Manufacturing and digital marketing: A match made in heaven
Your audience and medium: a decidedly different international affair
Whilst your may already utilise digital marketing domestically using social media, search engine optimisation services and PPC campaigns, you need to be aware that where one strategy is effective domestically, it may not reap the same results in other markets. Market research is therefore key to overseas success.
A perfect demonstration of this is found in recent research into the varying uses of digital mediums in different countries. Key findings were that Germans tended to use far less online news than their international counterparts and were similarly averse to taking up social media (Digital News Report 2013). This could mean that you can avoid paying for German translation services for your social media strategy!
In particular, SEO and PPC campaigns differ drastically from language to language, and considering linguistic differences helps us understand why this is. For example, in Spain, where there are relatively more words spoken across the average sentence, the tendency to cut out certain words from their search efforts means that the translation of keyword strategies are a completely different ball game. It’s important that you also consider the context of the keyword by employing professional translation services rather than using a tool like Google Translate. This is due to the fact that machine translation is often criticised when it comes to its ability to process natural language and our native speaking experts often give clients insider knowledge on the keyword terms used.
Additionally, and in relation to search engine behaviour, there are markets where search engines see a significant lower usage rate and the frequency and uptake of search engines such as Google have recently been linked to a country’s GDP (UCL 2012).
So international digital marketing isn’t just about using the same balance of investment and approach and some translation services!
Cultural differences: A hotly debated subject
When considering the various markets and consumer or business behaviour in relation to them, it can be tempting to attribute differences to culture alone.
However, far from being a straight forward landscape of digital marketing techniques decided by culture, there are other factors, such as technological infrastructure to consider. Is your audience more mobile for example? Do they consume more video?
This could drive an approach to reduce the text amount for mobile sites or start a plan to transcribe or translate your existing video content’s audio into subtitles.
To further complicate the landscape there are also differences within countries in addition to between countries. So knowing your niche, and more importantly your niche audience, is more important than ever when marketing in other countries.
Don’t forget your website
Appreciating the importance of understanding your audience and establishing your media mix and is only the start! Mastering social media and all other digital marketing mediums will not serve you well if your target consumer arrives at your website to find it completely written in English. Having a professionally translated website is the platform of international digital marketing, so don’t neglect it!
The Vertical Market difference
We’ve been working with the UK manufacturing industry for over 10 years and we know that your products are highly specialised, which can make the communication of your USPs all the more complex when dealing with overseas clients. We also understand that you want to give added-value to customers and not just enter a global race to the bottom on price. As such, we employ native speaking specialists with a huge amount of manufacturing translation experience to ensure we help drive your business forward globally. We can help you ensure that specialist terms are translated to their equally specialist foreign language counterparts quickly, accurately and for a superb price.
