How to use localization and translation of email marketing?

Localization is a key element of marketing and should be a part of your marketing campaign.

Some might view email marketing localization as an added task or a chore. But, it’s actually an incredible opportunity to reach to the very heart of your audience. It is also an excellent way to expand your influence, while at the same time reducing your competition. Seems like a win-win situation you should take advantage of.

Shopify website complied with a very good list of statistical data. They make some very interesting observations and offer some insight into the ability to use translation and localization in order to increase the target audience.

Why localization is important?

E-Commerce is more than a three trillion US dollar per year industry. It's predicted to grow by more than 100%, increasing to over six trillion US dollars by 2023. Roughly 60% of the people who make purchases online are willing to purchase from foreign vendors. But they want the ability to review products, see videos, and be addressed in their own languages. Additionally, they'd appreciate purchasing products in their own currency.

Just look at the data presented on the W3 website. This is an incredible opportunity to directly target a market that is vastly under-represented and anxiously looking for new information, products, and services online. While it was necessary to compile this data separately, it’s helpful in formulating a successful email marketing campaign online.

The data here reveals that there are around 7000 languages in the world. However, only eleven languages are used on the internet that each comprises more than 1% of all web pages. It's also revealed that there are around 85 languages with more than ten million native speakers and about 23 languages with more than fifty million speakers. This means that there are a lot of people who can get virtually no material in their own languages.

You can do a little math on your own. When you combine those two data sets you can see that your email marketing campaign can successfully target literally hundreds of millions of viewers,. At the same time, competing with less than one percent of all of the content on the internet. Now, this is something definitely worth looking into.

Localization and lead generation for email marketing campaigns

In order to maximize the potential ROI of the email marketing campaign, you need to know what information to glean when working toward lead generations. Among the most important ones are the native language of the person as well as their location.

Marketing campaigns created for more rural areas are going to be different than marketing campaigns for more densely populated urban spaces. This is the heart of a tactic that people more widely know, as localization. It's key to a successful marketing campaign, including email marketing.

Just as city and rural populations will have very distinct characteristics, so will different nations and locations. They may have the same parent language, but very localized expressions and dialects. Thus, in order to be truly effective, you need to focus on all of the different aspects of localization.

How to use localization, internationalization, and globalization

It is generally a much better idea to use a translation company. They specialize in translation and localization, which is better than doing it yourself. The practices of these translation agencies will ensure that the translation is accurate and specific to the region. They create localization, internationalization and globalization services performed by someone not only intimately familiar with the language pair for translation but any local cultural and historical references that may be important to develop a direct relationship with the target audience.

The translation is the way that you speak to your audience in a language that they will understand. Collect all of the data when you are generating leads for your email marketing campaigns. It should give you the ability to increase your focus on successful localization strategies for your email marketing campaigns.

Let's start with an example. In the beginning phases, it may be fine to use a general Mexican Spanish translation. Especially as Mexico has the largest population of native Spanish speakers. With more leads from Spain, it would be beneficial to focus that portion of your campaign on a Spanish market. Additionally paying attention to localize for the Mexican markets online as well.

“Think globally and act locally” is a very popular slogan. As was pointed out at the beginning of this article, most of the people who shop online are happy to deal with foreign vendors. They do need to know that the successful email marketer understands their problems and needs from a localized perspective.

Convince the target market that you have an understanding based on their localized viewpoints and you can greatly increase the ROI for your email marketing campaign online. Take the time to carefully review all of your marketing materials and localize them accordingly. If you are using pictures in your email marketing campaign, the email market in the USA may react better to a picture of the Grand Teton range, where the Mexican market may react better to a visage of the Pico De Orizaba. Spanish markets may react more favorably to the inclusion of a photograph of Monte Mulhacén.

Ask yourself this before localizing your email campaign. Are there any common expressions or localized lingo used in your email marketing materials? Are there similar phrases in the new international email marketing campaign that can be used to replace the native expressions?

With this you should be able to improve your list-building, actively engage a larger audience, reduce your competition, and most importantly of all, increase the ROI for your email marketing campaigns quickly and easily.

Localized videos in email marketing campaigns

Using videos in your email marketing campaigns can be a great way to gain some audience. There is some helpful information on Hubspot regarding video email marketing and why it is such an important part of successful email marketing online. However, you need to keep in mind that not every video will translate well to the public. It’s especially hard for people who don’t understand the language or are not native speakers.

What you can do is cater to them. The video localization services required for numerous languages can be both extensive and time consuming, though depending on the potential markets, may be one viable alternative.

A much cheaper and very successful alternative is to use video translation services. You can use such videos in email marketing campaigns. Most video editing software allows for the easy inclusion of video subtitle generator. This, however, is never the best solution when focusing on a more international audience. The software hard-codes the subtitles into the video making them permanent. They can only be used in a single language, and they are not beneficial to SEO.

You can easily add closed captioning to the video, in numerous languages. The .srt files for the closed captioning are fully indexed by the search engines. That will greatly increase the overall visibility of the video. Closed captioning is also not restricted in terms of how many languages can be added, meaning that you can now more easily localize your videos for email marketing, attract a larger audience and enjoy increased international success for your video inclusions.

Another thing you can take into the consideration is personalization of the video based on the localization. Based on the data you collect, you can find out what type of video would be the most interesting for different countries, depending on their traditions, religion, climate, and family models. All of that can help you create a successful localized email campaign that will convert well among your subscribers.

Translation and localization in social media marketing for email lead generation and sales

It is challenging, if not impossible, to conduct a successful email marketing campaign without actively engaging in list building. People commonly share videos and pictures on social media platforms. It means that these are an excellent resource for building an email list consisting of people from literally all over the world.

The number of languages supported on the various social media platforms may vary. There is however enough of them in use to allow for a successful international list-building campaign and help you stand out of the competition.

This social media marketing strategy can be an excellent way of reusing marketing materials that have already served its purpose in previous email marketing campaigns. It allows the marketer to focus on expanding its audience without the need to produce a constant stream of new and separate marketing materials just for social media marketing.

Videos also tend to perform very well on social media platforms, especially in an increased number of shares and views. This is yet another way to repurpose or reuse old video content that has already made the rounds of your current email list.

Mind you, once you have established a more international following on the social media platforms, it will also be equally important to have a more localized means for them to sign up for your mailing list. It should be easier to build your email list faster and better by going after an under-represented international audience. Though there still has to be a way to get the necessary information for them to become active members of your email list.

Translation, localization and website design for email marketing conversion

In the beginning, it may be sufficient just to have the relevant landing pages and a limited amount of content translated for your website. However, with time, you need to consider the alternatives. Translation and localization terms of professional sales letters, one time offers and other aspects of the email marketing campaign should be considered. They are the ones that can generate an emotional response from the reader.

Eventually, it may be wise to think about a complete website translation with the localization strategies in mind. It will make more international audiences feel at home when they come to your site. You can do it more easily with forums but is also possible with blogs and other more content-focused websites.

Remember that the international audience is going to be more than happy to have you as a vendor option. Especially if you have selected any of the languages that are so limited in their present form online. However, marketing remains effectively the same no matter who the target audience may be.

A strategic combination of translation and localization can provide you with quite literally all of the tools that you need to build your list more rapidly, establish a larger audience, reduce competition, and to increase your ROI. Granted, it may take a little additional work. But if you want to build your list quicker and get your email marketing campaign off the ground a little faster, you only get out what you are willing to put into the efforts.