Brands and publishers need more help to optimise their content marketing strategies for a global audience, according to a new research paper. While content remains a primary means for driving traffic and generating sales, many enterprises are struggling to localise their content properly in order to reach customers in different regions.
Global Content Marketing’s author, Pam Didner, has revealed that issues such as deadline challenges, budget constraints and lack of support for executives are among the reasons why localising content remains a problem. Didner added that some companies also still believe that English pieces will be just as effective abroad.
The ability to translate existing copy correctly is increasingly important for brands, as articles are more likely to resonate with an audience if they are written in a native language. This requires a renewed focus on “bespoke content creation or rendering” for effective localisation, according to EVG’s chief content officer, Lisa Plumridge.
Plumridge believes that cultural references are one key area that brands can double-down on to improve their localisation efforts. While a certain writing style for English speakers in the UK or US may reap the best results, it is important to be open to changing that style to reach French or Spanish speakers, for example.
Custom apparel company Spreadshirt is among the companies leading the way when it comes to localising content for various countries across the globe. Taking the nuances in language into account is important when creating content, as it enables businesses to engage with customers in a meaningful way, which is great for brand image.
“I think our customers are smart enough to be able to see when a human is communicating with them or a machine, and I think if we rely on machine translations, we lose that authenticity, which is one of our brand pillars,” Spreadshirt’s marketing communications global head, Adam Lasky, said. “If we’re not authentic in that relationship, then that relationship ends, and customers then see themselves as simply a transaction number.”
In order to embrace content localisation, experts have urged companies to invest in linguistic assets to help them adopt consistent terminology for their message across various languages.
