3 Steps to Establish an International Web Presence and Go Global

On May 27, Smartcat held the #LocFromHome conference, an important language industry event that hosts valuable presentations related to the translation and localisation industry. In it, Optimational had the chance to present a topic we are highly passionate about: “Establishing an international web presence to go global.”

Our speakers, Silvi Nuñez and Ann Montañana, both Spanish translators at Optimational, presented their insights on how to prepare to go global. The steps to develop an international web presence can be summarised as follows:

Steps to Establish an International Web Presence

1. Conduct Adequate International Market Research

When planning to expand internationally, the first step is to conduct adequate international market research. No two markets are the same as each one has its unique challenges and needs.

It’s key to invest time in understanding the target audience and analysing the competition. This will help you determine if there’s an opportunity to make an impact on the new market and take action. In addition, and most importantly, research will help you reduce risks. The more you know about where you’re going and who you are selling to, the better you can plan your strategy to go global.

The information collected during this step will help you adjust your strategy. Additionally, your campaigns will reach the correct people… Those who will relate most to your company’s message and products.

2. Develop a Multilingual Content Strategy

After collecting information about your new market, you should develop a multilingual content strategy. It’ll help you break down cultural differences and assure that communication has the desired effect on the target audience.

Thus, when choosing the content for your multilingual content strategy, you should keep in mind the following things:

• Your goals;
• What’s your best-performing content, and
• Your target audience’s interests.

You can ask yourself questions like:

• What type of content will engage audiences mostly?
• What content is absolutely necessary to enter the new market?
• Can some content stay in the source language for the time being? 

#OptimationalTip: A good practice when selecting the content for translation is applying the 80/20 rule. This rule states that 80% of the traffic comes from about 20% of the content. In this way, you could initially focus on translating the 20% of content that best performs.

3. Build a Scalable Process

Planning a process that allows you some flexibility and adaptability will help solve problems that you may come across further in the expansion strategy. Also, when market penetration starts to increase, having a scalable process will allow you to revise and reprofile your strategy to go global.

In this way, the resulting strategy will be personalised. Thus, it will fit not only your needs but the needs of the target market.

When building this process you have to consider the following things:

• Workflow: It should facilitate the expansion of the brand and help reflect the needs of the new target market. Some common workflows include Translation and localisation, multilingual SEO, copywriting, and graphic design.

• Talents: The team of professionals that will take part in the strategy. They can be freelance translators, a translation agency, or a project manager if you decide to translate with an in-house language team. 
• Technology: The tools, software, and related resources that will facilitate the teams’ work and will help them meet their goals. Here you will need to consider any technologies you already have or may need for this strategy, including translation tools, content authoring tools, and SEO tools.

#OptimationalTip: It’s important that after you have developed your strategy to go global and have put it into practice, you carry out a reanalysis and assessment. This will help you determine if the results were the ones expected or if it’s necessary to review some aspects of your strategy.

Final Thoughts: Research, Translate, and Develop and International Web Presence

Success in ‘market A’ doesn’t guarantee success in ‘market B’. This is the reason why you should never skip the market research step when working on building an international web presence and creating a strategy to go global.

Conducting adequate market research is an essential step to achieving a successful business plan. It allows businesses to understand the potential opportunities and risks in a new market. Then, once you’ve decided that expanding is worth it, you can focus on reaching your goals with a multilingual content strategy. Remember to use the insights and data gathered, focus on your best content, and create a scalable process.

Watch Optimational’s #LocFromHome session here: Go Global, Think Local: How to Establish an International Web Presence