Four Steps for a Successful Multilingual Content Strategy
Studies show that English accounts for 20.27% of the world population (around 1500 million speakers). This means companies relying only on English to communicate with international markets could be losing sales opportunities. With personalisation continuing to gain traction, developing a multilingual content strategy is essential for remaining competitive.
A CSA Research found that 76% of online shoppers prefer to buy products with information in their native language. They also show that people are six times less likely to stay on a website if the page is not in their native language. Going multilingual matters. Giving your customers what they want will directly affect your business.
What Is a Multilingual Content Strategy?
A multilingual content strategy involves carefully developing a translation plan supported by market research to reach your business goals. It defines your target audience, the type of localisation workflow, resources, and technology involved. Additionally, it sets SMART goals and requires continuous monitoring and analysis of results. Developing a successful multilingual content marketing strategy also involves adapting your message to different audiences and using multiple channels to engage consumers.
Steps to Develop a Multilingual Content Strategy
1. Understand Your Core Message Before Going Multilingual
The premise is simple: Put your content together, translate it, and show it to your new audience. But localising content is rarely that straightforward. Odds are any given text will require many decisions before being final. Are you thinking about multilingual SEO? Is multilingual UX something your current website considers? These types of questions can make you lose focus on your original core message. If you try too hard to adapt to the tastes of every market, you may risk your brand image.
To avoid this, companies need to be clear on the message they want to transmit. Adapting is one thing; changing everything is another. A multilingual content strategy should not change your core message.
#OptimationalTip: Write down your core message to keep your focus once your translation and localisation projects start.
2. Develop Content That Is Easy to Localise
Creating content that can be easily localised to fit your multilingual content strategy is key. This helps keep costs down and meet tight schedules. Besides, approaching transcreation with anything other than highly specialised professionals can lead to serious consequences and common translation errors.
Creating content that is easy to localise does not mean removing your brand’s voice. It means minimising cultural idioms, local jokes, phrasal verbs, and over-complicated language. This way, working with foreign language professionals will be easier.
#OptimationalTip: Avoid cultural idioms, local jokes, phrasal verbs, and over-complicated language. This simplifies your multilingual content marketing strategy.
3. Spend Time on a Multilingual SEO Strategy
Tackling multilingual SEO means optimising your content and website for different languages. This makes you searchable in new markets and helps reach new audiences.
For multilingual SEO, consider the following:
- Ensure that people see the correct pages for their location (but avoid penalties for duplicate content).
- Translate your page’s metadata.
- Stick to one language per page.
- Use dedicated URLs, meaning language indicators (such as .fr, or .com/fr/), so search engines can identify your page’s language from the URL alone.
Check Google’s best practices for multilingual SEO for a clear idea of what you need to do to improve your rankings. Remember: A multilingual SEO strategy helps create a solid multilingual UX journey for your website.
#OptimationalTip: For a solid multilingual SEO strategy, use dedicated URLs, avoid duplicate content, stick to one language per page, and translate your website’s metadata.
4. Integrate Your Multilingual Content Strategy
Regardless of the size of your marketing efforts, companies need to ensure all communications (online and offline) are integrated. This solidifies their presence in the audience’s mind. The same is true for multilingual content. Your messaging should be consistent across all channels and languages. This makes your brand’s voice identifiable throughout all your content.
#OptimationalTip: Establish your brand’s presence by making sure your multilingual content is integrated across channels and languages. This helps solidify who you are and why customers should choose you.
Final Thoughts: Creating a Multilingual Content Plan
Developing a multilingual content strategy to pitch your business to new markets is the right step towards growth and success. However, doing so carelessly can do more harm than good. Your multilingual content needs to reflect the expressions, habits, and mannerisms of your potential customers.
If your company is looking to develop multilingual content, make sure you do so with the help of a translation partner.
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