Adopting An International Approach To Digital Marketing

Whilst you'd struggle to find a business who doesn't consider SEO to be one of their primary approaches when it comes to digital marketing, it's a far greater task to find one who approaches this at an international or a multilingual level. Despite many businesses shipping to Europe (or worldwide) or offering services which aren't tied to a particular location, only a small percentage are investing in and undertaking a digital marketing strategy which crosses borders. 

The most common reason heard for not doing this is either that there's an assumption that it'll either require too much initial investment or that it'll take too long to see any traction. Whilst in some cases, that is true, in many, it's not and, when executed correctly, launching a multilingual website which is properly optimised for the international market can be a very quick win. 

As such, we thought we'd take a look at just a few reasons why 'going global' can transform a digital business:

1. It'll Open Up New Markets At Home & Abroad

By launching a multilingual website (even if that is in just one or two languages in addition to English), a business is opening up their offerings to new markets both at home and abroad. It's no secret that with the fantastic range of nationalities which we have within our communities, each and every city across the country has those whose first language isn't English, not to mention the huge market which lies in different languages across the globe. 

Yes, translating a website can be a time consuming task, however research suggests that 75% of users prefer to make a purchase in their native language, something which makes a multilingual approach seem that little bit more appealing.

2. It Can Be A Quick Win

If a website already ranks well in the UK, there's every reason to suggest that it'll rank reasonable well on other language variants of the search engines so long as the SEO is implemented correctly and that there's a defined translation in the target language. As such, contrary to the belief of many, going global can actually be a far quicker process than many assume. Of course, we're not talking overnight in terms of a quick win, however knowing that an organic SEO campaign in one language alone can take 12 months to start to see great results on a new website, the much shorter time to see international progress when approached in this way is appealing.

3. It Offers A Competitive Advantage

Three of four years ago, it was the case that only a small percentage of websites were mobile friendly. Fast forward to 2015 and it's something which is almost to be expected. When it comes to multilingual websites, however, this true today and in many industries, competitors are not adopting this international approach to their marketing. As such, when it comes to getting ahead of the competition and creating a competitive advantage, it's an easy one to get your head around!

Yes, going global isn't simple but it's also nowhere near as difficult to do online as it would be to open physical locations in new territories. Yes, it'll help significantly if your customer service representatives (or sales team, depending the line of business that you're in) are able to speak the languages you're rolling out, however it's not unheard of for the approach to be almost reversed; once enquiries and sales roll in from abroad (or at least global search rankings), the justification is there to employ on-the-ground or at least multilingual employees.

Go on...think about it and if we can help you launch your business to the whole world, we'd love to hear from you!