Having an international brand or planning to expand your business abroad often requires a different corporate strategy to increase engagement and conversions via the website. It is often only focused on SEO and using particular ad campaigns available.
Businesses underestimate the importance of multilingual websites in maximising their reach. After all, Asia, Latin America/Caribbean and Africa now have more Internet users than North America where English is the dominant language. To be more precise, 70 percent of web surfers don’t speak English as their first language.
If you wish to get a competitive advantage, having a multilingual website continues to become a necessity for all organisations or businesses in the process of internationalisation. This can be a big step in the right direction and there are 3 main reasons why this is the case:
#1 It is more cost effective
Making this small change can allow all non-English speakers to connect with your brand, service or product. It is an effective way of marketing your company and furthering your reach. For example, you can now prevent visitors who are not familiar with the language in use from leaving the product page without making a purchase. A multilingual website can increase the likelihood of attracting new customers and, at the same time, give your brand an international outlook. In fact, 72.4 percent of international consumers prefer online shopping sites in their native language and 55 percent only do business with sites offered in their native language.
#2 It can increase traffic to your website and sales
Capturing the attention of new users and keeping them interested in the content of your website is not an easy task, but with every language added to a website, there is the potential for an increase of up to 100% in sales. As recent surveys have discovered, a translated website will increase your traffic within weeks and the more people who are on the website, the higher the chance for leads to become potential sales, giving prospects for stronger growth. Additionally, multilingual SEO has become increasingly popular for ranking websites as high as possible. LSPs (Language Service Providers) have a major role in advising their customers and explaining the importance of carrying out keyword research to find the most lucrative target language keywords for maximum results.
#3 It builds trust and shows an international nature
In case we are not proficient in the language offered to us when, for example, we are buying over the Internet, it can definitely make a difference if there is a language alternative that can allow customers to feel secure in the fact they know what they are buying, how and from whom. It creates greater awareness and credibility of your brand due to clients appreciating the well-localised website and a better user experience, thus leading to improved metrics. Nelson Mandela said: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart.” So, besides making your product globally available, you can also popularise your brand through localisation and prove its true international nature by showing there is not a one-size fits all translation.
Want to talk to your visitors in their native language and reach a wider audience?
Author: Ivana Dronjak
