Internationalising your website for export markets
A gateway to international business development
About
Pixel Executive
Helping SMEs to grow both locally and internationally through unique websites and targeted online marketing.
Stirling Austin
Over 25 years’ experience of successfully building businesses in the UK, France and across Europe. Bilingual French/English, Stirling has managed, bought, sold, acquired, merged, restructured and turned around businesses in the UK, France, and Europe and Germany, started and developed four companies and two business units from scratch and completed a number of successful assignments as an Interim Manager.Plus a spell in between as a professional musician and bandleader.
globalisation and localisation
A virtual shop-window to the world
The internet has given small and medium-sized businesses the opportunity to enter the global market in a way that was never before possible. They are able to sell their goods and services and build their brand directly through their website to customers all over the world with minimal effort.
That being said, internationalising and localising your website is an essential step to take if you want to be noticed by overseas customers.
Of internet users prefer navigation and content in their own language
1
%
Of internet users are more likely to check out a localised product or service
1
%
A multilingual website is one of the most cost-effective ways of starting to build your brand in foreign markets.
So how do you go multi-language and optimise your return on investment?
Think about your business objectives first and your website second.
Whether you are an SME or a big corporation, the principles are the same.
Goals
e.g. Broad desired outcomes
- Develop business in France/Germany/Middle East
- Grow to a £500k business within 5 years
- Partnerships in countries with no direct sales presence
Objectives
e.g. Specific and measurable outcomes for those goals
- Increase export turnover by 30% in 2022
- Localise product lines for overseas markets
- Appoint 5 European distributors
Strategies
e.g. How the goals and objectives will be achieved
- Define your channels, target clients, how you will find them, how they will find you
- Who are your competitors, what is their market positioning
- What is the competitive mix of your products and services in other markets
Tactics
e.g. Specific actions that you will take to achieve your objectives
- Employ an international sales manager to cover markets A+B and appoint a distributor/JV partner in markets C, D and E
- Convert your website to multi-language
- Multilingual SEO and content marketing
- Market sector trade associations
A clear strategy that achieves your desired outcomes will justify the investment in internationalising your website and online marketing.
Things to consider when building a website in another language•
Choice of platform
- Ease of build and update process
- Formatting process
- RTL/LTR
- Cost
Multilingual SEO
- Ranking well in different languages means rich content translation and SEO meta information
Country and market specifics
- Which products
- Which services
- Which Country
Translations
- Find translators that understand how to get a commercial message across in their chosen language.
Design and formatting
- Global design that works
- Local cultural differences
- Colours, icons, images, fonts
Flags
- Flags = countries, not languages. A country can have more than one official language. A language can be spoken in more than one country.
Internationalisation & Localisation
Internationalisation
The process of building your website to support multiple languages
The technical best practice principle is the same as those for a building, e.g. the foundations need to be installed and configured correctly according to the required use and future flexibility.
Localisation
Adapting your design and content to be relevant to local markets.
The actual process of translating, keeping brand consistency whilst allowing for cultural differences and sensitivities, e.g. colours, taglines, logos, personality, tone of voice, local customs, images.
N.B. For a website to be properly localised, it must be built from the ground up with internationalisation in mind.
Internationalisation - the choice of technical platform.
Affordability
Historically, multilingual websites required vast budgets, since they were custom coded by in-house developers or large agencies, with high build and modification costs attached. This is no longer the case.
Accessibility
Proprietary pay-as-you-go systems, such as Wix, do have some languages capability but are not designed with localisation in mind. Plus all content and language specifics cannot be easily transferred if you leave.
Flexibility
Open source systems such as WordPress have dedicated plugin extensions specifically created for streamlining translation workflows, multi-language web design and multilingual SEO.
- Compared to single language sites, multi-language sites require a specific hierarchical configuration to allow for the complexities of managing language version synchronisation, ongoing software updates, page changes and multilingual SEO.
- Multi-language capabilities cannot necessarily be implemented retroactively and the developer should be familiar with the appropriate methodology and technical foundations to ensure an efficient and manageable site going forward.
- When multilingual sites are not set up correctly this incur extra costs and developer hours further during the life of the site.
Do I need separate domains for every market?
- Technology and SEO tools have eveloved to the point where there is no longer any real advantage in having separate domains for every country.
- All content can be managed from a single central login.
- In the majority of cases, a multilingual website with a single domain (example.com/fr or example.com/es) will provide a greater SEO opportunity than having multiple domains. This is because all regions and languages on the website will benefit from the success of every other region and language content.
- It is also possible to have one multi language site with local country domain aliases
Marketing your business Internationally
In order to understand the marketing practices of the foreign country you are targeting for business, you need to understand your customer base and learn about any country-specific laws that may apply .
culture
Ideas that appeal in the UK may not work elsewhere
Customer trust
How does trading cross-border affect your products
Legal implications
Advertising and marketing can be restricted in some countries. For example Germany restricts the value of promotional offers due to anti-competition rules
Position your brand
You may already have a well-established brand – including name, trademarks, logos and more – but you should check if these translate well into a new market.
Languages v. Markets
There are international cultural clusters (e.g. Scandinavia, Northern Europe Southern Europe, Central/Eastern Europe, South America, etc, so you can invest in more than one market at a time.
- German is used for exporting to 15 markets (e.g. Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland etc.
- Russian is used to trade in the Baltic States, Poland and Bulgaria
- Spanish is the official language of twenty-one countries and is the third most widely spoken language in the world, after English and Mandarin
- Arabic is spoken by 295 million speakers worldwide, and it’s the official language of 28 countries, including many of the dynamic, growing economies in the Middle East and Africa. Six Arabic-speaking countries appear among the UK’s top 50 export markets in goods, with a combined value to the economy that surpasses that of Spain, China or Italy.
Any additional language will help initiate international growth, and when combined with a digital strategy that manages content in a multilingual context, you have turned global content management into a competitive advantage.
Cultural sensitivities
Take into account the market’s culture, business practices and customer preferences, which can influence design, content selection, and translation.
- Icons - a decision must be made to either localise symbols for each different culture or internationalise them by selecting only universal symbols
- Colours - cultural differences affect color perception in different countries
- Imagery - different images will have different responses in each market, for example photos of people, should always include individuals that are representative of the target culture.
Designing for multiple languages
- Global templates for consistent branding
- Different menus and page sections for different markets
- Designing for right-to-left languages (mirror)
- Designing for translation
Translations should take into account the need to fit the format and design, some will take up more space than others. Translating from English into languages such as Spanish or French can result in 20-25% expansion, while German may expand as much as 35%.
Consider web font compatibilities with minimal spacing.
Contextual Translation
- Cultural considerations should be part of your website translation (see Transcreation)
- Different cultures have different business selling expressions and tone of voice
- Translations will not only affect how people perceive your brand online, but your multilingual SEO scores
- Avoid automatic translation plugins
Use translators that understand how to use local selling expressions. (A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush doesn’t translate very well in French).
Transcreation is the merger of two words: translation and creation. It’s an intricate form of translating that preserves the original intent, context, emotion, and tone.
Multilingual SEO
Making sure you can be found in foreign language markets
Content
- Stick to one language per page
- A successful multicultural marketing strategy depends on producing relevant local content
- Do keyword research in the local language -translated keywords don’t always work
Referencing
- Make sure you have a consistent url structure
- Translate your metadata - title tags, meta descriptions, image ALT tags
- Use a platform that has built-in functionality for multilingual SEO purposes
Funding is available!
DIT Internationalisation fund
The DIT Internationalisation Fund is open to SME businesses that have significant potential to grow international sales.
Eligible projects will have a minimum project value of £2000 and maximum £18,000 with up to 50% grant funding available.
The funding can be used by a business to support:
- Market research
- IP advice
- Translation services
- International social media/ SEO
- Trade fairs, where no Trade Access Programme (TAP) funding is available
- Independent market visits
- Consultancy and other international commercial services
The company must be a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) with up to 250 employees
• No more than 25% of the business is owned by an enterprise that is not an SME
• Annual turnover does not exceed €50 million or annual balance sheet does not exceed €43 million
Conclusion
- Extending your international online presence can be daunting. But with the right planning, the process will be smooth and rewarding
- Multi-language websites are now much more affordable and SME's can easily take the first step steps towards building their business internationally and making a return on investment
- Creating an international brand is now much easier - because technology has no borders
Thank you. Any questions, please ask!
- Stirling Austin
- 07887 647824
- https://pixelexecutive.com
- stirling@pixelexecutive.com
- Do connect on LinkedIn!
