Using the Digital Edge in Multilingual Marketing

While the world has grown smaller owing to the interconnectivity provided by telecommunications and the Internet, it hasn't become homogeneous in any significant way. Differences of language, culture, and nationality continue to define demographics across continents and countries, and these present a perennial challenge to companies seeking to establish a global footprint. Their main concern? How to connect with potential customers in multilingual, multicultural regions with brand messaging that's consistent with the original pitch used in the home country. Consistency is important because brand persona and imagery are important. Disparate messaging across markets might result in different target groups perceiving the brand differently: a case of the five blind men and the elephant.

Before the advent of the digital revolution and the subsequent proliferation of websites, social media platforms, and apps, marketers had only print, billboards, radio, and television at their disposal. For decades, these "traditional" media empowered the advertising pitch, allowing marketers to reach out to their target audiences in the language they predominantly used. Most of the time, however, this meant leaving out significant numbers of potential consumers who spoke in a different language but had the same purchasing power, aspirations, and value systems as the main target group (TG).

To create communication that covered the entire multilingual TG, the advertiser would have to deliver separate communication packages for each language. Using only the traditional media, such a strategy would be costly and difficult to sustain, which was why pre-digital era advertisers limited outreach to just a couple of languages and media.

Take, for example, an advertising campaign aimed at southern India. The region comprises the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, where the main languages are Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada respectively, though English is commonly understood. In a situation like this, an English-language campaign would run across all the states, with separate campaigns in each of the state languages running concurrently.

The same approach (using traditional media) would be impractical and expensive in regions that were linguistically diverse. But now, with the digital universe offering a never-before degree of flexibility with its multitude of communication channels, advertisers are mixing "digital" with "traditional" to get the most out of ad spend.

Why combining "traditional" and "digital" makes sense

While broadband traditional advertising (involving press, television, and radio) reaches large audiences at state, regional, or national levels, digital advertising allows localized, multilingual targeting of consumer groups across social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, and Reddit. Each of these has its strengths and weaknesses and may be suitable for one type of business/communication but not another. For instance, Facebook is good for engaging audiences with information-rich content, whereas Twitter is perfect for tripwire, telegraphic signaling related to flash news and key issues, as well as for drawing consumers into meaningful conversations. Engagement on digital platforms must run concurrently with traditional advertising to achieve a conflation of sorts that is seen, heard, and felt across targeted demographics.

How best to use the digital edge

Given the fact that you can wield greater control in the digital media, you can make the most of its strengths by following these key tenets:

• Identify and profile your target group

Whether you confine advertising to the traditional media or incorporate digital connectivity into your marketing strategy, one thing is certain: you'll need a thorough understanding of your TG. What is its average age? Which languages are spoken and what is the percentage share of each language? What's the income range across the group? Which communities and cultures must be considered?

By answering these and other critical questions, you'll be able to create relevant, highly personalized content for digital media aimed at specific individuals in specific localities.

• Ensure uniformity in messaging

The principle that has guided advertising campaigns for decades continues to hold true when incorporating digital communication into your marketing strategy: messaging must project a clear brand proposition, image, and tone of voice, and it must be consistent across all media. This is to ensure that all targeted consumers perceive the brand the same way at every touchpoint, whether it's a press ad that hits them during breakfast or a personalized message on their mobiles. For example, a press advertisement might extol the virtues of "Brand X Baby Food," suggesting that smart mothers preferred it. On the digital platform, communication might be more personalized. Perhaps a reminder on the mobile phone that goes something like this: "Shopping today? Play it smart! Buy Brand X Baby Food for your bundle of joy."

Usually, advertising campaigns are launched across both conventional and digital media simultaneously. However, if for some reason there is a significantly long interval between campaigns, ensure that the second advertising burst is in consonance with the first.

• Use the multilingual advantage that digital offers

Owing to its flexibility and adaptability, digital media can be used to deliver community-specific messaging in multiple languages without significantly increasing the advertising budget. If messaging drives a potential customer to your website, ensure that it offers enough language options: the predominant language of the region, as well as other languages spoken by sizeable proportions of the population. This will ensure that visitors to your site will continue to explore it in a language they understand. Their positive experience with your brand or company would generate enough goodwill to push sales.

• Localize by trans-creating

It's not enough merely to change the language of source material in order to reach out to specific TGs. You need insight into their traditions, festivals, attitudes, habits, and buying behavior in order to deliver meaningful, sharp-focused messaging that strikes the right chords at the right time. Taking source material and re-creating it for local markets is often referred to as "trans-creation." It's the secret to successful digital advertising.

• Optimize content with regional language keywords

Keeping local TGs in mind, create content that is search engine optimized (SEO) with local language keywords. Translating keywords from English to another language won't do the trick because the translation might not have the same SEO value as the original word. You need to undertake multilingual keyword research and use words and phrases from the local idiom. This will ensure that the TG you're aiming at will be drawn to your content while having a positive attitude toward your advertised brand or service. Collaborate with linguists and build a glossary of terms in the vernacular that could serve as a ready reference for content builders and thus ensure consistency in content.

Wordtracker and Google AdWords allow you to gauge the efficacy of keywords in most markets. Yandex Wordstat is best for Russian, while Baidu Keyword is a great keyword tool if you're focusing on Chinese customers.

• Set up social media accounts in targeted languages

Establish contacts and engage over the long term with your target groups by setting up social media accounts in the key languages of your multilingual campaign. Keep in mind that Twitter and Facebook aren't favored everywhere. Mixi is favored in Japan and VKontakte in Russia. In Brazil, Google's Orkut is proving a match for Facebook. Pages on locally popular platforms should be considered.

• Self-assess with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs will help you gauge the efficacy of your campaign against parameters set by you. If you're running a multilingual campaign, you might want to know which language version of it draws the most customers.

KPIs give you feedback that will help you refine current content and define future marketing strategies. But you must remember to set realistic, measurable parameters and collect data on an ongoing basis to gain the right insights for correct analysis.

To wield a competitive edge, you should be able to create effective communication that works across communities despite their differences. You can meet the challenge with multilingual marketing based on sound research and driven by the tools of the digital world. A blend of art and science--and a good deal of common sense--should help you stay ahead of the curve.