For a company expanding their global audience as a whole, reaching foreign customers in an intelligent way is absolutely essential. After all, performing well in one market doesn’t mean that the same success will be achieved in another. With the right tools and resources, however, companies can make a significant mark with audiences overseas and around the world.
Why Reach Foreign Markets?
Companies based in the United States can sometimes believe that theirs is the only audience available to connect with – in fact, developing audiences in markets foreign to your own is the best way to build an effective, long-lasting brand and establish a precedent for boosted profits overall.
Experts at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions in 2015 stated that the Internet will soon represent a $4 trillion economy globally. Additionally, countries such as China, Brazil and even Russia are adopting online shopping at a rapid rate.
These growing, purchasing countries, among others, are discovering the potential of access anywhere, making the temptation for businesses to reach new foreign markets in the best way possible even more powerful.
Expanding in the Right Way
There are a number of important action items to address in order to have a fully fleshed out, foolproof plan for expansion. Without these accompanying pieces, any company’s strategy is much more likely to fall short, resulting in a loss of time, money and other valuable resources.
1. Understand Cultural Differences
Accurate translations imply a true knowledge and respect for the differences between countries that speak the same language, various dialects and more. Researching these types of cultural, social and linguistic variances, as well as sensitivities and intricacies from place-to-place, is a huge part of reaching foreign customers in a way that can be properly digested and understood.
2. Localize Your Presence
Localizing a website and online presence to reach foreign customers is a complicated process. Far more in-depth than simple translation from one language to another, true localization includes serious cultural research, planning, preparation and design efforts to avoid embarrassment or misunderstanding.
3. Provide Long-Term Support
Often overlooked as a part of the market-expansion process is how to provide support to these newly acquired customers. Once a new language is introduced into the mix, any company or organization will require a certain level of maintenance. This longer-term support includes customer service representatives that can communicate and engage in the native language, as well as fully translated documentation to benefit the customer.
At Language Department, our experts will work with you to develop and localize an optimized website — among other pieces of your online presence — to reach new audiences and provide excellent support in a powerful and relatable way.
