The internet is the perfect representation of online international communication. Almost half of the Asian population, uses the internet every day, as well as 80% of the European population, 31% of the African population, and 88% of the North American population. This is why it is very important to market your content and have it translated.
For brands that want to reach a wider audience, geographically speaking, and culturally different, they should create new and specific content that takes these differences into consideration.
In fact, a very important number of brands are also international. The 25 biggest multinational brands have at least 40% of their staff based in countries other than that of their headquarters. This means that these industries will have to manage international audiences.
What is international content marketing?
This means accepting the fact that the internet is a global marketplace. It is one of the content marketing strategies that consists of adapting content to a worldwide audience, or creating content that will appeal to people in one country as well as possibly appealing to people in another country.
What is different in international content marketing?
There are many factors to be taken into account in terms of the international approach to marketing content Other than language, there is also:
The fact of understanding cultural differences
The culture, traditions and norms differ from one country to another. International content marketing takes these differences into account and adapts to suit these differences. For example, if you write an article on how to prepare crêpes à la chandeleur, you will quickly realise that the international appeal will be very low. In fact, cultural traditions range from country to country:
- For example in Luxembourg, “Liichtmëssdag”, is where children go around knocking at doors, with paper lanterns in their hands, asking for sweets (a bit like Halloween)
- In North America, an example would be “Groundhog day”. According to tradition you must watch the groundhog while it comes out of its hole. If the groundhog sees its own shadow because it is sunny, that means that winter will last for another few weeks. And if the groundhog can’t see its shadow, then winter will end quickly.
- In Mexico, the “Día de Candaleria” a day in which the family reunites to eat sweetcorn bread with salted or sweetened stuffing.
In order to attract a more general interest, a blog article could, for example, give recipes for family meals.
The content that you create must also keep in mind that certain things can be seen as polite in one country and can be seen as very rude in another. For example, As well as colours that can signify different things in different countries. In France for example, white is associated with weddings, while in China, it is associated with death.
Understanding linguistic differences
If you want to reach a global audience, your content should be translated. Avoid Google Translate at all costs, it doesn’t have the level required to deal with entire texts and to understand the subtleties of the language of each country. It is strongly recommended that you work with professional translators who are experts in your field.
Choose the right channel of distribution
In France, the most popular social network among 15-24 year olds is YouTube, in the US it’s Snapchat, in Russia it’s Vkontakte, and in China it’s Webchat. In fact, Facebook is banned in China.
Examples of international content marketing
Airbnb
Airbnb’s goal is to allow hosts and travellers all over the world to get in touch with each other. Which requires them to use international content marketing. This is why they provide specific guidelines to each country in different languages.
H&M
The fashion brand has shops on six continents. They have created specific content for each of these markets. For example, the French content is slightly different to that of the US.
To expand internationally is a very effective way of increasing your business’ activity. In order to succeed, it is very important to analyse the specific culture of each country. Firstly, you should address your target audience in their native language.
For the last 20 years, ACSTraduction has been helping businesses to develop in exporting. Our team of 400 professional translators is here to help you to perfectly translate your ideas into the target language. Do not hesitate to come and talk to us about your projects!