As communities become more ethnically and racially diverse, businesses become more inclusive when it comes to their marketing. They accomplish this by producing advertising and marketing material in multiple languages, not just in English. In addition to being the socially responsible thing to do, it’s also excellent business sense.
What are the Advantages?
Better Connection
Many immigrant and ethnic communities speak their mother tongue more often than they do English. In fact, its likely that many older generations hardly speak English at all. This makes it hard for your English-language marketing and sales efforts to penetrate this market and encourage new customers. Ads and brochures written in their native language will better communicate your value message and can sell to them more effectively.
Wider Reach
Ethnic communities are an increasingly large percentage of American populations, and can often be found grouped into distinct areas per region, such as “Chinatowns” or “Little Italy’s”. A smart marketer will tap into this growing niche and tailor some of his promotions to cater to these ethnic groups. Doing so will expand his customer base and open up whole new opportunities for the business.
How Can I Apply Multi-Lingual Marketing?
Localizing your Website
One of the first things you should do is localize your company’s website. Web presence is very important these days, and even customers who are in the same area as you would rather look something up online first before visiting a store in person. If you can provide your local ethnic customers with a website they can read and understand, it will go a long way towards winning them—and their business—over.
And let’s not forget that websites have a global reach. Once you’ve localized your website for a few foreign languages there is a good chance that people who currently live in those countries will want to do business with you.
Targeted Ads
It’s a good idea to localize advertisements if you have some budget to spare. It’s a great way to grab an ethnic customer’s attention, especially if they’re used to seeing English language ads all the time. It gives your ad even more of an impact.
Although translating the copy/voice overs may be enough, you might also want to think about hiring actors from the same target culture. This will increase the chances that a customer will identify with the ad and remember your name the next time they go shopping.
Alternate Language Brochures
Brochures are comparatively lengthy marketing materials that are meant to educate as well as sell. Because these things are so wordy, non-English speaking customers are probably going to toss it aside without a second glance.
But if you can provide a correctly translated brochure and place it in locations frequented by these non-English speaking customers, you’ll be able to reach and connect with them more.
Keep in mind that if you’re going to do a translation, you’d better do it well. Automated and online translation programs like Google Translate may do a decent job sometimes, but is not reliable for commercial use. It’s very easy to accidentally use a literal translation that makes absolutely no sense to the target customer—or worse, comes off as funny or even insulting. Instead, consider hiring professional translators or translation agencies to do the job.
« Clearing the Decks: Cleaning Up Your Inventory | Can Celebrity Endorsements Help Your Business? »
