Hiring Multilingual Agencies to Market and Sell Internationally

Why Sell/Market Internationally?

When looking at your marketing strategies, supply and demand is a very rudimentary but necessary area of examination. When thinking about demand, most businesses  typically think of domestic markets, and there’s a good reason for it: you typically know more about what the market is like intuitively. On top of that, when you want to carry out marketing research, the amount of data you can gather for your domestic market demand is overwhelming, to say the least. But you are most likely not the only one thinking this way, which means that there’s a clear disadvantage limiting yourself to domestic market due to the competition between suppliers.

Finding blue oceans has never been more important in your business and marketing strategies. Take a look at the global market share (International Business Guide).

1. US - 29%
2. Japan - 8.51%
3. Germany - 5.29%
4. China - 5.29%
5. France - 4.45%

This ranking is based on general market demand, meaning that it by no means guides a detailed marketing plan pertaining to specific industries. However, it does show that there’s significant market demand outside the U.S.

The Differences Between Countries When Marketing

You may think, “Yes I know that - so why don’t companies just go and market to international markets?”

Well, the truth is that a lot of companies have tried - and failed. It’s a different story when you have a billion dollar or multi-billion dollar enterprise, but for mid-size companies who want to open a market in international territories - especially through eCommerce marketing or inbound marketing - it’s so far proved very difficult and risky. A simple example will explain why:

China, one of the top 5 and fastest-growing markets, uses a completely different internet or internet marketing paradigm: they use a different search engine, a different “tweet” platform, and even different influencing mentality. On top of that, they have a different language. The table below shows a comparison between the US and China digital marketing paradigms.

*This is probably the most concerning, since it entails a completely different SEO strategy

**RenRen is gradually phasing out, due to the decline in popularity and the rising to Weibo. Even so, Facebook is not available in China, which changes the Chinese social media strategy completely.

***There’s no equivalent of Instagram in China and Instagram itself is not available in China. There might be apps or networks sharing the same concept, but they don’t have the same popularity.

And over the years there’s also a new term developed in China, Wei Shang (business over WeChat, Weibo or other social platforms specifically in China).

Importantly, the differences don’t just exist in the platforms themselves. They are also in the culture of influence itself. For example, you may find it easy to convince U.S. consumers by positioning the features and benefits, explaining how the product fits into their lives, or by generating a gamification program and social proof.

In certain other countries, earned media plays a large part in how businesses influence other businesses or consumers. This usually happens when digital marketing is not well defined or well-established, and people still rely primarily on public media for information. In these places, inbound marketing is so new that when people read blogs or receive emails, they’ll treat it the same way as traditional media or public media with high credibility.

Conversely, in countries where social media, blogging, and email nurturing or workflows are well established, there’s an abundance of information coming from various sources and people are used to treating this information as opinions. In this context, to make yourself heard, your marketing content or strategy needs to be unique or have sufficient digital and social proof.

How to Evaluate an Agency for It’s International and Multi-Lingual Marketing Capabilities

Even if you’ve done the discovery and analysis on the differentiation in marketing between different regions, there are still many factors that go into executing a successful campaign and bringing marketing and sales results. Specifically, you must have the right PEOPLE, STRATEGY and EXECUTION.

There are many benefits of hiring a digital marketing agency, or inbound marketing agency. They are always up-to-date with the most recent marketing technology and best practices, and they are always looking for ways to break out from the marketing noise and find a unique positioning for your company. But how do you evaluate an agency’s international and multi-lingual marketing capabilities?

Language is the foundation for communication. Without knowing the language very well, you run into risks of miscommunication, wrong marketing research, wrong understanding of culture, etc.

Knowing the language is one thing - understanding how to express yourself well is another. People in the U.S., for example, often have confusion when communication with people from Great Britain. Similarly, translating a poem with certain cultural implications is a Herculean task if the translator doesn’t have a solid understanding of the cultural implications and stories behind the work. Understanding the nuances, then, is key to effective cross-cultural communication.

As previously mentioned, Google SEO doesn’t apply to China at all, and Twitter campaign strategy doesn’t apply to Weibo marketing. If you don’t know how Weibo works and what appeals to people, you will completely miss that market. To be successful, then, you have to understand the platforms you’re working on and how their visitors interact with them.

Having all the other foundations in place, it is ultimately the strategy and execution that bring results. There are many differences in marketing strategy and best practices in different regions, but the fundamental marketing capabilities of an agency will still dictate the success of your business. Here are just a few of them:

1. Marketing research capabilities
2. Agile approach to strategy and change
3. Holistic marketing approach

Conclusion

Inbound marketing is still a relatively a new concept, but we’ve seen tremendous growth over the past few years and many more companies are adopting the inbound marketing methodology. If you have any question regarding marketing to overseas, contact us today.