Translating your website to attract international business

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: December 14th, 2009 | 14 Comments | Posted in: Marketing online, More clients

This is the third in a three part series in conversation with Mark Rodgers, the Managing Director of Cipherion Translations where we discuss the opportunities that the internet presents to us if we wish to expand our business internationally.

In the first article we explored under what circumstances we should consider translating our website into another language.

In the second article we covered the three most common issues that people have when looking to implement a website in another language.

This time I asked Mark about the other things we need to consider in terms of translating our website (e.g. does the navigation need to change to fit with standards people expect in that country)

Mark: In general, we find that this area of ‘cultural adaptation’ is now less of an issue than say 10 years ago. The world is now a smaller place, and whether we like it or not, the effects of globalisation are bringing cultures closer together.

We all know the McDonald’s slogan of ‘I’m lovin’ it!’ – a very clever way to get around trying to come up with a different slogan for 140 countries.

Irish organisations can adopt a similar approach with their websites. Create a multi-lingual website and then ‘tweak’ each website depending on feedback and responses. Very often you can get advice during the translation phase – as to whether something will add / detract from a translated site.

For instance, in Chinese, ’8′ is a lucky number, ’4′ is associated with death. So in such cases, if you were thinking of entering the Chinese market, you might either highlight the fact that your company is called ‘Lucky 8′… or else decide to change your brand if it was called ’444′.

Even the large multi-nationals can get it wrong sometimes, so any Irish organisation that is stepping into Europe or Asia should be confident that a strong English website, with good branding and a great product or service offering has every chance of succeeding abroad as the next company. As always, the success will depend on what is done with the website and how it is marketed.

Finally, its important to have the flags (or drop down list of languages) on the front page and to ensure the contact details and customer support services are clearly visible. Many larger Irish organisations now have some multi-lingual staff, so maybe it’s a chance for them to dust off their language skills and start supporting the sales effort.

But what other suggestions do you have – or what have you implemented in relation to translating your website when expanding your business internationally?