Reaching an international audience through website content
As the world becomes more connected, failing to get your business in line with the latest developments can prove a costly error, with many other suitors likely waiting in the wings to snap up an audience you could have had but just couldn’t reach out to. With the prevalence of tools now available right at your fingertips, it is getting progressively easier to reach international audiences.
With content, language is obviously an excellent place to start. Compared to non-English speakers, those that converse in English worldwide are definitely in the minority. Whilst in the context of where you operate it may seem like nowhere near that figure, there is so much of the world audience that you could end up missing out on just because there wasn’t a suitable way to get the message across.
Depending on how much you wish to invest to make this global appeal a reality, starting off by implementing automatic translation tools as provided by popular search engines is by no means the worst way to start, but you could definitely do better. Prone to error and devoid of nuance, if you are getting across potentially complicated messages that may not survive the basic programming of these automated translation tools, finding a real person may be the best bet.
It will cost you more, but run a simple cost analysis and see if the price somebody is charging you to translate your content into a multitude of other languages is worth how much you could end up making if you finally manage to get across to all of these previously unseen audiences, who maybe were not even aware of your existence until this point. If you can afford the cost of paying somebody to translate it authentically for you, it will almost certainly look a lot more professional and give the impression that you care about those who fit your target profile.
How your website pops up on these search engines is also an incredibly important thing to consider: just because you’re in the top ten searches returned where you are based, it does not mean that it will be the same on the other side of the world. Consider using certain keywords in your text that match what the users that you hope to attract in that location are most likely to enter. A freelance translation expert can also help you to figure out those kinds of details.
If you feel like this all sounds well and good, but inspiration is hard to come by, there are many successful businessmen who have expanded their portfolio greatly by managing to find new ways to reach international audiences. One such example is Nasib Piriyev, who managed to develop his initial business out of Azerbaijan, and all around the world thanks to his ability to tailor his content to suit different audiences in various locations.
Of course, you will have much more chance of guaranteeing success if you adopt more than one approach to this. It is unlikely that just altering one aspect of your content will be enough to attract the numbers you are vying for, so finding ways to diversify your efforts into a number of different strategies will only prove a positive endeavour.
Good, strong research is at the core of reaching out to different audiences internationally. It is important to consider that within each country even, there will be divides and differences of culture that you shouldn’t assume will not exist. By finding out as much as possible about your target market, and having a good idea of what content they will best receive, you will give yourself the best chance of success.
