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idmspot · 7 years ago

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How Are Used Global Gateways on the Websites of Forbes Global 2000

We reviewed the first 1000 companies from The Forbes Global 2000 list in order to see what strategies the leading public companies in the world are using to provide internationalized or localized versions of their websites to their global audience.

We are continuing the series of reports about our full digital audit of the first 1000 company websites from the Forbes Global 2000 list, in case you missed our introduction part you can catch it up easily.

An important consideration for multilingual or multi-regional websites is to figure out how to direct the users to the ‘correct’ language and/or country version. There are several ways to facilitate the selection of country and language. The two main approaches are to either automatically send the user to a language/country version based on the users IP address (geo-location) and/or the user's language settings (language/content negotiation), or to allow the user to manually pick from a list of countries and/or languages.

A middle way exists which gives the user a ‘suggestion’ for the country or language without automatically doing a redirect.

Such companies as Nestle, Schneider Electric, SAP or Bridgestone are good example of websites which do not automatically redirect the user but provide a suggestion instead:

Nestle.com proposes to visitor to go to Nestleusa.com:

nestle.com

Schneider Electric USA website proposes to visitor to choose another country or to go to their Global site

schneider-electric.us

The same picture on the SAP United States

sap.com

Bringestone

bridgestone.com

Procter & Gamble is a great example for an automatic redirect based on IP address. When a user located in the United States tries to enter the main website, pg.com, he or she is automatically redirected to us.pg.com.

What about the situation in which the user does not understand the automatically offered language or if the user wants to switch to another country/language? In this case we need to provide a way to easily switch to the country/language of choice. We can do this with the use of a Global Gateway

A global gateway is a way for the end user to easily switch to the language and country website of choice.

In this article we’ll show a few global gateway examples which we found during our digital globalization research study of 1000 Forbes Global companies. Interestingly enough, only 3% of the websites from the Forbes Global list provide a global gateway.

Let’s have a look at some examples, both good and bad.

Language

According to Internet World Stats statistics, English is still the most popular language in the internet.

Source: Internet World Stats - www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm

The most authoritative resource on world languages Ethnologue shows us the largest languages with the number of first-language speakers in millions. As we can see, the most spoken languages are Chinese, Spanish and English on the third place.

Source: “Ethnologue: Languages of the World” - www.ethnologue.com/statistics/size

Given that English is still the most popular language on the internet it’s not a surprise to see that many gateways use English to offer country and language choices. However, it can be a good idea to translate the country and language names so that it’s easier for non English speakers to find. The same way it would be difficult for English speakers to understand that 英語 means ‘English’ in Chinese. Or that ‘idiomas’ means ‘languages’ in Spanish.

On the other hand, providing country and language names only in their own language might be confusing for customers who don’t understand these languages. In this case, it can be advisable to use both English and the translated version.

H&M for example includes two versions: one in English, and one in the native language.

hm.com

If a country version is not translated, it’s a good idea to clearly indicate this from the gateway in order not to set the wrong expectations to the user. 3M does a good job with that.

3m.com

If a country has more than one spoken language, make the language option clearly available from the gateway. Examples of such countries include Switzerland, Belgium or Canada. Here is how H&M makes the language choice available:

hm.com

Grouping and Consistency

If a company operates on several continents and regions, it can be helpful to the user to organize the available country options by continents and regions.

fedex.com

Be consistent with your global gateway. The following example from the Good Year global gateway shows a mix of countries names in English and their translated options.

goodyear.com

Design

Design of a global gateway page has to remain globally consistent. A good example of a consistent global gateway can be seen at the Heineken company website.

heineken.com

Visa and Turkish Airlines also have well implemented global gateways

visa.com

turkishairlines.com

Here are a few points to keep in mind when designing a global gateway:

1. Along with English version translate the country and language names into its native language version, thereby you ease the site usability.

In example: Germany | Deutschland, Chinese | 中文, Spanish | Español ect.

2. Be consistent with your global gateway. Whatever form of designation of each country/language in the selector you would prefer, use the same kind for each country/language. Do not mix up the different forms in one selector.

3. Organize the lists of countries by continents or regions.

4. Use a ‘globe’ icon such as this to indicate the gateway.

5. Do not use flags to indicate language!

Which flag you would use for English language indication - American, British or maybe Australian? There is no correct answer, isn't it? So avoid such cultural and geopolitical mistakes in your global gateway's design.

6. If you can, do not use flags to indicate country.

From geopolitical and cultural perspective using of flags can be particularly complicated and could be offending for some of your global visitors.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/how-are-used-global-gateways-on-the-websites-of-forbes-global-2000

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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Top Countries and Languages for Online Expansion Used by Forbes Global 1000

In a globalized modern society, and subsequently smaller one, it’s no wonder that the top companies must cater to a more diverse and international audience. A couple decades ago, a company may have been able to produce a website tailored only to its country’s own national identity or language, but in a world where most countries comprise many different cultural groups, a top-tier company must fight to compete for its diverse audience. In order to survive, a company must adapt to a globalized world and cater to its ever growing international audience. Without adaptation, they will not last in a global market.

To assess whether or not countries are successfully adapting, it is helpful to look at the major players in the global market. The Forbes magazine annually releases its Forbes Global 2000 list of the top companies in the world. Unsurprisingly, the top nine companies are based in China and the United States, and most of the top 50 were some of the world’s largest economies. To give you an idea of the types of companies on the list, here are the top 10 companies:

1) ICBC

Country: China

Industry: Major Bank

2) China Construction Bank

Country: China

Industry: Regional Bank

3) Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.

Country: United States

Industry: Investment services company

4) JP Morgan Chase & Co.

Country: United States

Industry: Major bank

5) Wells Fargo

Country: United States

Industry: Major Bank

6) Agricultural Bank of China

Country: China

Industry: Regional Bank

7) Bank of America

Country: United States

Industry: Major Bank

8) Bank of China

Country: China

Industry: Major Bank

9) Apple

Country: United States

Industry: Computer Hardware

10) Toyota Motor

Country: Japan

Industry: Auto and truck manufacturers

These companies are quintessential of the global market. In order to thrive, their websites and marketing strategies reflect the ever present effects of globalization and the need to market to individuals of other cultures.

One of the most familiar brands on the list, Apple, has more than 700 million iPhones currently in use around the world1. With only 323 million people in the United States, where the company is based, of which nearly 21 million are children under the age of five, it’s likely more than half of Apple’s iPhones are used outside of the United States. That leaves a lot of international customers to convince that iPhones and the Apple brand are accessible and responsive to customers other than Americans.

In order to cater to a company’s diverse audiences, many websites offer buttons that take users to localized websites for their specific country. The localized website often includes a language translation and edited content to fit that country’s cultural context. In an analysis of which countries top 1,000 companies offered localized websites for, there were some clear frontrunners. Companies chose to offer localized websites for mostly Chinese customers, and followed closely by British, Japanese, German, and American customers.

*Of The World’s Largest Public Companies 2017 According Global Forbes 2000 List (first 1000 companies from 2000)

Likewise, a list was compiled of the number of times a particular language was used by a company. Here are the top languages with the percentage of theirs using by companies with multilingual websites:

1. English - 100%

2. Chinese - 38%

3. Japanese - 19%

4. Spanish - 16%

5. French - 15%

China may be the most popular country to make a localized website for on the list, but the United States still dominates in the number of companies that made the top 1,000 on the Forbes 2,000 list. Here are the top five countries with the most companies on the list:

1. United States - 312 companies

2. China - 105 companies

3. Japan - 99 companies

4. United Kingdom - 47 companies

5. France - 41 companies

* Among the first 1000 companies from 2000

Loss of American Influence?

China has certainly announced its dominance in the global markets and has risen to new success over the last couple decades, but English has still remained the most used language. This could be due to the inclusion of English speaking countries United Kingdom and Australia. Or, it could be the fact that the United States has the largest number of companies on the top 1,000 list by more than three times its successor, which is China. However, when choosing which countries to create localized websites for, the United States comes in fifth place. This means fewer companies are choosing to make localized websites for American consumers and it begs the question: Has the United States influence started to wane?

According to a forecast by Forrester: “The total online retail revenues in China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Australia will nearly double from US$733 billion in 2015 to US$1.4 trillion in 2020”2.

Their analyst writes that: “China’s eCommerce market grows despite the economic slowdown. 2015 marked a global eCommerce turning point: China surpassed the US to become the largest eCommerce market in the world, but its economy also dipped below 7% for the first time since 2009.

While the days of staggering year over year eCommerce growth in China are behind us, current growth rates are solid and more consistent with other mature markets in the region, like Japan and South Korea.”3

On the other hand, the presence of other countries higher on the list could mean that the United States is learning to adapt to other cultures. English may be the most predominant language, but it’s vital that English speaking countries appeal to individuals of other nationalities. There is an obvious growing global influence of other countries such as India, Mexico, and Turkey, all of which fall in the top 20 list for the creation of localized websites. Right now, Mexico and Turkey only have eight countries on the list, while India has 25.

What about the lower income countries?

Unsurprisingly, most of the countries on the top 1,000 are high-income performing countries, according to the World Bank’s income classification. These high-income countries include the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Spain, and many more. China, however, is an upper-middle income country. There are a few surprises on the list that break the traditional high-income mold of successful countries. The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India all fall in the top 50 countries most likely to have a localized website for, and all of these countries are lower-middle income countries. These countries have seen immense growth and urbanization in their countries, often at the expense of the poor. Only time will tell if these burgeoning countries will rise to the heights of dominant countries like China or the United States.

According to Internet Live Stats, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, and India for now have relatively middle internet penetration, but all of them show growth potential and digital development.

What types of industries are on the list?

The majority of industries represented among the top 1,000 companies were regional banks. There were 112 companies that were considered to be regional banks, followed by 54 electric utilities, 48 oil and gas operations, 42 investment services, and 42 real estate companies. Traditional companies that may have once topped the list, such as iron and steel, railroad, metals and mining, and auto and truck part companies all ended up much lower on the list.What types of industries are on the list?

The fact that regional banks and electric utility companies topped the list is worth mentioning since both are typically national level companies and rarely internationally owned. This might reflect growing globalization and the merging of cultures. A regional bank in the United Kingdom can no longer rely on a website that caters to Caucasian British customers. The growing diversity requires them to have a localized website that speaks to and caters to the diverse population it has acquired. In order to attract the large Asian and African populations in the United Kingdom, banks need to make sure these populations feel included and that the banks are accessible to them.

What does this mean for global marketing?

The top 1,000 countries on the Forbes 2,000 list have many of the dominant world name businesses that anyone will recognize, regardless of nationality or citizenship. In a global network of businesses, it is essential that marketing adapts to the new world order. To survive in this new world, businesses cannot be single-minded, but must instead consider the diversity of their customers. This can be achieved through creating localized websites. As a parting word, here are a few tips on how to achieve a stellar marketing plan in the new global landscape:

1. Make sure you have translations on your website. And make sure they’re correct. Sometimes colloquial sayings or casual language might not translate as well as you think. Use a reputable language service provider or an in country native speaker for your localized content.

2. Make sure the photos, symbols, and references are culturally neutral and do not offend any minority cultures in your market of interest.

3. Make sure your writing is clear, jargon free and easy for people who do not speak your language to understand.

4. Make sure important details such as time and date formats, currency, and all other units of measure are tailored to your target audiences.

5. If you have comments or customer feedback, make sure it is appropriate and sensitive to all cultures that are using your service or website.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/top-countries-and-languages-for-online-expansion-used-by-forbes-global-1000

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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Social Media Accounts Localization of Forbes Global 2000 Companies

Our expert team reviewed first 1000 companies from the Forbes Global 2000 list. Only 420 from 1000 companies offer a country selection to their visitors/customers. Their social media were used for this report.

Analytics show that more and more people use social media. There are 2,8 billion active social media users worldwide as of January 2017 with 37% global penetration. The increase in numbers from the last year is huge: 22%. As a lot of companies go global the need to leverage international social media reach increases rapidly.

So let's review how world's biggest companies by Forbes magazine are doing their social media localization.

While conducting this research we looked for links to social media accounts only on the websites. This means that we reviewed company’s global/international website and each localized (country-specific) website of this company. We didn’t look for social accounts on social media itself as there are many fake or similar accounts that can mislead a user. If the company provides a link to its social media on its website, there is no doubt it’s an official one.

A common place to have links to social media is the main page, then the Contact page, and then the Press/Media/Blog page. When they are on the main page, social media links are easy to spot and visitors are more likely to open them.

A nice way to place links to social media accounts for those companies that have a global/international page is to put them on one list. Here are great examples from McDonalds and Invesco.

It is important to know when localizing social media that some countries favor social networks other than Facebook and Twitter. For instance, in China the popular social media networks are Weibo and WeChat. In CIS countries it is VK and OK. When reviewing localized versions of the companies’ websites we looked for these 4 social media on the relevant countries’ pages for China, Russia, and Ukraine.

289 companies out of 420 have all or one of this countries. Only 32,9% of them have social media accounts in local networks.

We reviewed all 420 companies and came up with the following stats:

Common social account - 28,6%

Localized social account - 21,7%

Mostly localized - 15%

Somewhat localized - 26%

No links to social media at all - 7,4%

Where ‘Common social account’ means all localized websites have common social media accounts;

‘Localized social account’ - 70-100% of all localized websites have their own social media accounts for each country;

‘Mostly localized’ - 40-70% of all localized websites have their own social media accounts;

‘Somewhat localized’ - 0-40% of all localized websites have their own social media accounts, and the majority has common social media accounts.

An example of the great social media localization is Starbucks. Each localized website version has a link or links to social media accounts that belong to the particular country. The icons can be found at the bottom of the page.

For example:

There are also accounts in local social networks:

The Starbucks company has 47 localized websites and localized accounts for almost each of them.

There are social media accounts in local language for the following countries:

Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, The United Kingdom, and USA.

There are social media accounts in local language along with English for the following countries, regions:

Cambodia, Hong Kong, Middle East, Vietnam.

There are links to the main social media accounts (American) for the following countries:

Bulgaria, Malaysia, Romania.

There are social media accounts only in English (which is not the local language) for the following countries:

Brunei, India, Indonesia, Philippines.

There are social media accounts in the official but not the state language for the following country:

Kazakhstan (in Russian).

There are social media accounts only on local social media networks (Weibo and WeChat) for the following country:

China.

These countries have Facebook accounts, but don’t have Twitter:

Austria, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, Cyprus, The Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Middle East Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.

For some reason, there are no links to social media on Australian and Azerbaijani websites, but they can be found on Twitter and Facebook itself, though only Australian accounts marked official.

The world’s biggest public companies get a lot of traffic to their websites, and this traffic comes from different countries. Usually, the most traffic comes from the native country, but sometimes it can be another, geographically close country, or a country the company works the most with.

It is very important to have localized website versions for countries that bring the most traffic. But it is just as important to have localized social media for these countries.

We reviewed top 20 companies (by monthly visits) and their social media localization for top 5 countries they get their traffic from and here is what we’ve found:

In 25% of the cases the most traffic comes from another country than native;

In 15% of the cases there is no native country in the top 5 countries;

15% of the companies don’t have localized websites for all 5 countries, but have for 2 or 3;

10% of the companies don’t have links to social media on their websites;

40% have Twitter and Facebook together, or just Twitter, or just Facebook, or a local network accounts for all 5 countries;

30% of the companies actually have localized accounts but for some reason don’t link to them;

15% of the companies link to common accounts on their localized websites.

Social media is a great way to reach your global customers. It is not enough to have an account and post just in one language, you must target potential clients in their own language, considering cultural differences as well.

Local social media users have their own behaviours online which should be taken into consideration. Internal audits have repeatedly shown higher conversion rates and more money spent on products when customers and potential clients are targeted in their own language.

Building a localized social media presence is a powerful way to expand globally, increase awareness about your brand, get traffic to a website, and increase revenue.

Social Media Accounts Localization of Forbes Global 2000 Companies

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/social-media-accounts-localization-of-forbes-global-2000-companies

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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Language Selection on the Websites of Companies from Forbes Global 2000

The marketing team at IDM Spot reviewed the first 1000 companies from The Forbes Global 2000 list in order to find out what languages the leading public companies in the world are using on their websites and how the language selection process is designed and implemented.

The marketing team at IDM Spot [International Digital Marketing Spot] reviewed the first 1000 companies from The Forbes Global 2000 list in order to find out what languages the leading public companies in the world are using on their websites and how the language selection process is designed and implemented.

The Forbes Global 2000 is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine. The ranking is based on a mix of four metrics: sales, profit, assets, and market value.

Having a multilingual website is a key marketing and sales tool for any business that aims to attract buyers and prospects from abroad.

Key findings In this article:

~ Which are the most popular languages

~ How is language selection designed

~ How many languages are used on average

~ Common multilingual website mistakes

~ Best practices for language selection

Language Negotiation

Language negotiation is a step that is done by the webserver in which the server checks different aspects in order to then automatically redirect the user to one of the available languages on the website. Typically the different aspects to check include:

- URL in the browser bar (ex de.airbnb.com vs airbnb.com )

- existing cookies or sessions on the users computer (maybe users already made a language selection manually and this got stored in a cookie or session)

- the default language setting of the user’s operating system (what is the language of users Windows or iOS)

- the language setting of the user's browser

- default language if none of the above cases are available.

It’s up to the web developer to set the priority for the above mentioned checks. For example, it might be the most important to look at existing cookies of users previous selection and based on this, redirect the user to this language, if there is no cookies, then the server might look at URL setting as the second priority to determine language, if there is no language in the URL, then server might check the browser language, and ultimately if none of these points are available, the server will take the default.

About 10% of the reviewed companies from the Forbes Global list, use language negotiation to automatically direct users to an available language on the website.

Should you be using language negotiation on your website?

As with most things web, there is no hard and fast rule about language negotiation. The more important aspect might be knowing that the server feature exists, and from there one is able to determine what the hierarchy of rules might look like or if language negotiation is needed at all. When in doubt, use language negotiation.

Regardless of using language negotiation, make sure that you have an easy to find, easy to use way for users to switch language.

In the next section, let's take a look how language selection is implemented for the Global Forbes websites.

Language Selection

48% of websites from the Forbes Global list are multilingual, meaning that the websites include at least 2 languages (36% from them are also multiregional and include the country selection, you can check out the study).

Out of these 480 multilingual websites, 72% are bilingual, i.e. include only 2 languages for the choice.

On these websites, the most popular language version is English - which is available on all websites.

It is followed by Chinese which is an option for 23% of the websites.

Third and fourth most frequently used languages among bilingual websites are Japanese and Spanish - at 14% each.

In 13% of cases the second language for selection is French and in 10% it is German.

28% of the reviewed companies have multilingual website versions for more than two languages.

And only 1.5% of websites have more than 10 languages. These are websites of the next companies:

~ Caterpillar

~ Facebook

~ Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal

~ Nokia

~ International Paper

~ Hilton Worldwide Holdings

~ Voestalpine

The average number of languages from the 480 multilingual websites is 3.

A great example of a multilingual website with a wide selection of languages is Nokia, which offers their visitors a choice of 26 languages:

www.nokia.com

Language Selection Trigger

Language selection triggers are design elements on a website that indicate how and where to switch between languages. A trigger icon or text is used to indicate that languages are available

In our research, we found that a Language selection trigger is used by only 27% of companies with multilingual websites.

If no language selection trigger is used, a user can choose the preferred language directly from a list of available languages, without any additional icons, buttons, drop-down menus, or links.

Here are a few examples of Language Switching without the use of a ‘Selection Trigger’ Icon:

www.axa.com

www.sekisuihouse-global.com

Trigger Types

The most popular trigger type used by the reviewed websites is a ‘Language Name’, which is used in 24% of the time. The ‘Language name’ trigger either uses the language name in English (e.g. German, Spanish) or translates the language title (eg. Español for Spanish, or Français for French, or Deutsch for German).

www.canarabank.com

www.cnp.fr

The second most popular trigger type is a Language Code (e.g. “DE” for German, or “EN” for English) which is used in 23% of the reviewed cases.

global.canon

Another popular trigger type is the word "Language" or "Other Language", which is used in 17% of the cases.

www.groupe-psa.com

The Globe icon is used as a Trigger Type in about 14% of the cases. A good example is the website of the Brookfield Asset Management Company.

www.brookfield.com

Other popular types (less than 10% of the reviewed cases) are a combination of the globe icon with the language name or code, or a mix of a language name, a country flag, a country code, or a language name in English.

Below you can see some examples of ‘other types’:

~ Globe icon with language name in local

www.braskem.com.br

~ Country flag with language name

www.delta.com

~ Country code with language name

www.bmo.com

in less than 1% of the cases we found some other combination of text, names, flags, codes, and icons.

Chart 1.

** Other combinations (less than 1%):

- Country Flag

- Country Flag & Country name in current language version & Language name in current language version

- Flag & Country Name & Language Name

- Flag & Language Code

- Globe Icon & Country Name & Language Name

- Map & Language Code

Language Selection Types

The Language Selection Type is either revealed by the ‘Language Trigger’, which oftentimes is a Globe, an Icon, or some other way of revealing or triggering the available languages.

www.pernod-ricard.com

www.wooribank.com

There are many language selection types and their combinations. Languages can be selected via their language codes according to the standardized nomenclature for languages’ classification ISO-639, via their names in their local language or names in English, via different combinations of flags, country name etc.

The most popular language selection type, used in 56% of all the cases, is a language name written in its local language. For example:

العربية

български език

汉语

Español

Français

ελληνικά

Italiano

日本語

Magyar

Polski

Português

Svenska

คนไทย

Türkçe

Tiếng Việt

In 20% of the cases a user, can choose a language via its Language Code. For example EN for English, ES for Spanish, RU for Russian, ZH for Chinese, JA for Japanese etc.

And the third the most popular type is a Language Name written in English - it accounts for 14%. For instance, a language selection on the Dentsu’s website:

www.dentsu.co.jp

Other the most popular 5 language selection types are used in around 2% of the cases (each type).

Country flag with a language name in local language

www.haier.net

In several cases (less than 2%) we found that companies use language names written in the current language of the website.

For example YPF and Repsol. These companies propose to select English version via “Inglês” and Spanish version via “Español”.

www.ypf.com

www.repsol.energy

Sometimes companies combine different language selection types on their websites. For example, on Mazda’s website, we can see a language code “EN” used for English and a local name of Japanese language “日本語” used for Japanese.

www.mazda.com

Marriott International, Inc. offers English and Arabic versions of their international website. They use an American flag for English language and a region name together with a language name in local spelling “ الشرق الأوسط وأفريقيا - اللغة العربية” for the Arabic language.

www.marriott.com

Chart 2.

* Other different combinations met in less than 1% of the cases:

- Language Name in Local & in English

- Country Flag

- Country Name & Language Name

- Flag & Country name in English & Language Name in Local

- Flag & Country Name & Language Name

- Flag & Language Code

- Other Non-Standard Types

Language Selection Trigger's Location*

The most popular location for a language selection trigger is a Top Right Corner of the website. Almost 78% of the multilingual websites used this location to place the trigger or the language selector itself if the trigger is absent.

www.telenor.com

Website’s Footer is an unpopular place to put the trigger or the language selector itself and is used in less than 4% of all the cases.

Chart 3.

* if a trigger is absent on the website, then it is a location of the language selector itself

The multilingual website will become a necessity for companies as the process of internationalization continues. But for now, as we have found, only around a half of the first 1000 companies from The Forbes Global 2000 list of the top public international companies use a language selection on their websites.

We have learned how the top companies in the world visualize the option to change languages and how their global audience can choose the language they want to use. There are many things to consider when making a multilingual website. And it is always important to remember that a well-considered language selection option is one of the key things that creates a simple user experience for company's website visitors.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/language-selection-on-the-websites-of-companies-from-forbes-global-2000

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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6 Localization Pitfalls

Over 51% of the world’s population is online, spending more than $2 Trillion a year on the global e-commerce market. It is estimated that this will grow to over $4 Trillion by 2020. Most of this growth is coming from emerging markets. Globalization is not a new phenomenon, but the staggering double digit growth in internet usage and e-commerce spending is pushing more and more businesses towards digital globalization.

At IDM Spot, we wanted to find out how the world’s biggest companies are using their websites to cater to a global audience. We manually reviewed 1000 websites from the Forbes Global 2000 list in order to learn what is working and what is failing for enterprise-level companies in their efforts toward digital globalization. This article highlights some of the most common issues that we found during our research.

Below we will talk about the four main pitfalls that appear during localization and review the most common mistakes that world’s biggest companies have made localizing their websites.

(*First 1000 companies from the Forbes Global 2000)

Below we will talk about the four main pitfalls that appear during localization and review the most common mistakes that world’s biggest companies have made localizing their websites.

Pitfall 1: Website Translation

Translation and transcreation are among the most important parts of website localization. It’s recommended that your website is translated to your target audience’s local language. Consumers find websites translated in their local language easier to browse and more useful. Consumer attitudes and purchase intentions are also higher on such websites. According to Common Sense Advisory:

72.1% of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language

72.4% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language

56.2% of consumers said that the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price

The following companies have just partly translated websites. They have various languages on their websites but provide the translation only for some paragraphs/sections/elements of the website and not the full content.

Grupo Bancolombia www.grupobancolombia.com. Their website is in Spanish. They offer English language but only for the section “About Us”.

Saudi Telecom www.stc.com.sa. They offer six language versions of their website in Arabic, English, Indonesian, and some rare languages as Tagalog, Bengali, and Urdu. The versions in these three rare languages have top banner and top sections’ names translated only. The rest of content is in English.

Glencore International www.glencore.com. Apart from English, they offer a Chinese version of their website, but just a little part of it is actually in Chinese.

Ericsson www.ericsson.com. There is a country selection on their website where are apart from the country you can choose a language for this country (local and English). But the local versions aren’t translated or translated just partly.

For example:

Website for Russia with selected Russian language (www.ericsson.com/ru/ru)

Or website for Brazil with Portuguese language (www.ericsson.com/br/pt)

Next we propose to review such simple mistakes as incorrect language selections.

Towngas www.towngas.com. The company uses just one letter “E” in the language selector for English.

An appropriate language indicator is ‘en’ according to a standardized nomenclature used to classify languages ISO 639-1.

Bank Central Asia www.bca.co.id. The company uses ‘INA’ code in the language selector for Indonesian.

‘INA’ isn’t official language or country code from ISO but is the country code used by International Olympic Committee (IOC). They use three-letter abbreviation country codes to refer to each group of athletes that participate in the Olympic Games.

Here we would recommend to use the most appropriate identificator of Indonesian language, according to a standardized nomenclature used to classify languages ISO 639-1 - ‘id’.

Pitfall 2: Country Selection

When a company offers different country versions of its website the country selection should be clear and convenient. A user should be able to easily find a country selector and his/her country in it.

The following companies have various mistakes that notably complicate this process.

MediaTek www.mediatek.com. Its country selection looks like language selection. But in fact, a user gets to the local country website version after choosing an appropriate language.

This is confusing for users. If the website uses the country code in Second Level Domain, it is the signal for Google that it is targeting Spain. So it’s not correct to show ‘Español’ as a language selection. What does that mean for the people from Latin America and other Spanish speaking places in the world?

The proper way would be to use ‘Spain’ as a country selection trigger instead of ‘Español’ if the company wants to target a country.

Northern Trust www.northerntrust.com. There is a country selector on the website but nothing changes after selection.

On these two websites, Adobe Flash Player is required to display further information about companies’ locations.

Hess www.hess.com.

Talanx www.talanx.com.

And

The following companies offer to choose among many countries, but the links to some countries redirect to the global/international or other country’s website versions.

Nestle www.nestle.com. The link to Iran redirects to the global version.

Novartis www.novartis.com. The link to Bangladesh redirects to the global version.

In such cases companies are misleading their visitors with providing links that do not actually point to the certain country version.

KDDI global.kddi.com. Links to the Netherlands and Belgium redirect to the Germany’s website version.

Komatsu www.komatsu.com. There are two links to Australia in the main country selector, but one of them redirects to European website www.komatsu.eu/en. Also, there are 2 country selectors on this website with different amount of countries in each.

The main country selector with 2 links to Australia:

Second selector:

The following 2 companies have country selectors hidden and its presence on the websites isn’t obvious.

Cemex www.cemex.com. They have complicated country selector, which is difficult to find it and use. About us-->History-->Global Location Information

DP World web.dpworld.com. A country selector can be found in the section “Contact US”.

Best Buy www.bestbuy.com. The countries can be selected only on the global gateway page. In case a user clicks on the wrong country he/she won’t be able to return and change it.

Pitfall 3: URL Format

The website’s URL has to be clear, with the use of official country/language names and codes according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The URL format can impact the server architecture and technical characteristics, SEO quality, geotargeting recognizing by users, and more.

According to Google guidelines, companies need to consider using a URL structure that makes it easy to geotarget parts of company's site to different regions. If a company really wants to target a particular region, it is important to note that the use of a ccTLD is generally the strongest signal for users and search engines.

The following table from Google outlines existing options:

For more information on supported values, visit the Google Search Console Help article on the topic.

The following companies use unofficial or non-standard country/language codes.

Samsung www.samsung.com. There is a wrong country code for South Korean website version.

General Electric www.ge.com. The company uses ‘CB’ code for Cambodia and ‘AG’ code for Algeria, which are non-standard country codes from ISO 3166, but the codes from the FIPS 10-4.

Qatar National Bank www.qnb.com. The company uses not existing country codes in URL parameters for several countries:

‘CH’ for China

‘SZ’ for Switzerland

‘KS’ for Saudi Arabia

Interesting, that ‘CH’ code belongs to Switzerland and ‘SZ’ code to Swaziland.

H&M www.hm.com. The company uses different numbers in the URLs together with the region’s name for several Asian countries:

For Taiwan

For Hong Kong and Macau

For Singapore

For Malaysia

American International Group www.aig.com. The company uses some unofficial numbers in the URL next to WWW abbreviation for several countries:

Guam

Aruba

Cayman Islands

Japan

Papua New Guinea

Lebanon

Marubeni www.marubeni.com. The URL for CIS region has a language name instead of a region code or name

Daito Trust Construction www.kentaku.co.jp. Instead of the language code in the URL, they use just the 1st letter of the language for its identification - “e” for the English version.

Qingdao Haier www.haier.com. For the English version, the company uses the right language code, but for the Chinese version, they use the country code.

Shanghai Electric Group www.shanghai-electric.com. There is no identification in the URL for both Chinese and English language versions. Nothing changes in the URL after the language switching.

PetroChina www.petrochina.com.cn. The company doesn’t show any language identification in the URL:

Chinese version

English version

Parker-Hannifin www.parker.com. The company doesn’t use any country code in the URL parameter, only language code.

For example:

And

Pitfall 5: Hreflang Attribute Information

Here we analyzed all URLs from the first 1000 companies of the Forbes Global 2000 list for the hreflang attribute with the help of this tool: Hreflang.org.

Were found that only around 12% out of all 1000 companies that have hreflang on their website, have correct results.

A valid hreflang can be specified as:

A 2-character language code (e.g. “en“), or

a combination of language and region code (e.g. “en-US“), or

a combination of language and script code (e.g. “sr-Cyrl” or “sr-Latn“), or

a combination of language, script and region codes (e.g. “sr-hu-Latn“)

Need to include self-links

Need to include return-links

The correct way to write a language code is with dashes, not underscores. The correct value is en-US.

Standardized format for language code is ISO 639-1 nomenclature and for countries, dependent territories and special areas of geographical interest is used the classification 3166-1 Alpha 2.

Common hreflang mistakes:

Wrong formatting

Using underscore instead of dash

Wrong code. Using UK instead of GB for Great Britain

Using only region code by itself without language

Not self referencing

Missing return links

Incorrectly using hreflang together with canonical tags

Inverted order of language code and country code. Using “US-en” instead of correct “en-US”

For generating the valid hreflang, we recommend this tool of Aleyda Solis, International Search Marketer.

In example:

Oracle’s website

From app.hreflang.org

Or website of Swisscom company

From app.hreflang.org

In around 72% cases the hreflang information were not found. In example for Paypal’s and Xerox’s websites we can see that “No Hreflang information found in headers or HTML”:

From app.hreflang.org

In 8% of them some errors were also found, such as with canonical URL’s, broken pages, page not linking to itself etc.

For example, the website of Saudi Electricity www.se.com.sa, has an error “Not linking to the canonical version”:

We also got this list of errors on EDF website www.edf.fr:

Pitfall 6: International Access

Some forget about such an important thing as a user’s location. In such cases, a user can’t access a website without a VPN because his/her location differs from the company’s country.

If you are international oriented company, make sure your website works and can be accessed without a VPN.

Costco Wholesale www.costco.com. The company offers 6 country-specific versions of its website, but all of them can be accessed without a VPN only by a limited number of countries.

The following companies don’t have other countries versions but still can be accessed without a VPN by a limited number of countries.

Southwest Airlines www.southwest.com. Everyone can travel with Southwest Airlines but not everyone can buy their tickets online.

IntercontinentalExchange www.theice.com Even the name has word intercontinental, but the website can’t be accessed from all the countries without a VPN.

Nordstrom www.nordstrom.com All customer can choose which country they want to ship their order to as well as currencies but can’t actually use the website to do it.

And there are more such companies.

Companies can have reasons for blocking specific countries:

Protection against price arbitrage

Security measure due to the fraud coming from the certain country

Other business related reasons

It is interesting that all the companies among first 1000 from Forbes Global 2000 can’t be accessed without a VPN belong to the USA.

These are the most common localization mistakes that are easy to avoid. When diving into the process of localizing your website, ask for a professional help. Globalization experts will help you to avoid these and many other mistakes and will make this process much easier for you.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/6-localization-pitfalls

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Global Brand Integrity | Transcreation | Globalize Content | Chinese Brand Name

In our Weekly Round-up of the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. How to Protect Brand Integrity in a Global Market

Managing a brand’s digital integrity on a global scale is becoming an imperative rather than an option.

Content localization is critical to success in a worldwide marketplace, where everything from language to the emotional connotation of colors can vary widely. Marketing history is rife with examples of campaigns that fell flat when they crossed international borders.

And yet technology makes it all too easy for a multinational company’s local teams to take content creation, and even website design, into their own hands — sometimes in ways that aren’t aligned with the organization’s overall branding and messaging.

Source: How to Protect Brand Integrity in a Global Market

2. Transcreation helps ideas travel around the world

In today’s global market more and more brands are seeking to communicate with audiences in different cultures.

So, how can any brand ensure that their campaign is delivered well in different countries first time?

Many people still think of Transcreation as more akin to translation than a creative endeavour. Sadly this means that, despite the best intentions of everyone involved, many campaigns end up as nothing more than carbon copies of the original versions.

While this may create a superficial feeling of consistency, the fear of change is actually more likely to harm the consistency of a brand’s global identity.

Source: Transcreation helps ideas travel around the world

3. How to Globalize Your Highly-branded Content

Your highly visible brand can’t afford creative mishaps in your target markets. You spent a fortune creating your marketing content, painstakingly designing it to get specific reactions and trigger strong emotions from your buyer. But if it comes across as ‘meh’ or worse, ‘bleh,’ in a new market, then your brand’s reputation will suffer. You have to create messages that are perfect for the new market while keeping the intent, style, voice, tone, and context of the original as much as possible. Not an easy feat.

There are a couple ways you can go about doing this.

Source: How to Globalize Your Highly-branded Content

4. How to Localize Your Brand Name for the Chinese Market

Choosing a name can make or break any brand experience. And as organizations look to expand globally, considering how your name comes to life in new markets—what it means, how it’s pronounced, and what it evokes—is key to connecting with new audiences around the world.

Here are pulled together five tips to help organizations create a successful name and demonstrate relevance to Chinese consumers.

Source: How to Localize Your Brand Name for the Chinese Market

This was our 'best of the week'. Next week we will continue to provide you with the interesting and current news on digital globalization, culture, language, localization and international digital marketing.

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-global-brand-integrity-transcreation-globalize-content-chinese-brand-name

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: International eCommerce | Voice Search | Global Products & Content | Starbucks In Australia

In our Weekly Round-up of the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following three articles and one video:

1. How to Grow Your eCommerce Brand Internationally

Worldwide eCommerce sales grow year on year.

By 2021, they will equal $4.479 trillion. In 2017 alone, China was responsible for 67.1% of all eCommerce sales worldwide.

If you have saturated your home market, it’s time to think about expanding into international markets. After all, there are over 7.5 billion people in the world, and only 325 million of them are in the US.

And international consumer markets really are growing at a rapid pace. Yet, it seems US companies aren’t expanding at the same rate as other developed countries.

Only 1% of the 30 million companies in the US sell internationally.

If you’re one of the 99% that hasn’t expanded overseas, perhaps you don’t know how to begin. Or even if you have an idea of how, you may not know how to do it efficiently and successfully.

Well, lucky for you, here’s your comprehensive guide to going international with your eCommerce store:

Source: How to Grow Your eCommerce Brand Internationally

2. 6 Ways to Win at Voice Search in Multiple International Markets

Around half a century after the first digital speech recognition tool and 20 years after the first search engine, the two technologies were combined to create ‘Voice Search’. In 2011, the big tech companies started to introduce the first popular tools. Google rolled out ‘Search by Voice’ to Google.com, and Apple added Siri to the iPhone (after purchasing the app for $200 million).

Due to the iPhone’s popularity and users’ willingness to interact with a phone by talking into it, Siri became the first mainstream, ‘intelligent’, natural language voice search assistant.

Since then, voice search has grown massively and created a new billion-dollar industry in voice assistants. According to comScore, 40% of adults now use voice search once per day, and by 2020, over half of all searches will be voice searches.

As you can see from these statistics alone, now is the time to start to optimise your online marketing for voice search. Here are described six ways for you to get started, especially if you are targeting multiple international markets.

Source: 6 ways to win at voice search in multiple international markets

3. 5 Tips to Create Products and Content that Scale Globally

Gone are the days of building products for domestic markets only. In a typical product development scenario, a good deal of time and effort is spent focusing on local customers.

While taking a local-first approach is a solid strategy for some businesses, for those looking to new markets, this approach no longer works. Companies that have any hope of growing, competing, and succeeding internationally will need to think outside their home country—and this means adopting a global-first mindset.

In this case, a product internationalization strategy is essential for global growth. Internationalized products can be adapted to reach a wider audience, both domestically and internationally, making them easier to deploy on a global scale.

So, if you’re ready to conquer new international markets, here are five tips to get you started.

Source: 5 tips to create products and content that scale globally

4. Why Starbucks Failed In Australia

Starbucks can be found all over the world, from Shanghai to Guantanamo Bay. But there is one continent that was uninterested in the coffee giant. Australians largely rejected Starbucks' attempted takeover, which led to an embarrassing retreat for the brand.

youtube

Source: Why Starbucks Failed In Australia

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-international-ecommerce-voice-search-global-products-content-starbucks-in-australia

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This week in international marketing: Content Development | Hreflang | Startup Internationalization Tips | App Localization

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following three articles and one infographic:

1. How to Go Global with High Content Volumes

As your brand grows in this digital-only world, the content you have online explodes as well. It’s your FAQs, product descriptions, customer service content, and user-generated content (UGC) such as product reviews. And since being online means you are inherently doing business globally, the amount of translated content is increasing as well.

To many of you, translating all this content may seem too expensive, too slow, hard to manage and organize or even out of control. Managing the vast volume of content doesn’t have to overpower you if you take a logical approach. Hereare six tips.

Source: How to Go Global with High Content Volumes

2. How to Use Hreflang for a Multilingual Website

Last year SEMrush published findings that 75 percent of websites have hreflang implementation errors.

If you then layer on top localization and user issues, such as an Arabic website not reading from right to left, this number probably goes from three in four sites having issues to four in five.

There are a lot of weird and wonderful interpretations and implementations of the hreflang framework.

Source: How to Use Hreflang for a Multilingual Website

3. Tips and Tools Your Startup Can Use to Maximize Your International Business

The world of digital business is increasingly a world without borders. Any barriers, for example, preventing an ecommerce store in Chicago selling to a customer in Bangalore, or a marketing agency in London hiring a freelancer in Vietnam, are likely to be merely logistical or administrative in nature.

That's a good thing, because if you restrict your business to the country where you're physically located, you could be leaving a considerable amount of money on the table. No matter where your company is based, the benefits of international expansion are difficult to deny.

Source: Tips and Tools Your Startup Can Use to Maximize Your International Business

4. How to Win International Market using App Localization [INFOGRAPHIC]

The Android app store has 3.8 million apps followed by 2 million apps in the iOS store. Amid such neck stiff competition, how will you differentiate your app from the millions out there?

Here’s a lesser known fact. Even though English is perceived as the most widely spoken language in the world, the surprising fact here is that it is native to only 5% of the world’s population and is actually used by only one-third of the people globally.

Your app users today could be in any part of the world. And while your app may be globally available, it may not necessarily be ready to hit the global market.

Localizing will maximize the reach of your product or service by customizing your app and catering to different users in different regions with varied preferences. It further allows you to go beyond your base and access a global market.

This infographic by iScribblers shows you how to win international market using app localization.

Source: How to Win International Market using App Localization [INFOGRAPHIC]

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-content-development-hreflang-startup-internationalization-tips-app-localization

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This week in international marketing: Key to Global Success | Mobile Localization | Content Management | Worldwide Web Presence

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. Global Companies Wouldn’t Be Successful Without What?

It’s fair to say that localization is a key and important part of international business. Depending on a company’s international goals will determine the course of action and planning needed to be successful. However, no matter what international goals a company may have, localizing the brand, products, and services is fundamental to success.

Source: Global Companies Wouldn’t Be Successful Without What?

2. How Can Mobile Localization Help Improve Your Global Exposure?

Smartphones have changed the way we do business. They have in fact changed many aspects of our lives. Businesses now have to consider smartphone usage and mobile phone technology when creating their plans and strategies.

One consideration that is sometimes overlooked but that can be hugely beneficial is mobile localization.

This article looks at what this term is and how it can improve your mobile phone business strategies and exposure.

Source: How Can Mobile Localization Help Improve Your Global Exposure?

3. 5 Content Management Tips for Global Websites

One of the biggest challenges of setting up and managing a global website is the organization and creation of the localized content.

It is nice to see content management being taken more seriously now by website owners and the marketers by understanding the various customer journeys and personas rather than to just push out what the business wants their customers to see.

At the same time, many websites just translate the home site content to create the various global sites.

Considering that the content on the home site was often created based on the customer needs and other factors for a specific market, those global variations may be started out with an enormous handicap.

Here you can find five tips to help manage content for global websites.

Source: 5 Content Management Tips for Global Websites

4. How to Establish a Real “Worldwide” Web Presence

The world may be getting smaller as the internet gets bigger, but to create a realworldwide web presence, you need to reach people at the local level. Make sure you tap the right professionals - localization specialists, native translators/language consultants, and international SEO experts - to optimize international demand for your business line. If you follow some of these best practices, you’ll be well on your way to reaching new consumers around the globe and sending your sales through the stratosphere!

Source: How to Establish a Real “Worldwide” Web Presence

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-key-to-global-success-mobile-localization-content-management-worldwide-web-presence

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Technical ISEO | Export to Germany | Global vs Domestic | Global Marketing Expert

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following two articles, one guide and one interview:

1. The core pillars of technical international SEO

Thinking of marketing to customers in another country, or who speak another language? Even if you’re familiar with SEO (search engine optimisation) in your domestic market, international SEO opens up some new issues you may not have considered.

This article offers an overview of the technical aspects of SEO you’ll need to handle for effective international online marketing. There’s a lot to think about and research when establishing an international web presence.

Source: The core pillars of technical international SEO

2. Exporting to Germany - Market Overview

Do you want to export to Germany? The International Trade Administratio (ITA) proposes to start by using its Country Commercial Guide, a trusted resource for companies at every level of exporting experience. Their guides are produced by trade experts at U.S. embassies and consulates and provide insights into economic conditions, leading sectors, selling techniques, customs, regulations, standards, business travel, and more.

Source: Exporting to Germany - Market Overview

3. Global Marketing vs Domestic Marketing: 3 Things to Know

Revenue streams thrive on effective, targeted marketing. When it comes to domestic sales, many companies have well-established channels and brand positioning that deliver above-average returns. But for those on the cusp of worldwide growth or looking to improve their fortune in markets outside their home country, the task of going global is daunting to say the least.

When comparing international marketing vs domestic marketing, however, three crucial insights can help you ensure advertising dollars are well-spent and campaign efforts are well-received.

Source: Global Marketing vs Domestic Marketing: 3 Things to Know

4. Interview with an Expert Global Digital Marketer: Pam Didner

If you’re online, then you’re already global. But you can’t rely on your home market content to grow your brand. Strategic global digital marketing, then, is your power play.

Experts from Moravia's blog had the chance to talk with Pam Didner whose consulting business is centered around creating global marketing strategies and refining marketing processes. She spoke to them about how global and local teams should collaborate closely, what to do with user-generated content, and how to measure global campaigns.

Source: Interview with an Expert Global Digital Marketer: Pam Didner

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-technical-iseo-export-to-germany-global-vs-domestic-global-marketing-expert

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Expert Transcreator | Business Globally | Hreflang Errors | International Ecommerce

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. Interview with an Expert Transcreator

You are a global marketer trying to embed your brand in new markets. You keep hearing about transcreation as a way to do this. But when do you use it? How is it different from translation? And why does it cost so much? Here’s the conversation with an expert transcreator, Ellen Bonte.

Source: Interview with an Expert Transcreator

2. Lessons on Scaling Your Business Globally (And Quickly)

Growing a fast scaling company is hard.

The challenge of fast growth is even more terrifying and complicated when your scope is spread across the globe.

Most startups and fast-growing companies are strategically obsessed with learning to scale.

Sustainable success depends on your ability to grow at scale.

But behind the scenes of the ‘unicorn’ success stories of the next Uber’s, Amazon’s, and Google’s of the world are the brave founders enduring an emotional bungee jump of unexpected, euphoric highs and soul-crushingly vicious lows.

Founders of these growth-thirsty companies keep taking that plunge. Sometimes that bungee cord wears thin. For some founders strands begin to snap and the emotional lows hit a brutal and final rock bottom.

But there are a collection of fiercely passionate founders who survive those emotional free falls and find that elusive scalable growth. They are determined to grow and scale their company.

There’s no simple formula, clear manual or structured blueprint to sustainable business growth on a global scale. However, you can (and you should) learn from the mistakes, wins, successes and failure of those who have made it happen.

Source: Lessons on Scaling Your Business Globally (And Quickly)

3. 4 hreflang tag errors Google corrects for you

Hreflang tags are among the hardest elements in technical search engine optimization (SEO) to get right.

There are a lot of rules and a lot of ways that these tags can go wrong. Google uses attributes rel="alternate" hreflang="x" to serve the correct language or regional uniform resource locator (URL) in search results.

The tags swap which page is shown in the search results, but they do not actually make any page rank better.

Many of the best practices around hreflang tags that are presented in articles, at conferences and in studies won’t actually make a difference. Google is correcting a lot of things already, and in many cases, if something is wrong, correcting it won’t make a difference in your results. It’s very hard to make a business case to follow best practices when you don’t see any results from changes made.

Here are some of the items Google may be correcting for you.

Source: 4 hreflang tag errors Google corrects for you

4. International Ecommerce: What Foreign Customers Expect From Your Online Store

Offering consumers a positive digital shopping experience can have an impact on your customer experience (CX), loyalty and sales. And if you sell your products internationally, remember that your foreign customers have the same expectations as your domestic ones: They want great customer and user experiences.

If you try to cut corners, you risk falling behind your competitors. On the other hand, if you provide your international buyers with an online shopping experience that is indistinguishable from their usual native experience, you may start seeing increases in revenue in no time.

Source: International Ecommerce: What Foreign Customers Expect From Your Online Store

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-expert-transcreator-business-globally-hreflang-errors-international-ecommerce

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Keywords Translation | International Retail | Multilingual UX | Mobile Marketing

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. Don’t Let Your Keywords Get Lost in Translation

Reaching global customers is the fastest way to boost sales and increase engagement, so to expand your reach, you need to first consider how consumers will search for your products and services, across multiple channels, in several regions, countries, and languages.

Source: Don’t Let Your Keywords Get Lost in Translation

2. The 4 Things Every Retailer Needs to Know Before Going International

In the middle of May, 2018 Retail (R)Evolution hosted by Pitney Bowes explored how global e-commerce is evolving, and NMPi’s CEO, Luke Judge, was there to share his expertise on cross-border marketing along with Feng Chang from Rue La La and Jodi Goldberg from Google.

The panel session highlighted four key themes, delving into the strategies that every international retailer should know for building successful cross-border marketing campaigns.

Source: The 4 Things Every Retailer Needs to Know Before Going International

3. 5 Tips For Managing A Multilingual Experience

A whopping 75% of the internet’s 3 billion users don’t speak English, according to Internet World Stats. And 56% of those users say having content in their native language is more important to them than price.

Indeed, according to Common Sense Advisory, to reach even half of the people online today, companies must offer content in at least four different languages. That means creating multilingual user experiences is now a requirement for today’s enterprises.

Of course, most large global companies have deployed a variety of technologies to help them author, translate, review, publish, and maintain their content and websites—but technology is only one part of the story. What other challenges do organizations face when managing multilingual user experiences?

Source: 5 Tips For Managing A Multilingual Experience

4. International Mobile Marketing Trends in 2018

This year 2018 has brought new international mobile marketing trends in the industry that every brand should know to gain a competitive edge in today’s market. If you want to stay ahead in the game, you must pay attention to the following list published in this article by Entrepreneur.

Source: International Mobile Marketing Trends in 2018

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-keywords-translation-international-retail-multilingual-ux-mobile-marketing

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Website Globalization | SEO Tips | Chinese UX | Q&A with Expert

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. 12 Steps to Website Globalization

Whether you are trying to launch a multilingual website to expand your products and services into new global markets or increase your company's global operational efficiencies by developing multilingual extranets and intranets, website globalization is a requirement to make either a reality. You must translate (globalize) your website to empower your web presence to effectively communicate, conduct and complete international ecommerce.

In order to truly translate a website into other languages, you may need both internationalization (I18N) and localization (L10N) services.

Source: 12 Steps to Website Globalization

2. Quick SEO Tips: How To Use International Targeting To Get More Website Traffic

The International Targeting function that Google provides to all website owners within its Search Console utility, is an often overlooked and rarely mentioned tool, that lets you tell Google which country or countries you want your website to rank highest in.

Once you've given Google your list of target countries, they'll then give you a little ranking boost in the search results for all the countries you've specified.

It won't be a huge jump, but it can certainly be enough to make a difference to your bottom line.

Here is the post where is outlined how you can make use of Google's international targeting function to help your website rank higher in the specific country or countries which are most valuable to you.

Source: Quick SEO Tips: How To Use International Targeting To Get More Website Traffic

3. The Truth About Chinese Website UX

Chinese website UX may look bad to the unexperienced eye, but:

- It works for consumers if they understand the language

- It may be addressing a demographic that prefers that look

- It could be tapping into preexisting cultural preferences

- It might be skewed or influenced by the presence of another channel

When considering how to develop your online presence for China, it’s important to leave any presumptions that western UX is “better” at the border. Chinese UX has evolved over the years to meet the needs of Chinese users, albeit over a contracted timeframe compared to the west. There is wisdom to be discovered by studying the market leaders. Also, market research, identifying buyers, and learning their preferences are critical. Understand the specific requirements of Chinese buyers and the unique characteristics of Chinese UX and use them to your advantage.

Source: The Truth About Chinese Website UX

4. Reaching Growth Goals in International Markets: Q&A with Talia Baruch

Just as with any industry, digital tech companies taking their products and services global are bound to see some challenges in international markets. Considering translation and localization is our forte, this topic is all too familiar—but nevertheless, we wanted to know more about how companies are successfully growing within international markets.

Here is an interview with Talia Baruch, Founder and CEO of Yewser, who lead International Product and Global Growth at LinkedIn and SurveyMonkey, and stories about her experience with everything from success stories to missed opportunities.

Source: Reaching Growth Goals in International Markets: Q&A with Talia Baruch

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-website-globalization-seo-tips-chinese-ux-q-a-with-expert

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Product and Service Localization | International SEO Challenges | Translation & Localization | Top Search Engines

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following tree articles and one webinar:

1. Product and Service Localization for Web Companies

Many online businesses are refocusing their efforts on adapting their value propositions to reach new markets. China comes out on top in many cases: 710 million Internet users, 656 million mobile web users, 63% e-commerce penetration… it’s no wonder so many business leaders view it as an El Dorado for web companies. But as businesses including eBay, Facebook, Google and Groupon can attest, this El Dorado can often turn out to be a minefield. So, which is it?

Many businesses underestimate what is involved in localizing a product or service. Localization is a challenge that extends beyond sales/marketing functions; it also involves questioning how your business should refigure its offerings to achieve a new product/market fit. It’s your “back to school” moment, your chance to embrace a start-up mentality. There are many factors that have a stake in determining your success: technical barriers, regulations, behavioral changes, economic contexts, social norms, etc. A well-crafted marketing campaign won’t cut it. With that said, what are the key mistakes that tend to hold back progress?

Source: Product and Service Localization for Web Companies

2. Common International SEO Challenges & How to Prevent Them

Search engine optimization (SEO) is complex enough when implemented in a single language, but entering foreign markets and doing international SEO adds further challenges that can make the pursuit prone to missteps.

In recent webinar of a Best of SEJ Summit international SEO experts Bill and Motoko Hunt discussed how international SEO disasters can be prevented by identifying the common challenges practitioners often encounter.

Watch the video recap of the webinar presentation and Q&A below.

youtube

Source: Common International SEO Challenges & How to Prevent Them

3. The Difference Between Translation and Localization — and Why You Need Both

If your company is expanding into new global markets, it’s mission-critical to make your website available in your new customers’ preferred languages.

Traditional website translation will certainly generate interest among these customers—but to create genuine connections that lead to conversions, you’ll need localization, too.

Most folks use the terms translation and localization interchangeably, but there’s an important difference between the two. If you ignore that difference, you’ll miss out on an effective way to optimize your web content for global customers.

Source: The Difference Between Translation and Localization—and Why You Need Both

4. The Top 10 International Search Engines

Search engines have become as much a part of our daily lives as switching on the kettle to make a cup of tea.

Want to know which laptop to buy? A quick tap into a search engine and you’ll have all the information you need to make the right decision.

Do you know what happened to the guy who sold his life on Ebay? Well, a search engine does.

In 2017, 46.8% of the global population accessed the internet, a figure which is set to grow to 53.7% by 2021. With many of us now glued to our mobile phones, the device also plays an important part in preferred search engine use. In 2018 so far, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide has been generated through mobile phones.

Knowing whether your target audience is using their desktop or mobile device, and their preferred search engine, is crucial to successful marketing. It’s important that digital marketers understand which international search engines their audience is browsing on across the globe.

Let’s have a look at the top 10 international search engines used in 2018.

Source: The top 10 international search engines

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-product-and-service-localization-international-seo-challenges-translation-localization-top-search-engines

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Global SEO | Internationalization & Localization YouTube | English in Content Marketing | German vs American |

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following three articles and one interview:

1. How to integrate SEO into the translation process to maximize global success

When expanding internationally, there is a common misconception that SEO, and in particular technical SEO, should be done once the website has been built.

However, by implementing any SEO recommendations after a website has been translated, there could be extensive rework which will delay a website launch and impact on budgets. There are also some aspects in a site’s infrastructure that are essential to optimize in advance to avoid extensive rework later. So, how do you go about building this into the translation process?

Source: How to integrate SEO into the translation process to maximize global success

2. How To Make A YouTube Channel Internationalization & Localization

Do you want to enhance your YouTube channel by acquiring global audience?

Have you intended to gain the continuous engagement for the channel?

Have you ever tested the results of getting huge channel traffic through simple strategy?

Every creator either expert or startup wants to improve their YouTube channel performance by holding the millions of fans or subscribers. It can only be possible by making strategies for obtaining the attention of the global audience that helps to improve the channel revenue.

Source: How To Make A YouTube Channel Internationalization & Localization

3. Ex-Pats Talking About the Use of English in Content Marketing

Doug and Kelly quickly jump on an interesting topic that most American marketers don’t think about, the acceptable use of the English language in Content Marketing. If you are like their team, getting out of the states is not a regular occurrence and interacting with anyone from another language or country can be a difficult task. As Doug notes, they have become so self-centered as Americans that we expect the world to be just like us.

Because of this, the rest of the world has had to shift the approach to the languages they use, and English becomes the defacto second language. The big question for us is what form of English?

In this show, Doug Kessler, an American in England, and Kelly Hungerford, an American in Switzerland, discuss the topic of Global Content Marketing with English at the core and several other Ex-Pat topics you won’t want to miss.

Listen to "Ex-Pats Talking About the Use of English in Content Marketing" on Spreaker.

Source: Ex-Pats Talking About the Use of English in Content Marketing

4. German “Digitalisierung” versus American innovation

Whereas English-speakers have many words for technological progress, Germans have settled on one: Digitalisierung. Too bad.

Source: German “Digitalisierung” versus American innovation

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-global-seo-internationalization-localization-youtube-english-in-content-marketing-german-vs-american

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Cultural Differences in Branding | Succeed in Japanese Market | International Expansion for Small Businesses | Website Optimization for Other Countries |

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. Why Cultural Indifference Will Hurt Your Global Branding

When you are taking a brand abroad and start marketing globally, it would be wise to check whether your company name, logo, tag line, and marketing messaging mean something different in the regions into which you are expanding. Cultural differences in branding and marketing will impact your bottom line.

So how do you ensure global brand consistency throughout all markets while adapting to the unique requirements of each? How do you “think global, act local”?

Source: Why Cultural Indifference Will Hurt Your Global Branding

2. Taming the Giant: How to Succeed in Japan?

Foreign companies entering the Japanese market may assume that leveraging their existing business model and brand identity would be enough to succeed. The world’s third-largest economy with a GDP equivalent of that of India and Brazil combined is an enticing place to expand your business. But beware of prepackaged recipes if you truly want to succeed and instead focus specifically on Japan.

Source: Taming the Giant: How to Succeed in Japan?

3. What startups and small businesses need to know about international expansion

Your business becomes more defensible and, eventually, it drives shareholder value. At the same time, international expansion requires a lot of resources and significantly reduces your company’s agility – speed and momentum are key for any startup or small company, especially before profitability.

International expansion adds complexity to every part of an organisation, which slows things down. Done in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and without sufficient resources, going global might not just slow your company down – it could break it.

So, how do you get it right? Firstly, ask yourself a few key questions: why do you need to expand? When and at what pace should you do it? How will you manage the expansion and operate as a multi-market company? Are there strategic reasons beyond just growth that come into play when answering these questions?

Source: What startups and small businesses need to know about international expansion

4. International SEO: How to Optimize Your Website for Other Countries

If your website is focused on a global audience, you've probably spent some time thinking about the best ways to organize and optimize your site for different countries.

There are several important decisions you need to make when bringing your content to an international audience. Determining which domain structure you need is key, but there are a few best practices to keep in mind when using one - especially if your content is published in a different language.

From this article your will learn domain structure options, how Google interprets these structures, and meet some original research and tips on making the best use of international SEO.

Source: International SEO: How to Optimize Your Website for Other Countries

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-cultural-differences-in-branding-succeed-in-japanese-market-international-expansion-for-small-businesses-website-optimization-for-other-countries

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idmspot · 7 years ago

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This week in international marketing: Search Engine Marketing in China | Global-Friendly E-commerce | Web Localization Practices & Resources | Multilingual SEO |

In our Weekly Round-up for the best in international marketing we propose to get familiar with the following four articles:

1. The State of Search Engine Marketing in China

While some aspects of search marketing in China have improved over the years, many other things have not.

This article will break down different products for search and digital advertising in China and how they are leveraged and optimized for this amazing market.

Source: The State of Search Engine Marketing in China

2. Forget The Diet! Make an E-Commerce New Year’s Resolution Instead

The rise of e-commerce has brought into rapid focus the questions of when, how and where retailers should take their products to a global audience. The internet has built a transactional bridge across borders, and corresponding advances in logistics and transportation are making it easier and faster to cross that bridge every day.

For U.S. e-tailers, international markets are not just an opportunity – they may ultimately become a necessity for continued growth. As this Business Insider assessment notes, U.S. and Chinese consumers are already embracing the online experience in massive numbers, but in emerging markets like Latin America and Southeast Asia, the potential for continued expansion – and new customers – is immense.

If your company is considering a new or expanded global e-commerce strategy, it’s time to put some 2018 resolutions on paper — and to the test. This year, resolve to activate the following 7 steps and tips for success.

Source: Forget The Diet! Make an E-Commerce New Year’s Resolution Instead

3. Web Localization: Best Practices and Resources

According to the United Nations, nearly 3 billion people around the world had access to the Internet in 2014. As of January 2017, the majority of Internet users (923 million) are located in East Asia, followed by South Asia (585 million) and Africa (362 million). As companies aim to expand to new markets and appeal to consumers across the globe, they must leverage their .com presence to potentially reach anyone who has Internet access.

What are the best practices for companies that want to extend their reach to global consumers via the World Wide Web? Should they invest in a multilingual website strategy, or should they just ensure brand consistency through a standardized approach? What is web localization and what are its best practices?

Source: Web Localization: Best Practices and Resources

4. International sites: the best domain structure for SEO

Making your website rank high can be a challenge. Making your international sites rank high can be an even bigger challenge. There are just a lot more things you have to do for multilingual SEO: create content for different markets, set up sites for those markets and implement hreflang, just to name a few. Plus there are additional choices you have to make. Like this one: on which domains will you publish your internationalized content? Here is the list of the most common options you have, and we’ll help you decide on the best option for your situation.

Source: International sites: the best domain structure for SEO

Stay tuned.

from International Digital Marketing Spot https://www.idmspot.com/blog/this-week-in-international-marketing-search-engine-marketing-in-china-global-friendly-e-commerce-web-localization-practices-resources-multilingual-seo

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