Speak to people in their own language

It would seem likely that sending people emails in their first language would generate a better response. If you need evidence, MarketingSherpa has a case study proving the point.

It describes how the International Newspaper Marketing Association translated their English copy into four other languages to boost event attendance rates by 30%.

A few additional tips from a former professional translator:

1. Don't do translation on the cheap. A poor translation is often worse than no translation at all.

2. Don't underestimate the time it takes to craft a good translation. Especially where the wording and feel is critical (i.e. marketing messages.) People who haven't translated can easily assume it's easy. It isn't.

3. Get a native speaker in the field to check a translation. Most translators are language specialists with no practical experience in the topic they may be translating. If you can find someone with translation skills and topical experience, grab them and never let them go.

4. Be aware of coding issues. I don't have any tips, but I regularly get German marketing emails from even the likes of Amazon where the special characters in that language come out garbled.

More case studies | Tags: email marketing, localization, global marketing

Permalink | June 05, 2007 | 0 comment(s)
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