EspEng Language Solutions

In today’s digital age, businesses are increasingly relying on digital marketing to reach their target audience. However, to reach other audiences, businesses need to be able to communicate effectively with customers in different countries who have diverse cultures and needs. If the content isn’t available in the languages spoken by the target audience, businesses may miss valuable opportunities to connect with potential customers. In this article, we will discuss some of the elements that should be considered when developing and implementing a multicultural digital marketing campaign.

We live in a globalized world, and most of us have become voracious consumers of digital content. It seems that every piece of information we may ever need is already within our reach. World news, opinion articles, service descriptions, product reviews, how-to guides, books; everything just a few clicks away.

However, our digital content consumption habits are often determined by our English skills. Sure, many websites make their content available in different languages, and there is always the option of automatic translation. But there is no doubt that English is the dominant language in the digital arena, and that we’re somehow ‘lured’ into consuming content written in English. (This very article exemplifies this).

1. Globalized Marketing vs. Multicultural Marketing
2. What Makes a Multicultural Digital Marketing Campaign Effective?

Globalized Marketing vs. Multicultural Marketing

Living in a globalized world isn’t the same as living in a multicultural, multilingual world. The former is ruled by fixed standards, like the implementation of English as a sort of ‘universal online language’, while the latter involves the acceptance and promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity.

When developing and implementing marketing campaigns, many businesses and marketers overlook the distinction above, and take the standards of globalization as a starting point for multicultural campaigns. The following line of reasoning is often present during the development stage of a multicultural marketing campaign:

• Most people online understand at least some basic English.
• Automatic translation is always available throughout digital media.
• Audiovisual elements can boost the message, thus reducing linguistic boundaries.

Hence,

• Content available in different languages and supported by audiovisual elements should secure the effectiveness of the campaign, insofar as it will make the message understandable to the target audience.

Unfortunately, this line of reasoning isn’t adequate for multicultural marketing campaigns because it doesn’t consider that language is deeply rooted in culture. Mere translation of marketing content isn’t enough to ensure the effectiveness of a multicultural marketing campaign. While global digital marketing campaigns often make the content available in different languages, multicultural digital marketing campaigns must adapt the translation of the content to the culture, needs, and expectations of each target audience.

An effective multilingual marketing campaign is one that successfully connects with its target audience in their own language and according to their own culture and needs.

Global digital marketing campaigns and multicultural digital marketing campaigns shouldn’t be designed, developed, and implemented following the same principles. Although both kinds of marketing campaigns are meant to target wider audiences, or, at least, wider than the usual audience of a business, their approach is different.

The fact that both kinds of marketing campaigns make content available in different languages only concerns their intent to reach a wider audience. Global digital marketing campaigns aim at making a specific message accessible to the wider possible audience, while multicultural digital marketing campaigns are meant to reach different audiences by adapting their message according to diverse cultures in their own languages.

What Makes a Multicultural Digital Marketing Campaign Effective?

Just as any other kind of digital content, digital marketing content needs to be optimized, not just for search engines and algorithms, but also for humans. A multicultural digital marketing campaign must adapt its content to complex aspects, such as tone, intention, sentence structure, idioms, cultural references, traditions, and beliefs.

Despite the great advances of automatic translation tools, they are still unable to optimize content for human ‘consumption’. One could even question whether these tools really ‘translate’ content, or merely codify strings of characters into different codes.

Good, old-fashioned human translation seems to be one of those jobs that machines won’t be able to do properly in the near future.

The effectivity of any digital marketing campaign is relative to a few distinct factors that also apply to multicultural digital marketing campaigns:

• Reach: Every marketing campaign, digital or not, is meant to help businesses expand their reach and connect with potential customers. In the case of multicultural digital marketing campaigns, translating and optimizing content can help businesses reach a wider audience by making their content relatable to people from distinct cultures who speak different languages.
• Customer Experience: A customer’s trust greatly depends on the experience that a business offers. Customers are more likely to engage with content that is, not only in their native language, but also culturally optimized. A proper content translation can help build trust and motivate customers to establish a meaningful connection with the business.
• Competitiveness: Translating digital marketing content can give businesses a competitive edge. By catering to the languages spoken by their target audience, as well as their cultures, businesses can differentiate themselves from their competitors and position themselves as more accessible and sympathetic.
• Conversion: Translating digital marketing content can also lead to increased conversions. Customers are more likely to engage with content that is in their native language and acknowledges their culture, needs, and expectations.
• Performance: Translating digital marketing content can also improve a business’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. By using culturally adequate keywords in different languages, businesses can improve their visibility on search engines in different countries and increase their chances of reaching new customers.

There is no ultimate formula to make a multicultural digital marketing campaign effective. However, a professional translation and cultural adaptation (often called localization) of content is essential. Customers who speak different languages and have distinct cultures don’t necessarily share the same needs and expectations, which calls for a professional linguistic adaptation of marketing content. Multilingual content, on its own, can be beneficial for global marketing campaigns, but multicultural marketing campaigns need to go beyond linguistic accessibility.

A culturally sensible translation of marketing content can improve the image of a business that aims to reach customers who speak different languages and have different traditions and beliefs. The goal of a multicultural digital marketing campaign should always be to reach out to the target audience by acknowledging and promoting their language and culture.