But this is easier said than done. Many marketers ask themselves: How can we create personalised content on a global scale? Should we just translate one message into hundreds of languages?

The short answer is no. Translation is not enough. Instead, localisation 鈥� defined as the adaptation of content to a specific market 鈥� is the process that should lie at the core of every global marketing campaign if the content is to be diverse enough to address different values, lifestyles and ethnicities.

Why translation alone isn’t enough for global marketing

Many marketers still treat translation as an afterthought, simply converting words without considering how those words land in a new cultural context. Global audiences are both multilingual and multicultural, and localisation takes the next step, ensuring your message resonates authentically with different values, lifestyles and expectations.

Culture shapes how people interpret messaging, and translation alone can’t bridge that gap. For example, some cultures communicate through subtext or a shared understanding, while others like to be more direct. Even between countries that share similar cultures and languages, like in the Nordic region, you can find notable cultural differences. Read more about this topic in

Localisation goes beyond speaking the right language and helps you understand your audience鈥檚 mindset so that your message doesn鈥檛 just get heard, but actually sticks.

Advantages of localisation in global marketing

By prioritising localisation from the get-go, marketers ensure the following:

• Cultural authenticity: When localisation is considered from day one, you can create content that feels genuinely native to each market.
• Consistent brand voice: Early planning ensures that your brand personality, although tweaked linguistically and culturally, still resonates in a consistent way across all markets.
• Faster market entry: Campaigns can launch simultaneously across markets rather than in staggered rollouts, waiting for translations to go live.
• Time and cost efficiency: Starting with localisation in mind means you won鈥檛 need to go back and redesign campaigns that don鈥檛 translate well across cultures.
• Growth: Localisation can expand your brand reach and awareness, as well as offer a SEO boost.
• Connections: You can more effectively build personal connections with users and consumers because it gives your brand the human touch and shows respect for local cultures and values.
• Increased profits: If you do it right, localisation can form part of a successful organic growth strategy. If you don鈥檛, it could come at a significant cost to your business.

Choose the right localisation strategy for your global marketing content

Of course, not every message needs the same level of localisation. That鈥檚 where a tailored strategy comes into play.

To find a localisation strategy that best fits your goals and expectations, you first need to assess the level of impact of your different content pieces. Is it brand-critical content, such as a slogan, or is it lower-impact content, such as reviews for an online platform?

Understanding that different types of content may require different strategies can save you time and help your language service provider allocate efforts properly. The graphic below can serve as an initial guide to think about where you might want to start, but you can always get in touch with us for more personalised advice.

Localisation services for global marketing, explained

Market-specific copywriting

We鈥檝e talked about personalisation, so we know how crucial it is. Sometimes, the best way to ensure that this content can truly match a particular target audience is to create region- or country-specific campaigns to convey messages that are culturally and contextually appropriate.

Transcreation

Literal translations can sometimes cause misunderstandings and lead to considerable loss of meaning. Content should be transcreated instead, taking tone and style into account, having consideration for the design, the surrounding images and the broader context.

Full human translation

This is what you might call the traditional approach to content localisation. A human translator takes a text in one language and translates it into another, adding colloquial expressions and idioms, where appropriate, so the text reads like it was written in the target language. However, this doesn鈥檛 take into account cultural references and norms, and the meaning of images and symbols.

Machine translation post-editing

Some content, such as slang and idiomatic language, is not compatible with machine translation because of how culturally specific and ultimately human it is. However, when localising low-impact content, machine translation can be used in conjunction with human post-editing for a good and affordable option.

Multilingual SEO

There is more to SEO than simply translating keywords! Keyword localisation acknowledges the fact that the keywords that are popular in one region can be completely different in another. SEO needs to be tailored to each particular market.

The language solutions partnership process

While adding another stakeholder to your workflow may seem daunting, partnering with a language solutions provider that prioritises clear communication, seamless integration and mutual trust mitigates risks while delivering significant benefits to your marketing team.

Here鈥檚 a quick look into our process here at Sandberg:

• Strategic planning and onboarding

Our partnership begins with comprehensive onboarding outlining project requirements, costs, timelines and quality expectations. Strategic planning meetings assess longer-term needs, including expansion plans and peak work periods.

• Gathering project materials

Key client information is shared with project managers and linguists, including brand guidelines, style guides and terminology glossaries. Together, we’ll craft a detailed brief, containing specific brand and content information, with templates provided to streamline the process.

• Linguistic work with technology

Your content passes through multiple review stages by different linguists, ensuring accuracy and ISO standard compliance. Modern language technology, including translation memories and term bases, guarantees consistency. This may include AI and machine translation, followed by human review.

• Independent review

Project managers or validators conduct final content reviews before delivery, ensuring alignment with reference materials. Your dedicated point(s) of contact handle issues promptly, with quick response times to maintain project momentum.

• Communication and feedback

Open communication extends beyond individual projects through structured feedback stages, enabling continuous improvement. We鈥檒l arrange annual business reviews to ensure there are clear communication channels for sharing ideas and feedback.

As you can see, the process is well-organised and can easily be tailored to your specific needs. For a more detailed explanation, read our article: /maximise-global-marketing/.

Make localisation a business priority

In an increasingly connected world where consumers expect authentic, culturally relevant experiences, localisation is a business imperative. Brands that invest in comprehensive localisation strategies from the outset can transform them into something that resonates deeply with diverse audiences across the globe.

The shift from translation to localisation represents more than just a change in terminology; it’s a fundamental reimagining of how brands connect with their customers. By embracing cultural authenticity, maintaining a consistent brand voice and leveraging the right mix of localisation services, from market-specific copywriting to multilingual SEO, companies can turn what might otherwise be seen as an afterthought or annoying extra cost into a powerful driver of growth and engagement.

Success in global marketing no longer favours those who speak the loudest, but rather those who speak meaningfully to each individual market. The brands that recognise this truth and build localisation into their processes from day one are the ones that thrive in our multicultural, interconnected marketplace.

At the moment, consumers have endless choices, and the brands that win are those that make every customer feel like the message was crafted specifically for them.

Ready to stand out from the crowd and start truly connecting with global audiences?

Explore our marketing solutions here.

Part of this article was initially published in 2019 by Gonzalo Fernandez, a former Sandberg team member, and has since been edited and revised with up-to-date information and new analysis.

The post The role of localisation in global marketing campaigns appeared first on sa国际传媒.

Creating the most effective Christmas promotion ideas means knowing your audience thoroughly and capturing the essence of local traditions and celebrations. This article explores several examples of successful Christmas campaigns that were localised for specific audiences, including key factors that businesses should consider when planning their Christmas advertising campaigns.

Understanding the tradition, understanding the market听

In order to reach different regions effectively at Christmastime, brands must understand the faith and folklore often tied to cultural Christmas traditions. For example, in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, it鈥檚 traditional to leave a bowl of porridge out on the evenings of December 23rd or 24th for the nisse or tomte 鈥� a small, gnome-like fellow who protects homes but can be mischievous if he doesn鈥檛 get his porridge. In Finland, the nisse is known as a tonttu, but is not as integral to contemporary Christmas traditions as in Denmark and Norway. And in Iceland, locals can expect a visit from the j贸lasveinar (or the 鈥榊ule lads鈥� in English), a troublesome group of trolls that deliver presents to children the 13 nights before Christmas.

However, further south in Germany and Austria, another creature roams the cold and long evenings: a sinister aide to St Nicholas 鈥� a half-goat, half-demon who punishes badly behaved children 鈥� the Krampus. These tales are grist for the mill for brands looking to engage with their target audiences and as shows, even the terrifying Krampus is no exception.

The geography of Christmas marketing campaigns

From Tampa to Tokyo, Christmas has become an international shopping affair, with brands big and small spending months preparing for the launch of their Christmas marketing campaigns. Every year, supermarkets such as , and release their Christmas advertising campaigns, refining each one to resonate with their local audience by depicting local traditions.

One example of a successful seasonal campaign in the UK is the John Lewis Christmas advertisement. Anticipated annually, this slow-building and emotional campaign is a cinematic experience which never fails to tug on our heartstrings and remind the viewer about the coming together of friends, families and even strangers at Christmastime (often via the perfect gift!). In the UK, Christmas marketing campaigns are served to us in the warm colours of a fireplace, where through the frosted window we see the twinkle of tinsel or a crowded dining table, creaking under the weight of the roasted veg, fowl and game.

Yet, if we trade the pheasant for fish, this seasonal scene may represent an Eastern European Christmas, as countries such as Slovakia, Czechia and Poland as the centrepiece of their Christmas feast. Navigating the nuances of Christmas traditions across Europe can be challenging but brands willing to adapt their imagery, language and tone can resonate better with the preferences of their target audience.

Aldi鈥檚 adaptability in Christmas advertising

While fish and side salads are also customary in Australia, so is a box of beer on the beach. In Aldi鈥檚 Aussie Christmas marketing campaign, they even swapped the dining table for a surfboard to serve the roast ham. As December is the heart of the Australian summer, that are fully acclimatised to the sun Down Under, rather than the snow often depicted in advertisements for the UK or the Nordic region.

From their to Santa shredding the surf in Australia, brands like Aldi have proven they know how to speak personally to their customers, wherever they are in the world. Although discounts and promotions are attractive, adaptability is key to businesses that want to grow and show they understand their audience.

A Kentucky Christmas

In the 1970s, a by a bearded gentleman in a suit 鈥� the famous bowtie-wearing colonel of the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise (KFC). Launching its 鈥淜entucky for Christmas鈥� advertisement before the festivities in 1974, KFC鈥檚 campaign was so successful that their seasonal Party Barrel is now a yuletide feast for millions in Japan every year. Focused on sales over the spiritual, Christmas is a commercial event rather than a religious one in Japan and big brands are keen to capitalise on this.

But Japan isn鈥檛 the only country in Asia to celebrate Christmas; countries like India, China, South Korea and the Philippines also take part in the festivities. With such populous countries like India and China in this region, even a small percentage of the population can equate to tens of millions of people that businesses want to reach.

3 secrets to the best Christmas marketing campaigns

For those who pitch their product right, Christmas can offer a great opportunity to reach consumers, who tend to be more receptive to advertisements while actively looking for gifts for their friends and family. So, what鈥檚 the secret to the best Christmas marketing campaigns?

1. Effective research 鈥� Language barriers and cultural mistrust can pose challenges for brands when reaching their new and existing target markets. Failing to resonate with your target audience is an easy way to show you haven鈥檛 done enough research.
2. Connecting with your audience 鈥� In a digital era dominated by social media, consumers expect brands to speak directly to them. Combining an authentic voice and reflecting local values when engaging with them on familiar social platforms can be the perfect Christmas recipe for success.
3. Employing experts 鈥� Utilising the skills of marketing and linguistic experts will help refine your brand鈥檚 voice by localising your product in a familiar context to your target audience.

Authenticity in the age of AI

As these localised campaigns show, authenticity is integral if you want to connect with audiences, especially around this very personal time of year. Nothing proves this more than the typical success of Spotify鈥檚 annual 鈥淪potify Wrapped鈥�, a personalised presentation of the user鈥檚 most listened-to content from the past year.

However, when brands fail to connect authentically, marketing campaigns can flop, like . As the crimson Coca-Cola trucks roll onto our screens this festive season, the magic feels far from the real thing. The advertisement depicts a familiar landscape of snow and sparkling Christmas lights; however, on closer inspection, some characters appear to have six fingers on one hand and the wheels turning in the snow are out of sync. These obvious imperfections have left Coca-Cola sliding into public backlash. Released at the beginning of December, Spotify’s 2024 Wrapped campaign has also faced due to its integration of AI, leaving users less than impressed.

Although businesses are eager to implement new tech into their workflows, it鈥檚 clear a balance is still required. The kickback against Coca-Cola鈥檚 advertisement and Spotify’s 2024 use of AI indicates that consumers still value authenticity, making localisation a top priority for any brand wanting good publicity at Christmastime.

The post Krampus, KFC and Aldi: The best Christmas marketing campaigns with a local touch appeared first on sa国际传媒.

The workflow solution

In marketing, things must move fast to meet deadlines and budgets. If you regularly require multilingual content for yourself or clients, establishing a reliable content creation strategy beforehand is crucial. While you may have in-house colleagues who are multilingual and can help with some translation work, the right language service partner company will add value with efficient workflows that are more cost-effective and mitigate pressure on your in-house team. Collaborating with translation professionals will ensure that you can handle large volumes, produce culturally sensitive and appropriate content and also guarantee consistency across translated materials.

Let鈥檚 look at an example of a marketing agency whose client needs content produced in Danish as well as English. While the agency鈥檚 team has both English and Danish speakers and has plenty of experience in sectors including music and sports, they must now produce content about a women鈥檚 health tech product. Instead of engaging in the time-consuming and costly process of finding a Danish copywriter or freelance translator proficient in medical and technical terminology, they can streamline these efforts by working with an ISO-certified language solutions partner. This strategy not only facilitates meeting quality and deadline commitments but also reduces recruitment efforts and costs, providing a seamless and efficient solution tailored to the agency鈥檚 needs.

Now, imagine the same client then wants to launch their campaigns in other Nordic countries. Rather than hurriedly searching for Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish collaborators, the marketing agency turns to their trusted language solutions partner again. Following the successful launch in the Nordics, the client wants to produce blog content in Swedish on a regular basis. By building a relationship with the language solutions partner, the marketing agency has secured a scalable content strategy that can adapt and evolve as their multilingual projects grow.

How to work with a language solutions partner

You may be hesitant about adding another stakeholder into your workflow and losing control and transparency over the process. However, with a language solutions partner that prioritises clear communication, seamless integration of processes and the development of mutual trust and confidence, these risks are mitigated and the benefits are significant.听

Here at Sandberg, our workflow looks like this:

1. Strategic planning and onboarding听

The first step in creating a partnership is onboarding, which involves outlining project requirements, costs, timelines and quality expectations. As a flexible partner that is comfortable integrating into your workflows, we make the process as easy as possible for you, while mitigating the problems that can occur by transitioning content between companies.听

For a successful long-term collaboration, we emphasise trust, transparency and open communication to achieve mutual success. This first stage often includes a strategic planning meeting to assess your longer-term needs, such as expansion, time-sensitive projects and peak periods of work, ensuring we are prepared to support your goals effectively.听听

听2. Gathering project materials and information听

In the next stage, to make communication easier for all parties involved and streamline the process for our linguists, any key client information must be shared with our project managers and linguists, including brand guidelines, tone of voice and style guides and glossaries of relevant brand terminology. We can also help create these materials if you do not already have them.听

We will then agree to craft a detailed brief that includes specific information related to your content and brand. This is done at the outset of our partnership and if any future project deviates from this or your brand guidelines change, a new brief can be created. We provide easy and simple guidance through this process with our templates, an example of which you can see here:

3. Linguistic work, with or without AI听

The core of the project lies in dealing with the content itself. Sandberg ensures that our work meets the highest standards of accuracy, consistency and effectiveness. Depending on the solution that best suits you, your content will pass through stages of review and proofreading by multiple linguists, ensuring quality and our adherence to ISO standards.听

We also leverage language industry technology, such as translation memories and term bases, to guarantee that translations are consistent and in line with the client鈥檚 own terminology and guidelines. This can include AI and machine translation followed by a stage of human review.听

4. Independent review听

When possible, content is also checked by the project manager before it is returned to the client. This ensures that the final translation aligns with the reference materials provided by the client in the second stage of the workflow.听听

Throughout our collaboration, you will have a dedicated point of contact who you can consult for any issues or questions. Response time from project managers and our linguists is crucial for maintaining project momentum and addressing queries promptly.听听

听5. Communication and feedback听

This open communication extends beyond a single project, as a later feedback stage enables continuous improvement and refinement of translation processes to better align with brand messaging and global marketing objectives. Annual business review calls also keep the line of communication open for feedback and the sharing of new ideas.听

As the collaboration continues, this stage becomes crucial to the improvement of quality, efficiency and communication on both sides. We have all been told that 鈥渜uality means getting it right the first time鈥�, but the truth is that quality can be continuously improved with an ongoing communication loop based on trust and transparency.听

Solutions beyond translation

Although translation services form the core offering of a linguistic service partner, Sandberg鈥檚 range of solutions is much broader, allowing us to enhance client relationships and add significant value to their projects:听

Product name and slogan assessment

For these projects, a literal translation is not always suitable. Therefore, our highly creative linguists strive to replicate the cultural impact of a product name or slogan in the target market. We give you control over the process by offering you several options with back translations, as well as an explanation of the differences between them and the rationale behind our linguists鈥� decisions.听

Multilingual SEO

We have linguists with specialised training in multilingual SEO campaigns. These professionals are proficient in tools such as Google Keyword Planner and are familiar with concepts such as page title, meta description and keyword density.听

Website localisation

Website localisation or translation is essential for companies with global growth strategies. We are experts in localising WordPress sites and have extensive experience using plugins such as WPML and Polylang.

Additionally, we offer a specialised testing service called 鈥淚n-context review鈥�, where our linguists review localised sites on both desktop and mobile devices to ensure that user interfaces are perfectly navigable.

Curation of AI output听

We also provide more accessible content generation solutions, utilising technologies such as machine translation and artificial intelligence. In this case, the original content is pre-processed by the translation engine, followed by revision steps tailored to the quality and accuracy requirements of each client. The post-editing process can range from a simple grammatical review to more complex adjustments, including style, tone of voice and terminological appropriateness.听

Ultimately, in today鈥檚 competitive landscape, efficient workflows are not just a necessity but in actual fact a key differentiator that drives success and profitability. Notably, in one of our partnerships with a marketing agency, our work into Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish for their client resulted in an 85, 64 and 34 per cent increase in revenue, respectively. In our collaboration with a different marketing agency, our ability to communicate efficiently and navigate quick turnaround times while still prioritising quality and accuracy, such as correcting incorrect allergy information, were a highlight for the agency and their client. 听

There鈥檚 no doubt that by having a multilingual content solution in place before the start of a project, digital marketing experts can mitigate the risk of increased project costs or extended timelines without compromising on quality.听

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But what about your non-English landing pages? Say you鈥檙e seeking to expand your business to the Nordic market 鈥� would you be just as diligent about applying SEO to your localised content?

If you choose to skip the SEO stage when localising your website, you risk missing out on great business opportunities. Partnering with a specialist company to handle the entire process of translating and search-engine optimising your content, on the other hand, enables you to seize that opportunity, giving your customers the best possible experience at the same time.

But don鈥檛 just take our word for it! Here are 5 reasons why you should invest in international SEO for the Nordic market.

1. Customers tend to search for products and services in their own language

You may be wondering if it鈥檚 necessary to translate your content into the Nordic languages in the first place. After all, people in the Nordic countries generally have excellent English-language skills. While high English-language proficiency across the Nordic region has been documented by multiple studies, it doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean that your Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish customers prefer to do their online searches in English.

In fact, showed that 42% of EU respondents never use other languages when searching for products and services online. It does make sense when you think about it. Shopping for products or services on foreign sites might mean costly shipping and prolonged delivery times 鈥� or services not being available in the user鈥檚 home country 鈥� and who has time for searches with outcomes like those?

When it comes to targeting the Nordic market, communicating with consumers in their own language can give you that edge. If you choose to optimise your localised content for search engines, you鈥檒l be able to effectively connect with your intended audience and engage with them in a way that could result in new business for you.

2. Localising keywords means less competition in search results

The fact that your Nordic audience is more likely to search for products and services in their own language makes it worth publishing SEO-friendly translations of your web content. But did you know that this also means filtering out competition in Google search results?

Let鈥檚 take an example. Imagine typing the words backlit keyboard into Google鈥檚 search bar and hitting enter. If you do, you get 54.5 million hits and a massive variety of pages giving you the option to buy backlit keyboards, watch how-to videos about backlit keyboards or read articles on which backlit keyboard is the best. Picture a company using this term as a keyword in search-optimised text on their landing page. The amount of competition from other web pages would be huge, and it would take a great effort for the landing page to rank near the top of the search results.

By search-engine optimising your translated content, you can drown out the background noise of your competition significantly. Consider the Danish equivalent of our English keyword above: baggrundsbelyst tastatur. When searching for this keyword on Google, you get just 385,000 hits 鈥� a mere fraction of the 54.5 million from your first search. Of course, the audience is much smaller as well, but it鈥檚 a higher-quality audience tailored to the market you鈥檙e targeting. Better to be a big fish in a small pond in this case.

Because of the widespread use of English on the internet, using localised keywords is an effective strategy to segment your target audience and reduce competition from other pages in the search engine results, making your products and services more visible to online customers.

3. SEO and localisation build brand credibility

As a business, having a trusted brand is crucial for generating revenue. Your products or services may be the best, but if your brand is suffering your customers might turn their backs and head to your competitors.

Localising your online content and making sure that it鈥檚 thoroughly optimised gives your customers a better user experience, meaning they can easily find what they鈥檙e looking for and read about it in their own language. Making your content easily accessible to your customers in this way leaves them feeling good about your brand and more likely to buy your products or services.

The impact of this effort is particularly appreciated in the Nordic countries, where some international companies don鈥檛 bother with localisation. Making the investment demonstrates to your Nordic customers that you value their business, and helps you stand out from international competitors that might not be as committed to the region.

4. SEO drives a higher conversion rate than traditional marketing channels

If you thought that SEO was an inadequate tool, that channels an insignificant number of extra leads to your website, you might want to read this. that SEO鈥檈d online content drives a conversion rate of a whopping 14.6%, as opposed to the 1.7% conversion rate from traditional marketing channels such as print ads and direct mail. This means that the number of leads coming to a website from SEO that go on to make a purchase is more than 8 times higher than those from traditional strategies.

The explanation for this is simple. SEO, being a 鈥減ull鈥� rather than a 鈥減ush鈥� strategy, generates leads that are already interested in knowing more and may already wish to buy a certain product or service. So, publishing SEO-friendly translations of your online content is an efficient way of leveraging an existing interest in defined customer segments and boost revenue faster than traditional marketing strategies.

5. International SEO as a service is a convenient end-to-end solution

Using search-engine optimised translations of your online content certainly has its benefits, but maybe you鈥檙e convinced that it鈥檚 better to keep this task in-house and let your own employees handle it? You might be tempted to believe that this will save you both money and time, but letting a specialised company perform the task will in fact do exactly that 鈥� in addition to being a convenient end-to-end solution.

In our recent article 6 reasons why you shouldn鈥檛 rely on your own employees for translation, we explained why translation is a specialist skill which, when performed incorrectly, could cause more harm than good. The same applies to international SEO, where picking the wrong keyword could mean your efforts fail to bear fruit. Choosing a specialised company to translate and optimise your online content:

• Is highly convenient for you,
• Yields a high-quality result, and
• Allows for tailoring to your exact needs.

Let鈥檚 take a closer look at these three points.

Firstly, performing international SEO can be a struggle for untrained non-specialists. Navigating various advanced online tools and honing in on the right keywords is not easy unless you have the skills and know-how to do it. Handing over the reins to a translation company means that you avoid that hassle whilst trained professionals manage your task.

Secondly, choosing a translation company for the job means choosing professional translators, who not only have the education and training to deliver high-quality translation, but also the cultural expertise to help select the right keywords for your content.

Thirdly, a translation company can tailor your international SEO to your exact needs, whether you need an extensive search-engine optimised transcreation of your content or already have a list of keywords to be implemented in a text.

All things considered, investing in international SEO for the Nordic market yields numerous benefits and could be your leg-up into the Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish markets. Want to know more about what Sandberg can offer? Take a look at our Multilingual marketing and ISEO services page.

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The post 3 reasons why English adaptation is your key to entering the UK market appeared first on sa国际传媒.

The adaptation spectrum

Approach 1: Reproofing

As mentioned at the start of this post, adaptation means different things to different people. For many clients, it can be as simple as changing a few zeds (or zees) to esses and jettisoning the odd , along with changing date formats, . We can call this type of adaptation reproofing, as it normally just involves skim-reading the source text.

Approach 2: Traditional adaptation

Sometimes this is enough: for example in business reports or technical manuals. Often though, clients want us to go further, changing terminology where relevant and possibly even phrasing. This is what clients normally mean by adaptation.

Approach 3: Full localisation

At the furthest end of the spectrum, clients want us to consider all of the above, plus the connotations of particular turns of phrase that might offend in the target market, as well as cultural references that could be lost on the target audience. In this way, the job becomes much more like a transcreation or localisation project, and requires considerable time, research and effort, rather than a simple spell check.听Let鈥檚 call this type full localisation. This type of project doesn鈥檛 come along every day, but when it does it can be the most impactful on the client鈥檚 target audience, as well as the most fun for linguists to work on.

We can visualise these types of adaptation on a spectrum:

As you can see, each requires a different approach and level of commitment. The tools used for each type of work also vary.

What鈥檚 the actual difference between US and UK English?听

Sometimes the line between US and UK English is not as clear-cut as it may seem. Spelling differences are easy to identify, as is the American propensity to capitalise the first letter of every word in headings. Then there are the famous terms all native English speakers know:听truck听vs听lorry,听candy听vs听sweets,听autumn听vs听fall. Depending on the domain and text type, the density of such terms can vary greatly.

What鈥檚 harder to pin down is the feeling that many British English speakers have that something just 鈥渟ounds American鈥�. This gut reaction is not always rooted in solid linguistics: many terms have crossed the Atlantic in both directions, and American English preserves many archaic terms that had their origins in the British Isles.

The sum of these hundreds of tiny stylistic choices can be much greater than its parts.

There are certain tendencies that crop up again and again. Brits are quite fond of the perfect tense 鈥� most preferring听I鈥檝e already eaten听to the American听I already ate. This extends to the common phrase听Forgot password?, which is rendered as听Forgotten password?听in UK localisations of many web services. The way both nations use modal verbs varies quite substantially too:听must听is more common in US English than UK English, whereas听shall听is barely used west of the Atlantic despite still being in daily use in the UK.

The minute differences are too numerous to list here, and many resources exist that map out the differences in spelling, vocabulary and syntax. However, the sum of these hundreds of tiny stylistic choices can be much greater than its parts. They all combine to create a general sound, a feel, that many native English speakers can detect even if they can鈥檛 point out exactly what sounds odd about a particular construction.

Identifying all the possible changes that can be made is a complex task and requires an intimate knowledge of linguistic norms on either side of the Atlantic, as well as a keen eye. Often in cases of uncertainty, linguists must rely on gut instinct or straw polls of colleagues to check the validity of the changes they wish to make.

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Visibility is only one aspect of boosting your online presence, however. Finding the right balance for content that ranks highly on search engines but is also engaging, visually appealing and business-focused is a team effort, involving SEO experts, digital marketers, content specialists and managers.

If your website鈥檚 only in one language, then your work is more or less done. But what if your website is in multiple languages for different markets, or if you鈥檙e targeting English speakers from different countries? If that鈥檚 the case, then you can add a localisation specialist to the list of professionals above.

In this article, we鈥檒l look at how to localise your search engine strategy if you鈥檙e planning to expand your business, using examples from the English-speaking world and the Nordic region.

Regional variations within the same language

The amount of SEO effort you need to put into your website depends primarily on the volume of content you create, although it depends on your business strategy too. It鈥檚 one thing selling products or services for English-speaking people in the US, but a whole different beast if your target market includes the UK too.

Let鈥檚 take the example of fictional online clothing retailer 鈥淵ourStyle鈥�. It鈥檚 important to rank highly for the word pants听in the US and trousers in the UK (the word pants听in the UK typically refers to underwear). Like SEO, localisation is also about understanding the user鈥檚 intent 鈥� in this case purely from a language perspective.

To check whether you鈥檝e made the right wording choice, it鈥檚 always useful to double-check on a search engine. A good way to do this is with a VPN, which allows you to simulate an internet connection in any country. The image below shows a search for pants on the US version of Google:

You can confirm trousers听is indeed the word you need to target the British market just by looking at the results Google offers. In both examples, Google offers images of the right product and links to retailers that searchers can click through to make a purchase.

SEO across multiple languages

Let鈥檚 return to YourStyle, our fictional clothing retailer. They鈥檙e looking to expand to new markets after a successful launch in the UK. Market research finds that consumers in the Nordic countries have significant spending power and represent the next big opportunity for YourStyle.

A common strategic mistake when entering the Nordic market is to assume that English will do 鈥� after all many Nordic people speak excellent English. The reality is that growing your business in this region requires you to build up an online presence in the local languages: Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish. If YourStyle really wants to truly penetrate this market, the old adage of speaking the language of your customers undoubtedly applies.

Here are some tips for properly localising your SEO strategy.

1. Think topics first, keywords second

There鈥檚 now broad consensus that individual keywords on your website aren鈥檛 what rank you highly: it鈥檚 about producing the best content with a dynamic range of terms and contexts on a specific topic. As SEO shifts towards this topic-based model, it鈥檚 important to define before defining your keywords.

In essence, the topic-cluster model 鈥� popularised by 鈥� is a way of organising content on your website so that search engines know you鈥檙e an authority on that specific subject. The model is built around a central pillar page (which acts as a 鈥渃ontent hub鈥� for a single topic) and multiple content pages on the same topic that link back to the pillar page and to each other.

If you鈥檝e already built your content with the topic-cluster methodology in your source language, then you鈥檙e off to a good start. The question then becomes one of which pages to localise. Many companies choose to translate only their pillar pages, which may seem like an obvious move as that鈥檚 where most conversions take place. But this doesn鈥檛 help your overall multilingual SEO strategy. The right approach is to translate all the pages in the cluster and replicate your SEO efforts in your source language in your target one.

2.听On-page keyword planning

Once you鈥檝e got a clear understanding of which topics you want to become an authority on, you can start planning and analysing on-page keywords. If you鈥檝e done your research properly, you will have chosen your keywords in your source language using the following criteria:

Search volume:听Search volume is a measure of the total number of searches made through a search engine expressed as the average monthly volume over the previous 12-month period. Search volume data is a crucial, fundamental element of your SEO strategy. If you鈥檙e localising your website from English into the Nordic languages, you can expect search volume to be lower: the combined population of the Nordic countries is around 24 million. On the contrary, if you鈥檙e localising in the other direction (into English), search volume can increase exponentially. But search volume alone says nothing if you don鈥檛 use it together with other metrics such as keyword difficulty.

Source: Google Keyword Planner

Keyword difficulty: Determining the difficulty of a specific keyword requires understanding the level of competition. What pages are currently at the top of the rankings? What kind of content are they offering? Can you offer something better? SEO experts usually take a look at SERP (search engine result pages) history to know if competition at the top is too tight or if there a window of opportunity.

It might seem logical that if you can鈥檛 offer better content than those top pages, then that keyword is probably too difficult for you. That might be the case for English 鈥� but not for your other locales. The top results in your different locales are unlikely to feature the same sites as they do in English. It鈥檚 worth bearing in mind that , so naturally there鈥檚 a great deal more competition for English keywords. Analysing the SERP history for translations of your keywords can open up opportunities to shoot to the top of the rankings more quickly.

Search intent: Your webpage might be perfectly optimised and still not rank as highly as you want it to. Sometimes it鈥檚 not just about getting the core parts of SEO right, but also about understanding users鈥� search intent, i.e. what exactly it is they鈥檙e trying to achieve with their search.

What does this mean in practice? Google is now capable of evaluating your website鈥檚 user experience and uses this data to tweak its rankings. Let鈥檚 imagine you have two pages 鈥� both perfectly optimised 鈥� but one offers a free trial while the other doesn鈥檛. It鈥檚 highly likely that the page with a free trial will rank more highly over time. , SEMrush addresses this topic in detail.

It鈥檚 vital to remember that search intent and user experience can be as culturally relative as language. In some countries, it鈥檚 not realistic to expect every customer to enter their credit card details to start a free trial. In the Nordic countries, a good strategy is to not overburden your pages with triggers and banners: a minimalistic approach that embraces negative space is likely to be more effective.

3.听Text expansion and contraction

There are some technical aspects to search engine optimisation. One example is the character limit for SEO attributes like title tags or meta descriptions 鈥� Google typically displays the first 50鈥�60 characters of a title tag and 155鈥�160 for the meta description.

Even if you鈥檝e done an excellent job with your keywords in English, one of the issues you need to consider when translating the text from English into other languages is text expansion and contraction. These are two common concepts in translation and refer to the phenomenon of text getting longer or shorter when translated into a different language. When text is translated from English into Nordic languages, it usually becomes a bit longer and could potentially exceed the recommended limits for these SEO attributes.

Below, we show how a and can expand and contract. These are our examples in English:

Title tag: The best e-commerce platform for small businesses (49 characters)

Meta description: We鈥檙e not just an e-commerce app 鈥� we鈥檙e the best e-commerce platform that has everything you need to sell online, on social media or face-to-face. (147 characters)

And here is the example translated into Swedish and Finnish:

Here the Swedish actually used slightly fewer characters than the English, whereas Finnish needed more.

Key points

Generally speaking, the key to a successful multilingual SEO strategy boils down to two things: content volume and language diversity.

• Ensure your SEO architecture in your source language is well structured before starting to localise it. Review Hubspot鈥檚 topic cluster theory to check whether you鈥檙e on the right track.
• When picking content for translation, try to choose pillar pages and pillar content from the same clusters to increase your chances of ranking highly in your target languages.
• Remember keyword difficulty varies by language, and thus the chances of you ranking at the very top of the search results.
• Optimise traditional SEO elements and localise your keywords with search volume and character length in mind.
• Partner with localisation specialists to make sure your keywords are translated with an understanding of how search intent works in the target culture.

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In recent years, the word transcreation has become a localisation buzzword, and is often used to define the process whereby copy is customised to transfer the intent and impact of the original message for the new target market.

It has been argued, however, that linguists were customising copy in this way long before the term transcreation became recognised. As a result, there seems to be mixed interpretations as to what distinguishes marketing translation from transcreation, and confusion both in terms of workflows and budgeting expectations. Some say that transcreation only applies to the adaptation of slogans, others apply it to any marketing copy that requires translation; sometimes a CAT tool is used, other times it鈥檚 worked on outside of a tool, in Excel.

Most of us will have been exposed to transcreation at work, such as in film titles, well-known brands鈥� jingles or slogans. The impact of a good or poor transcreation can be powerful. There have been several transcreation blunders over the years; famous examples include a number of automotive brands failing to realise the potential negative connotations of a model name when launching their product in another market. , General Motors, who were unaware that 鈥淣o Va鈥� means 鈥淚t won鈥檛 go鈥�, when launching their Chevy Nova in South America.

Another well-known transcreation mishap is , which was mistranslated into 鈥渄o nothing鈥� when marketed in other countries. That certainly wasn鈥檛 the message they wanted to put across in terms of using their services. This mistake led to a rebrand costing around 10 million US dollars!

Although we do seem to have a clear understanding of the ultimate goal of transcreation and the magnitude of its impact, it鈥檚 clear that we have a long way to go in terms of standardising the processes and workflows to enable us to achieve the desired outcome. TAUS recognised the gap in our industry for such information and have since released a document called 鈥溾��.

With this document, TAUS has highlighted the importance of producing resources that answer many relevant questions surrounding this topic, such as definitions of marketing translation, transcreation, multilingual copywriting and how to set them apart from one another, as well as examples of translation, transcreation and copywriting in action.

I鈥檓 certain that in the future we will have a clearer understanding of transcreation as a service, but until then it鈥檚 clear that we can鈥檛 take the word transcreation at face value; it鈥檚 much more than a combination of two words. Regardless of what you think this elusive term means, the next time you see it, don鈥檛 be afraid to ask questions to get to the core of its role in each specific context; only then can the creative team take the first steps towards delivering a project according to expectations.

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that people prefer to buy in their own language. The Common Sense Advisory published a report in 2014 on how translation affects the online customer experience and E-commerce growth, and concluded that more local-language content throughout the customer experience leads to a greater likelihood of purchase. This motivates global businesses to localise their message for different markets and fuels their collaboration with the language services industry.

But how well do companies in countries where English is not the primary language localise their content for the 330鈥�380 million people who speak English as their first language?

I am not referring to the differences between the variants of English in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa. What I would like to call attention to is content written in English or translated into English by non-native speakers of English.

The concept of 鈥淲orld Englishes鈥� by Professor Braj Kachru illustrates the use of English in today鈥檚 world through three concentric circles: the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle.

The Inner Circle represents the traditional historical regions where English is used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa. They are said to be 鈥渘orm-providing鈥�, which means that English language norms are developed in these countries.

The Outer Circle of English, created by the expansion of the British Empire in Asia and Africa, does not use English as a native tongue, but as a lingua franca between ethnic and language groups. This circle includes India, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-anglophone South Africa and the Philippines.

The Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical role but is widely used as a medium of international communication. This includes the Netherlands and the Nordic countries, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Egypt and Indonesia, with the estimated number of users ranging from 100 million to one billion. The Expanding Circle is said to be 鈥渘orm-dependent鈥� because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the Inner Circle.

However, I have been pondering how much pressure the practices of the commercial translation world are putting on that 鈥渘orm provision鈥�.

The entire localisation industry works on the principle of human language experts translating from a foreign language into their mother tongue. This practice is deemed to result in the most culturally accurate target text, with idiomatic fluency and a reading experience that most resembles that of the original. Except when it comes to translating into English.

There are simply not enough native speakers of English who are able to translate from world languages into English. This becomes even more of a problem when it comes to minority languages. The English speakers in Kachru鈥檚 Inner Circle are notoriously lacking in foreign language skills, and those who do study languages and translation have 150 foreign languages to cover. This imbalance leads to a lot of the foreign language content generated in the Expanding Circle countries being translated into English by the natives of those countries.

Many of these non-native translators are good at this 鈥� I speak from personal experience as a Finn who has translated into English a fair bit. Our translations can absolutely be fit for purpose; we understand the source text perfectly and can render it accurately in English.

But our translations into English are rarely on a par with those of our equally qualified native English peers. When it comes to compelling sales arguments, use of subtle humour and the ability to generate the feeling of exclusivity, our nuanced persuasion skills in the target language can fail us. Had the communication been taking place in person, our native English audience would undoubtedly have made allowances for this. With written content, it is not so easy.

Everyone knows that poorly written English affects customer perceptions. In the modern digital context, where consumers are wary of spam and phishing, poor English scares customers away and makes an otherwise good website look like a scam. But not everyone appreciates that decent albeit less-than-fluent English written by non-native speakers also shapes the customer experience.

When I was trying to find information online about the impact that non-native English writing has in our world today, I came across articles demonstrating how your earnings in an English-speaking country are affected by your level of spoken English, how a strong foreign accent can affect your career prospects, and how poor grammar can spoil your chances 鈥� even on an online dating site.

But it was hard to find information on what effect English content written by non-native speakers of English has on business and on the customer behaviour of native English speakers. There seems to be a lack of research in the premium consumer market into the response of native English readers to sales material, instructions or information leaflets that have clearly been translated from a foreign language into English. These texts may not be riddled with spelling mistakes or odd choices of words, but the reader still gets a sense that 鈥渟omething is not quite right鈥�. Something jars in the way the information is presented or simply makes the reader feel alienated rather than included.

It can be challenging to develop English translation solutions that result in high quality content, but the least we can do is try. The first step would be to take an honest look in the mirror. Surprisingly many non-native speakers of English assume they have the right and the competence required to assess the level of English they produce, either themselves or at their company.听 Nordic nationals seem particularly presumptuous in this regard. Why is this the case? That right belongs to our 鈥渘orm-providing鈥� friends. What might seem like a decent English translation of a product brochure in Finland might not cut the mustard in the countries of the Inner Circle.

Like the rest of us, the 330鈥�380 million native speakers of English in our global village deserve to be addressed in their true mother tongue. Like the rest of us, they value access to information in their own idiomatic language and prefer to buy products where the quality of the documentation reflects the quality of the product. Let鈥檚 start serving native English speakers in native English.

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