4 Dec /18

Lesson 5: One size does not fit all – localise your international marketing collateral

Lesson 6: One size does not fit all – localise your international marketing collateral
Lesson 6: One size does not fit all – localise your international marketing collateral – EVS Translations

20 lessons learned in 20 years of business

As EVS Translations UK approaches the celebration of its 20th anniversary in February, its founder and CEO, Edward Vick, has been joining us on the blog each week to speak about the business and life lessons learned from the UK office of his international business.

This week, our Global Head of Marketing, Monika Heusel, joins us on the blog to talk about the challenges of running our global website. She makes sure all our marketing collateral successfully goes out across multiple languages and platforms.

Marketing activity – then and now

I remember listings and the Yellow Pages were the choice to be visible to our customers. There was no World Wide Web or digital marketing at that point.

Here in Germany, we cut job offers out of the newspaper from companies looking for English speaking applicants. Then we had two ladies call these companies and ask about their translation requirements.

Advertisements were placed in newspapers and magazines; postcards were sent out – with our parrot! Ten times a year to be visible.

We bought addresses from databank companies and called all the companies.

That was almost 20 years ago. Now EVS Translations is communicating with clients all over the world across multiple languages and channels. It’s a lot more complex and much faster-paced.

Being a company that is active across international markets is very challenging. It needs a lot of planning and experience to make your company visible. Experience does not only mean that you know a lot about globalisation and localisation – hence me changing the ‘z’ to an ‘s’ just now for the UK – but that you also have the right people in the places where you need them.

This is why we have a marketing manager in each country’s office. They are the connection to the market, they know the specific needs of the country surrounding language and behavior. They are able to speak with the sales team in each country because this is what we do in marketing – we support our international sales team.

Content and Context

Content in Germany is different to content in the UK or USA or Bulgaria. It is not only about having DIFFERENT content on the website, it is also about avoiding DUPLICATE content. Just an example: it is very crucial yet very challenging to have two English websites, one for UK and one for USA, and to make sure that search machines know that these pages are different.

Of course coordinating this marketing team on an international basis is very challenging but you have to implement strict processes and rules whilst also allowing your team the flexibility to think and act locally. Goals are set for all of them but the way to achieve these is always a bit different.

Our UK people are different to the people I talk to in Bulgaria, USA, Spain or Germany or in other countries. But it is also very important to get them together from time to time – conference calls or international meet-ups – so that everybody can learn from each other. Not everything that is working for one market will work for the other. And on the other hand something that is not working in one country can work for another.

The product we have – translation – is always the same in every country but the way the client perceives it may be totally different. And the way we communicate with clients may be different, also.

Lesson learned: Listen to your local markets – learn what they need and how they like to engage with your business. Don’t try a one-size-fits-all approach but tailor your efforts with the help of your in-country teams. If something isn’t working, adjust it. The market is always right!