Are you a business owner with a growing subscriber list, eager to expand your reach to international customers? Simply translating your email content is not enough. Why?
You need to localise your email marketing to resonate with potential clients abroad truly. This will encourage them to try out your products or services. Here is how you can tailor your approach effectively for different markets. Check it out!
Contents
Why should you invest in email marketing?
Despite the rapid evolution of social media, email marketing remains a powerful tool for customer engagement. It liberates you from the whims of social media algorithms and shields you from the risks of account suspensions due to security breaches.
Consistent communication by email builds brand awareness and customer loyalty. It makes you recognisable. You become a real authority when you share valuable insights for free. It is the easiest way to win trust. And where trust is, sales will naturally follow.
Understand email marketing
Email marketing is the art of communicating with your audience via email. Whether short or long, these messages inform your audience about new products and promotions. Shared knowledge is the best tool to build brand loyalty. What is the key? Your communication needs to be engaging and interesting, no matter the email’s length. Otherwise, you will lose your readers and prospects.
What makes email marketing special?
Email marketing enables direct, personalised contact with recipients, unlike social media or general ads. It creates an opportunity for a personal relationship and allows you to monitor the progress of this engagement through analytical tools provided by email marketing software.
The power of email marketing
A well-planned email marketing strategy enhances brand awareness, builds trust, and ultimately boosts sales. It is an affordable way to maintain customer relationships that do not require frequent updates like social media posts.
Email marketing is versatile. It serves well small startups and large corporations alike. It is difficult to deny its benefits:
- low cost,
- message control,
- quick delivery,
- scalability,
- measurable campaign effectiveness.
How can you attract subscribers to the mailing list?
For new newsletter creators, attracting subscribers poses a challenge. To effectively encourage people to sign up, you need to demonstrate the value your emails provide clearly.
Lead magnet
Start with tangible incentives: exclusive discounts, engaging content, e-books, or early access to products. This is called a lead magnet and ideally should be attractive enough, so the readers will opt for a subscription just to be able to enjoy the benefit. Tailor the offer to your target audience’s needs.
Subscription form
Make your sign-up form visible and easily accessible on your website. Consider using pop-ups, persistent banners, or placement in blog sections and checkout pages. Keep the form simple. Require minimal information (ideally only name, e-mail address, and opt-in for marketing consent) for a smoother user experience.
Invest in advertising
Leverage your social media and other communication channels to promote your newsletter. Regularly remind your followers of the exclusive benefits awaiting subscribers. Consider targeted ad campaigns or social media contests with newsletter sign-up as a participation requirement. Always ensure compliance with local data protection regulations.
Direct marketing through email
Unlike other advertising forms that target a broad, undefined audience, email marketing allows you to reach specific individuals. You can offer them content tailored to their interests to make them engaged in your business. It is like writing a letter to a potential customer, rather than shouting into a crowd (and hoping that somebody will respond).
Email marketing reaches those who need it, with information that is valuable to them. It is not just about making a sale, but more importantly, about building long-term relationships, engagement, and staying in tune with what your customers truly want and need.
You gain control over what you say, when you say it, to whom, and how. Make your messages stand out by being direct and personal in your communication.
Localising your email marketing
Daily, numerous emails from various companies enter your inbox. Some of them might be interesting; some are not even worth opening. Many go unnoticed. In this flood of messages, it is difficult to stand out, so most of them do not even get opened, they just go straight to the spam folder.
Occasionally, you click on a message hoping for a good read, entertainment, or a heads-up about the company’s plans, only to find a poorly translated text from a foreign language. Your time is too precious to read further. You click ‘X’, exit, and forget about the unfortunate message. The company that has not invested in proper localisation of its email marketing has just lost a potential customer.
Do not become a part of this sad story. Avoid being that unfortunate sender by investing in email marketing localisation. Tailor your message content to the needs and preferences of specific audience groups.
What is email marketing localisation?
Localisation goes beyond translation. It includes adapting the visual design, product offers, and even the timing of message delivery. It involves adjusting cultural references, units of measure, currency, and date formats. The goal is to make the message as convincing as possible for recipients in a specific region.
Why does localisation matter?
According to statistics compiled by W3Techs, only 55.5% of internet users browse content in English. The rest prefer to read in their native languages. This means that messages in English either fail to reach them or are less effective compared to localised, successful email marketing campaigns.
Localisation significantly enhances the effectiveness of email marketing. For instance, messages sent to Japanese or Korean recipients are typically much more formal than those aimed at customers in the USA or Brazil, where a more direct approach is valued.
Key elements of email marketing campaign localisation
A study by Common Sense Advisory revealed a direct correlation between content in the recipient’s language and the likelihood of a purchase by the reader. Over half of the 2,430 respondents stated they are willing to pay more if they receive information in their native language. Let these findings inspire you to implement the right strategies. Remember to focus on the most crucial elements. Let’s go through all of them.
Email subject line
The subject of your email is the first thing the reader sees. It is your one-of-a-kind experience to make your first impression. Take it seriously: this determines whether they will click to open the message or immediately discard it without even reading it. The title needs to be concise enough so that it is not truncated by the email program.
CTA (call to action)
A call to action is a signpost. It guides the recipient through the next steps. Ensure your localised CTA uses words that are widely accepted by your target audience and fit the style of your email. Typically, a CTA on buttons should be two or three words long.
Email format
The languages of the Middle East – Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, and Farsi – are written from right to left. This might present challenges when translating from European languages, which are written from left to right. When addressing subscribers from these regions, ensure the layout and placement of elements in your message align with their customary reading patterns.
Pay attention to how your message appears on mobile devices. According to Campaign Monitor, over 70% of people read marketing emails on their phones. A message that displays poorly on a small screen will not be helpful for your email marketing campaign.
Observe local email regulations
Be aware of regional laws and regulations regarding electronic messaging. In some countries, you must obtain marketing consent to send emails to a subscriber, provide an option to unsubscribe, and include your contact details in the email. Failing to adhere to these regulations can lead to serious legal issues.
The absence of an easy unsubscribe option can frustrate subscribers who no longer wish to receive your messages. They might start marking your emails as spam, which could eventually lead to all your communications being automatically stopped by spam filters. The likelihood of being read then becomes slim.
Adapt to local customs
Certain topics or images may be acceptable in most countries but offensive in others. For instance, an image of a woman with an uncovered head or a group enjoying holiday drinks might shock recipients from Muslim countries. To make your task easier, choose neutral images and avoid controversial topics.
Choose the best time
People tend to check their emails in the morning and on weekdays. This suggests you should avoid communicating on weekends. If you do so, your message simply will not reach the eyes of the recipient. Find the best time and day through trial and error.
Consider time zone differences. Emails arriving in the middle of the night may be easily overlooked as they get lost among others. Monitor your open and click-through rates, then select an appropriate, consistent time (and day) for sending your messages.
Use natural language
The goal of localisation is to build a relationship with customers in a language they understand. Does your communication sound natural? Are you using vocabulary familiar to your readers? Are your jokes, comparisons, and cultural references understandable to them? The answers to these questions will help you adjust the style and language to suit your target audience.
What should you remember about email message localisation?
The secret to successful campaigns lies in proper email localisation. Remember to use simple and clear language. Avoid complex phrases and idioms that might confuse the reader. Short sentences will help your international recipients better understand your message.
To make your work easier, prepare universal email templates for international use. They should be easily adaptable to changes in text length resulting from translation. Avoid images with text as they are challenging to localise. Do not overcomplicate the design. A simple, minimalist layout will function best in various language versions.
Throughout the process, do not lose sight of the primary goal of localisation efforts. Create messages that meet the specific needs of your audience, and your brand will become more appealing to a wider range of customers.
Tools for email marketing localisation
To tailor your communication for an international audience, utilise advanced tools. Popular software like Crowdin, Lokalise, and Phrase offer features that enable easy management of translations and content adaptations for different markets. These platforms allow integration with common content management systems (such as WordPress) and email marketing tools. This integration facilitates the automation of the entire process. Use it to lighten your workload.
To ensure success, familiarise yourself with A/B testing in your email marketing tool. This will help you identify the most effective versions of your localised email content. By doing so, you can determine which messages resonate best with specific audience groups. This technology will enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns.
Professional email marketing localisation
Are you eager to break into new markets with momentum and immediately attract new clients? We bet you do not have time for missed opportunities. Entrust your email marketing localisation to a professional translation agency. This way, you will enhance your international email marketing campaigns without wasting resources.
We will help you reach the hearts and minds of your audience. Your messages will be persuasively translated by localisation specialists: native speakers and the most experienced translators. Every email will sound authentic, regardless of where in the world you are sending it to.
Working with us offers you the convenience that your email marketing is fully taken care of. Our translation management systems integrate with marketing platforms. While we handle the work, you can focus on growing your business. Do not miss this opportunity to expand the reach of your brand! Contact us and discover how we work.
