“Kia Ora, Hello, Konnichiwa, Ni Hao, Annyeong Haseyo, Sawasdee, Xin Chào, Hallo, Bonjour, Ciao, Hola, Olá, Namaste.”

No matter how you say hello, it’s always nice to hear it in your own language. It instantly breaks down barriers and helps you to feel comfortable and open to connecting.

It’s no different when trying to communicate within a marketing environment. Even if a customer is multilingual, they will always be more open and engaging when they receive messages that are written in their own native language. Good marketing communication should be tailored to your specific audience and their motivations around purchasing behaviour. So, if you’re building a marketing strategy to reach potential customers from different parts of the world, translation and localisation needs to be a critical part of your plan.

Culture too is a key piece to consider when trying to communicate with or relate to a foreign market. Different things appeal, excite, entertain, or offend. Humour can be one of the most dangerous emotions to try and throw into the mix if you don’t understand someone’s culture. Not only could it fall completely flat, but it could also highly offend someone, which in turn, damages your brands reputation and potentially loses a customer for ever. Interestingly, colour is also something that can mean or symbolise very different things to different markets.

With a myriad of things to navigate when trying to communicate and appeal to a non-English speaking market, BTM can offer you the experience of over 27 years in marketing to and with foreign speaking countries. Covering 15 different languages, we can ensure you deliver the right message, in the right context, to the right audience.