Communicate In Your Customers Language
| Category: E-commerce | Date: 2001-09-07 |
"You persuade someone only in so far as you can talk their language, by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude,idea, identifying your ways with them."
Twentieth-Century rhetorician Kenneth Burkes suggestion that language selection is the key to persuading a person is sound advice for business marketers who use the WWW as a medium of communication.
Many online businesses assume that English is the only language on the net, but an abundance of research and statistics indicate that it is folly to limit communications to the one dialect.
An International Data Corp. (IDC) report - "Web Site Globalization: The Next Imperative for the Internet 2.0 Era",said the fast adoption of the Internet will continue in coming years, but the percentage of American users will decline.
Forrester Research has found that at the moment only 50% of Internet users speak English, and by 2005 it is estimated only a third of internet users will use English for online communication.
At present, according to Inktomi and NEC research, 14% of websites are in a language other than English, which leaves 50% of web users only served by less than a sixth of the Internets websites. These statistics prove that it is imperative for businesses to prepare for a truly multilingual Internet.
The changing dynamics of language used on the Net will be most affected by an increase in web participation in Asia. By the end of 2003, Asian Internet use will climb from 38 million (2000) to 95.83 million online surfers, which is predicted to be a quarter of the world total.
European Internet use is also expected to increase as a percentage of the whole, with Jupiter reporting that European online households will triple in the next three years.
With these increases in non-English speaking Internet users,creating web sites only in English substantially reduces a companys revenue base, according to Forrester Research.
The IDC Web Globalization report highlighted the financial cost of concentrating solely on US customers.
IDC said that by 2003, Internet spending would reach $1.64 trillion. Two-thirds of this projected amount will come from outside the US, with Japan and Western Europe expected to make up 47% of this on-line spending.
Therefore, if companies concentrate on US customers, they will miss out on the 66% of on-line spending conducted by non-English speaking Internet users.
These statistics raise the question of how many more sales could be made if businesses made their sites multilingual.So how do you turn your website into a multilingual sales machine? Here are 3 easy steps:
Step 1. Determine which languages will deliver the biggest bang for your buck. Have a look at your existing sales. If you are already starting to make sales into certain non-English speaking countries, it is reasonable to assume that there are many others willing to buy your products/services if only they could understand what you were saying.
Have a look at your website statistics. They will usually tell you how many hits or impressions you are getting from different countries.
Now you need a translated version of your website. You can use free or inexpensive translation tools from sites like FreeTranslation.com or babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn to create translated versions of your sites pages.
An even easier option, though is to download a free Translation Object from Worldlingo.com and place it on your website. This allows visitors to view your web pages in any of 8 languages for free. The translations are automatic machine translations, so they are not 100% accurate, but they are a big step forward for visitors to your site who cannot speak English.But more importantly, at the end of each month, Worldlingo.com will provide you with a report showing you exactly how many times each page was viewed in a specific language. This is hard data you can use to plan your multilingual Internet strategy.
Another method to make a Web Site more accessible to global customers is the use of a browser translation tool. Two of the companies that provide translation tools are Worldlingo.com and Alta Vistas Babel Fish. Both provide a tool plug in for Internet Explorer 5, which allows surfers to choose the language in which they wish to view a site.
Step 2: Select a Localization Partner.
Localization is similar to translation, except it takes into account the cultural nuances involved for each country, handles the graphics, and localization partners frequently specialize in producing multilingual websites. After being localized, the Website takes on the look and feel of being developed for a particular language or culture.
There are a wide variety of potential localization partners.These range from giant multinationals to specialist boutiques.LISA, the Localization Industry Standards Association, has a comprehensive list of localization partners on their website http://www.lisa.org.
Discuss the data you collected in Step 1 with the localization partners, decide on your initial set of languages, and ask them to provide you with a quote and an explanation of their methodology to localize websites. You will find some companies specialize in one or two specific languages, while others act as a project manager for many languages and outsource the translation work as required.
Step 3: Dont forget email.
Many businesses on the net think the day they launch their multilingual website, they just need to sit back and watch the orders roll in, but really the work has just begun.
How many emails do you get as a result of your English web marketing activities? You should expect a similar number from non-English speakers once you launch your multi-lingual website.
Again to translate the email you send and receive you can use the free online services of Worldlingo.com, FreeTranslation.com,or babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn. For important email responses, you may consider hiring a person fluent in the language to check your message before sending it off.
Remember, Internet users equate slow response to email to bad service. So do not waste the money you have invested in localizing your website into several different languages by not being able to respond to your customers inquiries in a timely manner.
Having completed the three steps outlined above, you will open up new market for your products and services. Just imagine what that will do to your overall sales figures.
About the author
Alastair Lindsay
WORLDLINGO.COM - Free Email Translation
* Instant Email Translation
* Free Web Site & Document Machine Translation
* Fast Human Translations & Instant Real-Time Quotes
* Translation Tools and Objects for Multilingual Browsing
This article provided by the InfoZone Archives at: http://www.MakingProfit.com
:To contact see details below.
alastair@worldlingo.com
http://www.worldlingo.com/
Twentieth-Century rhetorician Kenneth Burkes suggestion that language selection is the key to persuading a person is sound advice for business marketers who use the WWW as a medium of communication.
Many online businesses assume that English is the only language on the net, but an abundance of research and statistics indicate that it is folly to limit communications to the one dialect.
An International Data Corp. (IDC) report - "Web Site Globalization: The Next Imperative for the Internet 2.0 Era",said the fast adoption of the Internet will continue in coming years, but the percentage of American users will decline.
Forrester Research has found that at the moment only 50% of Internet users speak English, and by 2005 it is estimated only a third of internet users will use English for online communication.
At present, according to Inktomi and NEC research, 14% of websites are in a language other than English, which leaves 50% of web users only served by less than a sixth of the Internets websites. These statistics prove that it is imperative for businesses to prepare for a truly multilingual Internet.
The changing dynamics of language used on the Net will be most affected by an increase in web participation in Asia. By the end of 2003, Asian Internet use will climb from 38 million (2000) to 95.83 million online surfers, which is predicted to be a quarter of the world total.
European Internet use is also expected to increase as a percentage of the whole, with Jupiter reporting that European online households will triple in the next three years.
With these increases in non-English speaking Internet users,creating web sites only in English substantially reduces a companys revenue base, according to Forrester Research.
The IDC Web Globalization report highlighted the financial cost of concentrating solely on US customers.
IDC said that by 2003, Internet spending would reach $1.64 trillion. Two-thirds of this projected amount will come from outside the US, with Japan and Western Europe expected to make up 47% of this on-line spending.
Therefore, if companies concentrate on US customers, they will miss out on the 66% of on-line spending conducted by non-English speaking Internet users.
These statistics raise the question of how many more sales could be made if businesses made their sites multilingual.So how do you turn your website into a multilingual sales machine? Here are 3 easy steps:
Step 1. Determine which languages will deliver the biggest bang for your buck. Have a look at your existing sales. If you are already starting to make sales into certain non-English speaking countries, it is reasonable to assume that there are many others willing to buy your products/services if only they could understand what you were saying.
Have a look at your website statistics. They will usually tell you how many hits or impressions you are getting from different countries.
Now you need a translated version of your website. You can use free or inexpensive translation tools from sites like FreeTranslation.com or babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn to create translated versions of your sites pages.
An even easier option, though is to download a free Translation Object from Worldlingo.com and place it on your website. This allows visitors to view your web pages in any of 8 languages for free. The translations are automatic machine translations, so they are not 100% accurate, but they are a big step forward for visitors to your site who cannot speak English.But more importantly, at the end of each month, Worldlingo.com will provide you with a report showing you exactly how many times each page was viewed in a specific language. This is hard data you can use to plan your multilingual Internet strategy.
Another method to make a Web Site more accessible to global customers is the use of a browser translation tool. Two of the companies that provide translation tools are Worldlingo.com and Alta Vistas Babel Fish. Both provide a tool plug in for Internet Explorer 5, which allows surfers to choose the language in which they wish to view a site.
Step 2: Select a Localization Partner.
Localization is similar to translation, except it takes into account the cultural nuances involved for each country, handles the graphics, and localization partners frequently specialize in producing multilingual websites. After being localized, the Website takes on the look and feel of being developed for a particular language or culture.
There are a wide variety of potential localization partners.These range from giant multinationals to specialist boutiques.LISA, the Localization Industry Standards Association, has a comprehensive list of localization partners on their website http://www.lisa.org.
Discuss the data you collected in Step 1 with the localization partners, decide on your initial set of languages, and ask them to provide you with a quote and an explanation of their methodology to localize websites. You will find some companies specialize in one or two specific languages, while others act as a project manager for many languages and outsource the translation work as required.
Step 3: Dont forget email.
Many businesses on the net think the day they launch their multilingual website, they just need to sit back and watch the orders roll in, but really the work has just begun.
How many emails do you get as a result of your English web marketing activities? You should expect a similar number from non-English speakers once you launch your multi-lingual website.
Again to translate the email you send and receive you can use the free online services of Worldlingo.com, FreeTranslation.com,or babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn. For important email responses, you may consider hiring a person fluent in the language to check your message before sending it off.
Remember, Internet users equate slow response to email to bad service. So do not waste the money you have invested in localizing your website into several different languages by not being able to respond to your customers inquiries in a timely manner.
Having completed the three steps outlined above, you will open up new market for your products and services. Just imagine what that will do to your overall sales figures.
About the author
Alastair Lindsay
WORLDLINGO.COM - Free Email Translation
* Instant Email Translation
* Free Web Site & Document Machine Translation
* Fast Human Translations & Instant Real-Time Quotes
* Translation Tools and Objects for Multilingual Browsing
This article provided by the InfoZone Archives at: http://www.MakingProfit.com
:To contact see details below.
alastair@worldlingo.com
http://www.worldlingo.com/
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