3 Useful Tips for Creating an Effective Global Content Marketing Strategy

Do you want more brand exposure for your CRM or ERP system, or want your brand to go global? Then you need the right global content marketing strategy. Pam Didner, a former global content marketing strategist at Intel and author of the book Global Content Marketing, defines global content marketing as “The process of developing and sharing relevant, valuable and engaging content to target audience across countries with the goal of acquiring new customers or increasing business from existing customers globally.” With a strong global content marketing strategy, you will get more exposure and more brand ambassadors speaking about your products and services. Here are few useful tips for creating an effective global content marketing strategy.

Get to know and understand your audience

In creating a global content marketing strategy, you must first know and understand your audience. What is the language of your audience? Is it American English only, is it British, is it Spanish? What are the cultural differences? Are there any differences in religion, traditions, symbols, color associations, etc? Answering these types of questions will allow you to produce content that connects with the audience you are trying to reach; it will also give you an idea of which approach to take in which markets.

Use Google Analytics or other tools to your advantage. Get an idea of the demographics of the people that visit your site. That way, you can tailor your content to them.  For example, if you know that your audience is predominantly male and American, sports- or tech-themed blogs might be a big draw.  If your audience is mostly Latin American women, a bilingual blog might be in order. Translating the site into Spanish might be a great way to win a bigger audience.

Dominos and Airbnb are notable examples of companies who have been able to adapt their business models to various cultures. Red Bull is another company that has expanded its reach all over the world.  By hosting extreme sports events, Red Bull ensures that it will have a captive audience at the event. Dunkin’ Donuts changes its menu to reflect the tastes of the country. For example, they offer a Grapefruit Coolata donut in Korea and a Mango Chocolate donut in Lebanon.

Translate your content

If you want to go global, you should consider translating your content. Surprisingly, over 60% of internet users are non-native English speakers, and studies show that people prefer reading articles and websites in their native language.

According to a Common Sense Advisory study, 52.4% of 2,400 online customers preferred to buy products on the Internet in their native language. Again, knowing who compiles your audience is paramount. If you know that most of your site visitors are from Latin America, translating your site into Spanish should help you get more business. Alternately, having a site that offers content in a variety of languages will expand your online presence and thus boost sales.

By translating and localizing your content, you can make sure that your content is understood by your global audience and communicates messages that can strike an emotional chord with your audience. According to Salesforce, “Localization of content is critical for engaging audiences outside company headquarters because it represents marketing personalization in its purest form. Effective localization is, in fact, one of the easiest paths for increasing revenue. Salesforce also notes that “A study of Fortune 500 companies showed that those that localized their content were two times more likely to increase profit and 1.25 times more likely to grow earnings per share year over year.”

Align corporate and local team goals

According to marketing guru Pam Didner, “global” in global content marketing means “Headquarters working together with local teams to prioritize target countries, audiences and allocate budget and resources accordingly,” “Local” refers to “regions or countries where the company has a local presence.” Since the goals of corporate and local teams don’t always align, she says that the best thing is to ensure that there is extensive collaboration and close communication and that each team is willing to compromise so that there is a full alignment on business goals.

If you are a small restaurant in metro Atlanta, you probably don’t want or need, to reach customers in Abu Dhabi.  You need to target Atlanta and tailor your marketing to that audience.You might not even need a marketing team–a Twitter and Facebook page, or a commercial at prime time on a local channel, might be enough at first to get you the customers you want.

If you are a company like the Gap, though, you need to work extensively with your marketing team to make products that will appeal to an international market. You also need to know which products do better in which countries.  Heavy sweaters just aren’t going to sell in Rio de Janeiro, but sandals and sundresses will, and translating the website into Portuguese will sell even more. This means that you will need local teams to do market research and communicate their findings to the corporate marketing team.  

That way, your customers get tailor-made marketing–that is, the right product at the right time sold to them on a platform in their native language. Today’s consumer wants personalized service.  Global marketing is the way to guarantee that every customer, from Canberra to Cambodia, feels happy on your site. Happy customers will buy more and will be more likely to recommend your company to others.