Your business communicates internally and externally using a brand voice. It shapes everything that your business communicates. Businesses that operate on an international scale, and serve multiple target markets, usually communicate in several languages. The way they use language to present themselves is of central importance in every target market.

As a language services provider for content marketing translations, we cover all areas of your external communication worldwide:

• Translation of your website
• Direct marketing: Newsletters, social media, blog posts, pitches, personalised mailshots
• Press releases
• Advertisements
• Campaigns
• Banners, flyers, brochures and more.

The way your business communicates is a fundamental part of your corporate identity. Your customers, business partners, shareholders and (future) employees will build a perception of your business based on how you communicate. If your business speaks with a consistent voice, they will all form a better relationship with your products and services.

If you use a mixture of formal and informal language, they will pick up on the inconsistencies and are less likely to make a purchase. Do you give your products and services clear names? If this is not the case, confusion is guaranteed.

The most important aspects of your brand voice are style guides and a comprehensive online company terminology list. Get in touch, we would love to share our expertise with you.

Adverts have the same purpose everywhere in the world. Regardless of language and culture, they should attract interest and encourage the purchase of products or services. However, you cannot always achieve this goal using the same means. While you can of course have an advert translated from one language to multiple other languages, it will not be sufficient to arouse cross-cultural interest. The assumption that identical advertising can be used to reach identical target groups across borders, is a myth. In fact, in certain countries this is associated with a risk and potential fine, as is demonstrated by the Chinese Advertisement Law.

Emotions are heavily influenced by culture, so different countries need different marketing strategies.
To give an example: In South Africa, there is a strong connection between wine production and professional sport.
So while it’s not only logical, but actually beneficial to use rugby images to advertise fine wines domestically, this would be unthinkable in other countries. Does your newest product name have negative associations in certain languages? How do you need to transform your slogan so that it also “works” in Vietnam? Our global network can help you to check your slogans or product names in an international context.

Often, the first contact that your potential customers have with your business is with your website or online shop. It is therefore all the more important that your target audience feel like it is talking directly to them. Simply translating the words will not be enough. Instead, you need to retain the essence of the original message and also take into account cultural particularities.

We recommend that your website is localised to ensure success in your international markets. This service builds on the translation stage and also includes adapting the website content to the language conventions and cultural practices of your target market. Within the scope of the localisation, idioms, forms of address, menu texts, directory names, page titles and keywords are all considered.

Images, symbols and colours also play a big part in localisation as we perceive visual content faster and more intensely than text content. To help explain this concept, let’s take the example of the colour red:
In European countries it can signify danger and anger, while in China it is more commonly associated with good luck, joy and prosperity.

Is your website ready for the international stage? We can take care of the checks and adaptations for you.