Cindy King's International Business Blog » culture customized content

7 Reasons For Different Online Content

Cindy King — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:00:34 +0000

International Content Creation

I just read Denise Wakeman’s 7 Tips to Create Better Blog Posts and realized how my reading habits have changed dramatically over the last few years. I used to always take the time to read meaty articles, but not any more. I now skim through everything I read and within a few seconds decide whether I want to give it another minute or two and a second evaluation, or if I want to stop reading immediately. After the second review, I usually stop reading the article, unless it really grabs my interest. And only then will I take the time to read it properly. Yes, everything I read goes through 2 reviews before I decide to read it.

So I need white space and frequence subheads in blog posts – otherwise I cannot skim through it properly. When I skim through an article the first time I only read the title, subheads, the first couple of bullets, maybe a short callout or a quote and 2 sentence paragraphs that look interesting. That’s it… and this is not a lot of content to grab my interest, is it?

Another new habit I’ve acquired is listening to audios. Whenever I’m doing a task that does not occupy all of my brain space, I put on an audio version of something I want to read.

Multiple New Habits In Consuming Content

I’m not the only one who has changed their habits in consuming information. Many others have too. And this is not including the new habits we have of reading the different types of content now available on social media.

Social media platforms have specific atmospheres about them:

Facebook is full of networking games
LinkedIn has a business feel to most of the conversations
Twitter folk do not like sales pitches

Have you noticed the variety in content styles between each of these social media platforms?

And looking at this from the other side, from the readers point of view, there are even subgroups of further differences in how people like to consume content. When you add cultural preferences into these different ways of consuming content, things can get complicated.

Below we are going to look at the different types of content from two different angles:

Personal consumption preferences
The broader audiences you want to reach

And finally we’ll see how complex content creation can become when international audiences also listen in to what you share with the people next door to you.

3 Different Personal Preferences For Content Consumption

Here are 3 different reasons why you need different types of content in your online marketing.

1 – Connecting With People With Different Time Constraints

Let’s face it, some of us always busy for certain information. Some of us will always take the time to read certain types of information.

Who do you want to reach? What are they like? How much time do they want to spend reading your stuff?

2 – Grabbing People’s Attention With The Right Information

Sometimes the same information delivered with a slightly different point of view is all it takes to grab people’s attention.

Do you know how your readers prefer to get the information you want to share with them?

3 – Engaging With People Who Consume Your Content In Different Environments

It is easy to understand how sound should be avoided in some environments. If many of your readers use phone applications to visit your site, they will not appreciate anything slow to load. The same people who connect with you during their business hours for a certain type of content, may also like to connect with you first thing in the morning with another type of content.

Do you know where your readers prefer reading your content?

3 Different Audiences For Your Content

But you cannot only look at the personal preferences in how people want to consume your content. There are also the different ways you can target your audiences where you need different content. The next 3 points look at different factors you can use when creating your content.

4 – Bringing People To Take The Next Step Most Appropriate For Them

We all write content for a reason. What do you want your reader to do after reading your content? Different readers will be willing to take steps of various sizes.

Do you have content with the most appropriate obvous next step for your audience?

5 – Appealing To People From Different Cultures

You need different content to engage effectively with different cultures. Even when these cultures speak the same language, you will get a better response from your audience, if you use the right vocabulary and hit the emotional buttons that appeal to the specific culture you want to connect with.

Does your content speak to your audience? Can your audience easily identify themselves with what you say?

6 – Avoid Excluding International Audiences

The web is a global one and different cultures have different communication styles. What is polite and friendly in one culture, can have the opposite effect in another. What can seem insignificant in one culture can have a big impact on your communication with another cultures. This is easy to understand. But when you look closely at the content you publish online, who is it for? It is great to write for a specific audience, that’s what we should do. The question is whether there are any small things we can do to facilitate reading by international audiences.

Do you put international readers off without realizing it? Does this bother you?

Complex Global Audiences

The last thing to remember is the complexity of today’s audiences.

7 – Managing Mixed Audiences

Situations can become complex: you may have international readers who use phone applications to read your online content while your reader next door wants to take read the same content slowly with his morning coffee.

What do you do? Is there a way to publish content strategically on different social media platforms?

Getting Your Content Right

Consumption preferences for different market segments will differ for each social media platform. This is why you need to:

Adopt one social media content plan at a time
Engage with your readers to tweak it and find their preferences

You only know how to write web content when you know what, where, when and and how your reader wants to read it. But the list of different online content above shows us the two trends we also have to be aware of:

The changes in how different people deal with the amount of information they have to process
The variety of the different types of content businesses need to publish online

What about you? What do you think about your online content needs?

What are your business goals for the content you publish online?
What does your audience want to read from you online?
What different kinds of content do you need to publish online to reach international audiences?

Content Marketing To Reach International Markets

Cindy King — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:00:16 +0000

Social Media In International Web Marketing

In a recent post I explained why “link exchanges” do not entice me as a blogger, and how I use proactive link sharing to develop strong international social networks to get international clients for my business.

But what if you need to get better results in Google searches?

Let me tell you what I did. Now, I have to warn you, I am going to talk about something most people online want to avoid at all costs…

…Work

But you either do it, or you spend lots of effort trying to avoid it without any long lasting results.

The Content

Remember, the internet is based on content. Yes, even for international markets. What matters?

Quantity of content
The subject
Quality of your content
Diversity of content
Where you put your content

Google is getting better and better at figuring out the real people results:

How popular your content is with real people
It’s value to real people
And who is trying to cheat to get better Google results

Google looks at your content.

The Google algorithm is used in most countries to decipher your content. The majority of the different search engines out there use algorithms based on content.

Content For Results

You need to have content to come up in search engine results, and this is the same no matter where you want to get good search engine results. The more content you have the better it is to be seen.

Of course, things are not simple and links are also important. Those algorithms are complex. But people do not like to work and this is how certain practices became popular:

Excessive link exchanges
Article spinning software

The question is: Do you want to do real work? Or do you want to hire cheap labor to send out hundreds of emails requesting link exchanges? And the problem with cheap labor is that it does not have the business insights you have to create content that connects with your markets. Constantly adapting strategic content to new markets will get you international visibility. I just do not think this is something you cannot outsource. Even if your outsourcing partner provides content at 80% of the quality you could create, you are still leaving a window open to competition.

How I Got Front Page Results On Google

There is a sure way to get great Google results…. lots of good content online. But this takes time and this is why you need to get started and keep it up over time.

Last year I wrote 2 articles a day, every day.

365 days x 2 = 730 articles.
All related to cross-cultural competence and international business.

But that was not the only thing I did. I also submitted the articles to at least 1 article directory. During that year, I tested and compared the different article directories to find out what worked. I even tries a software to submit to multiple article directories. The trouble was that it took a long time to set up and most of the article directories disappeared after a short while or did not bring in traffic. Now I only really use the leading article directory, EzineArticles.

That is called “Article Marketing”. It takes work. Try it. You have to learn how to stay at it for the long haul.

The hard part is that you may not see any results the first 3 months. It might take 6 months for traffic show up, but the results do come in. And the results stick around just like your articles… until someone else comes in with more content on your subject.

My blog comes up on the first page of Google for many of the topics around my core subject. I don’t need to chase after Google results as I see some people do. And I don’t need to get into link exchanges.

Article Marketing For International Visibility

Do you remember that I live in France and target English-speaking countries?

Article marketing also works for international markets. It is extremely easy to do if you are like me: based in a non-English speaking country targeting an English speaking market.

Now if you are saying that I had it easy because you are based in an English speaking country and article marketing would be more difficult for you because you want to come up on the first page of Google in a foreign language… well, you might be wrong.

There are many more pages in English than in many other language.

More pages = more noise = more content needed to be heard

It is very easy to get visibility in certain foreign markets simply by publishing content in the foreign language and on your subject. The search engines can then do their job. Remember volume counts. And you need less volume to sift to the top in many foreign countries simply because there is less volume of content in the foreign language online than in English.

Yes, you will need to produce content in a foreign language… but think of creating foreign content in consistent small steps over time. This is a great way to approach international business development.

I can imagine some companies tweeting, in French for example, and linking back to an international website in parallel with building strategic foreign language content for online visibility. Of course, success would depend on what you sell and who your market is.

By the way, if you are interested in a French content creation, email me, I know a native French speaker who offers this service, is good and is at a competitive price range here.

Of course, foreign language content is not a miracle solution to open new foreign markets. There are other deeper questions about international marketing and adjusting marketing strategies to different cultures. Nevertheless, foreign language content can be a stepping stone approach to get to know more about a specific foreign market.

Blogs, Twitter, Posterous and other content-based social media platforms popular in other countries can be used strategically to develop foreign market feedback and foreign business intelligence.

Why People Avoid Article Marketing

Maybe article marketing is considered an “old” web marketing tactic. The truth is that very few people are willing to do the work involved.

First, people try to take short cuts with the content creation:

Article writing is outsourced – you need to think of your value proposition when you write your articles to get good business results. You need more than good content. You need good content that does something for your business.
Too few articles do not get first page Google results – you need to go into article writing for the long run. Everyone I have spoken with who has done it, says the same thing: you do not see results for months, but over time it is extremely powerful.

Then, there is the justifiable apprehension of entering unknown foreign markets.

It is always best to take things slowly when entering a new foreign market. This is where strategic foreign content creation offers a great opportunity.

Article marketing is just one aspect of content marketing. The same content that helps Google to find you online.

Culture-Customized Content Combined With Article Marketing And Social Media

It is possible to use culture-customized content within an international social media marketing strategy… and to take a new foreign market entry in multiple steps.

Culture-customized content makes it possible to connect with foreign markets
Social media helps you to connect across the distance and get the feedback you need to move forward

Culture-customized content can give you the time to create relationships and connect with people in a new markets to learn how to adapt your sales and marketing for new clients.

For businesses this is a good beginning for international social networking.

What do you think? Please leave your thoughts and comments below.

Have you ever adapted your content to reach for international markets?
Would you invest small consistent steps over time to open new foreign markets?
How do you adapt your content to connect with your international clients on their social media platforms?

What Are Your Words Saying To Your International Market?

Cindy King — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:00:35 +0000

International Content Creation

I recently critiqued a blog to give advice on how to improve readership. One of the first things that jumped out at me was that the content did not match the blog title and tag line.

Without checking the blog statistics, it is reasonable to assume that the blog readers do not stick around very long. There were just too many words on different topics.

This quick look at the words that jumped off the blog reminded me of something else…

A Graphic Keyword Tool

There is a fun tool called Wordle. Here is the Wordle of this blog:

I find the Wordle pictures very useful. It is easy to compare the words on your Wordle with your SEO keywords

…and your core business categories.

…and even more importantly, with the keywords your readers use to find you.

A mind mapping evangelist I spoke with recently, said that more that 75% of us have stronger visual memories than any of the other forms.

These words in a picture can highlight the words we need to use more.

International Keywords

It is not always easy to identify:

The keywords your international readers use
The words on your blog or website that grab his interest

International readers probably respond to different words.

It is important to think about this because finding the words that capture the attention of your international readers can help you improve your international communication.

Observation To Find The Right Words

How can you find the best words to use to grab your international readers’ attention?

This usually involves researching the online places where your international readers hang out and observing how they respond there.

The more contact you have with your international readers the better you get to know them…

…and the more familiar you become with their vocabulary.

Cross Checking Both Sets Of Words

As an international marketer, it is important to cross-check the words you hear and see your international readers using with the words you use on your blog or website.

Yes, you can do this with SEO tools. But you may not need to do as much analysis with these tools as you think, especially if :

You are already connecting with the international readers you are targeting
You already have a large amount of content targeting this audience

The problem is that the last time I looked into international SEO, this was a time consuming activity and not always as accurate as businesses want it to be.

Soft Skills And Visual Tools

Knowledge of your international clients is your best tool. And your soft skills on how you use this knowledge can get you good online results.

Visual keyword tools can give you fairly accurate feedback on how you are doing. These tools can be fun tools like Wordle. And they can also include an intelligent content analysis of your what you have online.

If you would like to have your blog critiqued for an international audience, email me at cindy@cindyking.biz

A Different English For Your International Audience

Cindy King — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:00:21 +0000

Culturally Customized Content

There was an interesting article published last Friday on the BBC News: New lingua franca upsets French

It is the end of this article that I find most interesting.

International business professionals are finding themselves confronted with a new breed of English language.

Non-native English speakers have a distinct way of speaking English.
And the native English speakers are having a hard time understanding this new form of their own language.

Some people call this new form of English “Globish”. I have used “International English” to describe it here. I have also heard the term “Global English”.

This Globish or International English is picked up by non-native English business professionals who need to communicate effectively in English. They need to have results and they also need to limit cross-cultural communication blunders and barriers.

Here are some particularities of this new form of the English language:

Less Vocabulary

Vocabulary is drastically reduced. In this article, it states that Globish only has 1,500 words.

Non-native English business professionals use their words wisely. They get straight to the point. They use the minimum amount of words to make their point clearly.

Less Fun

Certain things are avoided:

Humor
Metaphors
All abbreviations

These are major pitfalls in cross-cultural communication.

Lack Of Personality

Native English speakers often feel that Globish leads to a lack of warmth or personality in the English language.

And in many ways this is true.

National metaphors add life to communication. So does humor. And abbreviations mean that you can get onto the more interesting part of your discussion faster.

But Globish speakers avoid them like the plague because they can easily create confusion, misunderstandings and this simply slows down communication. You often only pick up the confusion or misunderstanding much further down the road.

Reasons To Use Globish

But this stark way of communicating also has a distinct advantage:

You communicate more effectively to a broader audience

There is also another advantage:

Globish or International English is very clear.

This is why such a wide audience can quickly understand what is being said.

Clarity and consistency are key elements for good web content.

Globish speakers are also very good at identifying possible areas that can lead to cross-cultural confusion. They know when it is best to give more details or ask for confirmation of understanding.

People with good Global English or International English skills are good communicators.

Yes, some of the non-native English speakers may still make grammar mistakes. But do not underestimate their power of communication.

If you need to communicate across a wide international audience, which includes non-native English speakers, contact me to find out more about the International English copywriting services I offer.

When Do You Need Translations

Cindy King — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:00:01 +0000

Culturally Customized Content

When businesses embark on the creation of country specific websites, and culture specific content, they need to set a budget.

But…

The budget for translation often looms as vague and difficult to pin down. Almost as if you are trying to find something in thick fog.

And…

Because a translation budget is difficult to evaluate, businesses usually begin a whole series of questions…

Can we get away with English content?
Do we need to translate everything we have?
What sort of translation budget do we need?

So when will you need translation?

First, you need to look at what you will need translations for.

In-Depth Market Research

In previous articles, I have shared my view that you should use free translation tools to jump start international market research. This can help you a lot.

But…

There are times when you need more accuracy.

Many companies first use free translation tools for online market research and then follow up key research materials with a human translation. In complex situations a second human translation can sometimes be useful.

They use the free translation tools to identify key resources.
And then they follow up with human translations when necessary.

This depends largely on the business environment you are in.

Sales Communication

Yes, you must get all of your sales communications written by a human being.

I have put this after market research…

Because…

You need to have sufficient international business intelligence to get your sales message right.

Now, you may not have enough international business intelligence when you first start communicating with your international markets. And even if you think you do, you may get additional feedback from your new markets that you want to use in your communication.

So…

You creating foreign sales communication in different stages is often a good strategy.

The person most capable of writing your sales communication in a foreign language is a person who already writes sales communication in your target country.

You often need time to find this person. It is almost like searching for the “sheep with 5 legs” as they say here in France.

Give yourself time to find the right message and the right person to translate that message.

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you get your main communication translated, remember to provide a series of well thought out Frequently Asked Questions for your new future clients.

You may have many different languages to deal with, and you may wonder if this is worth the investment. Then simply test “before FAQ” results with “after FAQ” results to establish viability for one country.

Most businesses do get good results with FAQs in foreign languages.

Cultural differences also come into play here. These new clients probably need a few more answers than your domestic markets.

Culturally targeted Frequently Asked Questions are a great opportunity to connect with different cultures.

A Balancing Act

Planning budgets for future translation needs can be tricky.

You can dispel the fog if you keep the points above in mind.

Start early to look for the right person to translate your particular communication needs.
Evaluate your needs for in-depth research.
Do not jump into translating all of your current marketing and sales communication – your communication will probably change in 6-12 months.
Plan for some strategic culture-specific content.

Culture customized content builds stronger connections.

Here are a few more Translation Tools articles:
- Translation Friendly International English
- Translation Software – It Is Time To Question Old Truths
- Over The Counter Translation Perfection Not Here Yet
- Translation Agencies’ Narrow Vision
- Translate Server Error
- How To Use Online Translation Tools
- Translation Widgets – A Small Step Towards Website Globalization
- Online Translations Tools Write Bad Sales Copy

And read even more in the…
Get International Clients International Sales Road Map

Culture Customized Content Guide

• What is the secret to effective international business development?

Customize Your Content For Different Cultures

Cindy King — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:00:10 +0000

Internationalize Your English

International web marketing and online based international business development rely heavily on culture customized content to create effective lead generation funnels and get sales.

Very simply, if you want to communicate effectively with different cultures in different countries you need to adapt your communication and your content. This is how you can begin to build cross-cultural relationships through your online business.

Reaching Clients With Content

There are a few different names used to describe the same basic type of marketing:

Content Marketing
Educational Marketing
Information Marketing

How To Get The Content For Your Marketing

There is a trend in businesses outsourcing content creation. As Junta42 said recently, content outsourcing is getting the second largest marketing budget today.

This trend in outsourcing content creation is estimated to expand.

International Content Creation

The question is, how will businesses that outsource their content approach content for international audiences?

Will this international content be outsourced to:

Content creators, or
Translators, or
Culture-customizers?

Choice Of Communication

First lets, look at another question. The choice of customizing your content to foreign markets.

I am often surprised by marketing managers who take the easy road of using a translation service.

Most of the large American companies I have dealt with will have their communication go through their American corporate communication or public relations Vice President and then translated.

This translation might be forwarded to the marketing manager based in the foreign country for input as a courtesy measure. Unfortunately I have yet to hear of any recommended changes being implemented.

This results in very little communication being culturally customized to the local culture.

Large companies have a very difficult issue with their corporate branding. This leaves their foreign marketing departments more work to catch up.

Loss For Some, Opportunity For Others

It is also a wonderful opportunity for the smaller, or more flexible businesses, to create more effective communication in foreign markets.

Culture-customized content will always resonate more than content created for your own domestic market.

Different cultures respond to different things. The communication you need to get the most out of one specific market will be different to the communication you need in another one.

Yes, it takes more effort to get the culture-customized content. It also takes more expertise and experience in your foreign markets.

But it will bring in more sales and will give your company a stronger presence in that culture.

How To Customize Your Content For Different Cultures

Now let’s go back to my question about how businesses will outsource the content they need for international markets.

There are two problems:

Marketing managers in one country find working with a translation company easy to do.
Most translation companies say they have translators with specific industry knowledge.

I have been one of those marketing executives.

Always get a mother-tongue speaker of the language you need. If your translator speaks the language you need as a second language and it is for communication with your clients… well you have just given your competitors a nice present.

I’ve hunted down the good translation agencies, bought the translations and had to work with the results.

Now, I have worked with a few large multinational companies with in-house staff capable of writing the documents needed in the foreign language. But time is a big factor when it comes to translations.

There is something I noticed. Translated documents were rarely as good as when they were done in-house with the right person.

Inside experience and expertise count enormously when creating culturally customized content.

Get Rid Of The Risk

After about 10 years in international business I decided on another tactic. My language skills will good enough for me to see the difference in marketing and cross-cultural communication needs and the best work any translation service could offer me.

My new tactic required prior planning in the beginning and some creative thinking. Afterwards I learned to keep my eyes open. I also began to know exactly what I wanted from a business and marketing point of view.

Whenever I need a document in another language, I look for the perfect person to do the job. I pre-select the person I want to work with.

We have to have the same business outlook.
The person has to have excellent writing skills.
The writing style in the foreign language has to be right for the job.
The person has to understand the objectives.
The person must be able to communicate these objectives into the other language.

I often now turn to a professional friend or colleague. I also have my favorites.

Just because you

Speak the language does not mean you will write what the market needs.
Work in the same industry does not mean you will know how to communicate what the market needs.
Have the right qualification does not mean you will get the communication right.

You might think I’m fussy with translations. No it’s not fussy.

It’s a question of eliminating risk. I do not like risks.

A marketer wants his campaigns to be successful. In my past experience, I have often eliminated at least 30-40% of the international marketing risk by having content written by the right person.

Eliminate a very large percentage of your risk.

Find the right person to create your culturally-customized content.

Need International English content? Drop me an email.

International Content As An International Business Development Strategy

Cindy King — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:00:12 +0000

International Content Creation

Many small businesses would like to develop their business internationally. But they always seem to put it off. The reasons for putting off international business development are varied and multiple.

All businesses have had to adjust to many different marketing channels. But are they using the different marketing channels effectively for their businesses? This is the challenge businesses of all kinds face today.

I am currently reading Akin Arikan’s book, Multichannel Marketing. Akin says there are very few businesses currently using the different channels available to them effectively.

When small businesses are still grappling with effective multichannel marketing for their domestic markets, it’s no wonder international marketing today appears to be confusing.

That’s when a simple marketing strategy works best.

Are you a small business?
Do you want to develop your international business?
Do you lack money to invest and manpower?
Do you have some time you can commit to an international marketing strategy on a very regular basis?

The simple marketing strategy that will bring your business into the international business development arena?

An International Content Creation Strategy

I will answer your questions about what type of international content tomorrow.

Writing Content For An International Audience

Today I want to tell you why I think an international content creation strategy is such a good idea for small businesses.

I just finished reading Chris Garret’s blog post on Flagship Content To Make Sales where Chris mentions my work on Get International Clients.

I have to admit, I read Chris’ free ebook Killer Flagship Content shortly after it first came out. This book greatly inspired my writing strategy when I launched my two blogs at the beginning of this year.

Let me be clear here. At the time I did not know just how easy it is to get online visibility with Flagship Content, and how this content could bring in international sales. The book just made good marketing sense to me.

Flagship Content is great content. Content your readers want to read, re-read and pass along to friends. It is also evergreen, which means it can interest your readers just as much years down the road.

Once I started creating my own Flagship Content, I discovered the key reason why small businesses should invest time in creating flagship content regularly on one subject and written to a defined audience.

If you also put your Flagship content in an article marketing strategy, the natural keywords in your articles will put you on the first page of Google fairly quickly. This means that if you write using the words your readers will put into their search fields on Google, it is very easy to come up in top positions on your readers Google search results page.

International Content = International Online Visibility

The key is to create your content for an international audience. If your content is targeted to the right audience it will get their interest.

The Google search engine results will get you visibility in just about the whole world.

Most of the native foreign language search engines use the Google algorithms for their searches.
Google has made great improvements in dealing with languages.

If you do implement an International Content Creation strategy, there are still a few things you should do to optimize your international visibility. I go through these in the Get International Clients Business G uide 2 – Plan Your International Sales Road Map.

What is essential to remember is that your International Flagship Content, in English, will get you international visibility.

If you target your content to international audiences.
You need to write for your international audiences and use the language they use.

My Blogs Results In Google

I started writing an article 5 times a week. Trying to make these articles strong Flagship Content, not always succeeding.

I did not pay attention to my keyword use in the articles. I was so busy concentrating on simply getting the articles written and promoted online. I simply tried to cover all the aspects around my main subject area. I also wrote to a defined audience.

After about 3 months I was top of Google searches for all the keywords I wanted.

Now I want to target the keywords I thought would be difficult.

The top results in Google searches started bringing in a steady flow of customer inquiries directly to my email inbox at about the 4 month mark. These inquiries have been coming in steadily ever since. The inquiries come in from all over the world. I also get spontaneously calls on Skype since I put that link up.

And…drum roll… do you want to know the great news?

Inquiries always come from my ideal customer profile.

International Content In Your Business Strategy

An International Flagship Content strategy is a great way for a new website to get visibility at no cost in a relatively short time.

I complicated things for myself by insisting on having a personal blog, here at Cindy King.biz and a business blog, Get International Clients.

Sorting out my two blogs has highlighted the importance of a good content creation strategy integrated into a solid business strategy.

Getting your business act together online is not as simple as it seems. Solid international business and marketing basics will help you develop your international success. If you would like to follow an step-by-step process for international business development check out the Get International Clients Business Guides and their International Sales Road Map.

More in these Get International Clients Business Guides:

Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

International Content As An International Business Development Strategy

Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content

Cindy King — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:00:21 +0000

Culturally Customized Content

Good web content is written for a particular reader. Great web content is written with a precise outline of the reader’s frame of mind at a given point of time.

Your reader comes online looking for specific information. Great web content answers all of the reader’s questions at a give point of time.

Your reader’s profile depends on many things. The type of question he needs to have answered depends on various factors. The type of answer he wants also depends on various factors.

One of these factors is his culture.

Specific Demands On Web Content

There is also another key aspect to foreign language web content. Let’s compare it to printed content.

Printed materials are used differently than web content. Printed materials are distributed in a different context to web content. You can easily see and understand these contexts. Cross cultural communication needs are visible.

Web content is slightly different to your printed content.

Why? This is not about SEO yet. It is about the step prior to any SEO.

It is about marketing and communication. It’s about knowing how to speak to the particular person who is reading your web page, knowing what he really needs to hear.

Online readers come online with a purpose. They also come from all sorts of different places.

Good web content needs to communicate well with online readers. It also needs to help readers get the information they are looking for quickly no matter where they come from.

All of your online readers are hunting for information. They just might be hunting with a different set of questions, a different set of expectations to the answers they want.

Great web content adapted across different cultures needs to be adapted to answer the right questions. These questions can change slightly in different cultures.

People in different cultures may be more concerned about different things or slightly different aspects. Cultural differences come into play with regards to politeness and various influences in perception.

Culture Customized Content

How will you create web content for your foreign readers?
Does culture affect the differences in answers are your readers looking for?

Great foreign language web content is much more than translation. It is also about cross cultural marketing.

When your readers come from a different country, the chances are high that your web content needs to be adapted to that particular culture.

If you need online content written in a foreign language, you probably need more than a translator. You will need a web content writer.

You need to find someone who does this for a living in the country you are targeting, in the language you are targeting. Find the right person to work with you to create the right culture customized content to develop your business internationally.

If you are currently using an English language website to target international audiences worldwide, prior to moving towards localized websites, and need cultural customized International English content, contact me here.

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Who Should You Get To Write Your Foreign Language Web Content

Cindy King's International Business Blog » culture customized content

7 Reasons For Different Online Content

Multiple New Habits In Consuming Content

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2 – Grabbing People’s Attention With The Right Information

3 – Engaging With People Who Consume Your Content In Different Environments

3 Different Audiences For Your Content

4 – Bringing People To Take The Next Step Most Appropriate For Them

5 – Appealing To People From Different Cultures

6 – Avoid Excluding International Audiences

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