Cindy King's International Business Blog » website internationalization

A Glossary For International Websites

Cindy King — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:00:41 +0000

One easy way to make your website easier for foreign readers is to offer a glossary.

A good glossary takes some time and effort. You need to make sure your glossary is as clear and concise as possible. You want to make your glossary easy to understand for all of your foreign visitors with a basic level of English.

What To Include In Your Glossary

Of course, the glossary’s function is to explain terms that your audience is not familiar with.

A glossary can be helpful within a company:

For new employees

Different departments within a company

Different workers on the same project

And this becomes crucial in a multinational company, with employees from different cultural backgrounds.

However, a glossary takes on additional functions for an international audience.

The key is to find out what your international audience may not be familiar with. You should also pay attention to processes that are different and where confusion may crop up.

Your international readers may also have questions that you may not be able to think of on your own. This is why it is a good idea to review your glossary with all of the questions you get from your foreign clients.

Even apparently simple terms can have slightly different cultural meanings in English. You never know which definition your non-native English speakers are familiar with. A simple explanation may be helpful.

A glossary can be extremely important for your international readers.

Many companies underestimate its value. When you are familiar with something, it is sometimes easy to forget how others may appreciate a little extra clarification.

How To Deliver Your Glossary

There are several ways you can publish your glossary.

Hard copy
Online help
Document to download
Web page

How you decide to deliver your glossary depends on the type of document and your industry.

Where you publish your glossary also depends on where it is most effective. Remember, a glossary builds clarity.

It is always best to deliver your glossary where and when your foreign readers will look for it and appreciate it most.

A Published Glossary

Most people think of the glossary you publish with your communication materials. This is its most common use.

A well thought out glossary can:

Dispel confusion
Be informative
Lead your readers to understand your message
Have a strong marketing appeal
Increase your credibility
Provide online link bait

A Translation Glossary

If you anticipate translations, you should also look at an additional role for your glossary. In today’s world of website localizations a translation glossary is a necessity.

Online companies are currently increasing the number of languages offered. Even if you do not anticipate translations in the foreseeable future, this might become part of your projects.

A translation glossary covers more words and terms. They are not published. They are only used by translators.

Translation glossaries ensure that you get accurate and consistent translations in multiple languages.

Important to note: Translation glossaries are very helpful to translators if you have them before website localization starts.

Do You Need A Glossary?

Most companies that actively sell to international clients will benefit for a glossary of some form.

You need to determine the format and where to deliver it for your best marketing value. And this will depend on:

Your website – domestic, international, country specific
Your industry jargon
Differences in your industry and foreign industry equivalents
Your international audience

Remember, to write a good glossary you need to work on it. It is not always as simple as copying something from a dictionary or Wikipedia. You also need to make it applicable to your business and your communication.

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Website Internationalization

How To Get Your Communication Platform Ready For International Marketing

Cindy King — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:00:01 +0000

Website Internationalization

Are just starting to aim for more international clients?

Have you already decided on:

one product to sell abroad?
one country to target?

If you have clear answers to both questions it’s obvious you are already on your way.

If you do not have clear answers to these questions, don’t let this slow down your momentum. Some international web marketing can get you the answers you need to answer both of these questions.

But wait…

Your International Communication Platform

Before you start an international web marketing campaign let’s look at the communication platform you will be using. Your international communication platform is your website. You need to stop and evaluate your website.

Is your current website international-friendly?

You see, your website was created for your current domestic audience. There is a high probability it will create some negative automatic reactions in your international visitors.

You have three options:

Internationalize your current website a little
Internationalize your current website a lot
Create a separate international website

Internationalize Your Current Website A Little

The basic steps to internationalizing your website will also make your website more appealing to your current audience. It simply applies the best web marketing practices there are out there.

You should choose this option if

your current website is culturally specific.

If you want to use this option and still get good international market feedback, you will need to incorporate a some international integrated marketing. You will need more tools to generate feedback outside of your website.

Internationalize Your Website A Lot

This goes beyond your basic steps to internationalize your website and makes adjustments to stimulate more international feedback.

Your should chose this option if:

these culturally specific feedback tools do not influence your current marketing to your domestic market in a negative way

The extra web tools to stimulate international market feedback will help you learn more about your international potential. You will still need some integrated marketing to optimize results.

Create A Separate International Website

This option is often obvious for companies with a non-English website.

Companies with an English language website need to take the time to analyze the benefits of having a separate website for a broad international audience.

An international website will not keep you from needing localized websites as soon as you get serious about developing your business in specific countries.

You may feel tempted to skip over it and jump directly to localized websites. And yet an international website can help you with managing your international business expansion. It is all a question of:

how fast you will expand internationally
how active your are in international marketing
how targeted your international marketing is
how fast your international markets will react to your offer

A separate international website is the logical place to start to create a global website. You only need a global website after you have a few localized websites.

Find The Best Platform

The important thing to remember is your website is just the platform. You will need to create targeted communication for our international markets. Either to a broad international audience, or to country specific audiences.

Your communication current methods will also help you decide whether to subtly renovate your current website, or to create stronger communication platforms.

Remember the primary aim should be to cultivate as much foreign feedback as you can. When you first start out you need to find out as much as you can about your international markets.

Adequate feedback will tell you what to sell and where to sell it to. A good feedback system will also help you during the process of adapting your chosen product to your targeted country.

Create the right environment for dialog right from the start.

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How To Internationalize Your Website

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Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

How To Get Your Communication Platform Ready For International Marketing

Why I Am Creating An Information Product On Website Internationalization

Cindy King — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:00:24 +0000

How To Internationalize Your Website

I have just been reviewing and updating all of my articles on Website Internationalization on Get International Clients.

Get International Clients is a business directory. I use this website as both:

A live portfolio of the services I offer. An example of how I can help companies create a series of information products from a website or blog content, and specifically for efficient culturally customized content re-purposing.
A source for my own information products upstream.

Companies interested in using the internet to develop their international markets need to create content that is culturally customized to each country they are targeting.

This can work.

You can get international leads for your business using internet marketing techniques.

The key is getting the right “content” to communicate with each of your foreign markets. And that can get expensive.

This is where you need two things:

You must be able to re-purpose your culturally customized content. You need to get good exposure and good mileage out of foreign content created for international business development.
You also need to combine both internet and traditional marketing methods to get real international expansion as soon as you are able to.

After 5 months of adding one article every week day on to Get International Clients I’m now ready to start producing information products of my own. It is very easy now. Simply because I have written several articles on the same subject.

My first information product will be the “traditional” e-book. And I’ve chosen to start with a freebie e-book on the first steps in Website Internationalization. It will describe actions to implement on all websites to make them communicate better across all cultures.

Why did I choose this subject?

Simply because this is an easy one to start with and there is a logical follow up information product just as easy to create.

The follow-up information product will probably be another e-book combined with an e-course on the tools to use to adapt your website to different cultures. This time I will expand on content in the weekly Get International Clients Newsletter to provide some more fun information on cross cultural web communication.

Let’s get back to companies needing an efficient use of all of their culturally customized content.

The idea is to create a steady flow of culturally customized content for each foreign country you are targeting, and to re-use the same content you already have in different ways your audience appreciates.

You can also start by creating content for a broad international market like I do at Get International Clients. And am I glad I started with a broad international target audience. I found different markets I had never suspected.

But you cannot stay with a broad international audience. You need to go deeper. You need to target individual countries and adapt your communication for each specific culture. This is how you will truly develop your business internationally.

And this is why creating a good strategy for creating foreign content is important.

It is important to:

Give your information in formats your audience will want to use.
Communicate regularly and in a variety of different formats.
Re-purpose as much as you can to keep costs down.
Create information products to bring credibility and create trust in your business

Information products are easy to create through re-purposing.

So this first e-book on Website Internationalization will start a regular program of delivering free e-books on Get International Clients. I just have not decided on a schedule. One free e-book a month sounds reasonable right now, but I will need to review this later on.

In addition to e-books there are a great many other types of information products. The next on my schedule are

a free e-course on copywriting in French
a free e-course on article marketing in French
a regular series of online marketing videos
a white paper

Thanks to 5 months of article writing, I already have all of this material. It is simply a question of re-packaging it and updating it a little bit more.

Get International Clients will then truly become a live portfolio of the services I offer to help businesses target international sales through international internet marketing.

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Website Internationalization

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Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

Why I Am Creating An Information Product On Website Internationalization

Buying Logos For International Websites

Cindy King — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:08:21 +0000

How To Internationalize Your Website

I just bought logos for 4 of my other websites. Well, 3 of the websites actually run on WordPress, so they are blogs and the fourth website is an article directory.

It was interesting to shop for logos for blogs with an international audience in mind. My company has a tight marketing budget this first year. There are many websites to create for it. So a professional website designer was out of the question… for now.

But business is expanding and I needed something a little more “design”. On top of that, I live in France. A country with an inbred culturally correct ethic.

So here comes the search for logos.

First I need to identify what I need them for.

My websites target international audiences, and they have different audiences.

Customized Content Website In English For All International Audiences

My customized content website, Get International Clients, has a totally international audience, with no predominance anywhere specific. But I’m North American. Get International Clients needed a logo to reflect that.

Mini-Sales Site In French For French Businesses

I have a new website in French for French clients… but offering Customized English Content services. So I wanted a totally different logo for that activity.

This website will be launched soon… maybe this weekend. I try to only write in French on Saturdays. Going back and forth between the languages slows writing speed down a lot.

French Article Directory For A Much Wider Audience Worldwide

I’ll also be launching an Article Directory website soon, in French, and need a logo to advertise with. The audience here will be wider than the mini-sales website. And I hope it will cover all French speaking audiences worldwide.

Main Company Website In English

I do not have any immediate plans on launching this website… I want to find the right web designer.

But I wanted the logo designers to create this at the same time as the other logos to give me a logo to work with the others. And I’ll use it on printed materials offline.

Finding Logos

Budget constraints led me to eliminate by price. There are a few options in the United States. And the Euro buys me more dollars now.

But with the different variety of audiences, I wanted someone to work with me to find culturally targeted logos.

Luckily I’ve been doing some article marketing through a recent article directory called Qassia. And Qassia wrote they were very happy when they got their logo from 19 Dollar Logos.

A little research, and first surprise: 19 Dollar Logos is based in Serbia. They must be used to international audiences.

Second surprise: their prices do not automatically convert to Euros using their own exchange rate. I can still pay in dollars and benefit from the low exchange rate.

So on we proceed.

The service experience was something I have not experienced in a long time. They turned around the 4 logos in under a week. They gave me a wide variety of choices to choose from. They made all of the changes I asked to see before deciding what I wanted. Sure I was often able to respond quickly, but so did they.

They probably gave me more than their standard service package. They were eager to work with me to find the best solution I could have for the price. It was obvious they are used to working with varied international clients for different international audiences.

I’ve lived in France too long. I can’t remember that sort of service any more.

The price was great. The service was great. The logos are great.

The new logo for Get International Clients is up. And you’ll see the others as soon as the websites are launched.

Businesses use internet marketing to develop internationally because so much of it is free, or very inexpensive. Sure, there are things we need to spend money on. But it’s nice to have the option of getting good cheap logos for our international business development.

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Website Internationalization

How Do Your Foreign Prospects Use Their Search Engines

Cindy King — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:39:39 +0000

International Market Research

That’s a great question. And one you should be aware of if your business has foreign online prospects.

The answer is not always easy to find.

If you are a small business targeting international clients actively, you should take this into account when analyzing your web analytics and testing for better conversion.

Different countries have search engines that look and feel different to the user. This is due to cultural differences.

In some countries relying on queries for leads just will not work. The reason can be a mixture of different buying habits, language structures or simply different cultural online preferences.

Sometimes paid and sponsored links will get you traffic where search engine queries fail.

How can you find out what the best internet marketing practices are in your target country? Asking the appropriate professionals in the foreign country is the best route.

These may be internet marketers or successful businesses in your field. If you are doing foreign market research and networking within your target country, remember to add this question to your list of questions.

Internet marketing can keep your international business development costs down and help you get international clients faster…if you actually do some good internet marketing.

An Easy To Read Website For Your International Visitors First Impression

Cindy King — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:39:51 +0000

Website Internationalization

Creating a localized website will be a lot easier if your website is already easy for your international visitors to read. Ensuring your website is easy to read for foreign visitors to your website is an important step in internationalizing your website.

So how can you do make your website easy to read for your international visitors?

Most of the reasons why national websites fail to communicate with their international visitors are directly related to not implementing all of the standard best practices in creating a good website.

You have probably heard of most of these guidelines when creating your company website for your original market. But did you really apply them as best you could? Simply failing to implement a few of these will turn your international clients away and leave them with a bad impression of your company.

Remember for non-native English speakers something else happens before they begin to read your website. Their brain will recognize whether the website is in English or not and decide if they are capable or willing to read English at that time. This can take a few seconds before they actually begin to read your website.

Your foreign readers may be tired, may not feel like switching to a foreign language at that time. If their brain captures anything at that time that they perceive as an extra effort on their part, they will move on. This is when it is critical to have an easy to read website for your foreign business development.

Here are some questions to review your website with for that first impression:

Is Each Web Page Easy On The Eye To Read?

The majority of internet users today are non-native English speakers. English could be their second, third or even fourth language. Even if their language skills are sufficient to understand your website, they will probably need to concentrate more than you to read it. Make it easy for them. Provide them with:
* Titles and subtitles
* Headings and subheadings
* Short paragraphs
* Short sentences

Titles, Subtitles, Headings and Subheads

These add greatly to the readers’ ability to understand your web pages quickly and easily. Remember to ask yourself how your international reader got to your web page.

What could your international visitor possibly want to ask you at each specific point in time on each web page? Use your titles, subtitles, headings and subheads as often as you can to communicate effectively to answer those questions.

Write titles and headings that:
* Mean something to your reader
* Give clear and easy explanations
* Tell your story as they scan through and get it
* Features and benefits work well

Short Sentences and Short Paragraphs

Short paragraphs will make your pages easier to read. Foreign readers are put off even faster by long paragraphs appearing to be difficult to read.

If your paragraph is more than 4 or five lines long, look for ways to make it shorter. Can a part of your paragraph be put into a list format? Cut out unnecessary words. Break it into different paragraphs. A one sentence paragraph is acceptable online.

Keep your sentences short. In each of your sentences, keep the subject, verb and object close together in each sentence. If you need to indicate additional information, find this information a place of its own.
* Use a new sentence.
* Put it under a separate heading.
* Can it be put in a list format?

Are You Saying Anything That Could Be Misleading?

International readers may easily be confused online.
After this their first questions will probably include:
Is this website in my language?
What does this company do?
Where is this company located?
What are they saying?

Keep these questions in mind when you write your website. Continue to ask yourself what any of your visitors could be asking themselves and keep your international visitors in mind.

Consistent vocabulary.

Here are two examples to avoid:

Referring to one object as both a “Gadget” and a “Widget”. Or using one industry’s vocabulary in another industry where another word is used. This mistake can have disastrous effects if translated.

If you are offering one free report and calling it both a “Guide” and a “Report” in different places in your website, your international readers might have a harder time figuring out that you only have one free report to give away. This could make them feel frustrated and generate negative feelings when they can’t find the second “report”.

Are You Communicating Clearly To People?

Are you presenting your story clearly, putting everything into a context that is simple to follow? Make your story so simple to follow anyone would be able to understand it even if they haven’t slept for a day or two.

Put first things first and follow through. Second things go second. If you feel you cannot do this easily, look for a way to tell your story differently. Can you use visuals or lists.
Turn a process into
* A number of different steps,
* List them and number them and
* Put each step on a separate web page

Are You Talking To Your Visitors?

Talk To Your Visitors

Say “you” when talking to your reader. And it is also preferable to use “you” when not talking about a specific person instead of “he or “she”. Foreign visitors will understand this better.

Audio

If you have sound starting on your website automatically, ask yourself how this sound comes across in different cultures. Could it possible be annoying to anyone in any way? Some like it fast. Some like it slow.

Clear and Easy To Understand For Everyone

These are just a few elements to consider in creating websites. Implement them and implement them satisfactorily. Your foreign visitors may not necessarily find your website easy to read in English, but at least they will not be put off or confused.

If you do not internationalize your website, the negative effects on your international readers will be greater than on your national readers. Can you measure the cost of not communicating well with your international prospects and clients?

There has been a shift in internet user demographics with more non-native English language users today than in the past. Give your website a global reach with internationalized content.

If you follow these tips your web site will be friendlier for all of your international visitors.

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Copyright Cindy King 2006-2010 - International Business Blog

An Easy To Read Website For Your International Visitors First Impression

Is Your Website Sabotaging Your International Business Development?

Cindy King — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 12:15:08 +0000

Website Internationalization

Small businesses have their trials in reaching international markets.

With your new website up and the excitement of the local business it brings you, you may not realize the negative effects your website is having on international clients.

Business practices are different in different cultures. We are all used to doing things in a certain way. We all get used to doing business in a certain way and it is easy to think that everyone does things the same way. Putting your business online opens up your visibility. You will be visible to people with different business practices and expectations.

Here are a few frustrating experiences international prospects have when visiting online businesses in different countries:

No way to reach you

International visitors often need additional assurance that your company can be trusted. They may also need further clarification. Having a standard telephone number, not a toll free number, clearly placed on your website is critical.

Not fully understanding what you have to offer

Have a very clear, easy to understand statement of your business activity right up top on the front page. Give clear explanations of what it is you are selling, what comes with it and what doesn’t.

Being turned off by use of slang and national expressions

Use explanations everyone can understand instead. Foreigners might have a hard time figuring out exactly what you want them to do. There are cultural expressions that severely limit comprehension.

Using too many synonyms to say one thing

Use a consistent vocabulary throughout the website. Don’t start calling your “report” a “guide” elsewhere in the website. Your international readers can start hunting for two different things, get frustrated and leave. Again, clarity is what you need to aim for.

No idea where you are located

International visitors might be curious as to where you are located. Chances are that if they have landed on your web page they have an idea which country you are in. They might be curious and want to know where you are located. They might be nervous of buying something from you. Simply having your address will reassure your clients. So put your address someplace easy to see, not hidden and in small print.

An order form incompatible with foreign orders

Many orders get abandoned because the order form only processes country specific addresses. Check your order form out. Pay attention to any online orders. Do your international clients like using the credit card payment options? Do they like to use PayPal?

Audio sales pitches that don’t cross cultures

Make your audio links easy to turn off. Just in case your international clients find your great sales pitch seem like a frenzied crazy man’s electro culture shock.

Website animation that doesn’t cross cultures

Keep your web site’s upload times reasonable. Different countries have different infrastructures. And do all international markets really appreciate your artistic endeavors or is it a sure way to lose a sale?

Keep these things in mind. Listen to what your international clients are saying.. or not saying to you. And adapt your website so it doesn’t turn away too many international clients.

Once your website starts getting international client leads, your next step will be to be ready to greet anyone that comes your way.

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Is Your Website Sabotaging Your International Business Development?

Small Business International Development In Three Easy Steps – First Transition To A Global Market Internet Business

Cindy King — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:32:46 +0000

Website Internationalization

Some companies feel they have a global market e-commerce with an online presence. But are the international clients coming to your online store? And if they are, how did they find you?
Does your online website have a real presence in foreign countries?

Once you have a local or national business operating through a website, there are a few steps you can take to develop your market further abroad.
Targeting international markets still involves the same type of market analysis you needed for your current business. Often a bit more market analysis is needed to allow for the cultural adaptation of your products.

This market research is multiplied by the number of countries you would like to do business in.

Assess Your Communication

Then you must step back and look at your current means of communication. The website you have for your own local market. How would foreigners react to your website?
There are a few general questions to ask yourself:

Is your website clear and easy to understand?
Could an 8 year old easily understand what your company does?
Do you only provide an 800 number? Do foreigners know how to reach you? Put in your local land line telephone number. Give your full physical address.
Is your order form compatible for international addresses, or does it get stuck if you don’t put in an American State code? Make sure your order forms have enough lines for foreign addresses.
Do you use one specific word for things? – having two or three ways for saying one thing makes it harder for foreigners to follow you. Choose between “car” and “vehicle”. It is a good idea to create a glossary of company terms – you will greatly appreciate this later on.
Do you use specific cultural expressions or slang? Keep your communication easy to understand by everyone.
Does your website refer to specific national holidays? Is that something you should change?
Do you have any embedded words in your diagrams? Avoid them and it will make it easy for you to translate any images later on.

Making these changes should not take away the strength of your sales message to your local market. The good practices for an effective website in your local market are very similar. Taking those local good practices a little further will open your website up for international expansion.
Your communication will become clearer to your international clients.
Once you make these transitions to your current website you will be on your way to your next transition towards an international business: Localized Websites.

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Cindy King's International Business Blog » website internationalization

A Glossary For International Websites

What To Include In Your Glossary

How To Deliver Your Glossary

A Published Glossary

A Translation Glossary

Do You Need A Glossary?

More On How To Internationalize Your Website:

Don’t Miss…

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

How To Get Your Communication Platform Ready For International Marketing

Your International Communication Platform

Internationalize Your Current Website A Little

Internationalize Your Website A Lot

Create A Separate International Website

Find The Best Platform

More On Website Internationalization:

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Why I Am Creating An Information Product On Website Internationalization

More On How To Internationalize Your Website:

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More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Buying Logos For International Websites

Customized Content Website In English For All International Audiences

Mini-Sales Site In French For French Businesses

French Article Directory For A Much Wider Audience Worldwide

Main Company Website In English

Finding Logos

More On How To Internationalize Your Website:

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More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

How Do Your Foreign Prospects Use Their Search Engines

More On International Market Research:

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An Easy To Read Website For Your International Visitors First Impression

Is Each Web Page Easy On The Eye To Read?

Titles, Subtitles, Headings and Subheads

Short Sentences and Short Paragraphs

Are You Saying Anything That Could Be Misleading?

Consistent vocabulary.

Are You Communicating Clearly To People?

Are You Talking To Your Visitors?

Talk To Your Visitors

Audio

Clear and Easy To Understand For Everyone

More On Website Internationalization:

Don’t Miss…

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Is Your Website Sabotaging Your International Business Development?

No way to reach you

Not fully understanding what you have to offer

Being turned off by use of slang and national expressions

Using too many synonyms to say one thing

No idea where you are located

An order form incompatible with foreign orders

Audio sales pitches that don’t cross cultures

Website animation that doesn’t cross cultures

More On Website Internationalization:

Don’t Miss…

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Small Business International Development In Three Easy Steps – First Transition To A Global Market Internet Business

Assess Your Communication

More On Website Internationalization:

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