The positive effects of being multilingual are widely known. Studies have shown that knowing multiple languages can aid in things like a person’s memory and their ability to problem solve. What about in the business world? Can a multilingual business experience similar benefits to a multilingual person? The short answer is yes.
Language is becoming an essential tool in business growth and development. In today’s digital age, marketing your company globally can be easily done (thanks internet). However, bringing your company across continents requires some behind the scenes work.
Over 50% of websites today use English only. There are billions of people online everyday and of those people about 73% are non English speakers. This means half of the internet is inaccessible for those of us that don’t speak English. This also means that a good chunk of the population cannot easily interact with English only sites. For example, Chinese content on the web. There is an extreme lack in Chinese accessible sites even though China operates one of the largest markets across the globe. Chinese is gradually becoming one of the most targeted languages on the web today, however demands are still not met.
The lack of language accessibility on the internet creates a huge disparity between web content and the web content needed. This is a great opportunity for business owners. Creating an accessible platform across continents can be as easy as globalizing your website. Companies can start with simple document translation, multi-language mini sites, language toggles, or marketing localization.
In a large companies that already are multilingual, 50% or more of their customers are coming from languages other than english. Advertising to 5, or 15 other languages will help you gain an understanding of your target market and global success of your product. In the United States alone ⅕ of the population is non-native English speakers. Most likely this community is searching, tweeting, scrolling and posting in their native languages creating a huge loss for English only sites even within the United States.
We live in an online world and search is a huge part of the online community. We have become researchers using the devices at the tip of our fingertips- our phones. Whether we want to know where to get Thai food for dinner or the best refrigerator on market, we turn to the internet for the answer. Search engines will automatically pull the top results making it extremely easy for the user. By adjusting your business’s snippets, keyword’s, mobile compatibility and geo-targeting, you’re creating a more accessible global business and have a higher chance of landing in the top results.
Customer Support is another major factor when expanding your business. Now that your company has been found, multilingual communication is key. The majority of online customer service desks offer one primary language or a number to call for over the phone interpretation. Today, everything is digital, consumers want to find answers fast and efficiently through digital forms like chats, emails and forums. When these on demand services aren’t multilingual it drives customers away.
There’s no question that the digital age has created extreme growth and extreme challenges in the business world. But for those willing to expand across continents, devices, and languages the web is an unprecedented territory. Translation and localizations services are a great way to take your business into the digital multilingual and INGCO is here to help. Contact us today.
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