Any credible content creator can tell you that there are strategies that apply during the creation of content for global markets.
In other words, not any global marketing content brings a positive impact on an internationalized business. For this reason, you must explore all you need to know about strategizing your content for global markets. Let’s begin.
Defining the Global Content Marketing
The global marketing content aims to spread information about products and services to various target global regions. Such content requires customization depending on the prevailing factors that govern the target market.
Notably, the global marketing content does not follow a standard format or nature. So, it does not have a one-size-fits-all nature. Different business entities appeal to the global audience differently. This situation gets complicated when an entity wants to appeal to its diverse global audience.
Any internationalized company must apply diverse engagement strategies to appeal to its global audience. Sometimes, this move requires a company to engage different specialized teams, regardless of whether they will be in-house or external parties.
It is notable that using similar brand messaging and content globally cannot result in similar conversion rates and feedback. The different global audience reacts differently to any message or content that every internationalized company disseminates.
Some factors that give rise to the audience reaction differences are means of information consumption, unique needs, and terminology of the published content.
Strategies for Planning Content for Global Markets
You now understand that global marketing content should not be standard. So, what strategies can you apply to reap maximum benefits from your global marketing content?
Identify Your Audience Plus Their Locality
This strategy appears popular, but its fame is because of a specific reason. Notably, executing a global marketing strategy without a target audience is impossible. If you do so, how tell whether it will be successful? Such a move equates to publishing your content randomly and hoping that someone will see it.
To execute a successful marketing strategy, you must know your target audience comprehensively. This move encompasses understanding the holidays, current affairs, politics, and terminology the audience uses in daily communication. You should also identify what makes your country different from your target global location.
Importantly, knowing your audience calls for understanding its basic and even the smallest aspects. Such aspects may seem minor, but their oversight can have a significant detrimental effect on your international business.
To understand how your international audience can feel when you surprise them with marketing content, think about any marketing campaign that you found irrelevant, with misused language, and probably from a foreign company:
- Did you look at it twice?
- Did you buy its highlighted products and services?
- Did you feel ambushed?
- Did you ignore it because the company did not take the time to know what you wanted?
If you have answered “no” to the first two questions and “yes” to the last two questions, you have a feel of the international audience towards marketing content without its social values.
The success of the global marketing continent calls for you to form diverse marketing teams. Also, the team members of each team should have location-appropriate skills to align the content with the social values of the target audience. This is the point where translation and localization expertise comes in handy.
If you can generate regionally-appropriate marketing content, you can have a positive sales impact in every global region that will consume your marketing content. However, it all begins with your marketing team members being regionally adept.
Employ Cultural Competence
If you thought that global marketing entails timely dissemination of marketing content across different time zones, you are wrong.
An effective global marketing activity engages people from different cultural backgrounds. Such people have different behaviors, values, beliefs, outlooks, sensitivities, and educational backgrounds. Also, most of the said cultural aspects differ from your cultural aspects in many ways.
Notably, researching the different cultural backgrounds of your global target audiences is a complex task. However, it is worth all the effort you can put into the exercise. The resultant positive business impact that you can get from this exercise outwits the hustle you underwent during the exercise.
Why is researching your international audience important? Sometimes, what you deem proper or acceptable is taboo to some international audience members. Also, what you consider a joke is offensive to some international audiences. So, always employ an internationally local perspective whenever creating your global marketing content.
Connect With Local, Recognizable, and Relatable Figures
Local influencers, celebrities, and bloggers are some of the local people who can significantly contribute to your global marketing content’s success. Notably, these people have a huge number of local followers that trust their recommendations and suggestions. If those famous people can endorse your products and services, that can be a positive turnaround for your international sales.
The local popular people can also help you shape your marketing content to match the taste and preferences of your target international audience. Remember, such people also offer content creation services that employ creativity in what they do. So, you can engage them to create marketing content that is superior to what the locals frequently hear.
However, collaborating with popular local figures can make or break your international business. So, always research a popular figure before engaging them to handle your marketing content.
Identify an Appropriate Channel
Identifying an appropriate channel to host your global marketing content is also one of the most viable strategies for your global content. Notably, some global regions do not permit some online platforms to operate from within. If you plan to market your global content using a platform allowable in some regions but disallowable in others, you cannot achieve optimal results.
Some online platforms are more popular in some global regions but irrelevant in others. For this reason, you must identify the popular online platforms in every global region on your marketing target list.
Importantly, identifying the most appropriate channel to host your global marketing can help you avoid investing in a short-lived channel. Always select an online channel that will operate in your target global region for an unforeseeable future.
Take Advantage of Paid Social Media Campaigns
The organic engagement has a significant positive long-term impact on your international business. However, its effectiveness can take quite a long time to materialize. In such an instance, what other alternative can you adopt? The paid social media campaigns are your answer.
The paid social media campaigns come in handy when you are new to an international market. It is also an effective marketing tool when your target a specific audience in your marketing activities.
How can you get the best results from paid social media campaigns? The answer lies in using their ad campaign tools. Notably, using free social media to drive your marketing campaigns is very tempting. However, the free platform options are no longer effective.
One of the advantages of using paid social media campaigns is that you have control over what you will spend on your marketing campaigns. Also, this option enables you to control your conversion rates. Lastly, this option allows you to control your demographic targeting. If we can list the benefits that emanate from the use of paid social media campaigns, the list can be endless.
Use Specialized Tools
Quality is king in every content strategy. For this reason, always use specialized tools that produce and host high-quality global marketing content. If you can get tools with varied content formats, you can diversify your editorial calendar. Also, you can cut the costs related to the creation every time you want to run a global marketing campaign.
The best-specialized tools should integrate with other online platforms. This aspect can facilitate a seamless sharing of marketing content between different channels. If your tool is rigid, you will incur costs whenever you want to use each different channel to host your marketing content.
Define Local and Global Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Using metrics is a sure way of mapping and improving a content strategy. However, the local and global KPIs are not similar. Their difference arises because the interpretation of different markets should be different.
If you successfully employ a content strategy in a global region, always use lead conversion rate as your KPI. On the other hand, investing in a new market calls for using website visits as a KPI. These are some KPIs you can use to assess the success rate of your content strategy.
Otherwise, the list of the KPIs and their determining factors to use when assessing the impact of a global content strategy is quite long.
The Bottom Line
According to Contentech, a language service provider (LSP), creating content strategies for your global markets is the key to the expansion of your local approach and benefits to your international audience. Also, the strategies are a requirement even when using strong channels with international access.
Now that you know how to plan your content strategy for your global markets, it is time to review what you have done and need to do. Have a happy globalization of your business!
