It’s almost 2023 and emails are still popular! Yes, you read that right. Emails continue to remain the most popular and effective way for businesses to communicate with their audience. Despite the advent of social media, email marketing continues to shine like a glowing flame. There are strong reasons why 82% of marketers use email marketing to improve brand awareness, make announcements, launch events, share success stories, and more [1].
Email marketing is still relevant. However, the question is – how can businesses stand out if everyone is using email marketing to expand their business? There are a few ways to cut through the competition and email localization is one way to do it.
Today, personalization can take a business a long way. Customers appreciate brands and businesses that provide personalized experiences and services. In many parts of the world, customers prefer receiving emails in their native language and this is exactly why you need email localization.
What do we mean by email localization? Why is part of numerous email marketing guides? Read along to find out.
Before you go further, you may want to get acquainted with our email marketing services and learn how our clients have benefited from them.
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Understanding email localization
Email localization is the process of incorporating and modifying content in email marketing campaigns that resonates with readers from different geographies and speak different languages.
The idea behind localizing emails is to create email campaigns in local languages and refrain from simply translating text. It is important to understand the pulse of the local audience.
But why is email localization so important? Let’s find out.
Why is email localization so important?
You may be wondering why is it crucial to localize emails. Let’s not beat around the bush – everyone does not speak or understand English. A whopping 70% of internet users either do not understand English or are not comfortable with the language [2].
Customers love buying products or patronizing businesses that offer a pleasurable experience. Further, most customers prefer interacting with businesses in their native language. Customers love buying products or patronizing businesses that offer a pleasurable experience. Further, most customers prefer interacting with businesses in their native language.
Therefore, your audience is likely to engage more with your emails if they are delivered in the native language.
Another reason why most email marketing guides recommend localizing emails is the high return on investment. Did you know that a one-dollar investment in email localization gives you a return of twenty-five dollars? Besides many brands that have localized their emails saw a notable rise in their website traffic. For example, when Neil Patel localized his website content with plugins, the traffic saw a 50% growth.
The concept of localizing emails is far from just translating text to a new language. This is exactly where most email marketers falter. How can you get it right? Let’s discuss this.
Email localization – getting it right
Wondering how you can nail your email localization process? You have arrived at the right place. From writing clear and concise emails to getting the tone right, there are plenty of nuances involved to nail email localization.
Here are a few things every email marketer should keep in mind while localizing email marketing.
1. Do not simply translate your content, it does not work
This is one of the biggest mistakes made by email marketers. A majority of them use the original version of the email written in English and simply translate it into a different language. However, it is important to understand that this technique is not very effective.
When you are translating an email message, you are simply translating the original version and sending it to your audience. In this case, you are successfully communicating with your target audience in a way that is not only accurately translated but also culturally appropriate. This entails accounting for all the subtleties and peculiarities of the recipient’s culture and language. It involves taking into account how your target customers think, act, and speak, and it requires that you follow their values and traditions as well.
2. Use easy-to-understand and simple language
This is a hard and fast rule businesses should follow in today’s landscape. Effective communication using plain, clear, and simple language is an absolute must if you want to get your message across to your audience. Nobody likes receiving emails with lots of jargon and complicated words. Make use of crisp, clear sentences. Use verbs rather than nouns and concrete terms rather than sweeping generalisations or abstract phrases. Examples of abstract nouns are nouns that define an emotion, state, quality, or idea.
3. Watch your tone
No, we are not fighting with you here, but talking about the tone of your emails. How can you ensure your localised emails have the proper flow and tone?
This will be a crucial component of your localised marketing plan because your clients are exposed to hundreds, if not more, generic emails every day. Creating email marketing campaign messages that seem like advertisements should be a big NO. Instead, make an effort to sound more genuine and personable in your emails, as if a real person is speaking to the reader.
4. Focus on the aesthetics
When you are creating an email template for international clients, there are a few factors to take into account in addition to the standard design guidelines. Simple designs, table-based layouts, inline styling, and providing all image names and alt tags are a few examples.
Email templates for international audiences must:
- Include a text section with editable text The length of your sentences may alter when you translate content from one language to another (from the source language to the final language), which may impact the overall design.
- Avoid using text-heavy images. challenging to translate text that is already embedded in an image since. When you use an image that has a lot of text in it, you have to translate the text, save the image, and upload it for every language. Thus, it is a good idea to ignore such images entirely. You can hire a professional designer who can help you design visually appealing emails.
- Use bullet-resistant buttons. Most email campaigns allow users to disable graphics, and some even do it automatically. Use bulletproof buttons instead of image-based buttons to ensure that your email can still be read and important call-to-action (CTA) buttons can still be viewed even if images are blocked for some reason.
5. Use the right trigger at the right time
Automated emails sent using marketing automation software as a result of actions of your website visitors are referred to as triggered emails (also known as email automation). Such emails are effective as the material is highly pertinent to the recipient at that specific moment. However, you should take into account the major differences across different geographies while defining your email automation triggers. This is a key step in your localization process.
For instance, a customer from the U.S. might prefer to receive a retargeting email with a special offer after visiting your pricing page, while a visitor from Germany could find this intrusive. Therefore, you need to set triggers in tune with how the audience in a certain region behaves or reacts to different types of messages.
Challenges with email localization
Localizing emails comes with its fair share of challenges. We never said it was easy. There are numerous barriers involved that may make email localization seem daunting. Here are a few challenges faced by most email marketers.
- The more languages, the more complicated the entire process
- Quality control processes are not well-defined
- Analytics are not very accurate
- One needs to keep in mind the cultural nuances, design, and branding strategy for every new geography
- Designing a localized email can become a bit difficult due to the nature of the language. For example, Arabic is written from right to left
Parting words
Now that you know what email localization is, it is time to get the ball rolling. Delivering emails is not enough to make an impression anymore. Brands and businesses need to do more. Therefore, the focus should always remain on delivering the most relevant content to the right audiences. Email localization can help you do that.
Implementing email localization tactics rather than solely translating content from one language to another will help you gain a substantial competitive edge as most online business owners are not aware of this.
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Feature Image Source: Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash.
Image 1 Source: Photo by Justin Morgan on Unsplash
Image 2 Source: Photo by Z on Unsplash
