How to ensure that your global content is attractive enough for potential customers?
Expanding your business’ reach beyond geographical boundaries is a savvy move to improve your market base and profitability. And this is no longer as challenging as it used to be, say a decade ago, simply because of the digitally connected world we live in today. A potential customer in Asia can view the website of a business in the U.S. and place orders without having of leave the comfort of his home. The connected world makes it possible for businesses to have their footprint across the world but this also causes some complacency to set in and this can be a fatal mistake.
The problem
Yes, it is now possible for your business and brand to communicate with audiences worldwide but overlook the fact that audiences still do differ from each other in subtle ways and you could be in trouble. The reality is that it is even more important for a brand to pay attention to its audience profile and their preferences now, more than ever before considering that the brand is visible and accessible to such a range of people. The ability cater to a global audience is a huge boon for present businesses but only if they leverage the advantage with the care and attention it deserves. The key is to ensure that the content they offer is appealing and attractive enough for global consumers and not just the home grown audiences.
How to achieve this?
It is not a very complex concept to understand- people from different cultures, different countries have varying thought processes and perspectives and attitudes and the brand has to factor this in in this communication. All it takes is keeping the following points in mind for a brand to offer content that is truly global.
- Design: Right from the design stage, you need to have global audiences in mind. Understand the needs of different audiences and design your site or your branding pages accordingly so that you can still give a uniform look and feel without compromise. If the design does not seem to be a big issue yet, consider this: If your content will be viewed by Arabic audience in the local language, your design will need to be literally flipped over to accommodate the language.
- Slang: Well, maybe you don’t actually use slang words because you are catering to a global audience but what about common usages and phrases that may make sense in one country but not in another? For example, holiday season may mean Christmas time in Europe and America but something quite different in Asia.
- Social media: Yes, social media is a simple, cost effective, efficient tool to communicate with your audience and that’s true across the world. Now, what may not be so simple is to figure out which social media channels work best in which country. For example, if you are trying to woo your Chinese audience, your Facebook or Twitter pages may not be making any headway here. You may need to explore platforms like Weibo which are far more popular here.
- Technology: Digital connectivity does presume that all your audiences have access to technology but this may not happen to the same degree. If you have a visuals intensive website or videos intensive content, audiences in locations where bandwidth is not reliable or is poor may simply not be able to see your content within a reasonable time frame. The result, you lose out on this market segment. Factor in the technological limitations in various locations before you decide on a branding strategy for them that will ensure that your content really reaches them.
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