Email marketing can help you achieve a range of business goals, from raising brand awareness and generating more leads to increasing traffic to your website and strengthening relationships with existing customers.
Research has shown that, while it may be one of the oldest types of digital marketing, this channel still offers great potential to help businesses reach their customers, wherever they are in the world.
If you’re planning to make email a central part of your efforts to connect with international audiences, localisation needs to be part of the equation.
The power of email
There are many statistics that illustrate just how much value the average business has to gain from email marketing, simply based on the number of people who use this channel on a regular basis.
It’s estimated that there were nearly four billion email users in 2019 and that figure is expected to increase to almost 4.5 billion by 2024. The number of emails sent and received worldwide every day is set to grow from approximately 281 billion in 2018 to more than 347 billion by 2023.
This channel clearly provides a lot of potential for brands to get their message across to a large audience, but how does it perform in the areas that marketers care about the most, such as making positive connections with customers and generating return on investment?
According to global HubSpot research conducted between November and December 2019, more than three-quarters of marketing professionals (78%) had seen an increase in email engagement in the year leading up to the survey. The findings also indicated that companies are benefiting from rising ROI in this space, with marketers typically getting back $42 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
To really make the most of this potential and get excellent results from your email campaigns, there are several things you need to do well. One of your top priorities should be to ensure that every mailing you distribute is properly contextualised and relevant. This will help you make a positive impression on potential buyers by demonstrating that you understand them and their needs.
Context and relevance
Relevance is the “secret weapon” in the email marketer’s arsenal, and the “fastest path to revenue”.
That’s according to marketing software provider Campaign Monitor, which published research showing that emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened and segmented campaigns deliver a 760% increase in revenue.
Segmenting your contact lists makes it easier to target particular portions of your customer base with tailored messaging. This can be based on various criteria, such as:
- Demographic data
- Geographical location
- Past engagement with email communications
- Previous purchases
- Position in the sales funnel
It’s particularly important to be aware of key factors like existing customers’ past purchases, so you can ensure every message you send to them makes sense in the context of what they’ve already bought and where their interests lie.
Another crucial consideration for international businesses is how local nuances in communication and how people expect to engage with brands will affect your email marketing. This is important to think about from the perspective of individual mailings and your strategy as a whole.
Localisation factors
One particularly significant aspect of your marketing emails that needs to be localised and tailored to regional audiences is the copy.
Effective translation to ensure you’re using the right language to engage readers and maintain their interest is just the first step. You also need to be aware of local nuances in how people expect brands to speak to them. Direct and informal communication may be the norm in Western cultures, for example, but countries in other parts of the world might expect brands to use a subtle and respectful tone in emails.
Before designing and delivering your messages, make sure you’ve done your market research and you understand your target destinations well enough to make a positive impression and avoid any faux pas.
There are also certain technical factors that have to be taken into account when you’re sending emails to customers all over the world. When subject lines are being translated into a range of languages and dialects, for example, the length of the copy can change. It’s best, therefore, to keep them short and simple, or to come up with different subject lines for different languages.
The same goes for the calls to action (CTAs) you include in your emails, which need to be concise and compelling in every language. You also need to be sure that translating your CTAs won’t lead to design and formatting issues.
Expert advice from language professionals and native speakers in the territories you’re targeting can help you localise and optimise your email communications to get the best results from this powerful marketing channel.
Take a look at Locaria’s services, or contact us to start a conversation.
