English may be the lingua franca of the internet, but it is the first language of only just over a quarter of users. The number of English speakers online has grown by around 300 percent over the last decade, compared to Spanish (800 percent), Chinese (1,500 percent) and Arabic (over 2,500 percent). According to a recent Eurobarometer study, only around 18 percent of web users in the EU feel comfortable purchasing a product in a non-native language – and 42 percent said they would never buy online in a language that was not their own. Early birds with a strong multicultural content marketing strategy can vastly improve organic traffic, user loyalty and conversion rates. Stories and symbols Storytelling is a powerful tool for marketers, especially in an age where users can share and recommend digital content with a single click. Good stories engage and inspire readers. Compare a hotel website that lists dry room dimensions and amenities with one that uses cool images, interesting facts and personal stories to bring the place to life. Which one would you be more likely to read and share? The secret of international content marketing is to understand local customs and language usage. Stories and symbols have to resonate with users by tapping into cultural sensibilities – not alienate them through ill-translated content, clichés and stereotypes. There are three steps to successful global content marketing: 1. Develop an integrated content strategy that aligns all areas of communication, and includes digital content marketing and storytelling as central pillars. Identify target cultures and languages, and make sure your technical capabilities and resources can cope. 2. Gather and create cool content and stories that will engage readers, and that they will want to read, share and spread on social media. Adapt these for your target cultures and digital platforms. Use on-the-ground resources, whether your own network or an international content marketing agency. 3. Set clear Key Performance Indicators for measuring the success of your international marketing campaigns, and analytics programs to track them. They should include organic traffic and conversion rates as a minimum, with the aim of calculating the Return on Investment of your multicultural marketing campaigns.

1. How to tell your story to the world:
the power of multicultural content.

2. English may be the lingua franca of the internet, but it is the first language of only just over a
quarter of users. The number of English speakers online has grown by around 300 percent over
the last decade, compared to Spanish (800 percent), Chinese (1,500 percent) and Arabic (over
2,500 percent).
According to a recent Eurobarometer study, only around 18 percent of web users in the EU feel
comfortable purchasing a product in a non-native language – and 42 percent said they would
never buy online in a language that was not their own.
Early birds with a strong multicultural content marketing strategy can vastly improve organic
traffic, user loyalty and conversion rates.
Stories and symbols
Storytelling is a powerful tool for marketers, especially in an age where users can share and
recommend digital content with a single click. Good stories engage and inspire readers.
Compare a hotel website that lists dry room dimensions and amenities with one that uses cool
images, interesting facts and personal stories to bring the place to life. Which one would you be
more likely to read and share?
The secret of international content marketing is to understand local customs and language
usage. Stories and symbols have to resonate with users by tapping into cultural sensibilities –
not alienate them through ill-translated content, clichés and stereotypes.
There are three steps to successful global content marketing:
1. Develop an integrated content strategy that aligns all areas of communication, and
includes digital content marketing and storytelling as central pillars. Identify target
cultures and languages, and make sure your technical capabilities and resources can
cope.
2. Gather and create cool content and stories that will engage readers, and that they will
want to read, share and spread on social media. Adapt these for your target cultures
and digital platforms. Use on-the-ground resources, whether your own network or an
international content marketing agency.
3. Set clear Key Performance Indicators for measuring the success of your international
marketing campaigns, and analytics programs to track them. They should include
organic traffic and conversion rates as a minimum, with the aim of calculating the Return
on Investment of your multicultural marketing campaigns.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-11-556_en.htm
Targeting digital
marketing campaigns
at different cultures and
languages is a no-brainer
for global brands.
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

3. Prepare
What is your aim in expanding your marketing campaigns worldwide?
• Grow organic traffic?
• Improve conversion rates?
• Expand sales directly through e-commerce?
• Widen your indirect sales channels – provide a space for coupons, features, offers?
• Build your brand's reputation abroad?
• Recruit international talent?
• Publicise a new presence, such as a new hotel or store?
• Develop a reputation as a global leader in your industry?
Knowing what you want to achieve is key – not just in content creation but in analyzing your
success.
Take aim
Who are you targeting? This is an easy question with a complex answer. Even European
countries may have several different languages or dialects – tiny Switzerland uses French,
Swiss German and Italian – and the issues are compounded in large countries such as South
Africa, which has 11 distinct languages, or India, which has 22 official but over 300 unofficial
languages. Consider regional variations, too. Spanish is the official language in around 20
countries, but a Spaniard and a Mexican will have different vocabularies, grammar structures
and frames of reference.
Unless you're Coca-Cola, you don't need 15 languages on your website. Quality is better than
quantity. So use your company's sales and forecast data, as well as statistics on internet usage
and growth, to focus on the two or three countries or languages with the most potential.
On the technical side, make sure your website can auto-detect the user's country or language,
either through an IP address or browser settings. A home page that pops up in a user's own
language sends a welcome message: Hello, we're thinking of you!
Muster the troops
Storytelling relies on a coherent message and branding. If your style guidelines need creating or
updating, do it now. Engage people at all levels of your company, from the CMO to call-centre
staff.
1. Strategy focus
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

4. Choose your weapons
There is an ever-increasing array of digital platforms on which to
present and consume content, and their popularity varies across the world.
The explosion in the use of mobile devices, particularly in emerging economies,
makes content marketing more essential than ever: traditional digital ads just don't work on
small screens. Smartphones and tablets also change the way you create and distribute content,
encouraging snippets and sound bites rather than lengthy articles, and lightweight images and
videos.
Whether on desktop computers, laptops, tablets or mobiles, channels to consider include:
• Regular websites, with or without interactivity
• Blogs and guest blogs
• Micro-blogs
• Social networking sites
• Apps (preferably cross-platform)
• SMS
• Videos
• Images
• Presentations
• User review sites
Consider which are the most effective channels – and the most popular in your target cultures
– and focus your resources on those. If you're targeting the Chinese market, there's no point
setting up a Facebook account (it's banned), focusing on Google search (go for Baidu), or using
Twitter (try Sina Weibo).
Choose channels that are likely to last. Keep your regular multilingual website as base camp.
And check out which platforms your competitors are using – and how successful their efforts
are.
Resources and logistics
Who is going to oversee, create and maintain your content? How often? How much?
How long?
A network of professional local content specialists (writers, editors, photographers, video
journalists) is essential. If you don't have such a network, consider outsourcing to an
international content marketing agency. Local experts can create quality content that hits the
right buttons, and can advise on cultural customs and events that may affect your campaign.
Second, draw up an internal content publishing schedule that details how and how often you
will create and update content, and on which channels.
Third, engage your tech guys and girls early. A brilliant multicultural content strategy requires an
equally brilliant technical team and a user-friendly CMS – preferably one that enables multiple
users to upload, edit and publish content on several platforms and in your chosen languages.
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

5. Secrets of storytelling
The art of digital storytelling is too vast a subject to cover here, but
the basic principle is to keep it real. Share true stories about who makes
your products and how. Behind-the-scenes glimpses make readers feel they
are backstage at an exciting event, and the human element allows ordinary people to
identify with a brand.
Accompany your stories with powerful imagery, whether photos or videos, and preferably
sound, too. Engaging the senses – and the brain – helps users internalise your brand's core
values.
Users and fans like to share good stories with their friends, so make it easy for them to 'like'
or 'follow' you, and set in place analytics tools to track this activity. Don't worry about creating
'viral' content, which causes a flash of traffic that quickly dies. Instead, aim for high-quality
stories that will spread steadily through social networks and deliver long-lasting results.
Add a local touch
Context-specific localisation is the next step. It's well recognised that word-for-word translation,
whether of the automated or human kind, is a poor substitute for content creation by
professional local specialists. Even numbers and colours may cause offence when translated
directly with no knowledge of local cultures. In Japan, for instance, the numbers four and nine
are bad luck, as is the colour white. The key is clever adaptation.
McDonald's is an instantly recognisable brand across the world, but if it didn't adapt menus
to different cultures, it would be trying to sell beef burgers to Hindus. Instead, the company
targets local tastes – in India, for instance, you can tuck into a McSpicy™ Paneer Burger or
McAloo Tikki™. Do with content what McDonald's does with burgers: keep your core message
consistent, but find new twists and angles that will appeal to locals, and show that you
understand their culture.
Chop it up, spread it around
You can and should re-use good stories in new, interesting ways to increase their spread and
your return on investment. Making similar content available on multiple channels helps you tap
new markets.
Say you are a global hotel brand and your story is about the architect who designed your new
eco-friendly hotel in Mauritius. Have the main story on your website with a photo gallery and
video tour. Post those images on a photo-sharing site, and the video on a video-sharing site.
Add blog updates to keep it fresh and relevant, and reach out to environmental and design
blogs to spread the news and encourage inbound links. Rejig the story into a presentation and
post it on Slideshare.
You can do all this in multiple languages, depending on your budget, and on the most effective
channels for each. Just take care not to copy content directly. Search engine algorithms
increasingly reward fresh, original copy and penalise duplicate text.
2. Content
Storytelling
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

6. Time it right
Timing is everything. Adapt your stories to current events, so that you can
blog, tweet and talk about events that users are thinking about and searching for.
Remember that search engines, as well as people, privilege content that is recent and
topical. For instance, a hotel that blogs or tweets about an upcoming event in the area will pop
up on searches by people planning to attend the event.
Good timing means consistency, too. A realistic publishing calendar will help you stay on track
– whether you're updating once a week, once a day or once an hour. There's nothing more
off-putting than a stale website, blog or social networking page.
Keep standards up
Many companies find it a challenge to maintain quality, particularly when content is spread over
several languages and geographical areas, and handled by several different people or agencies.
First, maintain a comprehensive editorial style guide in your target languages, preferably kept in
the Cloud so that all writers and editors have access to the latest versions.
Second, dismiss any thoughts of auto-translation. Not only do automatic translation tools
produce inaccurate, often amusingly incorrect translations, they mean you miss the benefits of
accurate keyword translation. To take a mundane example, Google Translate may render the
English term 'fridge' as 'réfrigérateur' in French, whereas users looking to purchase a fridge
would use 'frigidaire' or 'frigo'.
Third, start slow and build up a small but high-quality body of stories that users will appreciate
and share. In this way, you can be quick to adapt where necessary, and to nip quality issues in
the bud.
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

7. A successful international content marketing strategy has a plan for
tracking the effectiveness of specific campaigns and areas. Iterate and be
prepared to amend your strategy as you discover what works and what doesn't.
First, set and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your stated aims:
• Organic traffic
• Conversions
• Download counts
• Click-throughs to specific pages
• Followers and fans on social media accounts, and their activity
• Mentions in blogs
• Inbound links from reputable, relevant sites
• Search rankings for relevant keywords
Second, take into account internal costs (resources, technology, person-hours) and cost savings
(for instance, if digital content takes the place of flyers and brochures).
KPI data from website and social media analytics programs, along with a raw cost-benefit
analysis, can give you an idea of how your campaigns are performing. But since content
marketing is more about raising your profile and enhancing the experience of users, you need
to supplement number-crunching with qualitative surveys, advice from locals and partners, and
feedback from social media platforms.
At the end of the day, your boss will be looking at the bottom line. Be prepared to explain that
an initial investment in digital marketing may pay off over a longer period, as your content
spreads and helps to establish your company's reputation.
3. Measuring success
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

8. Top tips for online
marketers reaching
out to other cultures,
countries and
languages:
1 Content marketing and mobile devices should be two of the main
pillars of a digital communications strategy.
2 Target languages and cultures with the most potential for your
company.
3 Create stories and symbols that engage readers. Don’t simply
translate these: adapt them for each target culture.
4 Set in place a proper publishing schedule and brand guidelines for
each target language or area.
5 Rally the entire company behind your content strategy. Engagement
is the key to gathering and spreading positive stories.
6 Set clear, easy-to-measure Key Performance Indicators.
7 Iterate. Be quick to react to feedback from users and KPI data, and
learn from your competitors’ mistakes.
8 Maintain a strong relationship with your core market while reaching
out to new areas. Content marketing is about engaging existing
customers as well as new ones.
9 Put quality before quantity. You need a small amount of engaging,
unique material that can be adapted for different platforms.
10 Invest in a user-friendly, integrated CMS that can handle multiple
languages and channels.
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.

9. EnVeritas Group (EVG) is a global content marketing firm dedicated to helping companies
empower customers and grow their business by developing engaging, relevant and original
content and communications. With over a decade of experience and a growing client list, EVG
is now a world-leading brand publisher and content marketing specialist.
Today, we have over 70 full-time employees based in the United States, offices in England and
France, and a network of over 1,000 writers and editors worldwide. Over 1m distinct URLs
publish content created or managed by EVG.
Eric Ingrand
VP Content Marketing EMEA
Phone: +33 683 8599 87
Email: eric@enveritasgroup.com
Twitter: @ericEVGeurope
EVG blog: http://www.enveritasgroup.com/blog/
About us
About
the Author
Eric Ingrand is a natural-born traveller and an early adopter
of global ecommerce technologies and digital marketing
best practices. For the past three years Eric has been helping
EnVeritas Group become a powerful multicultural content marketing
agency. In Europe this translates into helping large hospitality groups like
Accor, Rezidor, leading online travel agencies, mainstream brands, publishers and
agencies to resonate in the highly multicultural and multilingual environment
that defines the European marketplace. Over the past 12 years EVG has built
a unique and powerful network of multilingual digital content professionals,
assembling journalists, bloggers, translators, editors and developers to create a
very unique machine, enabling large global businesses to tell well-targeted local
stories. We believe that quality multilingual storytelling and content marketing
best practices create the most valuable long-term assets for global brands online.
Here Eric shares some of the methodology that creates success with global
customers, growing organic traffic, conversion, brand loyalty and credibility in
very competitive commerce sectors such as travel, banking, mainstream media
and the food industry.
How to tell your story to the world: the power of multicultural content.