Babel (Web Site Design for Bilingual Pages)
08.25.09
One of the biggest capabilities website design has represented for businesses is that it allows the creation of an infrastructure with worldwide projection. Small locals become huge industries with strategic networks around the globe, narrowing the boundaries between nations. It’s the Age of Globalization, the age of the Global Community.
Each language has its own particularities. From its origins from the characteristics it acquires in different corners of the world, each tongue is a universe. Each time we try to communicate with someone, we enter into an intimate space. A lousy translation may interrupt the flow of the message you want to communicate and that, on the global market, may also represent the loss of several opportunities.
However, the transition between the local to the universal threshold has its risks. Language can limit the expansion of a business drastically. Even if it is a universal language such as English.
How to guarantee that the content won’t get lost in translation?
You have seen it before and, sadly, you’ll be seeing it for a long time: Irresponsibly translated website on which all contents are the mechanic transliteration of a previous content. The automatic translation engines might be helpful to overview a text written in a language we don’t speak, but they are not useful to translate the message we’re eager to transmit.
The message we are trying to take to our customers is a priority and we have to keep the line that entwines our visitors and our offer as straight as possible.
There is more than one language in content: the one we see, the one we speak, the one we use to extend our offer and the one that holds the infrastructure of the site. It’s got to be clear that these offers are universal and can be made to any population and that these languages must serve their purpose to the interest of the company. It’s not enough to switch the code: if we expect to obtain results and projection, it’s a must to:
1. Know the product.
Faith moves mountains, but a little bit more is needed in order to make a successful transaction. It’s not enough to believe in what we offer. If we don´t know every subtle detail of our industry, its mechanism and the logic that holds it in the market, we won’t have anything to communicate and it would be pointless, then, to design a website market strategy. It would be like multiplying by zero.
2. Know the language.
The main difference between a human being and a machine is that man gives a connotation to the language he or she uses. There are words that, in theory, mean the same but their use and implications are different. If you want to create a bound with the buyer, you have to know not only how to show your offer. You have to find a language that is as clear as attractive.
3. Know the culture
A marketing study gives us a series of quantified results and, based on them, we can start an online marketing strategy. But, what is in the numbers that we cannot see? Each nation has a lens and, through it, it sees the world and interacts with others. Globalization taught us that we are different, although cities tend to be alike everywhere. We have to recognize the differences in order to accept our similitude. Business-wise and life-wise.
Based on these three points, we gathered some solid basis to start an effective web marketing strategy. To have what to say, how to say it and to whom is the first step.
If you want to know what other strategies can be implemented in the design of a web site click here. We can help you find the best tactic for your business.
