Truth #4: English-based email campaigns
are only half the picture
There are 580 million Internet users in the world,
and virtually all of them (94%) use email. To put this
into perspective, the number of Internet users in the world
is more than twice the entire population of the United
States.
This comes as a surprise to many people in the U.S.,
but the majority of Internet users live OUTSIDE the United
States. In fact, the U.S. represents less than 30% of
the total Internet population.
Yet too many marketers focus
their efforts exclusively on North America (U.S. and
Canada). As a result, they're
missing out on potentially 70 percent of the entire market.
And
when they decide to finally go multilingual, the first
language most U.S. companies choose is Spanish -- because
they think Spanish is the second most common language
used on the Internet. HERE'S THE SHOCK: IT'S NOT SPANISH
But here's the little-known "shocking" truth
about the global use of the Internet: the second-most
frequently used language isn't Spanish, it's Chinese.
It's
not hard
to understand why: China has over a billion people.
And they're increasingly buying computers and activating
email accounts. In a decade, Chinese might very well
be the No.1 language used on the Internet. If you have
a product,
service or technology that can be marketed to Chinese-speaking
'netizens, you have tremendous market potential that's
worth exploring.
ENTER ASIAN MARKETS
Depending on what kind of product,
service or technology you're offering, investing in an
Asian marketing strategy
could quite easily be one of the most successful business
decisions you'll make this year.
But it's not just about
THIS YEAR. Eventually, nearly every successful marketing
firm will need to tackle the
Asian markets. You can't argue with a billion people,
and why would you want to anyway? Those folks have credit
cards
that work just the same as U.S.-issued credit cards.
Money knows no borders.
But how do you take advantage of this?
After all, you probably don't speak Chinese, right?
On this point, I'm
going to simultaneously make a recommendation *and* plug
a company I've been involved with for several
years. My recommendation? Hook up with a translations
firm and start translating your email campaigns and website
landing pages into multiple languages.
My plug? Arial Global,
Inc. (http://www.ArialGlobalReach.com) It's a high-tech
translations firm specializing in Asian
languages. They can take your email marketing and web
marketing campaigns and rework them for the Asian markets,
allowing
you to tap into a whole new global market.
They've handled
projects for Intel, HP, and dozens of other major firms,
and they were recently awarded a GSA
contract from the U.S. government. They even received
the "Localization
Vendor of the Year" award from Intel. Arial Global
handled all the translations of my own company's site,
and as a result, we've seen our Asian sales increase substantially. Even if an Asian marketing strategy isn't right for you
today, keep an eye on this. The Chinese language will continue
to gain share in the years ahead, eventually emerging as
the most common language on the 'net. The time to start
thinking global, if you're not already, is right now.
Limiting
yourself to English-speaking customers is simply TOO
limiting in this global marketplace.
CONDUCT YOUR EMAIL
CAMPAIGNS IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES
Whether
you use Arial or another firm is beside the point. The
important thing here is to consider the untapped revenue
potential in conducted your permission email campaigns
in multiple languages. With a bit of investment, you
could be emailing your permission campaigns in Spanish,
Chinese,
Japanese, French, German or any other language. Your
recipients would be reading your messages in their *native*
language
instead of their second language (English, usually).
Suddenly,
your credibility takes a leap.
Watch out for
this trap, however: if you send emails in another language,
make sure you can handle email replies
in that language. Otherwise, your customer will soon
realize they're talking to a brick wall. Also, if you have
clickable
links in your multilingual email campaigns, make sure
they point to web pages written in each appropriate language.
NEXT:
THE REAL REASON PEOPLE OPEN YOUR EMAIL
Ever wondered
what causes people to actually open and read your email?
Some people think it's the email subject.
Other are convinced it's the opening paragraph of the
email content. In fact, it's neither. There's something
else
that's the #1 factor in determining whether your email
gets opened. And the combination that works is different
for men than women. Want to find out what this is? I'll
reveal it in the next issue. Stay tuned!
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