By Robert Jacobi, Director of WordPress, Cloudways
We have all had a chuckle or a belly laugh at the expense of marketing fails. Mercedes Benz entered the Chinese market under the moniker Bensi which directly translates to “rush to die” - a tagline that would surely scare off Chinese car buyers. Thankfully, the German automobile manufacturer was quick to pick up the error and changed its name to Benshi which means ‘running as fast as if flying’ in Mandarin. This and other examples of marketing faux pas could have been avoided thanks to a major concept in the space that is ignored way too often: marketing localization. Especially in e-commerce, it is tempting to forego regional and national differences and aim to market uniformly to the “global village.” But in online as in offline sales, connection, relevance, and angle are everything, and marketing localization will always give you an edge.
The art of the local deal
Marketing localization refers to the practice of adjusting your messaging to the specific purchasing behaviors, cultural traits, and commercial practices of each country or region where you are active. It may sound like a lot of additional work, but trust me, so does apologizing for the inevitable gaffes a one-size-fits-all international marketing strategy produces. Not to mention the customers you lose and the reputational hit you take every time you step on the proverbial rake with a marketing message that does not translate across cultures.
Note that culturally or regionally coded marketing is not bad; on the contrary, you should do more of that. Inviting customers to explore the life aquatic is a solid value proposition in Maine where hurricanes are a rarity and charming coastal towns are a dime a dozen. In Europe, the name Bensi is a relatively common last name, take well-known Luxembourg football player Stefano Bensi for example. The problem is not the message, but where and the audience you are marketing to.
Making the same mistake in e-commerce is even likelier because we tend to assume a lot about our global audience, from a certain level of English proficiency and immersion in Western culture to technical knowledge and access to payment methods and ancillary applications. Instead of assuming, you should start learning the key characteristics and habits of your e-commerce customer base in each of your areas of operation. Here are a few key points to keep in mind.
Know just enough about your local customers
Today’s browsing experience is still dominated by cookies and once they are abolished, there will be other ways to track your customers and learn how to best approach them. Tracking customer journeys and conversions in local markets will help you quickly build robust profiles and action plans that do not assume but know how to best design your marketing and optimize local sales.
Working at this task from a localized marketing standpoint also has important legal ramifications. In the absence of a global agreement on how much tracking is allowed, different jurisdictions come with specific mandates and regulations. The amount and kind of personal data you may collect and process in the European Union differs vastly from what is allowed in China or South Africa. To gather the highest amount of useful customer information, you should align your data collection practices with local legislation closely.
Meet your customers where they are
To reach the widest possible audience and do so effectively, get smart about the local market’s online habits. Do most users prefer browsing on desktop or mobile? The answer will tell you whether you should invest in a highly responsive website or rather optimize your online presence for the dominant device from which it will be viewed.
If you are crossing language barriers, it is vital that you do it fluently. Translation and SEO tune-up of your local website and online shop are two non-negotiable expenses where you cannot pay too much for good service. Do not be tempted to run your English website through an AI translator – it will never sound fully native, and it will mess with your search engine optimization, too.
Listen to the money talk
When the customer has stacked their shopping cart and is about to complete their purchase, your job seems nearly done. And yet it is a fragile success – nearly 70 percent of shopping carts on desktop and 85 percent on mobile were abandoned in 2021. One key reason for cart abandonment is not finding a suitable payment method – and “suitable” can be a very subjective qualifier here. To reduce the chances of your customers dashing at checkout, learn about their preferred payment methods and make sure to offer as many of them as possible.
A related issue is the currency, in which you accept payments. Nowadays major world currencies are more or less a given, but you should do your research on how customers in different localities feel about paying in foreign currencies versus their own. If necessary, you should accommodate their wishes. Also keep in mind that the U.S. Dollar or the Euro are not universally accepted and respected around the globe, for various political, economic, and historical reasons. If a target market is particularly allergic to a major currency you deal in, consider removing it from the local online shop not to ruffle feathers.
Don’t be a culture vulture
Aside from payment preferences and locally optimized web content and SEO, you should actively consider the dominant cultural norms in each of your target markets. Adding the appropriate honorifics when you speak to customers may be especially important in Asia or Africa. In online forms, you should include enough fields to accommodate titles, multiple names, or any other culturally specific add-ons that will show your local customers you know them and you care.
Global e-commerce success needs local marketing
Marketing localization is more relevant than ever in today’s online world where customers expect personalization and special treatment. Luckily, many aspects of this process can be readily automated and outsourced to a trusted hosting partner with local knowledge and experience.
However you choose to do it, by all means get involved with marketing localization. Thanks to the results it brings, it is the best way to make a global statement.
About Robert
Robert Jacobi is the Director of WordPress at Cloudways, a multi-cloud managed application as a service platform that lets users choose where they want their website to be hosted from a variety of options, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, DigitalOcean, Vultr, and Linode. Robert leads the WordPress business unit at Cloudways in community engagement, strategic partnerships, and product. Prior to joining Cloudways, Robert served as President of the open-source project Joomla and Executive Vice President for Perfect Dashboard, where he partnered with major web hosting providers to offer websites automated security and performance updates. In 2000, Robert also founded Arc Technology Group, the lead Joomla consultancy in North America, whose clients include Fortune 500 firms Microsoft, Abbott Laboratories, and Eli Lilly. He is a frequent speaker at WordPress and open-source conferences and resides in Chicago, Illinois.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.