Creating an international content marketing strategy
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:20 am
Today we are going to talk about international content marketing.
Content marketing has been around for years now, no longer a trend but a reality.
I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, am I?
Companies and marketing professionals around the world use this strategy to reach, attract and retain potential customers.
The 2017 numbers didn't lie and 2018 is also on track to become a good year for content marketing.
According to a study conducted by PointVisible , 91% of B2B marketing professionals use a content strategy.
In B2C, the figure is not much lower: 86% say they are equally committed to this discipline.
In this situation, companies have to face many challenges.
They need to know their buyer persona, produce content constantly, try to reach as many customers as possible and, if they are present in several countries, they must do all this in different languages and thinking about very different cultures.
It is on this last aspect that I will focus in this article.
Developing an international content marketing strategy is a project that many professionals face and there are many aspects that are important for you to take into account.
To do this, I'm going to guide you, step by step, through the different stages you'll need to go through in order to successfully create content for multiple cultures.
Ready?
Here we go.
Steps to design an international content marketing strategy
Step 1: Define your strategy
An international content strategy encompasses many aspects to take into account, however, the main and most important is the localization of your content.
Glocal is the new Global - Glocal is the new Global
The first step in any content marketing strategy , whether international or not, is to know your buyer persona and when we change countries, this precept remains the same.
The world is enormously heterogeneous.
The European continent alone, with several dozen countries, is anything but a homogeneous market.
Dozens of languages, religions, customs, expectations…
Every country is unique and what might be perfectly valid in Germany could be a huge email list singapore mistake in Poland, even though both countries share a border.
Therefore, the first step is to know your client.
When creating an international strategy, it is not enough to translate a single piece of content and stop there.
Localization comes into play. Localizing content means adapting it to the needs of each country, making the reader feel that you have created it with them in mind.
This localization can be at the level of texts, design, and any other aspect that we consider relevant.
This is where the “glocal” concept comes from: in order to be global, we have to know how to adapt to the local needs of each country.
Let's take an example of company localization: do you know the brand El Tenedor?
Until recently I thought that El Tenedor was a Spanish company, however, on a trip abroad I realized that this was not the case.
The way this company “localized” itself was by changing its name according to the country in which it was located:
International Content Marketing Strategy - Example
This way, potential customers feel that it is a local, close company that knows the market in which it operates.
How do we bring localization to content?
Don't worry!
You don't have to change your brand name or make any major decisions.
If we take “localization” to the day-to-day of content, it can be something as simple as not talking about Three Kings Day (which doesn’t exist there) if you’re targeting the US market, or keeping in mind that the date of Father’s Day varies depending on the country you’re targeting.
Similarly, if we publish an article about a study carried out on Italian citizens, Germans may not be interested.
If we make a joke about the “showbiz” in our country, it is more than likely that people in the neighboring country will not understand it.
Believe it or not, these types of details, which seem so simple, are not always taken into account.
Many brands translate their content in an almost automated way and without considering the reality of each client.
Do we vary the content format depending on the country?
When defining your international content strategy, the format you use is also very important.
Yes, the blog is an almost standard tool for all companies, but there are dozens of options that we can use:
Blog posts.
Product webinars .
Ebooks.
Infographics .
Newsletters.
Quizzes.
And more.
Depending on the country we are in, some content may work better than others.
Although we should always make the most of what we have done and “recycle” it (adapting it as much as possible), we do have to keep in mind that sometimes we may have to create specific content for a particular country.
A content strategy aligned with your business objectives
As you can see, creating an international content strategy requires an investment of time and money.
We will have to localize our content, sometimes even creating it in different formats depending on the country we are targeting.
Our content strategy should be closely aligned with our business objectives.
If our main market is France, it would be logical for us to devote more efforts and greater investment to creating content for this country.
If our sales in Lithuania are very residual, it may not be worth it for us to generate original content in Lithuanian.
Step 2: Prepare your content and translate it
Attention: When we talk about preparing your content, we are talking about quality content.
We have reached what many call “content shock” or “infoxication”.
More and more professionals have adopted this type of strategy, so the Internet is flooded with content.
This saturation has made many of us start to become “immune” to all this information on offer.
Every day we see dozens of emails with blog articles, pop-ups offering us free ebooks, advertisements for product webinars, but few of them manage to catch our attention.
Quality content has therefore become more important than ever.
If you are defining a content strategy - whether international or not - it is not worth publishing the same article that has already been published on 50 other blogs.
Finding new topics is difficult, but you can try to find new approaches or delve deeper into aspects that have already been discussed.
Remember that if you are going to publish in several countries, you will need to do this initial research independently.
How to translate your content?
Content translation is essential in an international strategy.
If you have native professionals on staff, you can use them to generate original content.
However, translating is not as easy as it seems.
We recommend that you look for a translation agency that has experienced native professionals.
Step 3: Spread it
A content marketing strategy would be meaningless without proper content promotion.
When applying it to an international environment, we will have to take into account several things:
One channel does not apply to all countries
When talking about dissemination, the most common thing is to think of social media, although there are other promotion channels such as newsletters, it is very possible that social networks are key in an international content strategy .
And if we want to reach several countries, we have to take several things into account.
Although Facebook is predominant, the truth is that each social network has a specific penetration in each territory.
There are even countries where they use social networks that have nothing to do with those we are used to.
In the following image we can see the most used social networks worldwide:
International content marketing strategy - Map of social networks
The perfect social network will depend a lot on our business and our type of client, but do some research before jumping into one or the other.
Language and social media
Today, the main social networks offer the following possibilities:
Facebook
Facebook does allow you to make the same post in multiple languages.
When making a post, we will see the option “Write the post in another language” and by clicking on it, we will be able to select the language we want and write the translated text.
Once we publish, users will see the post in the language their social network has set to.
International content marketing strategy - Facebook
Twitter
Twitter does not offer the possibility of translating the same post into several languages, so we have two options: write everything in the same language (usually English) or create a specific account for each country (Example: semrush_es or semrush_fr).
Instagram
Something similar happens on Instagram to Twitter.
This social network does not allow publishing in multiple languages, so we can publish everything in a single language or create an account per country.
Unlike Twitter, Instagram offers more space for text, which is why some companies choose to write text in two languages in one post.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers the option to segment an organic post so that it is only seen by a specific audience.
When making a post, you can click on “Post settings” / “Targeted audience”.
International content marketing strategy - LinkedIn
A window like the following will open:
International content marketing strategy - LinkedIn example
From this section you can segment who you want this publication to appear to.
You can filter by language or location, which could help you get your content in front of the right people.
Please note that you will need to create a specific post for each language/region.
Therefore, when someone enters your profile and views all your posts, they will be able to see several in a row in different languages.
Step 4: Analyze and evolve
Any digital marketing strategy would be incomplete without a stage in which we analyze the results of our strategy.
Observe the results of each content, separately by country.
Depending on our business and the type of content (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU), the KPIs to monitor will vary.
If we are talking about a generic blog article, aimed at capturing traffic through SEO, we can review its CTR, average position in search engines, and bounce rate.
If, on the other hand, we are talking about an ebook available for download, we might be more interested in analyzing the number of leads generated.
All KPIs must be reviewed by country.
It will be at this point, and through trial and error, when we will see which content works best in each country, which to promote and which to stop using.
Conclusion
You'll have noticed that, in some ways, creating an international content strategy does not differ excessively from a strategy in a single country.
However, there are nuances that need to be taken into account and, above all, it is important to consider that each new country and language in which you want to launch your content will entail an extra workload (and financial investment) that you have to be able to assume.
It is better to expand little by little and create quality content than to launch a poorly defined campaign that does not generate the expected results.
After reading this article, are you considering designing an international content marketing strategy for your business?
Content marketing has been around for years now, no longer a trend but a reality.
I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, am I?
Companies and marketing professionals around the world use this strategy to reach, attract and retain potential customers.
The 2017 numbers didn't lie and 2018 is also on track to become a good year for content marketing.
According to a study conducted by PointVisible , 91% of B2B marketing professionals use a content strategy.
In B2C, the figure is not much lower: 86% say they are equally committed to this discipline.
In this situation, companies have to face many challenges.
They need to know their buyer persona, produce content constantly, try to reach as many customers as possible and, if they are present in several countries, they must do all this in different languages and thinking about very different cultures.
It is on this last aspect that I will focus in this article.
Developing an international content marketing strategy is a project that many professionals face and there are many aspects that are important for you to take into account.
To do this, I'm going to guide you, step by step, through the different stages you'll need to go through in order to successfully create content for multiple cultures.
Ready?
Here we go.
Steps to design an international content marketing strategy
Step 1: Define your strategy
An international content strategy encompasses many aspects to take into account, however, the main and most important is the localization of your content.
Glocal is the new Global - Glocal is the new Global
The first step in any content marketing strategy , whether international or not, is to know your buyer persona and when we change countries, this precept remains the same.
The world is enormously heterogeneous.
The European continent alone, with several dozen countries, is anything but a homogeneous market.
Dozens of languages, religions, customs, expectations…
Every country is unique and what might be perfectly valid in Germany could be a huge email list singapore mistake in Poland, even though both countries share a border.
Therefore, the first step is to know your client.
When creating an international strategy, it is not enough to translate a single piece of content and stop there.
Localization comes into play. Localizing content means adapting it to the needs of each country, making the reader feel that you have created it with them in mind.
This localization can be at the level of texts, design, and any other aspect that we consider relevant.
This is where the “glocal” concept comes from: in order to be global, we have to know how to adapt to the local needs of each country.
Let's take an example of company localization: do you know the brand El Tenedor?
Until recently I thought that El Tenedor was a Spanish company, however, on a trip abroad I realized that this was not the case.
The way this company “localized” itself was by changing its name according to the country in which it was located:
International Content Marketing Strategy - Example
This way, potential customers feel that it is a local, close company that knows the market in which it operates.
How do we bring localization to content?
Don't worry!
You don't have to change your brand name or make any major decisions.
If we take “localization” to the day-to-day of content, it can be something as simple as not talking about Three Kings Day (which doesn’t exist there) if you’re targeting the US market, or keeping in mind that the date of Father’s Day varies depending on the country you’re targeting.
Similarly, if we publish an article about a study carried out on Italian citizens, Germans may not be interested.
If we make a joke about the “showbiz” in our country, it is more than likely that people in the neighboring country will not understand it.
Believe it or not, these types of details, which seem so simple, are not always taken into account.
Many brands translate their content in an almost automated way and without considering the reality of each client.
Do we vary the content format depending on the country?
When defining your international content strategy, the format you use is also very important.
Yes, the blog is an almost standard tool for all companies, but there are dozens of options that we can use:
Blog posts.
Product webinars .
Ebooks.
Infographics .
Newsletters.
Quizzes.
And more.
Depending on the country we are in, some content may work better than others.
Although we should always make the most of what we have done and “recycle” it (adapting it as much as possible), we do have to keep in mind that sometimes we may have to create specific content for a particular country.
A content strategy aligned with your business objectives
As you can see, creating an international content strategy requires an investment of time and money.
We will have to localize our content, sometimes even creating it in different formats depending on the country we are targeting.
Our content strategy should be closely aligned with our business objectives.
If our main market is France, it would be logical for us to devote more efforts and greater investment to creating content for this country.
If our sales in Lithuania are very residual, it may not be worth it for us to generate original content in Lithuanian.
Step 2: Prepare your content and translate it
Attention: When we talk about preparing your content, we are talking about quality content.
We have reached what many call “content shock” or “infoxication”.
More and more professionals have adopted this type of strategy, so the Internet is flooded with content.
This saturation has made many of us start to become “immune” to all this information on offer.
Every day we see dozens of emails with blog articles, pop-ups offering us free ebooks, advertisements for product webinars, but few of them manage to catch our attention.
Quality content has therefore become more important than ever.
If you are defining a content strategy - whether international or not - it is not worth publishing the same article that has already been published on 50 other blogs.
Finding new topics is difficult, but you can try to find new approaches or delve deeper into aspects that have already been discussed.
Remember that if you are going to publish in several countries, you will need to do this initial research independently.
How to translate your content?
Content translation is essential in an international strategy.
If you have native professionals on staff, you can use them to generate original content.
However, translating is not as easy as it seems.
We recommend that you look for a translation agency that has experienced native professionals.
Step 3: Spread it
A content marketing strategy would be meaningless without proper content promotion.
When applying it to an international environment, we will have to take into account several things:
One channel does not apply to all countries
When talking about dissemination, the most common thing is to think of social media, although there are other promotion channels such as newsletters, it is very possible that social networks are key in an international content strategy .
And if we want to reach several countries, we have to take several things into account.
Although Facebook is predominant, the truth is that each social network has a specific penetration in each territory.
There are even countries where they use social networks that have nothing to do with those we are used to.
In the following image we can see the most used social networks worldwide:
International content marketing strategy - Map of social networks
The perfect social network will depend a lot on our business and our type of client, but do some research before jumping into one or the other.
Language and social media
Today, the main social networks offer the following possibilities:
Facebook does allow you to make the same post in multiple languages.
When making a post, we will see the option “Write the post in another language” and by clicking on it, we will be able to select the language we want and write the translated text.
Once we publish, users will see the post in the language their social network has set to.
International content marketing strategy - Facebook
Twitter does not offer the possibility of translating the same post into several languages, so we have two options: write everything in the same language (usually English) or create a specific account for each country (Example: semrush_es or semrush_fr).
Something similar happens on Instagram to Twitter.
This social network does not allow publishing in multiple languages, so we can publish everything in a single language or create an account per country.
Unlike Twitter, Instagram offers more space for text, which is why some companies choose to write text in two languages in one post.
LinkedIn offers the option to segment an organic post so that it is only seen by a specific audience.
When making a post, you can click on “Post settings” / “Targeted audience”.
International content marketing strategy - LinkedIn
A window like the following will open:
International content marketing strategy - LinkedIn example
From this section you can segment who you want this publication to appear to.
You can filter by language or location, which could help you get your content in front of the right people.
Please note that you will need to create a specific post for each language/region.
Therefore, when someone enters your profile and views all your posts, they will be able to see several in a row in different languages.
Step 4: Analyze and evolve
Any digital marketing strategy would be incomplete without a stage in which we analyze the results of our strategy.
Observe the results of each content, separately by country.
Depending on our business and the type of content (TOFU, MOFU, BOFU), the KPIs to monitor will vary.
If we are talking about a generic blog article, aimed at capturing traffic through SEO, we can review its CTR, average position in search engines, and bounce rate.
If, on the other hand, we are talking about an ebook available for download, we might be more interested in analyzing the number of leads generated.
All KPIs must be reviewed by country.
It will be at this point, and through trial and error, when we will see which content works best in each country, which to promote and which to stop using.
Conclusion
You'll have noticed that, in some ways, creating an international content strategy does not differ excessively from a strategy in a single country.
However, there are nuances that need to be taken into account and, above all, it is important to consider that each new country and language in which you want to launch your content will entail an extra workload (and financial investment) that you have to be able to assume.
It is better to expand little by little and create quality content than to launch a poorly defined campaign that does not generate the expected results.
After reading this article, are you considering designing an international content marketing strategy for your business?