They say hello, hola, bonjour
Lacking a physical presence in a region can be challenging for business growth, but there are core strategies to ensure success. It’s crucial to appear local to effectively engage with a target audience and establish your place in the local market. Here, Richard Stone, founder of international PR agency, Stone Junction, explains the importance of appearing local within an international PR campaign.
Whether you’re an already-established global company or a smaller business that’s seeking to market itself overseas, you’ll need a PR strategy that considers the nuances of each region. Of course, translating globally relevant content into local languages is key, but to truly appear local, there are additional considerations that need to be made.
Bridging language barriers
To successfully reach local audiences in different regions, translating content is key. But it’s not always simple. Take Spanish as an example. It’s spoken by 486 million native speakers, and is the official language of 20 countries. With that sort of reach, some level of language development and the formation of dialects is a given. The Spanish spoken in Mexico is not the same as the Spanish spoken in Spain. While the majority of formal language is the same, there are plenty of grammatical differences — like the use of the “tú” form of verbs, versus “vosotros” or even the “vos” form found in Rioplatense Spanish.
If you’re working with content that’s a little less serious too, it’s important to consider the word differences. South America’s geographical proximity to the US means that a lot of the colloquially spoken words do have an English influence. For example, you wouldn’t hear a car referred to as “coche”, like you would in Spain, but instead, you’d be likely to hear the phrase “carro”.
If you’re seriously trying to tap into a market and appear local, it’s important to consider this and ensure your translations are in the correct dialect for the market you’re targeting. When potential customers encounter content in their native language, using their local dialect, they are more likely to engage and develop trust with the brand.
It's not just language
Every market has its unique nuances — there are certain industries that are more prevalent in some countries more than others, and an entire geographical and political landscape to consider. From a brand perspective, this not only affects sales focuses, but also directs the content and themes that will be relevant in marketing material.
Take the example of the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. While this is a topic that is relevant globally, the different deadlines for each country, and what type of vehicles are covered, mean the story’s relevancy and its solutions are different for each region, depending on its energy landscape.
If a company has a base in the target region, this is easier.
A PR strategy should include time for experts to speak with the local contacts to understand the situation on the ground, gauge what global content could be relevant and adaptable to this market, and also include enough tactics to craft content based around local stories that speak directly to the target audience.
If this is an untapped market, or there’s no local contacts there, appearing local isn’t impossible. A hyper focused campaign that includes content covering some of the key issues affecting the target region can still prove a company’s understanding of a region and how their product or service is relevant to the market. This helps to position them as experts, despite a lack of physical presence.
Understanding local media
While businesses may be able to provide an understanding of local markets, getting that content into the media requires the support of PR experts, with sound knowledge of the mechanics of local media globally.
Working with an expert international PR partner that knows the media and language well helps to get that localised content out there. At Stone Junction we combine in-house language fluency with strong media relations across the world, enabling us to generate relevant content to wherever and whoever you need it to reach.
To succeed in the global marketplace, businesses must recognise the value of appearing local. It’s an essential step to engaging with that target audience —whether in the same town, or on the other side of the world.
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