Picture your company as a tree. The roots are the foundation, what you did to build your image and the company itself. Then you developed the trunk; your company began to grow and become stronger in order to withstand the harsh corporate winter. Now that spring has arrived, in what direction do you want your branches to grow?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We heard that your business is growing a lot. Congratulations!! After all that hard work, you deserve it. The next step is\u2026 to keep growing. Once you\u2019ve set down your roots in your own country, the best idea is to look for opportunities to extend your reach and internationalize your business<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In one of our earlier articles\u00a0we talked about how to\u00a0internationalize your business and the benefits that come with it. And today we\u2019re bringing you\u00a04 key points you need to know<\/strong>\u00a0to begin the process of growing your business abroad from a linguistic and translation point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First and foremost, your products and services need to reach future customers and prospects abroad. How? Well, in whatever language they speak. If you want to expand your company to France but your website is in Italian, any potential French customer isn\u2019t going to stick around for long. People tend to have little patience and need everything given to them pre-chewed. And in their own language of course!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your number one priority is to translate all of your content, and when we say all, we mean EVERYTHING: products, services, contact information, privacy and cookies policies, FAQs, etc. Don\u2019t leave anything untranslated because it may make your company look highly unprofessional. You know what else might make you look unprofessional? A website with low-quality machine translations. Big companies know that having multiple language options to choose from is crucial for their international image. Some companies, such as Amazon, identify which products are likely to have the highest sales abroad and translate them into all possible languages. Others, like Netflix, have multi-language dubbing and subtitle options for their content according to user preferences. In short, translate and conquer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are, however, some interesting alternatives to content translation, like Ikea assembly instructions. It\u2019s a very simple, yet efficient strategy. Instead of surrounding the product with text in numerous languages, get rid of the text altogether. Instructions for assembling Ikea furniture are purely visual; by only using pictures they eliminate the need for text. With this approach, anyone can understand the instructions regardless of their language. That being said, this strategy won\u2019t work for all companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s extremely important to analyze your new target market. What worked in one place doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to work the same way in another. A lot of products fail miserably as soon as they leave our borders. You don\u2019t see a big market for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches outside of the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ever heard of 100M in the U.S.? Not likely. The Spanish chain of cervecer\u00edas<\/em> tried to expand to the States in 2011 and ended up filing for bankruptcy. Their mini sandwiches had mini-success and their business model just didn\u2019t transfer well to the U.S. market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Get Closer to the Rest of The World<\/strong>:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Watch Out for Cultural Barriers:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n