5 trends in 2024 & their impact when expanding your business to Germany

5 trends in 2024 & their impact when expanding your business to Germany

Trends form their way into our lives and can influence, change, inspire, frustrate, or amuse us. It is definitely not necessary to chase after each trend, I prefer to observe the pattern in general and get more insights from what guides those patterns. However, in business, I don’t ignore the Zeitgeist (lit. translation: the spirit of the time) but I like to add my spin to it, and I relate them to my customers who plan to or already do business in English and German.

In the report you can read about 5 trends this year and what they mean for translating your website, app, marketing material, email campaigns, etc., followed by how we integrate them at Translations on Purpose to support clients now – because customer experience is still the number one for us business professionals, right!?

 

Supercharge marketing and draw German visitors your way

My recent project was the translation of a flyer for a local tourist bureau. It was an abstract of the county with essential info “on a glance” for individual travelers and groups, for travel agencies and business travelers. What was so special about?

By itself or on top of other international business outreach, such a flyer is an effective step to initiate outreach activity and communication with foreign tourists, travel agencies and international (local) companies.

The multi-purpose of a beautifully designed, written and translated flyer is countless.

Here are just a view ideas on its multi-use:

  • post it on your website for your foreign website visitors to get an individualized Welcome in their language
  • post it to Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. to show your openness to other cultures
  • send the flyer per email as outreach to foreign language tourist bureaus
  • send the flyer within the response email to received inquiries from visitors of that language (hint: even when they inquire in your language)
  • print flyer and hang it up in the local tourism office or other bureaus/convention centers/chambers of commerce for foreign by-passers
  • send the flyer to international companies who meet with international clients and associations

…get creative and write further ideas in the comments below

 

What is the essential info that best presents your region, county, city, etc. at a glance?

There are view elements that just sums it up far and wide:

  • a simplified (illustrated) map of the city/region/county/state…
  • a few key info of that city, region, etc. – a paragraph fast to read and crap attention
  • a bullet point list of the attractions close by and further away
  • graphics of local photographer(s) with credits
  • a contact person, title, address, website, phone number
  • social media info
  • a list of annual special events
  • a table with neighboring cities and areas, the distances and the driving times

and finally: A call to action – request a kit, a brochure, etc. and a #hashtag for social networks buzz

 

A graphically attractive flyer with useful info is not only business-friendly, it also is cost and time efficient because you can use it year after year after year.

In your favorite graphics tool, such as In-Design, Publisher or Canva (even the comprehensive free version is sufficient), create a template that integrates all your brand elements. After the initial flyer is completed with all info and graphics, in the following year, you only need to update specific info such as events, possibly attractions and graphic artists and such.

Translators are using tools to be efficient with their translation. If you are working with the same translator or agency, you might get fee reductions due to existing translations and recycling of previous translations (more about in a next blog post where I elaborate on the human species “translators” and how to work with them).

It is one step, maybe the first, maybe the only step to reaching out to foreign tourists in their language and make them feel welcome! Imagine the ripples this one gesture can make.

With that, go create this one or two page flyer of your region or property and we can help you translate it into German language.

21 Ways to Get Known, Liked and Trusted Internationally

21 Ways to Get Known, Liked and Trusted Internationally

Most business owners and marketing and sales executives don’t listen to their customers or communicate with them – unless those customers speak some English.

Many proudly announce themselves as a global company but when it comes to language translation and providing information in the foreign audiences’ native language, the answers I receive are less inclusive.

Did you know that over 50% of internet users at a research study said they would not buy a product online if the information is not presented in their native language?

The world is getting smaller, calling, emailing, messaging, and traveling goes faster across the globe. Websites are born internationally and can pop up in search engines globally, right? Advertisement algorithms are so sophisticated and social media is reaching every worldly corner to post easily. With reviews and social proof everybody can find the best options. But does this global access creates enough trust in consumers to pop in their credit card info and click buy?

Today, everybody can make themselves known, liked and trusted – so important to make sales and good profits. Many companies simply ignore the importance of making their content available in their customers’ language(s) and initiating two-way-conversations.

Don’t let the language barrier scare you and let sales slip away.

Here you can find 21 ways to master the Know-Like-Trust factor to make yourself found and known and liked and trusted beyond your immediate fan circle and become a real international company – and making more sales overseas.

Stand out and become KNOWN with the following strategies:

  1. Get clear on your audience: Same as in your country, define your target audience or narrow down and focus on a group to test the waters of foreign language communication.
  2. Learn some customs and cultural significances of that target audience (such as holidays, gestures and logistic exceptions).
  3. Translate relevant content pieces for that target audience in their native language.
  4. Translate your lead magnet into the target country language to stand out with your offer. And not only that, you get email addresses in exchange and can potentially communicate directly.
  5. Interview an expert of that country, translate the questions and answers.
  6. Write a guest blog for a relevant blog in that country (translate your guest post).
  7. Not just translate keywords and SEO-alt-tags – allow some research to adopt them to your business and goals, so the right people can find you.

 

Following are ways to make yourself ‘LIKED’ beyond that ‘like’ button

  1. Respond to reviews (in the reviewer’s language) to make them feel heart.
  2. Build relationships and engage actively to nurture likeability (in their language – yes, find this translator to partner and be your voice in another language).
  3. Show your face, be visible – even with subtitles on videos, people can relate better that way.
  4. Be nice, be customer service … yes, in German, French or the language that your customers speak
  5. Listen – research – ask questions in their language.
  6. Consider traveling in a foreign country and get in person with your Likers and Fans
  7. Attend international events outside your native country

 

Trust, being TRUSTED, the secret ingredient for people to buy into your services or products

  1. Don’t disappoint or frustrate your website visitors – deliver what you promise or communicate what is in their language and what not
  2. Be consistent: even if you can’t translate your complete brand, marketing material, etc. – yet show consistency across one channel
  3. Post those foreign language testimonials
  4. Translate one or so case studies to show your expertise
  5. Don’t use Machine Translation uncontrolled
  6. Translate at least key elements such as shopping carts, show their currencies
  7. Offer guarantees and trials (translate that info)

Yes, all those ways mostly relate to and involve strategically translating your voice, your message, your copy, your brand into your customers’ native language.

Is that approach new to you? Did you think about but are not sure how and where to start? Are you not trusting Google Translate (that’s in most cases a good thing) or even not any human translator to find your voice in another language? Are the costs of translating your content too high?

Our website and blog is dedicated almost entirely to shine a light on the aspects of growing your business beyond borders, communicating authentically with your foreign language audience, getting more customers and making more sales.

Come back regularly or stay in touch with signing up for our newsletter Translation-Marketing-Connection on language translation and marketing beyond borders.

Bilingual Calendar Shenanigans

Bilingual Calendar Shenanigans

Currently, I am planning our trip to Europe this summer. We will be traveling to Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Czech Republic to visit family, doing some research and business.
But mostly, we will be in Germany. A close ally with lots of travel planning experience is my mother in Germany. The first thing she told me was to check the German holidays and school break schedule as those days and weeks would influence prices, possible reservation needed for popular destinations, transportation, and crowdedness in trains, planes and on the Autobahn. And that schedule is not uniform in all Germany. German public holidays, except for the German Unity Day, are determined by the federal states (“Bundesländer”), however, school holiday breaks may vary from region to region.

 

Following are very handy websites for getting informed about those dates.

 

In English:

 

Und in Deutsch:

 

You also should take those days well in consideration when doing business in Germany. Yes, for traveling to Germany but also for planning on
  • launching a new product or service,
  • having an email campaign where you like to engage Germans in Germany, or
  • holding international meetings – online or offline on site –
to name just a few other occasions.

 

Just call me at this time, my time.

“So I message a millennial blogger I am working with. I ask her what her Skype is so we can chat and which time zone she is in. She says,’Hey I am in Cali, I have never heard of Tel Aviv and no idea where it is, so just call me at this time, my time.’ ” (Facebook post by Keren Brown)

With guests, customers and colleagues around the world, this answer is no longer acceptable. Yes, it can be challenging sometimes to coordinate meetings and communication with people on the other side of the globe but with a bit of geography and organization, you easily can get a hold of it.

What is a time zone? A time zone is a region where the same standard local time is used.
The local time within a time zone is the difference, the time offset, from the world’s time standard Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This offset is displayed as UTC- or UTC+ plus the number of hours and minutes.
Matters get a little complicated when we have to calculate in the Daylight Savings Time (DST) which is not applied at the same time (or not at all) in the various time zones.

The local time zone names are linked to a geographic landmark of the particular country or region and can be different in various regions of the same time zone. With that, different regions with the same UTC offset can have different names, such as Miami, Florida which is in Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Havana, Cuba, which is also UTC-5, with its local Cuba Standard Time (CST).
To make it more confusing, there are various identical abbreviations, such as IST – India Standard Time (UTC+5:30) vs. IST – Israel Standard Time (UTC+2).

There are also 25 military time zones, they are named after the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie…), they are used in aviation, at sea, and in communication.

There are various websites that help you get a hold of this complex topic.
My favorite website is www.timeanddate.com, it has all you need to completely understand this system (I refrain from saying “understanding time”, that would be a different post, if you like) coordinate time differences for meetings and have fun with them.