by Katrin Rippel Galati | Jan 5, 2017 | Content Marketing translated, Trends & Events translated
It’s the beginning of the year and, although you are in momentum and swing of following your international business strategy, it’s a good idea to review your website, marketing, and sales statistics and see if your strategy needs adjustment. Yes, it is most likely part of your processes anyway, yet when things work well and we see some daily sales and visitors, a detailed review might get a not so close look. Following are a few questions to ask yourself:
Are the foreign visitors of my website proportional still the same or do I get visitors from a market that I haven’t considered yet?
Is my landing/sales page for my freebie, products or newsletter still performing the same or should you test some changes in content/design?
How active are the people interacting with your activities on social media, or should you create a challenge, webinar or specific info to boost activity and sign-up?
What are developments in your targeted foreign market(s)?
Are there special events you should consider attending, sponsoring, speaking at?
Being specific even in times of good progression can result in small changes that can result in big shifts. Always find 1 to 5 adjustments to your strategy to guaranty growth.
Related post on the blog:
What is the most profitable foreign market for my business?
Want to receive the international sales tips in your inbox? Just get them here:
by Katrin Rippel Galati | Dec 13, 2016 | Trends & Events translated
As my plans for spending two months of the Summer 2017 in my native Germany, my loved France, my married into Italy and my personal study Switzerland, I am starting to get nervous about my language skills.
There are no worries with German as I use it on a daily basis with my work, associates and colleagues, and my family. Although, I for sure will learn new lingo-slango in the streets and at events over there.
My fluent French after having lived there 6 years, on the other hand, didn’t have much practice lately. And I never learned Italian and would love to talk some more to my parents in law.
With that, I set up an account in Duolingo, a free language-learning platform that includes a language-learning website and app. I decided to integrate the refreshing of my French and the learning of Italian into my daily life, few minutes a day.
You plan to do business overseas? Or selling a digital product there? Why not getting started to learn some of that language. And especially if you have a profession that puts you on the forefront with communicating with European customers, guests, tourists. I wrote a post just about that.
If you like, join me on Duolingo, my username is KatrinRG. See you on the flip-side?
by Translations on Purpose | Aug 24, 2015 | Translation Strategy done!, Trends & Events translated
“Taxi drivers should learn the basics of one or two other languages in order to be able to communicate with foreign tourists.”
Earlier this year, I had shared a link on Facebook to an article about a speech at a Taxi Association division meeting. It said further “Taxi drivers are among the frontliners in the tourism industry. You should equip yourselves with basic language skills so that you can at least greet tourists and ask where they want to go in their own language.”
I couldn’t forget this article and how right it was in its saying that basics of other languages would also improve quality of their service besides helping to boost the tourism industry. It was so obvious. And I started pondering which other professions are frontliners in the tourism industry. Here is what I came up with:
Hotel Receptionists
Restaurant Waiters/Waitresses
Taxi Drivers
Hotel Concierges
City Bus Drivers
Restaurant Hosts/Hostesses
Tour Guides
Tourism Information Center Staff
I am sure there are more…. Let us know!
Although Tourism is the fourth-largest industry in Washington, we became last year the only state in the US with no statewide tourism office and no money from the state to promote our state to travelers. The Washington Tourism Alliance was formed to coordinate state wide marketing and continue branding efforts and take over existing assets, such as Washington’s fabulous state website. We all have it now in our own hands!
Let’s all do something to help boost tourism!
by Katrin Rippel Galati | May 18, 2010 | Trends & Events translated
“Internationalization and branding of a tourism city” was the theme of the International Tourism City Forum 2010 which was held in Sofitel Hangzhou, China. 18 countries from around the world where represented at this forum. This conference was sponsored by the International Tourism Marketing Association (ITMA).
ITMA started in Beijing in March 2007 and since then has built a professional international level marketing service. With that they help tourism businesses with marketing planning, image building, tourism promotion, festivals and celebrations, etc. ITMA created and is involved in yearly major international conferences.
“The important trend for world tourism development is internationally convergence and integration. International marketing has become an important way for tourism destination. Language becomes the first obstacles when it comes to international tourism marketing and internet becomes the best tool to depend on. How to use internet to spread image and information for tourism destination? How to use multilingual platform to inform the target tourists’ countries?” (read more… )
ITMA owns now a multilingual international website, www.itmacom.com, which offers content in Chinese, English, Korean, Japanese, Russian, German, French, Arabic and Spanish.
Excited, I went to the website and clicked on all the pages in different languages. Well, it seems to be a work in process, as I couldn’t access any foreign language info except for some English. I was very fascinated by the global multilingual vision I read on ITMA’s info website, yet really disappointed in seeing the poor integration upon reviewing the website. This is a really good example that it is important that you do what you promise to your website visitors. You don’t have to integrate your whole vision at once, you can start with an i.e. one page summary in the foreign language, or translate the most important pages and inform your visitors when clickable content leads to non native pages. You show respect this way, and don’t lose your credibility. I will revisit ITMA’s website in few months, maybe.
by Katrin Rippel Galati | Sep 4, 2009 | Trends & Events translated
This time being in Beautiful British Columbia, I passed Vancouver and continued driving Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, up to Whistler, the Host Mountain Resort of the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games. Filled with utmost curiosity I was off to an event in Whistler’s Rebagliati Park where I would participate in celebrating the “connection between farm and fork” with a Feast in the Mountains!
In this inaugural year of Feast in the Mountains the Chefs represent Whistler’s brightest culinary talents and some of the finest BC beverages.
With the wine glass and a menu received at the entrance, I walked from booth to booth various times, tasting
beautiful arranged tidbits of food in the order they appealed to my palate (and personal sense of menu order). While taking my time, I ventured to the quieter booths of the producers of that bounty. “Amongst the beauty of these mountains lie fertile lands that have long produced food for this valley and beyond. Upon that land a small number of committed farmers toil without glamour or acclaim to ensure the integrity of our food chain. This event is inspired by them – their commitment in the face of great challenges, their passion for the land that sustains us”, writes Astrid Cameron, Co-founder/Co-producer of Feast in the Mountains.
Furthermore, several organizations were represented; I encourage you to check them out:
Slow Food, an international organization that was founded in 1986 as a response to the standardizing effects of fast food and the fast life. It supports good, clean and fair food. Ocean Wise, Canada’s leading sustainable seafood restaurant program, Green Table, a network of sustainable foodservice and their suppliers in the greater Vancouver, BC area (although foodservices from elsewhere are welcome), and Farm Folk/City Folk, an organization that connects farm and city and that focuses on cultivating a local, sustainable food system.
I really liked the relaxed atmosphere full of laughter that comes along naturally with good quality food and drink (especially in an outside setting). Yes, it was a great feast in the mountains – and also a conscious one that celebrated the whole food chain and gives dining out again a meaning of true hospitality.
Find all pictures taken at this event at our flickr site
