International trade

The European Union is a prime example of a free trade zone, where many of the regulatory barriers have now been removed in order to stimulate cross border trade. The only real remaining barrier to success within the EU is that of language.

Therefore, without an effective multilingual marketing campaign, export efforts can be largely ineffective. At Aspect7, the majority of our work tends to focus on opening up the European market for British based organisations, but many have reservations about marketing themselves in this way as they have limited in-house language skills to deal with the subsequent increase in international enquiries.

However, the point of multilingual marketing is not so that you can do business with foreign clients is their language, but is about bringing overseas customers to your website to do business with you in English. The English language is widely regarded as the international language of commerce, but people will always use their native language to conduct initial product research. Catching the attention of the potential buyer at this research stage is crucial if you are to convert them into customers.

People scan text more quickly in their own language and this speeds up the information gathering and decision making processes; this is where multilingual information about your company and your products gives a clear and tangible competitive advantage. If a potential client is looking for you, then make it easier for them to find you. People need to know who you are and what you can offer before they take the next steps.