THE MARKETING FUNNEL

How multilingual marketing works in practice

The principle of the marketing funnel is based on the premise that cold prospects enter at the very top, and are guided down the funnel towards the point of sale. An initial enquiry turns into a warm prospect, which turns into a qualified lead, which turns into in a sale. Along the way, all the non-serious prospects are filtered out until you are left with a smaller number of actual sales coming out at the bottom.

The number of sales made, in relation to the number of initial enquiries, is known as the conversion ratio. For example, if you have one sale for every twenty enquiries, then your conversion ratio is 5%. In order to plan an effective marketing campaign, a business should know how their funnel operates at all the different levels, and what the overall conversion ratio is at the end.

Under the marketing funnel principle, there are only two ways a business can develop and grow; either by increasing the number of prospects entering the funnel at point-of-interest, or by improving the conversion ratio through improved sales strategies.

The internet is now regarded as the most commonly used entry point for any sales funnel. When someone finds your site online, you have the chance to influence their decision and lead them towards a sale. However, if your website is only written in English, then the only people who can find you are those who search the net in English, and that severely restricts the impact that your business can have.

Fact: 99% of people search the internet in their native language.

English language web sites can only reach out to 16.6% of EU consumers. Localising web site copy into German, French, Spanish and Italian makes a site visible to 74.1% of the European online population and gives you a market presence in all the major European economic regions.

Multilingual marketing works by broadening the sales funnel at the point-of-interest, therefore increasing the number of potential customers entering the sales stream. It does this by turning your web site into a powerful international marketing tool.

Multilingual marketing using a European web site can generate a five fold increase in the number of customers entering your sales funnel, resulting in a significant increase in new customer acquisitions and an overall improvement in brand awareness across the EU.

For many years, this type of international marketing campaign was the preserve of the large multinationals, but technology advances, and web site leasing options, are now allowing businesses of all sizes to expand into lucrative European markets in a professional, cost effective manner.

In today's business environment, multilingual marketing can give you the competitive advantage you need to generate long term business growth.

For information about where to start, please feel free to contact us