Have you contemplated, or are you expanding into the German market?
An important consideration would be to build a website or some landing pages for your German audience. Creating a website in the native language of your target audience does not only offer the benefits of the consumers being given information in their native language, but it will also help and support your marketing efforts, especially with Google Ads.
Many companies make the mistake of just translating the English copy senselessly, or sometimes, even worse, letting their UK site be translated by the Google Translate plug-in. This results in poor and often wrong content, leaving your brand exposed to criticism from consumers and customers, jeopardising your brand’s credibility.
Find out why merely translating your website will harm your brand and what you should do instead.
German Website Translation
Localise and be authentic
Translating your content, word-by-word will result in it losing authenticity and the ability to relate to your audience. It is essential to adapt your content and website so your customers can build an emotional connection and identify themselves with your brand.
German is a complex language with many different phrases and words and cannot be substituted with the English language. Both languages are very different and have their own ‘quirks’, which must be considered when wanting to deliver copy successfully and engage your customers.
Don’t fall into the trap of stereotypes
It is easy to relate to stereotypes when thinking about countries that are not your own, jumping on topics that you think will relate well to your audience, yet those are far from the truth.
Having a German on the team, it is fairly obvious that ‘sausages and beer’ do not trigger her enthusiasm or engagement. You may think of those items when you think about Germany, yet they are not what Germans solely stand for; instead, there are so many other fantastic things.
Take your time in establishing your buyer personas and ensure that you target your audience with the right content and key messages that will relate to them. Stay away from generic and directly translated content.
Test your knowledge with our
German Expressions quiz
Tailored web and content services
As discussed above, direct translations are not the best approach when looking to expand into a German, or any new, market.
Instead, what you should be focusing on is having one marketing strategy in which the copy and the content feed into one. Of course, the content has to be translated, but it should be done in a way that is growth-driven and attracts the right leads. To be able to do this, ideally, you need someone with marketing experience as well as a German background to master both the language elements and marketing strategy perfectly together.
Here at ExtraDigital, you not only have access to an in-house German native marketer, but you have access to an experienced marketing team that has the expertise in language, marketing and web development.
Would you like to know more? Get in touch and we'll be happy to answer any questions you have or make recommendations on the best approach to connect with your German audience.
