Podcast: Marketing roll out from global to local

Global B2B companies regularly face the major challenge of getting country-level approval for the worldwide campaign and implementing it efficiently across all regions and markets. If you are struggling with how to expand content from your global account to local markets, you should listen to this episode with Alexander and Charlotte.

Localisation is a comprehensive process that involves adapting content, products and services to the requirements of specific local markets. Localisation is much more than translating texts.

The translation is about transferring a text into another language while retaining the meaning.

Localisation, on the other hand, involves much more. Localisation also includes, for example, adapting images or colours, formatting, user interfaces or designs.

In our discussion, we speak about:

• What are the biggest challenges of localisation in 18 different markets?
• What is the composition of the teams?
• What should you consider before starting the project?
• Tips and what to consider when localising to different markets

Also, listen to the episode to get more tips on Digital project management.

I hope you enjoy this episode. Find the links to The Onlinification Pod on the leading platforms and the transcription of today's episode below.

Get in touch with us if you want us to advise you on your company's localisation.

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Transcription

AE: [00:00:00:16] Hi, and welcome to the Onlinification Pod, a podcast produced by Zooma. I'm Alex, your host. If you're struggling with how to roll out marketing activities from your global account to local markets, this is the episode to listen to. The guest today is Charlotte, product manager here at Zooma and she has tons of experience of marketing rollouts. So I really hope you enjoyed this episode. So now it's time to roll the jingle.

AE: [00:00:39:14] So in this episode, we're going to talk about marketing localisation. And we can start off by asking you to define what do we refer to when we talk about marketing localisation in this episode?

CB: [00:01:00:10] Well, in general, I would say that marketing localisation is when you have certain content pieces, it can be a blog post, it can be an entire website, it can be emails or whatever that you have in one language. And you need to make it available for another market or for another language. But in this episode, in specific, I will talk about around a customer and a project that I work with where we actually do specific content journeys containing blog posts, landing pages, thank you page, emails and everything around a content journey that we defined. Yep.

AE: [00:01:48:13] Yeah. So could you briefly explain this project that we will talk about?

CB: [00:01:54:23] Yeah. So we are working with a customer that we support and guide in creating a content journey on a regular basis. Meaning every month we present new content and we based our content first from English content, and then we meet 18 different markets where we present this content and want to make it a local version. And then the market needs to handle the translations themselves.

AE: [00:02:28:13] So. Okay, so you make one global version. And you publish that? That's for the global website?

CB: [00:02:37:09] Yes.

AE: [00:02:38:17] And then you make 18 local version

CB: [00:02:42:08] So what we do is that we have a blog post where the call to action leading to a landing page with a form leading to a thank you page. And then we connect that, of course, with emails like, thank you for downloading this content piece. But what we also do is that we handle all of these journals in a big framework. So, you know, when an individual downloads this content X number of days later, they receive a suggestion of the next journey. And then we use some kind of. What's that word then? Lead scoring model where we say, you know, now this contact has downloaded X number of pieces and now you are qualified for a sales qualified lead. So there's also, you know, localisation connected to all of these automation as well.

AE: [00:03:47:16] Yeah. And they use HubSpot.

CB: [00:03:50:04] They use HubSpot, for sure. Yes.

AE: [00:03:52:17] Yeah. And okay. So what are the main challenges? Like you  have been working with this for quite a while right now, so you probably are warmed up. And so but when you started this product, what was the main challenge?

CB: [00:04:13:01] Well, I would say that the main challenge is really to reach the goal of the cadence because we need to have the content out there on the digital Internet thingies on a monthly basis, meaning each new journey needs to be published every month. And also connected to that, it needs to be done correctly, meaning you cannot just publish it. You need to publish in a certain rhythm. You need to make sure that you have a call to action. You need to make sure that the workflows are alive and etc., etc.. So it's really about cadence, accuracy, but also that. All and everyone needs to understand that connected to this is also the volume of content and the time frame. So to get this rhythm, you need to have patience. You cannot do this for four months and then stop. You need to understand that. And that's one tricky part. And it's also tricky to get each market to do this on a regular basis every month. What we also do connect to this is to analyse, of course, hhow is everything performing? And based on that, we give recommendations. So we see that you lack two actions here and here. Please add that. So I would say that the main challenge is to get the market to prioritise all [00:06:00:00] of these tasks, to get the results that we want to achieve.

AE: [00:06:05:06] Yeah. And how big is your team managing this marketing localisation? What roles do you include in that team?

CB: [00:06:17:08] Well, it depends on what side you ask. We have a setup here at Zooma, which is me as the project manager. Then we have some HubSpot configurator, but also strategiest to guide the customer on is discontent going in the correct direction. That's from Zooma side. And then we work with the global team and they have a content manager, they have a project manager and also. How to say like a strategist or a boss on their side that makes sure that we keep the direction connected to the customer. And then each market that we talk to has at least one. I think that their common title is. Marketing specialist or something like that. They are used to working with automation tools, in this case, HubSpot. They are used to handling and understanding the content and they understand the importance of SEO and understanding that the content needs to be correct. So to say.

AE: [00:07:33:06] Yeah.

CB: [00:07:34:02] So the three different teams to handle the team, it's the Zooma team, it's the global team and then it's the local team.

AE: [00:07:43:17] And have you like to take the any like magic solution on how to get local markets to actually prioritise it.

CB: [00:07:55:23] Well, what we do and what we identified is that we really need to meet these people on a regular basis. To remind them, but also to be available to answer questions, because sometimes some parts is new. Sometimes they need to be reminded, but also be there for them to to guide them and support and help them. So what we do is that we have monthly calls, meaning we meet every month where we present the new content, answer questions, follow up and so on. And that's one our main thing. In between those monthly calls. We have a quick 15 minute standup. Normally 1 to 1, one from Zooma or one from there from the global team, meeting the local person just to, you know, share screen, show a certain thing or be there for them. And I would say that that's the. Best way to do it.

AE: [00:09:09:02] Yeah. And assume that a listener are now about to. They have like a global set of like marketing content pieces. And and they are about to localise it. What should they consider before, like structure or project like this?

CB: [00:09:35:10] Well, to be honest, they need to have respect of the time that it actually takes to. To handle localisation and content never stops. Right? So even if you don't have this blog journey set up. Content isn't fixed, it will change. So you really need to have the resources to handle the localisation and also the respect of. That it takes time because. Keyword is important and SEO is important too. So it's not like you can take the content from the global set up and just do a direct translation and push it out. You need to do some keyword research we identified and of course like everyone knows this, but the US English is not the same as the UK English. So the keyword that we identified for us is not the same as for UK. And sometimes it's even harder, you know, when you translate to, to German or to, to French because it's hard to identify the correct keyword. So you need to have respect on that, needs to be done properly. And what we do also to get. What we often say is that we need to serve everything on a silver plate to the local market. Meaning we need to package it. Well, we need to have a great folder structure where they know where to find different pieces. We need to deliver images to social media shares, everything like package in a specific way. So there's no questions, where do I find the correct things?

AE: [00:11:34:13] And then you mean we as the global marketing team.

CB: [00:11:38:19] I would say that we in this case is Zooma and the global marketing team in a super tight collaboration. And and also one key thing here and I don't know if that is in general, but I would assume so is the nomenclature of stuff. How do we name, document,  how do we name in HubSpot, the landing pages and the thank you pages and emails and such? Because if I want to compare how is journey a performing in different countries? It's easier if everything named the same way then I can easily filter out for Journey A. Even if I don't know the Greek language. If the nomenclature is the same in English, I can still identify the content. Yep.

AE: [00:12:31:14] Yep. And are there any other tips you want to share with our listeners related to marketing localisation?

CB: [00:12:42:22] One important thing to remember, and this is not my area, but I need to say it anyway, is when you do localisation of content, you need to remember to make sure that Google don't think this is duplicated content. There's techniques for that and it's handled different in different tools. So figure that out depending on what tool you have. But if you have a big company and you maybe in the same URL even or in different URLs and you're competing with each other, you need to make sure that it's not duplicate, its different content on different markets. That's one thing. One tip is make sure that everyone understands. What and why you are doing so. It's not something. Here's just another translation. I will just do it. It's important that they feel that it's important. The things that they do make a good plan. Of course. Have fun, because this is a possibility where you meet different people speaking different languages. So  it's it's a great fun. And of course, now I will take the opportunity to say that Trello is a great tool to use to handle the different tasks that needs to be done in the project.

AE: [00:14:16:13] And we have a previous episode where you and Elin talked about Trello.

CB: [00:14:21:18] Yes. So listen to that one as well.

AE: [00:14:25:03] One thing I was thinking about, like during these years when you have localised marketing content, has it's always been possible to to localise every content piece or are there any local culture differences which has. You know, is it is it possible to to to localise everything?

CB: [00:14:50:04] Yeah. So sometimes. You need to for example, we the company has the head office here in Europe. But we work with India, for example. They don't want to have the same images as we have in content that we produce from, from, from the global version. So they need to be able and, you know, they we encourage them to use like local images with people that people can identify themselves with in that market. And when it comes to to this customer, not all markets offer the exact same thing. So the local market also need to spend some time on updating the local links, but also remove the things that they don't offer in that specific market. That's not cultural maybe, but it's market specific things that they need to adjust.

AE: [00:15:58:01] Well. Great. Thank you very [00:16:00:00] much, Charlotte.

CB: [00:16:00:24] Thank you.