Communicating with a Culturally-Diverse Internet Audience

As Internet connectivity continues to grow at a mind-boggling pace, Nicholas Goh, CEO of Verztec Consulting Pte Ltd - a leading ISO 9001 Provider of Translation and Localization services, provides a tip sheet to help businesses provide multicultural and multilingual content when communicating with an increasingly diverse online audience.

Singapore (PRWEB) November 4, 2009 -- As business owners continue to tap on the power of the Internet to reach out to a global audience, they are fast realizing that they can no longer rely on traditional, one-size-fits-all content to communicate effectively. This is because the global business landscape has changed dramatically over the past 20 years.

Currently, we see the rise of super economies in Asia, mainly led by rapid growth of China and India. We also see a weak US economy that had triggered the current global economic slowdown. This is coupled with slow growth among many European and Western economies, especially those that are closely connected to the US economy. In addition, the new emerging markets in Latin America, South East Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East are fast making headways in their own right.

Businesses that are now setting their sights on new lucrative markets can no longer ignore the fact that many of their target audience do not read and write English (the language of trade for many years). Increasingly, they find that they have to address a culturally and linguistically diverse global audience.

Are 1.6 billion Internet Users All English Speakers?

The growth in Internet connectivity has been phenomenal. In 2000, it was estimated that 360 million people worldwide were connected to the World Wide Web. This number has increased to 1.6 billion now, an estimated more than 360% growth over the past nine years. Amazingly, the growth in Asia is estimated to be over 500% from 114 million Internet users in 2000 and to 704 million in 2009.*

This means that a large number of new Internet users are coming from Asia. Policy-makers and business groups are already realizing this and making adjustments. Board members of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), a non-profit group that oversees domain names, are deliberating if they should allow non-Roman languages to be used in web addresses. The move would open up the Internet to users of many other languages besides English, which the Internet is operating on at the moment.

All-Inclusive Web Engineering

Developing, deploying and managing effective web content today requires a systematic, robust and reliable approach. Many businesses tap on web engineering - implementation of systematic, disciplined and quantifiable approaches to the development, operation and maintenance of web-based applications - to ensure that their web strategies deliver results. Nevertheless, many companies often neglect to take a multicultural and multilingual approach to their content development.

The Internet is very often a company's first point of contact with potential customers. This means that a company's website, marketing material and such provide the "first impression", and people would form an opinion about the company and its products or services just from this web experience alone. Companies that get the language and connotation right during this first encounter gain a competitive advantage. Here is why:

1.   Cultural Sensitivity

Online communications that adopt a native language automatically puts the potential customer in a "cultural comfort zone" due to him/her being able to navigate, understand and interact with the material. This serves as a "foot in the door".

2.   Trust

For many cultures, there is an issue of trust when it comes to buying over the Internet. This is especially true if the online "shop" is in a language they are not fully proficient in. Offering them a language alternative allows customers to feel secure in the fact that they know what they are buying. Or it will at least encourage customers to take the next step in finding out more about the product or service.

3.   International Image

Image is everything. Multilingual online communications demonstrate that a company thinks, works and deals internationally, yet remains accessible locally - wherever "local" may be.

4.   Customer Focus

Multilingual online communications demonstrate that a company is thinking about the customer. This little extra effort shows that thought and care went behind the web content. As with anything in business, it helps to make the customer feel that they are being cared for.

One Chance to Right Customer's Web Experience

The Internet age is here and businesses cannot help but address it head on. To communicate effectively, online content has to be clear and non-offensive. It also has to be consistent across a company's business units. This is significant as the Internet does not differentiate users from different geographical region.

Just like how businesses manage the experience that customers get when walking into their shopfront or office for the first time, the first online contact is just as important. Businesses have to strategically manage the web experience that Internet users get when coming into contact with their online communication materials.

This concept should also extend to how businesses deploy multilingual service staff to the frontlines, and to how businesses ensure that their online communication materials are provided in multiple languages.

In a competitive business environment, businesses cannot overlook the details of online communications. Very often, businesses have one chance of getting it right before a potential customer makes the decision to remain connected or move on to the next piece of information online.

*Source: Internet Usage World Statistics (www.internetworldstats.com)

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