Website Translation As A Marketing Tool?
Here is a trick question, that contains some interesting overlooked marketing opportunity. If someone wants to learn a new language, in which language are you trying to reach this customer?
Most traditional language schools think bi-lingual for specific products. So you offer a Spanish Course in German in Germany: this means your primary language is German.
Is your main marketing material in German only?
Obviously, if you also offer German language courses for Spanish people that plan to travel for a vacation or think to move there and learn German at a higher intensity, then, of course, all your marketing material should be also in Spanish.
So it makes sense to have marketing and communication material – including automated email series – in both main target languages.
Now here is where it gets really interesting.
Additional Language Translation Mean Reaching Overlooked Customers
If a native German wants to learn to study Japanese, for example, you will be surprised that some if not a lot of them prefer to study a new language in English and not in their native mother tongue.
This way smart multi-linguals improve their English while learning a new language at the same time.
So this means if offer any language training that is NOT being offered in English, obviously you still should have a translated version of your language courses in English.
Going back to the original example of a German language school offering Spanish courses, it can make sense to translate that service into English as well, even if you will not run the courses officially in English at this time.
Additional Language Translations Mean Additional Search Engine Traffic
A great important benefit of translating your offers into another language is the additional web search traffic and the additional website visitors you will get from this effort.
Also: it is much easier to rank in the search engines for non-English languages. It is often much easier to get on the top positions in search engines results in foreign languages because not all strict English language-based ranking factors (there are actually hundreds of ranking factors these days!) are applied as strict in other languages.
Website Translation As A Marketing Tool
If you want to use website translation as a marketing tool, then please do not fall for the idea that all you need to do is to add the automatic Google translation elements on your website.
While Google translation tools are a helpful start to get some orientation and feel for a language, they produce a lot of weird and unprofessional translation snippets and phrases that will make your language service look very unprofessional.
In the restaurant industry, some websites use those automated translated services and actually offer their guests their menus with auto-translation from Google for the offered food and beverages.
If something is translated in a funny way, it will not undermine the reputation for the high-quality food a restaurant will offer.
For a business like yours that is in the language education industry, it is a totally different game.
Is Translating Into Another Language Worth The Effort?
Translating your site into another language will cost you money and it not done overnight. It might make sense to hire someone else to do it for you.
It all comes down to your revenue numbers and how what kind of language students you target. Some people in the language industry say that multi-lingual language students are willing to spend more money to learn a new additional language.
We are happy to help you improve your language school marketing. Learn more here and let’s discuss if a multi-language approach might benefit the language services that you offer.