The global Covid-19 pandemic has seen an incredible push to move business online, including employees more commonly telecommuting, working from home, often as freelancers online, and even starting their own online businesses. Self-isolation, social distancing and in some cases, even quarantines are forcing people to change how they live, work and even play. If the digital age was thriving before, it has moved into overdrive since the onslaught of the global coronavirus epidemic.
As the global Covid-19 outbreak has worsened, both employers and employees have increased their presence online. Starting an online business may be intimidating to some but working online has also become increasingly popular.
While this can be daunting at first, as people grow more accustomed to the thought of business online, and as they adapt to the situation caused by the current global pandemic, business online becomes much easier. This is true even for someone not interested in starting their own online business but working as a freelancer or as a remote services provider.
Regardless of what type of position one considers, it would seem that the digital realm is in fact the wave of the future though prevalent even at this early stage. This digital marketplace is being further driven by the global coronavirus outbreak, forcing both employers and employees to reconsider their business and working strategies.
For some people, the answer will be to look for more gainful employment opportunities in the digital arena while the more entrepreneurial types begin looking for a means to establish new digital markets early on in the rise of the digital age. What all of these people have in common, is a need to look into the study of digital marketing, to find not only their place, but to discover the benefits of doing business in the digital age.
Among the first areas of consideration regarding the digital markets includes establishing a set of meaningful needs of the individual. What has to come first? What next? There need to be at certain goals established in order to have any chance of success in regard to digital marketing. What are the immediate needs of the individual? What are the potential business opportunities? Where are the potential markets? What is the long-term potential for financial gain?
According to a recent article published on the twenty-second of March in The Hill Magazine, “Only 40 percent of Americans can afford an unexpected $1,000 expense with their savings. In fact, nearly 80 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck.” Yet in that same article, it is also noted that eighty percent of Americans also own at least one smartphone.
Given this lack of savings preventing any major investments into the creation of a new business venture online, the primary focus here will be on the language service providers and the potential for earning money as quickly as possible through digital marketing, establishing a permanent business online and expanding into foreign markets through translation, transcription and localization services online, writing and other language related digital marketing business options.
Understanding Digital Marketing and its Language
The first step here is having a fuller understanding of just what these digital marketing terms mean. Translation sounds obvious, but in reality, it is much more involved. The translator should have an intimate knowledge of at least two languages. Not only is the job of a translator to provide a literal translation, but at the same time, to translate the actual meaning despite the lexical expressions in use.
Transcription services is the means by which verbal communications are transposed into the written word. This is often the first step for anyone providing document translation services or even voiceovers for podcast and video marketing campaigns as will be explained later in the article.
Localization is, at its core, primarily about language skills, but with a much broader and more intimate cultural understanding as well. Those advertising and digital marketing campaigns that work in the big cities will not necessarily work in more provincial or rural areas. At least a portion of the digital marketing research should focus not only on determining potential expanded domestic and international digital markets.
There should also be some level of cultural understanding within those markets. This research should be limited to those areas where there is a viable digital marketplace that can be capitalized on. Further research should also be conducted to learn as much as possible about the local culture. This knowledge can then be used by the savvier digital marketing specialist to more fully capitalize on those markets, creating an emotional bond with the target audience.
According to Statista, digital marketing and online sales were increasing even before the global Covid-19 pandemic. They noted that “This data predicts that by the end of 2020, global ecommerce sales will reach $4.2 billion and make up 16% of total retail sales. And these numbers are only predicted to go up as we continue into the ‘20s.”
Further research conducted by Forbes Magazine indicates that these digital marketing sales numbers will increase even more rapidly due to the global coronavirus epidemic. “Stevens expects there will an increase of online retailers that are specialized in one or two categories even after the coronavirus crisis ends.”
“He likens the current situation to what happened to the e-commerce space in China after SARS.” China also leads the world in direct to customer online sales with an estimated digital revenue generation of approximately 2.32 trillion US dollars in 2020.
The following digital marketing skills should help the average person to begin earning a surviving wage at first, while by the end of the article, learning how to move into larger, more expansive and profitable digital markets online.
Translation and Localization in Digital Content Marketing
Digital content marketing is, as the name implies, all about the creation of content for the purposes of marketing. Much of the content will be placed on the website, but more may be used for guest posts on other authority websites within the same niche, for social media marketing campaigns, or posted on websites like Medium or other information aggregate websites.
The translation services required for a successful digital content marketing campaign are not restricted to more international markets. There are many locations around the world where more than one language is commonly spoken at either the national or even the local level. Some of the bigger cities have large minority enclaves where people will not be speaking the domestic language at home, and sometimes not at all.
In the Canadian province of Quebec, content translations from English to French may be necessary. Along the Southern border of the United States, translating from English to Spanish may become a necessity. In Switzerland, German, French, Italian and Romansh are all official languages. This is where the process of localization becomes so important in regard to successful digital content marketing campaigns.
Translation and localization services are not just about seeking out foreign or international sales, but also very common to domestic sales as was noted above. Localization is more specific, taking into consideration the individual cultures, any localized linguistic characteristics, the local vernacular and even cultural sensitivities and sources of cultural pride.
This more complete understanding of the targeted audience can then be used to create a more effective translation, allowing for more localized content to be included as part of a larger digital marketing campaign. It should also be noted that many attempts to provide localization services have led to marketing mishaps that are more than just costly.
Localization, much like translation, may be best reserved to qualified persons, easily found with a translation agency that specializes in localization services. Your digital content marketing serves as an introduction to the potential customers. There is only one opportunity to make a favorable first impression, so care should be taken to avoid any errors.
Translation and Transcription in Podcast Marketing
Podcast marketing is a good means to get information out in front of a potential audience. Transcription services for podcasts should not be overlooked for two reasons.
First; many people still enjoy reading the podcasts. This can be especially true if the person doing the podcast speaks with an accent or other unfamiliar fashion to the listener. This is surprisingly common, even among people who speak the same parent language, though with a decidedly different accent or using unfamiliar vernacular or expressions.
Second, including a full transcript of the podcast will have the added benefit of being indexed by the search engines. What does that mean? It means that a podcast that includes a transcription will rank much better on the search engine results page. Thus, not only will transcription services potentially attract a larger audience, it will also receive more organic (read “free”) traffic from the search engines.
Translation services for the podcast should also be considered as part of any successful digital marketing campaign. It may be beneficial to use certified interpreters in order to create audio files of the podcasts in additional languages, but the same benefits will still hold for the transcripts as well. Now, instead of just having better search results in English, the podcasts will also rank for more keywords in the translated languages for the foreign transcriptions as well.
Translation, Transcription and Closed Captions for Video Marketing
YouTube is the second most popular website on the internet, lagging only slightly behind Google. YouTube. According to the Business2Community website, YouTube also receives a larger number of searches than Yahoo, Bing and Ask combined. There should be no doubt that video marketing is an important part of virtually every digital marketing campaign. However, there are again additional benefits through the use of video translation and transcription services, increased further still through the use of closed captioning to further enhance the video marketing efforts.
It may be tempting to hard code subtitles into the videos, as this has been made especially easy with many of the more popular video editing software programs. It may not be the best idea however, as the subtitles will often block out the video and distract viewers. Furthermore, being hard coded into the video prevents subtitles from being indexed by the search engines.
Closed captioning for YouTube videos are often created either in txt or srt files. Both of these types of files will be indexed by the external search engines in addition to being indexed within the YouTube website. The higher placement of the video on the SERP or Search Engine Results Page will increase the amount of organic traffic and also make the video more likely to end up as a “recommended video” by YouTube.
Video translation services can further increase the target audience by creating closed captioning for YouTube videos in different languages, increasing the number of keywords the video ranks for exponentially and allowing foreign speaking people to have equal access to the materials being marketed.
Suggested Read: How to Embed YouTube Shorts on Your Website
Multi-purposing Digital Marketing Content
Among the most important aspects of any digital marketing campaign are analytic data. This simply means being able to track and analyze the relevant data in order to increase the efficacy of the digital marketing campaign. Multi-purposing digital marketing content is the means by which the same information can be used to effectively saturate different markets using the same materials.
One means of multi-purposing digital content is through transcription and translation services. Localization can also play a factor, especially when localizing more direct materials such as brochures, localized advertising and other materials that will be more directly targeted to the audience. When combined with the marketing analytic data, the more popular content can be multi-purposed in other ways as well.
An article from the original content marketing campaign that was very popular, may be equally popular as a podcast or video. Multi-purposing the article may involve converting the original format but should lead to a greater potential for an increased audience at the same time. Converting an article to a video may be done with an audio file, or it may be done with a combination slideshow and video closed captioning.
Remember the benefits of closed captioning as opposed to hard coding the text into the video! It is generally a good idea to commence with the more popular content for multi-purposing, though later multi-purposing of content may serve to refresh the less popular content as well, perhaps even allowing it to gain views and attract a larger audience, in whatever form.
One of the more popular means of multi-purposing content is seen in email marketing campaigns. It needs to be noted that one cannot simply elect to begin sending out emails unsolicited. People need to be given the option of signing up to receive emails, but once that has been accomplished, this can be an excellent means for generating views for content that may otherwise be missed.
It is also an excellent venue for presenting people with digital marketing content in virtually any form, and of course, letting the target audience know when there are any special offers that may be of benefit to them directly.
Translation, Transcription and Localization Specific to the Covid-19 Crisis
During the current global Covid-19 pandemic, self-isolation, social distancing and even full quarantines are increasingly common. What is not altogether uncommon is the level of anxiety when people stay isolated and indoors for too long. Cabin fever is an old concept that remains just as true and relevant today as it was when it was first explored in detail.
Further, as a direct result of the global medical crisis, more and more people are moving into the digital arena. People are more likely to be working from home these days, those that still have jobs anyway. Online shopping is increasing at the same time, again, largely due to the current medical pandemic. For the younger generations today, more and more of their lives is spent online for work and play.
Thus, it seems more than just mildly prudent to seriously contemplate the value of an online presence and digital marketing strategies. Add to these considerations, the fact that there does seem to be a global recession looming as another result of the global coronavirus outbreak and digital marketing becomes an even more attractive proposition.
Of all of the things to remember however, it seems most important that just as with any business, one that relies on successful digital marketing strategies must focus on growth and expansion into a more international presence online. Professional translation, transcription and localization services are among the best ways to ensure success in virtually any digital marketplace.
