Create an authentic and immersive experience for everybody
First, determine the content you intend to release in international markets. Then carefully consider how you would like it to be adjusted or reworked. Lastly, implement your strategy by leveraging our expertise and advanced inbound marketing platform. It's as straightforward as that.
Inbound marketing platforms unobtrusively deliver your content to customers. By publishing engaging content, readers may find it valuable and subscribe to your posts, allowing you to keep them informed about new developments or product offers. You know who is interested in what: it's a win-win solution, putting your business in touch with a broader audience and giving that audience improved exposure to your brand.
Inbound marketing platforms are increasingly popular amongst SMEs and facilitate meaningful digital conversations with users worldwide. Content management systems like HubSpot and Contentful have transformed the way businesses engage with international audiences. The question is no longer whether to go global, but how to do it effectively.
Today, engaging with users through meaningful conversations is vital. Even small companies can have a global reach, with the worldwide number of Internet users surpassing the 5.56 billion mark in 2025.
Aside from needing to use the technical platform effectively, you need another essential tool to sustain a conversation with your audience: language. Language is a tool to scope your audience, define your geographical reach, fine-tune your content to resonate with the local culture, and ultimately translate into a willingness of the audience to follow your services or products and possibly purchase them.
The days of simple word-for-word translation are firmly behind us. For SMEs competing on the global stage without multinational resources, a comprehensive localisation and transcreation strategy is essential. This approach goes beyond basic translation by thoughtfully adapting your message to local languages, cultural nuances and consumer preferences. Working with transcreation and local SEO experts who understand the nuances of the target market is critical to visibility and drives higher engagement rates and ultimately supports your conversion goals and customer acquisition efforts.
Beyond content, you should also consider the following practical elements that can make or break your international presence:
- Payment methods that locals actually use
- Page layouts that meet cultural expectations
- Legal disclaimers that meet regional requirements
- Privacy terms that comply with local regulations
Even when targeting English-speaking markets, nuance matters. British English copy may resonate in the UK, but Australian audiences expect content that reflects their unique idioms and cultural references.
Strategic content decision: should I translate, adapt or create?
The most effective approach depends on the type of content, the audience and the language:
Web Site - As your digital storefront, your website should speak your customers' language and reflect local design preferences - from colour schemes to image density and navigation patterns.
Online Store -Product and service descriptions must be accessible in the audience's language and adapted to cater to local tastes. For complex products, consider translating user instructions (required by law in certain countries and for specific products). Pictures Alt descriptions can also be localised to improve search results.
Landing Pages - These conversion tools need to be action-oriented. If a product is not available in a particular market, the landing page shouldn't simply be translated - it should either be omitted or re-created for local alternatives.
Calls to Action - With only about 20% of the world's population speaking English, localising your CTAs is essential for any market. Work with local marketing experts to determine the most compelling approaches for each region.
Blogs and social content- Content should be carefully selected for relevance in each market. What resonates in North America may fall flat in the UK or Asia. Consider local preferences for tone, medium and frequency of posting.
Keywords - Despite evolving search algorithms, keywords remain critical to discovery. Localised keywords should be aligned with regional search patterns and user intent, improving visibility to potential customers researching within their cultural and linguistic context.
Social Posts - Social media presence must be carefully curated. Posts should be written for specific locales under centralised direction/monitoring, allowing for local nuances and interaction patterns (i.e. different frequency, different medium).
How HubSpot and Contentful can support multilingual strategies
Both HubSpot and Contentful have significantly enhanced their multilingual capabilities, allowing companies to create and manage different language versions of websites, landing pages and blog content. Language functionality can be enabled directly within these platforms, provided languages have been configured as selectable options.
However, these platforms don't automatically flag when source content changes or when updates need to be made to localised content. This is where ILT's technology solutions provide critical support. Our advanced integration tools connect to HubSpot and Contentful CMS to automatically monitor and push changes to our translation management system. This eliminates duplicate translations and improves overall productivity, while ensuring brand and message consistency across languages.
The human touch in the AI age
While AI technologies such as neural machine translation and generative AI can provide first drafts, human expertise remains essential to ensure that copy is consistent with cultural sensitivities, brand tone and behavioural norms. ILT's approach combines cutting-edge AI with skilled human oversight to deliver the best of both worlds.
Global reach without corporate budgets
SMBs now have unprecedented opportunities to reach global audiences without massive marketing investments. ILT leverages platforms such as HubSpot and Contentful to help SMEs deliver targeted communications in their chosen markets with solutions tailored to your budget. For specific requirements, we can also provide custom connectors between these platforms and our translation management system to improve overall process efficiency, automate project management tasks and eliminate translation duplication. By partnering with ILT for language and cultural expertise, you can focus on what you do best: developing valuable business strategies that drive international growth. For practical help on Hubspot, please follow this link to HubSpot's knowledge base.
For specific requirements, we can also offer connectors between Hubspot and our Translation Management System to improve the overall process productivity, automating basic project management tasks and avoiding duplicate translations.
Ready to expand your global presence? Contact us today for a free consultation and discover how our localisation expertise can transform your international presence, allowing you to focus on what really matters for your company: international growth strategy.
Contact us for an initial consultation!