When you're marketing to a foreign audience, you're probably aware of the need to tailor your promotion both to their language and their culture, lest risk generating less-than-optimal results. As such, we've been seeing more and more websites who are trying to expand their reach beyond the English-speaking world take part in marketing initiatives that use language translation and similar technologies to their advantage.

If you own a website and hoping to broaden your customer base by taking on potential buyers in far-flung countries, here are a few things you can do to get there:

1. Custom websites in the foreign language. There's no getting around it, you'll need a custom website in the local vernacular to appeal to those you are trying to reach. Whether you do this through a full-on language translation job or a simple update using a translation software, a website will be one investment that will pay for itself many times over.

2. Local search engines. While Google, Yahoo and MSN rule as the search engine of choice for majority of English-speaking users, many web users prefer their local counterparts to the search giants (e.g. China). If you're angling for a piece of the action in China, for instance, you'll need to submit your site to the local search engines to derive the best results.

3. Web communities. If you want to sell in Germany, make it a point to participate in local discussion forums and other online communities to promote your site. Don't wait for the customers to find you. Instead, find them, pursue them and do the best you can to get your word out.

Three Reasons To Make Your Website Multilingual

The internet began as a medium for mostly English speaking users, dominated by sites written in English as it began to grow. Times are changing, though. With more and more sites featuring localization, users' demands are also changing, with preferences in doing business moving from large, established English-language properties to niche markets written in their own tongue.

Now, more than ever, websites need to market to people in their native tongues. Whether you accomplish this by hiring professional translators to rewrite your content or an automated solution like a language translation software, these reasons should prove more than worthy to fuel the move.

1. Move away from English-speaking users

The English-speaking market continues to be the most saturated online, with highly matured audiences and stiff competition from established companies. Moving to the market off that path means reaching for an audience than might present less obstacles to converting, save of course, for the language barrier.

2. Inspire trust

Despite not having English as their native tongue, many customers continue to use services and make purchases from English language properties. While that may sound like a point in favor of staying in English, many of these same customers are likely to make the move if they find a similar offering in their native language. Having a website speak to you in terms that you are 100% clear with simply inspires more trust and confidence - two things no amount of fancy graphics and dazzling website design can buy.

3. Low-cost marketing

Translating your web site to your target customers' native tongue is simply one of the lowest marketing expenses you can incur, while fostering results that can benefit you in huge ways. When it comes to cost-to-potential ratio, it's hard to make an argument for anything else that can top it.