Web design and marketing for exporters is our forte.
Designing for an international audience is complex.
You may have already experienced this and you’re asking yourself:
Why aren’t I getting more enquiries from overseas?
How do I get on page one of Google search results in a range of overseas countries?
How can I track sales leads we hand to offshore agents?
Why are we having page speed issues in countries with excellent digital infrastructure?
A one-size-fits-all doesn’t work because audiences in the USA expect a different user experience to your target demographic in China. Language is the most obvious answer - and research shows it has a profound impact on conversions in your offshore marketing efforts.
Boylen worked for its first export company in 1998. Today we undertake web design, website development and international SEO for local companies that export to hundreds of different companies. Here are two case studies:
Adelaide-based Boylen + provides web design for South Australian exporters. We also undertake a wide range of international digital marketing activities.
Whether you are exporting air conditioners metal detectors, education or something else, we have considerable hard-won experience to ensure you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
Call us today on (08) 8233 9433 or use the Contact Us form.
Do you need an export marketing consultancy that has 30 years' global design and SEO experience?
Just some of the areas we can help you with include:
We have developed sophisticated website software to allow clients to keep track of every lead they pass off to an international agent or offshore dealer. This visibility has been very profitable. It allows you to follow up on leads and track them at a granular level, even being able to follow up with customers in another country for feedback.
Another aspect you may wish to consider is automation of taks. It not only frees up staff from doing repetitive work, it means you can respond immediately even if it is 3am in Australia.
A word of caution
A lot of export designers have shallow knowledge. They understand the cultural aspects of colour and image selection – but not much else.
The visual representation of your company in other cultures is far more sophisticated than that. If you sell products, then you will undertake global product design and therefore appreciate that an Australian website design might completely miss the mark in Africa. That’s because the way varying nationalities read, the way they assess trust signals and so on are very different.
Some of it is simple. If you are selling a metal detector to a family America, it needs to have aesthetic appeal, along with quality technology. The same product being sold to prospecting family in Africa will be used as the main source of income in harsh conditions. The design needs to emphasise durability over aesthetics. After sales support for remote locations needs to be highlighted.
Now drill a bit deeper. If you sell a product that is being used in a remote location, it is likely being viewed on a mobile phone (small screen) where the reception is poor. So that fabulous design with large imagery for consumers in the UK or France, won’t cut it in a Saudi desert or a remote province of the Philippines.
Head over to our Contact Us page if you would like to start a conversation.
HOW IMPORTANT IS EXPORT DESIGN
The South Australian government funds export awards, and notes: “Globally, 19 of the world’s top 30 exporting countries attribute their top performing exports to design and IP intensive industries.”
“Our objective is to identify and celebrate our design led exporters in South Australia's eight regions, and in doing so, inspire and activate others to begin their design led export journey.”
Check out this example of a high performing Boylen designed export website: KIS
The Australian Federal Government also recognises the importance of web design and development in its awards. For example, it has a section dedicated to ecommerce for Australian exporters. (We have a FAQ about ecommerce for exporters.)
Clean and Pure won that award for its success selling “to customers overseas via an electronic network. Includes cross-border ecommerce and online sales”
Here is a company that has excelled at international marketing for export markets. The awards website reported: “A recent unsponsored post from a passionate customer saw a 1000% increase in online sales, increasing by way of repeat customers and online shopping during the 2021 lockdowns.”
A big shout out to WildBear Entertainment who won the Creative Industries Award. The judges commented: “WildBear Entertainment is a content studio that produces factual film and television for broadcast, theatrical and digital distribution. WildBear specialises in compelling true stories that resonate globally.”
As content producers and ecommerce specialists, Boylen+ has the same goal. Can we help?
WHAT IS THE BUSINESS CASE FOR EXPORT WEBSITE TRANSLATIONS?
A web page that has been translated into a person’s local language (native tongue) significantly increases the chances of them doing business with you.
“72.4% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language,” according to a survey by Common Sense Advisory.
An even more compelling argument in favour of translation is the fact that close to 60% of people will pay more if you provide information in their own language.
What’s The Catch?
Perhaps you’re a college seeking to attract international students from China or India. Maybe you export goods to Japan and the United States. Or you have a local business in a multicultural community, such as a dentist or financial advisor with a website targeting Malaysian, Thai or Vietnamese people.
While the benefits are great, so too are the consequences of getting it wrong. You need a well thought out plan for translations because they have such a strong link to trust. If you make mistakes, people lose faith in your credibility.
Example One: The Federal Government used Google Translate to deliver Covid-19 messages to non-English speakers. The ABC reported that the “bungle” involved “nonsensical” translations of key health messages
Example Two: Facebook AI translator didn’t fare much better. Its news service’s auto-translation of the President of China as “Mr S***hole” will hardly help Facebook as it lobbies to be allowed to operate in China (it’s currently banned).
The examples go on and on – and can be hilarious. The airline that promises “We take your bags and send them in all directions”. Meatball labelling that translates into “Paul Is Dead”. The tent that offers 10 minutes set up in English and 12 minutes in Spanish. An American car selling in Brazil under the name "tiny male genitals." The dentist that promised to extract teeth using the “latest Methodists”.
They make you laugh – but the companies involved have become the laughing stock of the internet. That’s bad for business.
Send us a message if you feel we can assist your exporting success.
ADELAIDE SEO AND DIGITAL MARKETING FOR EXPORTERS
Ranking on page one of Google is hard enough in Australia, let along replicating that in countries all around the world.
A mis-step - something as simple as clicking the wrong box when setting up accounts - can cause you enormous problems. Some of the technical SEO areas we can help you with include:
International Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Few Adelaide digital agencies have expertise in international SEO. Working for clients such as Minelab and Seeley International means that Boylen has to be at the top of the game in this area.
Without giving away all of our secrets, this is what you can expect.
Language Tags
Implementation of language tags is a crucial component for websites displaying in a foreign language and country. Hreflang tags are used to nominate page language for search engine visibility and display.
Language and Google Webmaster tools
One: Make sure your use of various languages is obvious:
Two: Make each language “discoverable”:
hreflang Tags - Google Webmaster Tools > Search Traffic > International Targeting
Website speed is a problem for many global websites.
If you have Adelaide website hosting, you should expect your site to load quickly throughout Australia.
However, the further away the website user is and the more rich assets (such as video, photos, HTML, CSS and JavaScript files) your site has, the slower it will take to load. It’s the tyranny of distance.
The solution is simple: deploy a CDN – a content delivery network. A CDN gives you a network of servers so that the distance is reduced between the server containing your information, and the end user. This reduces latency (hang time).
This is important because the longer a site takes to load, the more people abandon it. They move on to your competitor. That competitor has a 50/50 probability of having a CDN in place because it’s estimated that more than 50% of internet traffic is delivered by a CDN.
