Think Global, Speak Local

As I sit at Heathrow Airport awaiting my flight back to the U.S., what a truly global village we've become - even in email marketing.

As I spoke with clients from Germany, Holland, the UK and elsewhere - the challenges, opportuniities and even lexicon was all very consistent. Terms I had thought were very American - "batch and blast", "pray and spray" and others were widely used by my Silverpop peers and clients.

And of course challenges such as deliverability, proving ROI to management, having enough resources to deploy "world-class" programmes, etc. were also frequently discussed. But the opportunities to maximize the email channel, delivering increasingly relevant content, integrating email with social networks and taking advantage of the explosion of the growth in mobile devices was alsu universal.

But as I edited my Powerpoint presentation for a UK audience, I was also reminded of another maxim - "Think Global, Act Local." It was a great reminder that even when we think we speak the same language - we don't. And email is no different - with increasing customer choice, it is vital that email marketers speak to their customers not just in general terms - but in a voice that resonates with each individual on your list....and off to my plane...

Comments

[Rachael]

Thanks for the information...I bookmarked your site, and I appreciate your time and effort to make your blog a success!

[Isabel Lapointe]

We strongly believe in the need for multilingual functionalities to make this localisation possible and it's the reason why those functionalities were implemented in CakeMail from the beginning. Living in a French small market opens the mind to those non-English speaking realities ;-)

[Nick Stamoulis]

Great quote! To be able to appeal to all people is far powerful than seaking to just one group of people. Kudos :)

[HAL]

Hi Loren:

How to connect across different nationalities in English and perhaps a combination of English and the target recipients native language is a topic I'd like to know a lot more about.

I'm living in Tokyo and starting up 2 blogs. One is crassly commercial and the other is ...well more self absorbed (if that's possible ; -).

I have got Aweber and now I am the stage of hooking it up to WP.
In truth, I am somewhat terrified about how to create a consistent, credible, engaging, human and tone sensitive "voice" across my e-mail marketing messages.

I say this because while I seem to be able to connect OK in international networking sites like Xing I am concerned about projecting a " casual/too breezy" e-mail image.

I hope you will delve into this area in your future posts.

Thanks so much for your blog!.. I found you through the annual technorati blog survey.

I want to know more about how to become a professional autoresponder/email writer!

Best,

HAL

[Josh Neumann]

Very true, all too many marketers ignore the potential of the global market. Some do so for legitimate reasons (i.e. shipping costs) but if you have an information type product, or do affiliate marketing, there's no reason not to expand your reach.