Email Translation and Personalization: How to Get Started

Email localization is the process of adapting your email campaigns to be more relevant to a global audience. The goal of email localization is to gain the trust of your potential customers by communicating with them in their own language. In turn, they’ll engage with your brand, make a purchase and become loyal fans.

Let's dive in to explore the benefits of multilingual emails, and how to get started on your next international email project.

Why is Email Translation So Important?

Did you know that only about ¼ of global internet users are English-speaking? Studies show there’s a direct relationship between a website’s language and a buyer’s likelihood to make a purchase.

This applies to emails, too. If you send an abandoned cart email in the wrong language, people probably won’t buy from you or engage with your brand.

Here are 3 big reasons why it’s worthwhile to start localizing your company’s emails:

1: Global Accessibility and Conversions

Translated emails help you increase customer retention and conversions through localized email campaigns, purchase follow-ups and more.  Multilingual emails can help you attract leads that likely wouldn’t have considered you before. One survey of 8,709 online shoppers in 29 countries found that over 75% of people prefer to buy products or services in their native language. 40% said that they would never buy from websites in other languages.

2: Excellent Customer Experience

Translated emails help you increase customer retention and conversions. This is because the end-to-end customer experience is in the right language. Marketers should ensure that all aspects of the customer experience are localized, including landing pages, checkout flows, email invoices, and marketing sites. If one element is in the wrong language, you risk losing customers.

3: Great Communication

Translating emails can boost communication within organizations, too. With over 60,000 multinational companies around the world, these vast teams can benefit from investing in a translation solution for important internal memos.

Easy Email Translation with Localize

Thanks to the latest tools on the market, the email translation process is easier than ever.

To translate your emails into new languages, try Localize for Emails. It’s the best way to upgrade your email marketing campaigns into a seamless, multilingual experience.

Benefits of Localize for Emails:

Here’s how Localize can help with your next email localization project:

• Order Professional Translations in your TMSWith Localize for Emails, you can place and manage translation orders without ever having to leave your dashboard. Just choose your languages, place your order and review your expertly translated emails.
• Streamlined CollaborationNo matter where your team is located, you can log into Localize to view, edit, and request translations. With our collaboration tools, you can leave notes or feedback for your translators anytime.
• Easy To Use FeaturesOur side-by-side email editor makes the translation process simple. Compare your source language to the target language for fast quality assurance.
• Multiple Supported File TypesLocalize for Emails works with both HTML and plain text email formats.

How it Works:

Localize for Emails has an easy workflow:

1. Upload your email to the Localize dashboard and choose your target language(s).
2. Select a free machine translation or order a professional translation.
3. Use our built-in editor to check your translations.

Request a Demo of Localize for Emails

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Best Practices for Email Localization

If you’re new to the email translation process, here are some tips that can help you build your localization strategy:

Language

• ‍Typically, it’s best to keep all stages of the customer journey in the same language. So if you’ve localized your website for Spanish and French, you should localize your emails in those languages, too. If you're not sure of which languages you should start with, read our content strategy guide for more tips.

Culture

• ‍Cultural differences can make or break your email marketing campaigns. It pays to do a lot of research on your target audience and engage native speakers to review your emails.

Communication Style

• ‍Communication styles will vary depending on the target locale. Americans are used to a more casual approach to communication. But Germans, for example, prefer a formal tone. Similarly, Brazilians prefer a casual tone, while Japanese audiences like a more formal style.

Data Security

• ‍Preferences for online privacy and security vary from country to country. Do your prospective customers feel safe sharing their email addresses and other personal data with you? You may have to make an extra effort to reassure some customers that it’s ok to hit the purchase button.

Seasonal Events

• ‍Occasion-based emails are great marketing tools. Consider the holidays and seasons celebrated by the countries you’re targeting, like Diwali in India or Single’s Day in

Colors

• ‍The impact of color on marketing is tremendous – many snap decisions to buy a product are based just on color. Choosing the right color for your email localization branding involves cultural and religious sensitivity. You need to localize your brand colors based on the country being targeted. Example: In the US, red implies love (e.g., red roses), but in Germany, it stands for negativity. In France, red signifies masculinity, while in China, it's a lucky color.

Device Preferences

• ‍You also need to research what devices are popular in the geographic locations you are targeting. For example—if you’re targeting India or South Africa, you should focus on mobile email marketing because most residents prefer to access their emails this way.

Other Email Elements You Should Localize

For a global email marketing campaign, don’t forget to localize all components of your emails. Email localization should also include the following:

• Local Email Regulations – Be aware of local laws on electronic messaging like anti-spam and privacy laws like the GDPR. Basic rules may include seeking permission to email the subscriber, providing an unsubscribe option, or adding your contact details to the email. Additionally, some regulations may require adding a prefix to the subject line and honoring an unsubscribe request within a few days.
• Subject Lines– While the ideal subject line length is 50 characters or less in English, the same line could involve more than 70 French or German characters. So, make sure your subject line is short and doesn’t get truncated. Attract attention to your email by including an emoji in your subject line, but make sure you also localize your emojis.
• Script Design – Unique scripts, characters, and text components have the potential to break your emails if you’re not prepared for them. For example, languages in the Middle East, such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu, are written from right to left, as opposed to English and European languages which are written from left to right. Other languages, such as Japanese, are written from top to bottom.
• Images – Be sure to localize your images. For instance, if you add an image of your team relaxing with a beer in an email, this may come across as offensive in countries where alcohol is banned for religious purposes. When creating localized emails, choose neutral images, and avoid ones that can generate a negative response.
• Time Zones – Be sure to send your emails at the right time for your global audience. People tend to check their emails in the mornings and on weekdays. Generally, weekends are not a good time to send out emails, but weekend days can also vary by country. Sending emails between 10 and 11 a.m. seems to produce higher open rates. However, test your targeted market to decide the best time and day to send emails.
• Calls to Action– Even if you’re using a simple call-to-action of three words, it can mess with fixed-width elements or break lines after translation. Make sure that your CTA is well-translated, and that it fits in your email aesthetically.
• Email Signatures – Depending on the country you’re marketing to, the words used to sign off on your email are as important as the subject line and the content. For example, “regards” is thought of as usual in the USA, while the British prefer “Warm Regards” or “Kind Regards.”

Conclusion: Start Your Email Translation Project Today

In a global study conducted by the Common Sense Advisory (CSA), surveyors asked international participants how likely they are to buy from English-only brands.The results were clear:

• Local-language content creates better customer relationships. 75% of people preferred customer support emails in their native language. When brands speak the wrong language to their customers, research shows that the relationship with the customer won’t be as long-lasting.
• Local-language content increases revenue.66% of people preferred to buy products from sites that were written in their own language. When companies communicate with customers in the wrong language, they risk losing international leads and revenue.

Ready to use email to reach more people around the world? Email translation makes all the difference.For hands-on help with your multilingual emails, try Localize. Localize is a full-service translation management system that simplifies language translation. Contact us today for a quick demo.