It goes without saying that the world nowadays has become increasingly connected thanks to the internet. In fact, almost 65% of the global population has an internet connection, encompassing approximately 5.16 billion people.
Even though the majority the internet is made up of mainly English speakers, 58,8% to be exact, there’s a whole 40% of the digital population that may not understand your website and its offering. And you may want to tap into it.
When you’re selling internationally, it’s statistics such as these that need to be scrutinized when it comes to assessing your commercial potential and growing your sales. Cross-border e-commerce is undoubtedly on the rise and people are making purchases beyond their domestic markets more than ever. However, when it comes to making a purchase or sealing the deal, 9 out of 10 consumers ignore a product if it isn’t in their native language. Based on this, for businesses with a growth mindset and international ambition — a multi-language website is a must.
What’s Affiliate Marketing Got to Do With It?
So, while language is an integral consideration for your actual business website, what has all this got to do with affiliate marketing? Well for one, when you’re selling products in more than one country, it makes sense to also recruit and run affiliate marketing campaigns in those target markets. In fact, expanding your affiliate program into multiple languages brings with it an array of benefits which we’ll explore further in this article.
Let’s think back to the essence of affiliate marketing for a moment. Essentially, the aim is to allow third parties to market your commercial offering in return for a commission or some type of compensation. Affiliate marketing is a low-risk marketing strategy for businesses as it doesn’t involve spending large sums of money on advertising expenses without any guarantees of subsequent conversion.
On the converse, however, affiliate marketing can yield amazing results, mutually beneficial for both the affiliate and the company they’re promoting. Of course, the success of affiliate marketing for both parties is very much dependent on the availability and quality of affiliates to market the product or service.
Recruit non-English Speaking Affiliates
If you’re wondering why you’re not having as great of success in international markets when compared to your domestic one, you may need to take a hard look at your affiliate marketing team. While undoubtedly beneficial for anglophone markets, a team full of English-speaking affiliates won’t help you in markets where other languages are primarily spoken such as Spain, France, Italy, and Germany.
If you want to achieve tangible success in these foreign language markets, you’ll need to engage with and recruit non-English speaking affiliates. Some of the best affiliate marketers are influencers in their respective communities and in order to get them on board — you’ll need to make your affiliate program accessible in their language.
Taking the initiative to expand your affiliate program into multiple languages not only makes sense commercially but will also show your affiliate marketers that you appreciate them and value their impact. Luckily, if you’re using Refersion as your affiliate marketing software, you can easily make your program multilingual thanks to a simple integration with the savvy translation solution Weglot.
Increase Global Reach
Beyond the fact of showing appreciation for your affiliate marketers, creating a multi-language affiliate program will bring with it the knock-on effect of increasing your global reach.
A logical extension of recruiting affiliates speaking other languages is the impact these individuals will have on previously untapped foreign markets. As mentioned above, nearly have of the internet users having a native language other than English your multilingual affiliate program is sure to help reap the rewards for your organization.
With an estimated value of $12bn the global affiliate market is lucrative and full of potential if you know how to seize it. By adding a multilingual dimension to your own program you’ll greatly increase not only your reach but share of the global affiliate market. This is supported by research from the CSA which showed that 72.4% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language.
Competitive Advantage
While the global affiliate market is valuable and full of potential, it’s also an increasingly popular and thus competitive market to be a part of. According to Shopify, 4 out of 5, or 80% of advertisers run an affiliate marketing program.
For companies who want to maximize the potential of their affiliate marketing programs, it’s imperative to establish a competitive advantage over your competitors within your industry. When thinking of competitive advantages, it’s important to focus on delivering the most personalized and localized user experience possible. This will allow you to attract the best affiliates to represent and promote your brand.
That’s why translating your affiliate program into multiple languages is such a good idea. While translation is the cornerstone of effective localization, it’s often overlooked by many businesses. In reality, what could be more personalized than providing affiliates with the opportunity to be part of your offering in their native language?
SEO Improvements
On a technical level, there’s also another significant reason why having a multi-language affiliate program is of benefit — international SEO!
As you’re probably already aware, SEO refers to the process of enhancing your website’s content in order to rank higher on organic search engine results. With 75% of all search engine traffic being attributable to the first page of results — this is a huge aspect of your marketing strategy to get right.
When we talk about international SEO, we’re referring to how your web pages rank on international SERPs where people are searching in different languages. If you take action and make your affiliate program multilingual, you’ll be able to draw in new customer segments who browse in foreign languages and increase sales.
While international SEO can become a complicated endeavor, if you’re translating your affiliate program with Weglot your pages will automatically be indexed following Google best practices. Complex aspects of multilingual SEO such as the translation of metadata and the addition of hreflang tags are automatically taken care of, allowing you to rank higher on international search engine result pages seamlessly.
Improve Brand Image
On a surface level, the impact of having a multilingual affiliate program has on your brand image should not be overlooked. Not only does it show international affiliates and customers alike that you’re sensitive to their needs, but also implies a degree of sophistication to your business.
Businesses that take actions to cater to international audiences are viewed as global brands that can be trusted to deliver a high quality of service. This heightened brand image will translate into brand loyalty and repeat purchases.
An Opportunity to Seize
With affiliate programs becoming an increasingly integral part of marketing for businesses all over the world, businesses will need to agile and take their own programs to the next level to guarantee their continued success.
A multi-language affiliate program will do exactly that and will not only set you apart from the field but also offer up an abundance of new opportunities across borders and overseas. So, what are you waiting for?
Special Thanks to Weglot
This is a guest post from our friends at Weglot.
Try out Weglot’s 10 day free trial and make your Affiliate Program multilingual now!
