Brands are going global and, while growth is good, it’s important to adopt a more worldly perspective to avoid alienating audiences and ensure that growth continues. Different countries celebrate different holidays and, to create a truly personalized experience for your customers, you have to take note and make sure you’re approaching the holidays considering different cultures, languages, traditions, regulations, and more. (Don’t even get us started on British versus U.S. spelling.)
Yes, there’s a lot to keep in mind when creating international marketing campaigns—especially during the holidays. So, to help fellow marketers as we enter the thick of the holiday season, we figured we’d consolidate and share our advice.
1. Get Out the Calendar
We’re going old school for this first tip. It may seem obvious but with everyone’s busy schedules, ironically there seems to be no time to sit down with a calendar and go through the important holidays you should be creating campaigns around.
Even more obvious—ask your international coworkers for advice! Have them add important dates to the shared marketing calendar to make sure you’re getting insights from each of your markets.
2. Stay Mindful
This kind of goes without saying when considering different countries’ perspectives, but there’s some specifics to touch on here. In November, for example, U.S. customers are focused on Thanksgiving but in the UK and EU, folks are looking ahead to Christmas. Other countries, however, don’t celebrate Christmas at all. Do your research and, again, rely on team members to help provide context.
This is where segmentation can be really helpful. Create different audiences to make sure you’re sending the right messages to the right people.
3. Personalize to the Best of Your Ability
This goes hand-in-hand with being mindful. Outside of the major tentpole holidays, there are other holidays that may require more of a sensitivity. Personalization could be the difference between making a customer’s day and ruining it. Take Mother’s Day or Father’s Day, for example. Some people may want to opt-out of any communications around those holidays.
Look at your historical data and make sure your user profiles are synced to contain this data. That way, if a customer opts-out of sensitive holidays one year, it will carry over to the next year and they’ll automatically be removed from the send list.
4. Use Local Influence
Influencers are everything these days. After all, influencer marketing is expected to be an over $21B market this year. It can also increase brand awareness by 82%. But are all influencers global? Probably not. Think about selecting influencers—even micro or nano influencers—that can speak directly to your different audiences.
People want to hear from someone like themselves, so rather than alienating your audience with someone they can’t relate to, try selecting influencers in your different locales.
5. Speak Their Language
Again, this isn’t a groundbreaking concept, but it really will make a difference. Using a localization service or translation service can help capture the colloquialisms of different cultures. We’ve all struggled trying to use a quick translation tool, but truly understanding a language and the nuances that come with it offers a much more individualized customer experience.
If you don’t have translation in your budget right now, look to your team! Give the first version of a campaign a go with a translator and have your native-speaking colleagues give it a quick review. Your team is your best tool.
6. Abide by Privacy Regulations
Privacy and data restrictions are different in every country. Europe, in particular, loves their regulations. Consider the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the EU, Canada’s Digital Charter Implementation Act, state-specific regulations in the U.S. like The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), and more.
It’s a lot to keep track of but with the right legal counsel you’ll be able to stay on top of all of these different regulations to ensure your customers not only have a good experience with your brand, but that your messaging even gets delivered to them in the first place.
Take the World by Storm
The world is your oyster (funnily enough, this went viral for being one of the hardest phrases to say with an American accent). You have the ability to succeed when marketing during international holidays and, in most cases, the tools are right under your nose. Every international team member is an asset and they can help provide perspective you may not otherwise have.
You may think it’s too late in the year to get started on your marketing during international holidays, but there’s good news: they happen every year. Consider this your reminder to get a jump on all the holidays 2024 has to offer. Whip out your calendars, sharpen your pencil, and get to work.
To learn how Iterable can help with your global marketing efforts in 2024, schedule a demo today.