SPANISH MESSAGING ONLINE & SPANISH TRANSLATION

An excerpt from: A Gringo's Guide to Online Hispanic Marketing

By Brian Krogstad & Miles Houck

Spanish Messaging Online

Whether you are messaging to the visitors on your website, via email communication or with opt-in methods such as newsletters it is important to track their preferences and “speak their language.” For example, if a visitor signs up for a newsletter on your Spanish website, they will expect it to be delivered to them in Spanish and have it contain content relevant to both Generation Equis and your company’s offering as defined by the nature of your business and the knowledge of the market that you take away from this article.

In most cases online messaging should be automated. For example, automatic purchase orders sent by email when a customer places an order, automated responses to customer inquiries, etc.It is very important that you take the time to plan your online messaging system and use the correct tools to implement it before you launch. If it is done properly in the beginning, it should be on auto pilot and serve you well. If it is done improperly, you will need to correct it at some point anyway so it is best to do it right from the beginning.

The key strategies to consider while developing your online messaging systems are:

• Email: Your email relationship with your customers and prospects is much like a normal offline relationship in many respects. One key requirement of maintaining a good relationship with consumers in the real world is getting their attention, staying in touch, personalizing your message and interactive communication.

• Electronic Newsletters: Electronic newsletters are a great way to stay in touch with customers and prospects and they are gaining in popularity for good reason. With electronic newsletters there are no printing or mailing costs involved and they can usually be published for a fraction of the cost, and in a fraction of the time, of traditional printed newsletters.

Additionally, because online newsletters can be instantly delivered to readers throughout the world at the click of a button, these publications are ideal for communicating timely information to readers.

Email

There is nothing better than sending a branded invoice, thank you email, press release on your company, new product notification or even a related article via email to a consumer or prospect that has opted in or made a purchase on your website.

In order to communicate with Generation Equis via email messaging, you need to ensure that your email is opened, read and understood.

A properly composed email message contains:

Concise subject lines — try to keep your subject lines to 35 characters or less. E-mail clients like Outlook and Eudora and webmail providers like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo frequently truncate subject lines at approximately 35 characters and so do the majority of mobile email or cell phone clients.

Personalization — it is dually important to use your customer’s name in the greeting of the email and use a personal, or team name, in the signature, i.e. Mr. Jones or The XYZ Customer Support Team.

Top billed content — it is highly likely the user will not even bother scrolling down to read your message, so it is imperative for you to catch their eye with content that will catch their eye at the top of the message.

Language — if the recipient of your email is being contacted due to an opt-in or action on a Spanish website, your email should be in Spanish. If the recipient of your email is being contacted due to an opt-in or action on an English website, your email should be in English. You should also give them the option, and information necessary, to contact you directly in their preferred language.

Electronic Newsletters

Because online newsletters can be instantly delivered to readers at the click of a button, these publications are ideal for communicating timely information to readers.

A properly composed electronic newsletter affords:

Cost-effectiveness

Electronic newsletters are much less expensive than designing and printing traditional newsletters and the postage or delivery expense associated with sending traditional newsletters.

Wider Reach

With your own electronic newsletter, you can reach millions of customers or prospects instantaneously - and advertise your products or services on a regular basis - for free.

Targeting

Electronic newsletters allow you to encourage opt-ins from your visitors, determine their subjects of interest and focus on specific interests that they may have.

Electronic Newsletters for Generation Equis require:

Targeted Content

Items of interest — News, or information, that is interesting to Generation Equis yet in line with your business goals. Include general topics as well as specific items which they would find appealing. Bookmark or monitor RSS feeds or use a newsfeed service to collect this type of data.

Guidance — Offer tips and advice. Generation Equis readers are naturally drawn to any article with “How to” in the title if it is useful. Tap the knowledge within your company such as front line members, your management team or even C level Generation Equis employees.

Interactivity — Make it interactive. Include a quick poll relating to an industry topic. It should be a topic of interest to Generation Equis. People love to speak out, even if only through a quick vote, and see how their peers view an issue.

User Friendly Format

KISS – The popular KISS theory, or Keep It Simple Stupid, applies here. Keep the body of the newsletter short by providing headlines and excerpts linking to longer articles on your website. This will encourage your visitors to return to your site and increase traffic.

Give links to both the English and Spanish versions when possible. This enables readers to scan the content quickly and then click on the link to articles of interest – in the language that they prefer.

Title - Include your newsletter title at the beginning of the subject field. This will help the reader differentiate your newsletter from junk emails. It will also allow them to filter your newsletter into a separate folder with the use of email filters.

Readability - Provide both HTML and plain text versions. Format it with hard line breaks at sixty-five characters per line. This is a good practice because proper spacing enables the majority of your readers to see your message in the format that you intended it to be viewed. It is also considered to be more viewer friendly when you follow this guideline. An easy way to implement this is with a text editor. Configure it to insert hard carriage returns at the end of each sixty-five character line.

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