The following is an insert from article published on DigiDay:DAILY by Swamy Viswanathan:

When marketing to global audiences, a company’s message must be clear, accurate and targeted to build consumer trust and brand loyalty.  Satisfied customers often result in repeat purchases and increased business ROI.  To make sure marketing messages are properly conveyed to different global audiences, translating content into their native language is essential.  And when it’s done properly, the benefits are immense.

Marketing content may be defined as any content that exerts emotional influence on a defined demographic in order to impact a desired behavior – usually a purchasing decision.  It’s a broad term that covers various types of content on a typical Web site. For ecommerce sites that sell physical products, product descriptions would constitute marketing content. For sites that sell services such as reservations to hotels or vacations, the description of the property or the delights of the vacation would be marketing content.

With the increasingly globalized nature of visitors on the Web, every site needs a strategy to ensure it communicates with its visitors in the manner that the visitors are most comfortable. According to a study by Donald DePalma of Common Sense Advisory titled, “Can’t read, Won’t buy: Why language matters on global Websites,” it’s important to make sure that content on a site is made available in the language that visitors to the site understand best. In other words, it is critical that all marketing content be available in the languages of visitors to the site.

To read more, click here or visit: http://www.languageweaver.com/page/view/lng/1460/976/64/

The following is an insert  by Swamy Viswanathan, VP of Products at Language Weaver, article: ‘How to Use Web Content Translation to Maximize ROI’ published on eWeek.com.

Google recently put Web content translation onto the map by offering Web users the ability to translate search results from one language to another. Website owners need to decide what Website content should or should not be translated, how this decision will affect company branding and content control, and how translation will impact overall business ROI. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Swamy Viswanathan offers five best practices for how to translate your company’s Website content to maximize ROI.

The fact that the Web is global by design is a blessing and a curse for companies. On one hand, companies can reach a broad audience simply by launching a Website. On the other hand, ensuring that their Website’s content is available in the language of the visitor is a much more difficult task. There are a lot of things to consider if your company wants to effectively reach and influence a global audience.

To read the five best practices for translating your company’s Website content, click here or visit: http://www.languageweaver.com/page/view/1458/976/

Mark Tapling, president and CEO of Language Weaver, looks ahead at what is in store for language translation in 2010. With 2009 behind us, he looks at the top translation trends of 2009 and discusses their implications on 2010.

The following is an insert from ‘New Features in Factiva.com- November 2009′ article:

Automated Translation: A Whole New World of Content

Dow Jones Factiva introduces a new, free innovative tool that expands your access to global information from all over the world.

Dow Jones Factiva users may now explore a whole new world of content with our new easy-to-use translation tool. Now, you have quick access to news and information in nine languages providing you with a deeper and more comprehensive view of what’s happening globally.

Global business information is critical to most job roles today. The ability to translate the latest articles from the regions most important to you helps you streamline your research process, improving both the efficiency and the effectiveness of your decision-making processes.

Using advanced technology from Language Weaver, articles are “machine translated” in the language of your choice, providing you with the most complete view of the global business world.

The service will translate articles from English to: Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese (Traditional) and Chinese (Simple).

It will also translate articles from these languages (and Japanese) to English. Currently, translation between these languages (for example, French to Spanish) is not available.

Articles in these languages can be easily found in Factiva News Page and by accessing Dow Jones Intelligent Indexing (DJII), which allows you to search by company, subject, industry, and by region or language.

Automated Translation is quick and easy. It allows you to select your language of choice from a pop-up box to translate the headline and lead paragraph to determine if you are interested in the article. If you wish to continue you may choose to translate the next three paragraphs (or 500 words) or the entire article. The translation process is quick (2,000 words per minute) and this piecemeal approach gives you a choice in how much you wish to translate. It can save you time by avoiding a full article translation only to then discover you are not interested.

To read more, click here or visit: http://factiva.com/whatsnew/factivacom/

Pizzerias, welding shops, tree nurseries: They all need Web sites to pull in customers. Attracting those eyeballs involves seducing the algorithms of Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Americans tap search engines more than 12 billion times a month to find everything from guitar lessons to jambalaya recipes.

Most people don’t wander past the first 10 or so search results. The art of breaking into those rarified ranks is called search engine optimization, or SEO. If this term is new to you, get familiar with it–quick. (For a primer, start here.)

For the rest who want to fortify their online attack while not spending thousands of dollars on an SEO consultant, there are plenty of things to do beyond posting fresh content on your site, making sure to include search keywords and pointing to older links. All those tricks help, but the algorithms evolve constantly, and so must your site to stay near the top.

With that in mind, we’ve compiled some of the latest SEO tricks from those who know them well.

Read More >>

The following article was submitted to IT Business Edge by Mark Tapling, President & CEO of Language Weaver:

In the last two decades, the Web has brought invaluable communication channels for companies of all sizes, and the innovative ways to reach new audiences in new ways just keep on coming. However, there is one basic communication need that has proven to be more challenging to deliver via the Web – language.

When a company launches or updates a Web site, that information is instantly available to a global audience. For some companies, this won’t matter because they are only serving a small local population, but for a growing number of businesses of all sizes, the global nature of the Web is bringing bright opportunities. For these companies, delivering information to their site visitors and customers in their own language is critical to compete in a global market.

According to Common Sense Advisory, more than 50 percent of Web users who purchased online buy only at Web sites where the information is presented in their language. (Going from Simple Translation to Successful Transactions on Global Websites, Common Sense Advisory, March 2007).

To help global companies address the needs of their diverse customer base and encourage them to make purchases, learn the top tips to consider for translating Web content >>

The following article was submitted to CustomerThink.com by Mark Tapling, President & CEO of Language Weaver:

At a recent event I attended, Greg Oxton, executive director of the Consortium for Service Innovation, said that a company’s brand is, “what your customers say about your company to each other when you are not around.” This statement started an interesting dialogue in our company and with our customers and prospects. It is also a good starting point to consider how companies can do more to make sure they aren’t dropping the ball on customer communication and putting their brand at risk.

In an economy where people are cutting back everywhere you turn, how can you ensure that your customers are saying good things about your company so that your brand presence is positive, even when you aren’t around?

Most companies pay a lot of attention to what people think about the company when they are trying to make a sale, but there are a few things that companies big and small should consider to make sure customers are happy with the company and the experience even after they make a purchase.

Read more to learn the three guidelines to ensure you don’t drop the ball on customer communication post purchases >>

Swamy Viswanathan discusses important things Website owners need to consider to get the most value out of their content, how to get value out of translated content and how a recent update from Google adds more control for site owners.

Swamy Viswanathan, Vice President of Products

By Mark Tapling, President & CEO of Language Weaver

Being able to sell to a diverse customer base is one thing, but it’s just the first step in an ongoing process of fostering successful customer interactions if winning loyalty is your goal. It might be daunting to engage call center representatives who can respond to queries in multiple languages, but many customers are thrilled to find support information in their native tongue online. Self-service is the ticket.

For the full article in CRM Buyer: http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Dissolving-Customer-Support-Communication-Barriers-68873.html

With the holiday season approaching and customers purchasing complex products on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, how can companies ensure quality customer service for purchases during this busy season? Furthermore, do companies even have the right resources in place to adequately address the needs of global shoppers?

Listen to this podcast with Claude Walton, director of product marketing at Language Weaver, to hear why customer care is important to business and for insights on providing effective customer care during the holiday season.