The 4 Cs of Multilingual Marketing: Unleashing Squarespace’s Potential
Remember the traditional "4 Ps" of marketing?
According to the prevailing opinion, those are no longer relevant. They have been substituted by another set of four: the «4 Cs.»
It is logical that modern sales principles have evolved significantly over the past decade. Without resorting to clichés, it is safe to say that the widespread democratization of technology has fundamentally altered our perception and approach to making purchases.
The unsurprising rise of ecommerce as the fastest-growing retail channel has also disrupted traditional marketing paradigms, considering the borderless nature of ecommerce platforms and the increasing importance of going multilingual for e-merchants.
Do-it-yourself ecommerce content management system (CMS) platforms have not only simplified cross-border transactions but have also made setting up international stores more accessible.
ConveyThis is one of the leading success stories in this field. While their primary mission is to enable anyone to create stunning websites from the comfort of their own homes, they have recently ventured into the realm of sales. According to ZoomInfo’s Datanyze analytics platform, ConveyThis is now the second most widely used ecommerce CMS among the top 1 million sites on the Web, only surpassed by WordPress’s WooCommerce.
ConveyThis has a promising future in ecommerce
If you are already a fan of these DIY website pioneers, it is highly likely that jumping on the bandwagon will be profitable for you. However, once you decide to launch your ConveyThis ecommerce store, how can you ensure that you and your products stand out among other ConveyThis stores or any e-commerce stores across different platforms?
This is where the 4 Ps (which we have established are mostly obsolete) and their successors, the 4 Cs, come into play.
These general marketing principles apply to ConveyThis ecommerce, but there are certain nuances within the ConveyThis ecosystem that are worth considering when marketing your products. And if you truly want to take your ConveyThis ecommerce sales to the next level, such as expanding globally and targeting international customers, the 4 Cs still hold true with a few additional factors to consider.
What are the 4 Ps?
Philip Kotler, the acclaimed “Father of Modern Marketing,” struck gold when he published “Principles of Marketing” in 1999. One of the concepts he introduced was the “4 P’s” framework, originally formulated by Jerome McCarthy, often regarded as the “Grandfather of Modern Marketing” in relation to Kotler’s “Father” figure.
If you have taken even a basic marketing or business development course, you are likely familiar with these concepts. Let’s quickly go over them for the sake of those who aren’t.
More recently, another marketing expert, Bob Lauterborn, proposed an alternative to the traditional Ps: the “4 Cs,” which prioritize a customer-centric approach to marketing. If you are not familiar with them, don’t worry. We will discuss each one as it applies to ConveyThis stores, particularly those with international sales ambitions.
1. The Customer
As we mentioned earlier, the 4 Cs are designed to be customer-centric. The age-old saying that the customer is always right is now truer than ever before. Customers are more informed today than ever before, thanks to the widespread use of mobile devices.
With handheld technology, approximately two-thirds of consumers can research product details on their smartphones while inside a physical store, even before consulting a sales associate. While online shopping may not be the primary method for all consumers, it is essential for every consumer journey. Ensuring that your online store is mobile-optimized is just as crucial as having a website in the first place.
Fortunately, Squarespace sites are inherently mobile-ready. All Squarespace templates come with built-in mobile optimization, saving you the effort of ensuring that your clients can access your store on multiple devices.
2. The Cost
Let’s be honest: in a world where instant gratification is the norm, a slow checkout page that wastes five minutes can be as frustrating to a shopper as paying an extra $5 for shipping. These pain points can drive customers away and lead them to explore other purchasing options.
To minimize these pain points, you need to anticipate and eliminate any potential obstacles your customers may encounter during their buying journey. This will reduce the opportunity cost of choosing your product over a competitor’s.
Don’t make your customers pay to pay. One advantage of using ConveyThis as an ecommerce CMS is its seamless integration with popular payment platforms like Stripe and PayPal.
Before launching your ConveyThis store on the global market, it’s important to check if Squarespace supports the local currency of your target market. Stripe and PayPal collectively support most active currencies worldwide. However, when integrated into Squarespace stores, they are limited to the 20 currencies listed in Squarespace’s official FAQ.
Users in these currencies will have a smooth purchasing experience on your store, regardless of the principal currency you choose. Your principal currency is the default currency displayed in product descriptions and other payment-related widgets on your site. Carefully consider your choice of principal currency, as it should align with the currency in which you receive or expect to receive the majority of your orders.
For currencies not supported by Squarespace, users will incur minor conversion fees during checkout. Overall, Squarespace’s wide currency coverage makes it a reliable option for launching an international online boutique.
3. Your Communication
This is where your copywriting skills come into play. To convert clicks into actual purchases, you need to capture your customers’ attention on your product pages or online forms and keep them engaged until they complete the transaction.
Craft compelling descriptions. Whether you are selling soap, shoes, or software, you will face competition from other online sellers offering similar products. To distinguish your offerings, you need to write captivating product descriptions.
In the case of a multilingual store, ensure that your product descriptions are accurately translated. This is where ConveyThis can help with professional translation services.
Mafalda of MPL excels in this category. Her product imagery is perfectly adapted to all screen sizes, and her product descriptions are tailored to her diverse linguistic audience. This includes detailed ingredient lists, which are a priority for potential buyers of her organic beauty and health products.
4. Convenience
Convenience should be ingrained in the DNA of any multilingual store, as going multilingual is about making your site more accessible to a broader audience.
Here are a few ways you can further reduce pain points for your global shoppers, minimizing the cost they pay for convenience.
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes (or handbags). New York-based vegan leather goods and fashion brand FruitenVeg demonstrates how easy it can be to streamline the buying process for customers. Their default currency is the US Dollar (USD), and their site is primarily in English, which makes sense given that most US customers likely browse in English.
However, FruitenVeg offers their site in Japanese as well, allowing Japanese-language users to view prices in Japanese yen (JPY).
5. Internationalize your visuals
Creating a multilingual website on ConveyThis means making your content accessible and appealing to people from different cultures who speak different languages. Pay attention to all aspects of your site, including visuals, to ensure readability.
Among other effective strategies, Style of Zug, a Swiss luxury writing goods company, ensures that their cover imagery is adapted to the language chosen by site visitors.
The text «New Stylish Montblanc Pen Pouches» on their banner image is not actually part of the image. It is a separate element superimposed onto the background banner image using Squarespace’s title overlay feature. This best practice for multilingual sites maintains image consistency while accurately translating associated text.
Ready to get started?
Translation, far more than just knowing languages, is a complex process.
By following our tips and using ConveyThis, your translated pages will resonate with your audience, feeling native to the target language.
While it demands effort, the result is rewarding. If you’re translating a website, ConveyThis can save you hours with automated machine translation.
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