{"id":537,"date":"2015-10-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.motionpoint.com\/?post_type=blog&p=537"},"modified":"2015-10-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T00:00:00","slug":"lets-get-lexical","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.motionpoint.com\/blog\/lets-get-lexical\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Get Lexical"},"template":"","blog_categories":[5,9],"resource_categories":[],"targeted_localized_audience":[],"document_categories":[],"class_list":["post-537","blog","type-blog","status-publish","hentry","blog_categories-international-business-strategies","blog_categories-marketing-strategies"],"acf":{"blog_short_description":"Most times, one Spanish website can effectively serve every Spanish audience. But in some cases, subtle linguistic differences can greatly impact conversion and revenue.\n","news_inline_styles":"","blog_video_id":"","article_body":"

We\u2019ve reported extensively on the \u201cLatin American lift<\/a>\u201d many U.S. companies experience when they launch Spanish-language websites for the U.S. Hispanic market. Indeed, with superior selection and prices, U.S. Spanish sites quickly become attractive gateways<\/a> for Latin American shoppers. Companies usually see a rise in international traffic, engagement and sales.<\/p>\n

Over the years, our research has dispelled the myth that individual Spanish-speaking markets require their own unique, country-specific websites to generate revenue. Sites that support international payment types and international shipping can win big, with little or no linguistic customizations for individual markets. <\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n

Launching a website that \u201cspeaks the language\u201d is a critical first step to building trust among customers. But this localization must feel authentic. Time and again, studies have shown that shoppers bail when a site\u2019s verve or verbiage feels \u201cforeign.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll explore two global markets (and languages) where that sense of foreignness has greatly affected customer engagement and conversion. These examples illustrate the need to engage\u2014and listen to\u2014excellent, market-savvy linguists and experts, when expanding online into new international markets.<\/p>\n

A Case of Two \u2018Spanishes\u2019 <\/h2>\n

One of our retail clients recently discovered how these market-specific nuances can impact customer trust. After launching a successful Spanish-language website for the Mexican market, the company wanted to expand into other markets, including Spain.<\/p>\n

MotionPoint explained the differences between the linguistic \u201cflavor\u201d of Spanish we\u2019d used for the retailer\u2019s Mexican site, and the variant Spaniards preferred. However, the retailer wanted to leverage its existing Translation Memory\u2014a client-approved database of previously-translated words and phrases\u2014for the endeavor.<\/p>\n

At first glance, this was a smart play. It would save the company money and time, since the translations had already been created for the Mexican site. <\/p>\n

However, despite leveraging MotionPoint\u2019s powerful optimization technologies such as language preference detection<\/a>, localized SEO and more, performance gaps soon emerged. Traffic and conversion were lower than its Mexican counterpart.<\/p>\n

Why was it underperforming?<\/p>\n

The problems hailed from the significant lexical differences between the two markets. \u201cLexical\u201d refers to the elements of a language\u2019s vocabulary. Despite sharing identical grammatical structures, Spanish speakers around the world have developed their own region-specific lexical variations. This is common in other languages, too, and is a result of a country\u2019s cultural development.<\/p>\n

However, these divergences in vocabulary can be so great and numerous that, depending on geographic region, a single concept or object can be represented by wildly different words, some understandable only to specific cultures. \u201cPopcorn\u201d is a good example of this in Spanish\u2014we know of at least five different words for this single term that are only understood in particular countries!<\/p>\n

Localizing content to accommodate every linguistic variation would be expensive and complicated. We avoid doing this. Instead, we use a far more affordable, less complicated approach: a standard variation called Universal Spanish.<\/p>\n

Universal Spanish avoids these sometimes confusing local words and phrases, opting instead for \u201cregion-neutral\u201d vocabulary. This results in content that\u2019s easily understood by all Spanish speakers, regardless of their country of origin. (This is especially useful when engaging the U.S. Hispanic market, whose members hail from every Spanish-speaking nation.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we originally translated our retail client\u2019s Mexican website into Universal Spanish\u2014it would reach a larger population with a single effort.<\/p>\n

But recall that our client wanted to use those Universal Spanish translations for its Spain site. The problem: Universal Spanish doesn\u2019t play well in Spain. European Spanish, known as Castellano <\/i>(or Castilian Spanish) is preferred. Due to their significant linguistic differences, Castilian Spanish and variations of Latin American Spanish can sometimes seem like different languages altogether.<\/p>\n

As we investigated, it became clear these lexical differences were alienating customers and breeding mistrust among Spaniards. We hypothesized that localizing the Spain site with Castilian Spanish would increase traffic and conversion on the site.<\/p>\n

We were right. After updating the Spanish site with Castilian translations, the site saw an astonishing traffic increase of 88%. (We measured the performance of the site for about six months prior to this \u201cSpanish switch,\u201d and nine months after.) Other metrics improved, too. Returning visitors viewed 15% more pages on the site, per visit, after the switch. Email sign-ups increased 51%. And those who signed up returned to the site more often (up nearly 70%).<\/p>\n

But since the client was an online retailer, an important question remained. Did the switch to Castilian Spanish bring in more revenue? Yes, and fast:<\/p>\n