Think globally, act locally on the web: power up with an international digital marketing specialist

A digital marketing freelancer is a professional who works independently to provide assistance or consultancy services, such as SEO or social media marketing, to companies or agencies. More often than not, digital marketing freelancers will have gained their expertise working for international organizations before striking out on their own. On the other hand, a digital marketing agency is a group of professionals that perform marketing services for their client roster.

As a multilingual digital marketing freelancer, I fit into teams and provide them with the assistance or consultancy services they require to achieve their goals. I work with digital marketing or SEM agencies in need of an international marketing specialist, or with international organizations or companies that need an expert to plug a specific gap in their marketing team.

International or global SEO is about optimizing your website for a multinational audience, but not necessarily using multiple languages. Monolingual websites still need international SEO to ensure that they are appropriately localized for the target market. Just think about how the meaning of the word “pants” differs for US and UK based audiences, for example. International SEO also focuses on the technical aspects of optimizing your website to get the best results from various global search engines.

Multilingual SEO (MSEO), on the other hand, involves optimizing your website in different languages so that your business can reach a global audience or cater for customers within a multilingual nation. Here, transcreation is vital to ensure that your content is not just translated, but linguistically and culturally tailored to your target context. Lastly, local SEO is used to optimize websites to generate leads and brand awareness in a specific location, usually a city or region.

No, AI tools cannot replace the knowledge of a multilingual specialist in search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine advertising (SEA). While AI can automate some aspects of multilingual or international SEM (Search Engine Marketing), human expertise and cultural awareness are essential in creating effective communication strategies that are both globally and locally effective. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can assist with tasks such as multilingual keyword research, competitive analysis and content optimization. However, it cannot replace the creativity, strategic thinking and cultural sensitivity that a human professional can provide.

Want to learn more about how I use AI tools in my work as an international SEO and SEA specialist? Read here.

To effectively run international PPC campaigns that produce optimal results without breaking the bank, there are a few key steps to follow.

1. Firstly, it’s crucial to have a multilingual PPC expert who can research and select the most effective multilingual keywords for your target market, as well as conduct competitor analysis. This ensures that your research, testing, and bidding processes are specifically tailored to your target market.

2. To further refine your approach, divide your campaigns into individual languages and/or geographic regions. This allows you to better tailor your efforts and focus on the areas that are most likely to produce results.

3. Instead of simply localizing your content, it is important to customize it to be culturally nuanced and resonate with your target customers. Transcreation will produce the same effect for them as it does for your customers at home.

4. Finally, pairing your multilingual PPC with international SEO can maximize results by targeting both paid and organic search channels. This can also help you optimize your available budget and ensure that you are getting the most out of your efforts.

By following these steps, you can effectively run international PPC campaigns that are cost-effective and produce the desired results for your business.

Funnel marketing is the methodology used to attract potential customers and guide them through their buyer journey: from identifying a need to be fulfilled and considering your brand, to regularly purchasing your products or services and recommending your business to other potential customers. By optimizing your marketing funnel, you can achieve its ultimate objective: convincing your repeat customers to promote your brand and thus creating a loop that feeds your sales funnel.

Monitoring the progression of leads along their buyer journey allows you to analyze whether your strategies are producing results, adjust them accordingly, and identify opportunities to increase sales. Moreover, with improved understanding of who you need to attract to your funnel to drive sales, you can tailor your actions to achieve your goals, thereby increasing the productivity of your marketing campaigns.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) refers to all activities related to marketing a website and content on search engines. It is made up of both Search Engine Advertising (SEA that includes the paid search techniques, e.g. pay-per-click (PPC)) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO that involves using a range of techniques to organically improve your website’s search engine rankings).

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is where SEO meets social media: SMO ensures that your website performs optimally on social media by boosting customer interaction with your content on various social media channels. This is often combined with Social Media Advertising (SMA), which includes the use of paid advertising campaigns on social media. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is an umbrella term, encompassing SMO and SMA.

Content marketing involves sharing relevant and useful content with your current and potential customers in many different formats and across a variety of platforms, including blog posts, infographics, videos, podcasts, email newsletters and social media posts. The aim is to attract and retain customers, increase brand awareness and showcase your products and services. It is important to highlight your expertise in your field, to build trust with your clients and ensure that your business is at the forefront of their minds when they require your products and services.

In today’s globalized and digital world, multilingual content is vital for an effective content marketing strategy. What better way to make your customers feel valued than meeting their language needs? Ensuring that your content is appropriately localized for effective communication with your target audience improves their experience of your brand and ultimately increases your sales.