Recent predictions by the National Retail Federation show that loved-up consumers intend to spend a very romantic 21.8 billion dollars on Valentine’s Day purchases this year. Valentine’s Day is a significant marketing calendar event for businesses everywhere because of its commercial appeal and substantial global audience.
With many businesses rolling out dedicated campaigns and product lines in honour of the famous love celebration, it’s another golden opportunity to drive digital traffic, boost sales and reconnect with potential and regular customers. For e-Arabization, Valentine’s Day is symbolic of the rise in bilingual marketing. Marketing in more than one language indicates that the companies we support want to maximize their reach and connection to their audiences.
Still on the fence about developing multilingual marketing for Valentine’s Day? Here are some facts that might change your mind (and your marketing strategy).
Multilingual celebrations = big money
While evenings out and clothes are understandably lower on our collective agenda this year, there’s no love lost when it comes to gifting delivery-friendly presents. Today, Valentine’s Day is far more inclusive than the gushy celebration that it used to be, and friends, family members and co-workers spend on average, between 8 and 16 US Dollars on V-Day themed gifts.
Even though culturally, Valentine’s Day is a Western celebration, global commercialization means many natives of the Middle East enjoy a light-hearted excuse to exchange and enjoy red roses, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, and messages of warmth too.
If you’re a retailer operating in a multi-national community like the GCC, we recommend a bilingual approach to all marketing because Arabic and English are both so widely used and spoken. The below numbers show the phenomenal expected spend across three popular Valentine’s Day purchases. We highly recommend localizing campaigns for key revenue-boosting dates in the marketing calendar because of wins like this:
|
Gift
|
%
|
Total Spend ($ Billion)*
|
|
Candy
|
54%
|
2.0
|
|
Greeting Cards
|
44%
|
1.1
|
|
Flowers
|
36%
|
2.0
|
Given that globally, many nations are still in lockdown, we also recommend that food delivery apps prepare for major calendared celebrations like February 14th by localizing their menus, food outlet descriptions and customer reviews. Improving the reach and accessibility of takeaway options for millions of non-native English speaking customers who’ll order-in romantic dinners instead of heading to malls and city centres is a great way to show coupled-up users that you care.
Mobile love boosts online purchases
Twenty years ago you’d buy a bouquet of roses from a dedicated florist, and you’d have to go into the shop to select your floral arrangement (ah, for simpler times!). Today, you can access hundreds of florists from your smartphone, and have flowers delivered on your behalf at the touch of a button.
Predictions for mobile purchases look set to be worth $3.56 trillion this year; you can prepare your business for this historical growth opportunity by ensuring customers can make passionate purchases in their language. If you’re not sure where to start but think this could be you, check out our easy-to-read guide for boosting site traffic (and purchases) with website translation.
Ensuring your website is optimized for mobile and communicating your offering to your customer in their language of choice is one of the most effective ways to increase dwell time on your web pages. Longer on-page time increases the likelihood that users will take positive action and navigate further into your site.
Localization means we love you, for you
Country to country, expressions of love differ, and so do the words people use to express care. Creating a winning customer experience means thinking in more than one language, and learning how your different customers emote. In American and British English, the terms ‘Baby’ and ‘Babe’ are interchangeably adopted as the most commonly used term of endearment. Still, in Arabic, you wouldn’t dream of calling someone you love your ‘baby’, because the sentiment simply doesn’t translate well. Instead, you might call someone ‘Habibi’(my love) or ‘Hayati’ (my life).
Building bilingual marketing campaigns is more than just translating words from English to Arabic. It’s a cultural task that involves adapting to the many ways international audiences differ. Placing language localization at the heart of your global marketing strategy is useful because it helps you identify, target, and create distinct offerings that appeal to specific demographics so that you can serve your customer even better.
So how about it, Habibi? Ready to speak your customers’ language?