360DigitalInfluence

I will be attending Search Engine Strategies in New York March 24th - 26th.  In preparation for the conference I’ve had the privileged of interviewing Marjorie Madfis, an Interactive Marketing Manager and Web Editor at IBM. She will be one of the speakers in the session Key Points in Launching a Global Website.

1. Can you give me a little background on your experience with launching global websites?

My background is in traditional direct marketing.  I learned DM from Lester Wunderman and then from my positions at Doubleday Book Clubs.  After consulting at Ogilvy I came to IBM in 1995 to a start up team on interactive direct marketing where I worked on the development of many website models, but in those early days they were all based on a US implementation.  Today I work on IBM Software webpages and everything we do now considers the implications for other countries –from page templates, to editorial content, to lead generation offers, to SEO and drive to web tactics.  I am responsible for the software home page www.ibm.com/software and for the IT Issues pages www.ibm.com/itsolutions.  I still believe in applying the mission of marketing: to bring buyers and sellers together and in applying the direct marketing principle of motivating the prospect to take an action.

2.    What are 3 things that are typically overlooked from a search perspective when first starting to build a website for a global audience?

At IBM we have several search experts that the web marketing managers like myself turn to for advice, support and education.  My guru on search is Lee Moore.  Here are his thoughts on your question:

1. Hosting of content in local IP addresses helps you rank higher in countries,  specifically if they have geo targeting or enabled for local search.
2. Translation vs. localization… Translation is great but still requires subject matter experts to review the technical copy. Just as native English speakers can tell when English is not someone’s first language, our technical copy tends to come up short in readable local dialect; plus you need local lead response mechanisms.
3. Page design.  Many countries outside of the major industrialized countries are using cellular and satellite because they don’t have hard wire telephony systems in place.  So when considering graphics, different templates, etc., consider how long these take to load. Japan for example is using a lot of cell phone and “web books” (lite little notebook PC’s) for surfing the web.so even where there is hardwire, people are doing this mobile.

3.    In order to improve search visibility across the world, how necessary is it to hire native speaking SEO firms or consultants?

It definitely helps; the issue is not just language though, it is also knowing the various search engines uniqueness; Baidu in China vs Rambler in Russia for example.  Baidu gives credit for using Chinese characters instead of text for example.  What is REALLY needed by SEO Firms/Consultants is bringing together various Web Marketing tactics (paid, organic, syndication, social) into a go to market digital strategy. IBM tries this with both our agencies.  Ideally a marketer would do best with a single agency/consultant to bring the different organizations that manage these tactics under one true plan to align resource; making sure you get links for example.

4.    How do you allow each country the autonomy to showcase its local expertise while adhering to global standards?

We have corporate standards for page templates and we use content management systems.  We have guidelines for web copy writing.  We have standards for registration forms where data is collected and incorporated into our lead generation processes.  Because customer data needs to be gathered and maintained in the country in which they are doing business, this means there are country tools and staff to support this activity.  We have graphics libraries that enable sharing of assets.  We have marketing asset repositories where we can share content that can also be re-purposed at a local level.
A good example of a Geo team running with a WW/US initiative is the IT Issues pages.  The US versions are an important part of our marketing strategy, but for countries in Europe, they have to take the US pages and not only localized them but also improve them with even better SEO and drive to web tactics than the US pages.   You can see an example here:  www.ibm.com/itsolutions/collaboration and the German version: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/de/itsolutions/collaboration/ and the Benelux version:http://www-01.ibm.com/software/nl/itsolutions/collaboration/

5.    Does a “global website” truly open up global audiences? Is a website always the best approach to reaching the global audience online?

There is no one best approach because there is no single universal learning style.  People gather and process information differently, using different senses (auditory, visual, kinesthetic).  Prospects in your target audience are always in different stages of the buy cycle, and they have different styles of making decisions to buy (some are heavy researchers others are impulse buyers; some are sole decision makers and others require a committee who all have different roles in the decision.)   Regardless, most people, according to learning theory, need to be exposed to a message at least three times before they even take an action.  So web is just one type of media to deliver the message in a well thought out multi-media marketing communications plan.

6.    What global trends are you seeing regarding the integration of social media into the build of a website?  Do you have any best practice recommendations around the embedding of social media into a website in order for a global audience to be most comfortable with its use?

Well, this is the secret sauce and I ate the recipe.

Thanks for your time and expertise Marjorie!

Maybe one of our readers can provide some insight on the last question.  If you have other questions about launching a global website feel free to put them in the comments.  Let’s see if we can build this into a running resource for people looking to reach a global audience with their website…

I’d would also like to thank our 360 Digital Influence Global Team for helping me come up with questions pertinent to web communicators across the globe.  In full disclosure, SES has hooked me up with free passes to the conference.