10 Lessons that Struggling to Communicate Abroad Taught Me About Business Communication

Sometimes you have a need that seems so simple, but you just can’t get out the right words to communicate it to the person you’re speaking to.

This isn’t an unknown feeling when you’re living in your native country, surrounded by people who speak your own language. But, it becomes an everyday occurrence when you’re in a foreign country that has just a smattering of people who speak the same language, and even fewer who are truly fluent.

Words I think I know are sometimes pronounced so abominably as to be unrecognizable to my audience, and attempts to describe what I mean when I don’t know the correct word are only occasionally successful. For a writer accustomed to using language with ease, struggling to communicate well abroad is a humbling and valuable learning experience.

Many of the challenges I’ve faced are extreme versions of communication challenges common in marketing and the business world in general. Here are a few key lessons.

1) There’s always more than one way to say something.

This is one of the first tricks you fall back on when struggling to communicate in a foreign language. When I get to the point in a sentence where I don’t know the word for what I want to say next, I talk around it. A ball becomes “a circular thing you use in a game,” an ATM becomes “a machine you use for change when all you have is a card.” It’s not elegant, but it gets the job done.

Flaubert reportedly re-wrote everything he put on paper extensively and repeatedly while working on Madame Bovary. He knew the best way to get at le seul mot juste was to try out as many different ways to say the same thing as possible.

When writing a business email or a piece of marketing copy, you’re not aiming for the level of literary masterpiece Flaubert was going for; but, you can still manage to produce a better, clearer piece of writing by taking a little extra time to think about alternate ways to communicate what you’re saying.

2) A little preparation goes a long way.

I went out one day recently with the primary goal of finding somewhere I could print out a boarding pass. As many technological terms in Italian are taken directly from the English (computer, for example, is “computer”), I assumed I’d have an easy time finding where I could print something.

Wrong. I had a completely unsuccessful conversation with a man at a local information office who thought I was asking where to go to buy a computer. Only with the help of his English-speaking colleague did I learn both the correct word for “to print” (stampare) and the closest spot where I could go to do so.

Had I taken 30 seconds to look up the word before I went out, I’d have been able to easily and clearly ask for what I needed.

The words you use, as an industry insider, aren’t always the same ones your target audience is likely to use and understand for the same concepts. Anyone who has thrown the title “copywriter” around to people working in different fields is used to having to give the added explanation “that’s copywrite, not copyright.” Knowing the right words to use with the right audience will save a lot of potential confusion down the line.

3) An interested audience will work to understand.

If you’ve already gained the interest of the person or people you’re communicating with, they’ll be happy to meet you halfway in understanding you and being understood. Communication works much better when there’s a buy-in on both sides.

The conversations I’ve had with the people hosting me, those interested in a friendly conversation, or, oh, Italian men who like the ladies, tend to go smoothly as they’re willing to put in the effort to follow what I’m saying, and help me understand what they have to say.

Someone who already has a good relationship with you or your company, or is coming to you based off of the enthusiastic recommendation of a trusted friend, will have a higher tolerance for any communication difficulties because they already like you.

On the other hand…

4) An uninterested audience will begrudge you for not making communication easier on them.

People at shops and train stations are often annoyed at the girl speaking broken Italian because having to communicate with me makes their jobs harder.

Someone not already convinced communication with you is worth the effort, or who has some reason to be unhappy with your company, is going to be much less patient with anything you say that’s hard to understand.

Imagine waiting for tech support on hold for 30 minutes, and then talking to someone who uses tech jargon you can’t follow. Your impulse won’t be to calmly ask them to put that in simpler terms, you’ll probably want to do some yelling.

For anyone that hasn’t already been won over to you or your company, it’s worth making an extra effort to communicate clearly and use a tone that can only be construed as helpful.

5) Context is crucial.

The difference between trying to have a conversation somewhere crowded with loud music playing or in a quiet park or restaurant is considerable. Just as who you’re talking to changes the way to approach a conversation, so does where you are, the subject matter being discussed, and the relationship you have with the audience.

In marketing, this point has less to do with being able to hear the words being spoken and more to do with thinking carefully about how people are coming to the information you’re putting before them. The words you use on the website’s product page will be seen by prospects at a different point in the process, looking for a different sort of information, than the words in your blog posts, emails, or that you share on social media.

The experience of the information you provide in these various formats differs and what you say, and how you say it, should reflect the knowledge of those differences.

6) One-on-one conversations work better than trying to participate in a group.

Hanging out with a group of Italians who are all more comfortable speaking with each other and for each other (e.g. quickly and naturally, with some slang here and there) means I’m less likely to actively participate, and more likely to quietly (try to) follow and learn from those speaking.

There are a lot of benefits to group communication. You have the opportunity to meet more people, learn from the questions and ideas of a variety of minds, and appreciate the difference in expertise and perspective presented.

Nonetheless, a more personalized, focused interaction one-on-one is often much more productive than a communique meant for a large audience.

7) The more you do it, the easier it gets.

Isn’t this just true of everything in life? My first week back in Italy, I thought I’d lost all of the ability I’d gained in my year here 6 years ago. But, the second week I realized my questions and conversations came a little easier, and by the third felt pretty close to where I’d been at the end of my year abroad.

Each conversation boosts my ability and confidence a bit more.

With writing and speaking, it’s inevitable that you’ll get better the more of it you do, especially if you’re mixing research into your practice. The words start to come more easily and confidently, you find yourself getting faster, and you get better at picking up techniques and wording that work.

8) Never hesitate to ask more questions.

The most egregious communication errors occur when people get complacent and assume they’re understanding each other just fine. I might feel awkward asking more questions of an annoyed ticket seller, but if I’m not 100% confident that I know which train to get on and where to get off for my connection, I’m much better off irritating a stranger than getting stuck in some small town in Sicily without knowing where to go next.

With clients, customers, vendors, colleagues, and, let’s face it, friends, family and significant others, you are much less likely to find yourself in conflict if you’re particular about clarifying terms and getting as much information upfront as possible.

You don’t want to learn that your customer thought your product had a capability it doesn’t after they’ve purchased it and are pissed. Or, that your client had a 20-page white paper in mind, rather than the 6-page one you sent in, and now wants you to do over triple the work for the same rate.

If someone gets irked at you for wanting more information and clarification from them, that’s their problem. You want to make sure you know what you’re doing and how to do it right, or what’s the point?

9) Being understood is more important than being clever.

I remember having a conversation with a fellow student in my abroad program years ago about the realization that it’s very difficult to communicate a distinct personality in a new language. Cracking jokes, or communicating personal quirks, just doesn’t have a place when you’re struggling to communicate at a basic level.

Humor and wit in marketing can often work fantastically and give your brand more personality. But, they should be lower on the priority list than communicating who you are and what you do effectively.

If you’ve got a good handle on that part, and someone in your organization is pretty adept in the humor department (there’s nothing worse than trying for wit and failing), then building up that personality around and within the basics can work fine. Just focus on clarity first.

10) You can’t always predict which concepts will be difficult to explain, and which will be simple.

With the Romance languages, many of the more formal and academic terms are very similar across the languages. But, the everyday common-usage terms are distinct. When the Roman Empire was imposing its language on all the territories it conquered, people deigned to use it for some business, scholarship, and writing; but when it came to talking amongst themselves and facing everyday tasks, they held on to their original languages more.

Thus, it’s actually easier to have an academic conversation with someone about great literature or history than to chat casually about the weather, food, or how your day went.

In life, we’re often not all that great at predicting what’s easy for others to understand, and what’s more challenging. Thinking back to the earlier tech support example, the guy on the other end of the line doesn’t know how adept you are with technology. Maybe you’re something of an expert and would be offended if he didn’t speak to you at your level, or maybe you’re the kind of person who really does need to hear that question that frustrates so many: “have you tried restarting?”

We have to be prepared to shift how we talk about our expertise based on the needs of the person we’re communicating with. Sometimes the concepts we think are a piece of cake may actually be those that make our audience want to bang their heads against the wall.

Introduction to Content Marketing for Small Businesses: An Austin Copywriter White Paper

introduction to content marketing for small businesses whitepaper

Are you a small business owner interested in learning more about content marketing? If you’ve heard that content marketing is a good way to promote your business and improve your brand reputation, but want to learn more before you get started, this white paper lays out some of the basics.

Content marketing allows your business to attract new customers and develop relationships with current customers by offering something of value to them.

With this white paper, An Introduction to Content Marketing for Small Businesses, you can get a feel for whether or not you’re ready to get started developing and deploying a content strategy for your business.

If you have questions, feedback, or would like some help developing quality content to promote your business, feel free to contact me at kristen@austin-copywriter.com.

7 Reasons Business Blogging is Worth It

business blogging

Updated August 2019

You can’t afford to hop on every trend you hear about. You have a limited budget for promoting your business, and only so many hours in the day. But for years you’ve been hearing the same tactic suggested continually: business blogging.

Maybe 5 years ago you could shrug and assume it was more buzzword than essential tactic, but it’s harder to write off business blogging now. The trend has not only had real staying power, it’s grown in popularity. And the businesses doing it well get results.

The Case for Business Blogging

To be fair, blogging isn’t something a company should dabble in. If you’re going to start a business blog, you have to do it right. And that means making a real investment in time, money, and effort. 

But even acknowledging that there’s a cost, business blogging is absolutely worth it. Here are 7 compelling reasons why. 

1. Business blogging is essential for search engine optimization (SEO).

SEO is the collection of techniques you can use to improve your rankings in the search engines. While Google is tight-lipped about how their algorithms determine which websites deserve top rankings, they’ve been straightforward about some of the ranking factors they value. Two of the top ones: links and content. 

Business blogging is good for building both. Maintaining a blog means publishing new content regularly, that:

  • Keeps your website fresh, which signals to Google that it’s current
  • Gives you lots of opportunities to target keywords your audience is searching for—each new post can focus on a new keyword you could potentially rank for
  • Gives other websites more reasons to link back to you. A useful blog post is more likely to earn a link than a home or product page. 

HubSpot data showed businesses with blogs earned 97% more links, and had 434% more indexed pages. 

Any good SEO expert you talk to will advise starting a blog as one of the first steps in improving your website’s rankings. And once it starts paying off and your webpages creep up on the SERPs (search engine results page) for relevant terms, it gives your website a big boost in visibility. 

2. Business blog posts drive traffic. 

Your website can’t do its job if people can’t find it. Traffic is one of the most important metrics to determine if your marketing is working and your audience knows how to find you. 

Business blogging gives people more pages to consider clicking on. Blog promotion, along with improved SEO, gives people more opportunities to find your website. The natural result of that is higher traffic. That HubSpot data also showed business blogging leads to 55% more visitors.

3. A blog is the cornerstone of a good content marketing strategy.

The best reason to start a business blog is because you’ve committed to doing content marketing. Blogs work best when they’re one part of an overall strategy to provide value to your audience, and gain more attention and followers in the process. 

While content marketing can include any number of other tactics—video, podcasts, and email, just to name a few—a blog is the best starting point to get your content marketing efforts off the ground. And it’s a good foundation to build your other efforts from—blog posts can be repurposed into other content formats, and used to promote gated content like ebooks.

4. Business blogging gives you a way to connect with your audience.

This is what content marketing is all about. People are more likely to buy from a brand they feel a connection with. Blogging gives you the opportunity to show helpfulness to your audience and build trust in the process. 

People who have read your blog posts will associate you with the topics you cover. That puts you top of mind when they’re thinking about your industry and, by extension, the type of products you offer. That’s good for your brand reputation, and can help you earn customer loyalty. 

5.  A business blog is a showcase for your expertise. 

You know more about what you do and the industry you’re in than most people. A blog allows you to demonstrate that. By sharing what you know, you show people you’re qualified. Customers know they’ll be in better hands buying from someone that knows the industry and understands their problems. Your blog is where you prove to them you do.

That’s not just important for companies that sell services, it matters if you sell products as well. A company that sells accounting software should understand the ins and outs of accounting laws and processes, or how could they create a product that genuinely provides the features its customers need?

6.  Business blogging gives your other online marketing a boost. 

If you do social media marketing, you need something to put in your social updates. Blog posts give you regular content to share with your followers. If you do email marketing, you need something in your emails to keep subscribers engaged. Blog posts provide regular value and give them more reason to click to your site.

And it works both ways. Someone who likes a blog post on your website is more likely to follow you on social media or sign up for your email list to see more of your content. Business blogging is an important component in a holistic online marketing strategy. Do it well, and it can help make your other tactics stronger. 

7. Business blogging keeps you learning.

You’re an expert in your industry. Everyone on your team is. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have more to learn. A business blog requires continually researching what’s going on in your industry. You need to stay on top of trends so you know how to cover and respond to them on your blog.

That not only makes for a better blog, it’s also good for your business. When consistent research becomes a part of the job, it means you become better and smarter at it every day. 

Start Your Business Blog

If you’re sold on the benefits of a business blog, then get started. To do it right, here are a few important tips:

Blogging is a lot of work, so you want to get as much out of the time you put in as possible. That means thinking strategically. Do your research to make sure the topics you cover make sense for your audience and your SEO goals. Figure out how to connect your blogging efforts with your other online marketing campaigns. Create a plan and stick with it. 

  • Set realistic goals. 

A common early mistake in business blogging is to get too ambitious. If you decide to publish multiple blog posts a day with a small team that’s already overworked, you’ll be on the path to content writing burnout. Make sure your strategy leaves room for the time and work involved in doing this well. Blogging isn’t something to be rushed. 

  • Aim for consistency.

Blogs set an expectation of regularity. If a blog publishes two posts in a week, then nothing for a couple of months, that’s confusing for your audience. Visitors may assume the blog is defunct and not bother checking back or signing up, even if they like your stuff. And you’ll have a harder time seeing any real results. 

Figure out a consistent schedule you can keep up with. It’s better to aim for weekly posts and hit that goal every time, then plan for daily posts and fail to keep up.

  • Have a promotion plan. 

Creating outstanding blog posts is important to success, but even the best blog post won’t be worth anything if no one reads it. The internet has billions of websites, and your industry likely has hundreds. You’re competing against all of them for the attention of your audience. Publishing a post on your blog isn’t good enough on its own.

Create a plan for promoting your blog posts so people can find them. That could include social media, PPC (pay-per-click) ads, email marketing, or guest posting around the web. Whatever tactics you try, make sure you do something so your hard work pays off.  

  • Outsource as needed. 

If it’s not clear yet at this point, business blogging is hard. Worth it, but hard. Part of doing it well is recognizing how much work it requires, so you can set realistic expectations and create a plan your team can manage. 

In many cases though, to start really seeing the results you want, you’ll need to go beyond the team you already have. Finding a good freelance blog writer that understands content marketing will take some of the work off your shoulders, help you keep up with the ongoing demands of blog publishing, and increase the odds of meeting your goals. 

Any company that hasn’t yet gotten on board with business blogging is falling behind. Every day you wait, the harder it will be to compete against businesses that got there first and built their foundation. That doesn’t mean there’s no point in trying, it means the day to get started is here. 

On Writing and Getting Paid

writing and getting paidThere’s been a lot of conversation online recently about the typical practices surrounding how for-profit publications pay writers, or whether they do at all. Prompted by the correspondence Nate Thayer published between him and an Atlantic editor, after he was asked to let them publish his work for free, many writers and editors have spoken up to weigh in on the subject, including Ta-Nehisi Coates over at the Atlantic, and a large group of writers and editors at the Awl.

As a freelance writer, I’ve followed the conversation with fascination. Sometimes to the slight detriment of my own productivity (did you see the length of that Awl discussion?). It’s not a new discussion, but as with many heated topics, all that was required was the catalyst of one angry writer making a stink, and many others followed to weigh in with their opinion.

So, because I’m sure the internet is clamoring for one more voice on the subject, here’s mine.

Whether or not writers should be paid for their work depends on the intent of the work.

Work

Obviously I need to get paid for my time and work, or I can’t make a living and would need to go back to working for someone else. I very much prefer freelance work to the alternative, so this is an important consideration. If I’m writing for a business or a for-profit publication, there shouldn’t be a question of payment. The content provided is valuable and serves a profitable purpose.

Almost any work I do that will help to promote another company or publication, I expect to get paid for.

Marketing

Here’s where the almost comes in: in order to be successful as a freelance writer, marketing myself plays an important role in the equation. Many freelance writers produce content for self-promotion for free, whether that content is published on a personal blog, their own website, or as a guest post or article in an industry publication that will bring it to a larger audience.

This is the tricky line of exposure. How do you measure whether the publication of your work is doing more to promote the publication in question (in which case you should be paid) and when it does more to promote your own brand (in which case it serves as marketing and might be worth doing for free, or a lower rate than usual).

Love

There’s an amazing series on the Hairpin called Scandals of Classic Hollywood. As I understand it, these stories, which are often lengthy and always include a number of photographs that surely take some time to gather, are written for free. They are also wildly popular on the site.

Why would someone put that much time into something without the promise of a profit? It’s clear that the writer, Anne Helen Peterson, loves the subject matter she writers about. It’s worth noting, she also recently published a book on the subject that many of her Hairpin readers rushed to buy, but my hunch is that she didn’t start the series a couple of years ago as a long-term marketing project for a book that hadn’t been written yet (although if she did, that’s brilliant marketing).

If a writer chooses to do some writing to help a non-profit she cares about with fundraising, or to raise awareness of an issue that’s of special importance to her, or for the fun of analyzing a good tv show – then there’s a drive to do the work that has little to do with profit.

 

So, that’s it. If you ask a professional writer to write for free, unless doing so achieves them a specific marketing goal, or it’s a piece about something they love and would likely write about anyways, don’t be surprised if you get an offended response like Thayer’s.

Unless you’re quick to offer whatever you do for a living for free to any asker, you should be sympathetic to their position.

Content Marketing in 2013

That content marketing is a growing force is no surprise to anyone who follows trends in marketing. Blog posts and articles citing the benefits quality content has on branding, SEO and customer loyalty abound.

Nonetheless, it’s nice to be able to match some numbers to all the talk. Business Bolts performed a survey of 265 individuals, a mix of small business owners and marketing professionals, in order to gain a sense of how businesses are approaching content marketing in 2013.

You can find the full report on their findings here.

Most of the results aren’t especially surprising, but serve to back up arguments copywriters, marketers and SEO professionals have been making for some time:
content marketing trends

  • Content marketing is good for SEO

77% of respondents said content marketing helped increase web traffic, and 71% said it helped them achieve higher rankings

  • Content marketing is good for ROI

Although there are challenges in many cases to tracking the relationship between content marketing and sales, 59% said they believed that content marketing helped them up their sales numbers.

  • Content marketing strengthens brand awareness

70% reported this benefit, another that’s hard to track, but crucial for small business success.

The good news for freelance writers and content developers: many respondents expressed a desire to find good content producers.

The bad news: few have made content production a high budget item. Most (61%) reported still doing the majority of their content development in house, but of those that worked with freelancers the amount they’re paying is piddling. 14% spend less than $15 for 1,000 words, and 17% spend between $16 and $25.

It’s clear that businesses have a growing awareness of the benefit good content provides. Hopefully, their willingness to value those helping them reap that benefit will increase in time as well.