Small Business Uses Website To Boost Image
ObjectSecurity, a leader in secure information integration for complex, networked IT environments, uses languages to brand itself as a global player and increase traffic on its website.The company offers software and services for global sectors such as air traffic management, homeland security, defence, and telecoms (and others).
ObjectSecurity, a company with three full-time staff and a range of contractors, has a successful track record with many large blue-chip companies such as Deutsche Telekom, Intel, and Royal Bank of Scotland and government organisations such as the US Naval Research Laboratory and the European Commission.
CEO and co-founder Ulrich Lang explains that the main aim of translating the company website was to increase the number of hits, "we have measured some hits on Google with German and French words in particular – and that is one of the primary aims of translating the website."The company has translated a short description of its company and services into: German, French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese.The company used students with a knowledge of the industry to translate the text and this works well as the language is pitched at the right level.This also reduced costs.
He goes on to say, "the second purpose of translating our website was to make sure that the customer sees that we are a global company, despite our small size – and that we are open to different markets. It invites them to talk to us."You may wonder how ObjectSecurity deals with enquiries in all these languages.The secret is to add a paragraph at the bottom of your text to inform customers that their enquiries can be dealt with in their native language, but that the communication will take longer (as translators would have to be used) than it would in English.
As well as using their website, the company also plays on its cultural roots to brand itself as a global company "we try to exploit several perceptions of the company, for example we are based in Cambridge which is a world-renowned centre of excellence, the British are known for their inventiveness and the Germans for high-quality engineering, these images work."
Between them ObjectSecurity staff speak German, English, Czech, Russian, and French. Ulrich Lang is bilingual German-English and also speaks French.Staff are based in Cambridge, Germany and the Czech Republic.He feels his company benefits from having a multinational staff as "dealing with people on a personal level is where an understanding of different cultures comes in useful. It’s not just the language alone."
And although ObjectSecurity’s industry is global and most of the large corporations and agencies do business in English, Ulrich is learning French with a group of other business people and although his French is not perfect, he agrees that showing willing helps when dealing with French contacts. In ObjectSecurity’s experience, it is also often much easier to build up a rapport with customers if they can do the small talk in their language, even if they then discuss the details in English.