How to Create a Multilingual Content Strategy That Attracts and Converts More Cu...

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1. 2Federico:That's what you did.Sonia:Was just it was very cool. I wish I would have known, like, further in advance, I would haveprepared myself a mate. We could be drinking mate at the same time.Federico:I havea headache here. Counting me everywhere I go. In fact, we have time for a bit ofa cultural, you know, detail. I can tell you how Mate was born because I think it's a story.Sonia:Definitely. Okay. Remind me at the end. We will definitely cover it. Alright. So you are apartner, as you mentioned, in a minority-owned publishing and media company. Why is there a needfor minority-owned media and publishing companies?Federico:Oh, do we have, like, 3 hours? This is part of my life. That's why we created Messenas.So I think overall, minorities have been overlooked for a long time in the US. And I think there are,like, 2 different things that actually brought us to create, Messenas.On one side, minorities are becoming bigger a bigger portion of the US. Weare a minority. We'reHispanics. We're, I'm Argentinian. My partner is Argentinian. We really care about our culture.And then one thing that we have been seeing, and mostly maybe after the things that happenedwith like lives matter, which actually I think led to an approach of all minorities matter.And I believe the last few years, have seen a change in the way some brands and agencies seeminorities. And we felt that there was a need to kind of help those brands engage with Hispanics inan authentic way.Because I feel that there are a lot of, different pieces out there, and some marketers or agenciesdon't really know how to put them together. So I think, they need people like you or me to help themunderstand, our communities.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. I read somewhere that brands spend somewhere around 5% of their mediaspend with minority-owned media companies, and that's, like, all minorities, you know, put together,not just one of them. Whenever brands are looking to target consumers or engage consumers,particularly those from underserved communities, should they be looking specifically to reach themthrough a media source or a content source owned by that community?Federico:Absolutely. In fact, when you look at the data, we know that, in just a fewyears, Americais going to be multicultural. So right now, I think all minorities combined are 48% of the population.So in a few years, we're going to be 52. So America is going to be bicultural.And when you start looking at the breakdown of those different communities, you see, as anexample, Hispanics, which is, you know, what I've been doing for a long time, we're almost 20% ofthe population. However, as you said it, we get less than 5% of the marketing budget.And if you can actually take the storyto Hollywood and representation in movies, like, it happenseverywhere. Right? And one thing that I see for certain is that, the brands that are not investing inminorities, not just Hispanics in general, are really missing out.And the ones that do actually are rewarded with tremendous growth. So I do think that they shouldbe, looking at different ways of engaging with these minorities, specifically through media, content,and technology in general.
2. 3Sonia:Absolutely. All right. The Hispanic community is super diverse. Right? I know that a lot oftimes people, they might put one idea and that's not just for the Hispanic community. It exists for alot of different ones.There are a number of different intersectionalities and other things like that. So I'm curious. Can youtalk a little bit about the different forms of diversity that exist that impact the ways in which brandsshould be engaging the Hispanic community specifically?Federico:Yeah. You're absolutely right. In fact, maybe this is not a widelyknown fact, but, as opposed tomaybe other, minorities, Hispanics are very fragmented. Right? Like, you know, we're not amonolith. So there are a lot of nuances to culture, to country of origin, to the way we consumecontent. It's not the same being Peruvian, Mexican, Argentina, Colombia. Right?Sonia:Yeah.Federico:There are different, different approaches to the way, all those different micro-communitiesactually consume content, and what they're interested in.And there are a lot of insights that weactually have gotten from having a direct-to-consumer brandfor such a long time so we could engage in conversations and understand what people like, andwhat they didn't like, create our own content calendar to engage with them.And I think it's very important to understand not only those nuances, but also, the matter of language.There's another misconception which is, okay, Hispanic is Spanish. Is that not necessarily the truth?So one thing that we know is, I told you about, like, we're almost 20% ofthe population.There are some mind-blowing facts that I love. I don't know if you know this, so when I was I learnedthis, it's like, is this true? I had to check it out, like, many times to make sure that it was true.So, Hispanics represent 50% of population growth. Meaning that out of every 2 babies born in theUS, one isofLatino descent.Sonia:Wow.Federico:That's crazy. Right?Sonia:Yeah.Federico:But that means that you know, of course, Hispanics are becoming younger and youngerand also more bilingual. We really don't like talking about acculturation because I don't think culturehas anything to do with it. It's just like with a difference.And,so when you're thinking about how to approach Hispanics, one thing is country of origin, andlanguage preference, because, again, the younger generations, of course, are more bilingual orEnglish dumb than older generations that prefer Spanish and also know a bit of English.So there are a lot of different nuances in kind of crafting ideas to engage with them in a way that Ithink needs to be authentic. Because we also, as minorities, react to authentic content that, youknow, to brands that care, that actually have, you know, our interest in mind as opposed to justthrowing ads everywhere.
3. 4Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. Alright. I'm super curious because you've done so much of this work and havebeen entrenched in it for such a long period of time.Are there anymisconceptions about the Hispanic community that you, once and for all, want peopleto just shut down, stop thinking of it, stop putting it in your marketing? Is there anything that you justfeel like, I wish people would stop doing this or stop thinking this.Federico:Yes. Actually, there are there are a few. Language is 1, as I just mentioned. I think thinkingthat Hispanic is Spanish is a misconception. It could be anything. In fact, we're, more and more aswe create content-embedded, intertwining, Spanglish everywhere.Sonia:Yeah.Federico:In fact, recently, we just did, an amazing show, talking savor with with Pepsi. You cansee it on Hulu, with Aaron Sanchez, Superstar, MasterChef cohost. And one thing that I love aboutthat show specifically is that language flows. There's it's not Spanish or English. It's kind of a mix.And people react the way the way they want to react to whatever is being said.Sonia:Yeah.Federico:So that's when you can see the genuine way in which they feel about something.Whetherit's just a joke or they may react with something like, "Oh vamos! Increible!" like in Spanish orEnglish. So that's one thing that I love.So language is one misconception. There's another one which is I don't know if we should say thisin the podcast so you can edit this afterwards.But this thing that, you know, Hispanics are, like, second class citizens, that they are, actually, like,behind, McDonald's, which is there's nothing bad with that.But when people think about it, Hispanics are okay. You know, Hispanics whether work in the landor, like, work in a restaurant, which may be the case for a lot of, Hispanics, but there's also anelevation in the culture.And when we actually created our Messenas as our company with Cuisine specifically,whichfocuses on food, we wanted to show, I would say, the US and the world, what we, Latinas, arecapable of.And if you go check out our website, if you like food content, you'll see that there's an elevation inthe way we shoot our recipes, and the way we shoot content. And that's something that we alsowanted to do, uplifting the Hispanic spirit in a way where, you know, people would see, yeah, theHispanics are not what I thought they were. You know?Sonia:Yeah.Federico:They're much more. So thoseare the 2 things that I usually hear a lot about that,whenever I can, I talk about it because I think it's a misconception of, Hispanics as a community.
4. 5Sonia:Yeah. No. I love both of those. It's interesting. I was kinda laughing to myself because mydaughter, Luna,is4, and she speaks Spanglish. Right? Like, so last night, she's like, "I wanna totake a bath, después de la cena" Right? She's mixing it all together in a way that makes sense forher as she's learning and growing. I just feel like fora lot of people, like you said, there's no formula.It's just the way things pop up in their heads. There's a preference. That's just how it feels. I love tosee more brands starting to incorporate that in their marketing. Do you have any specific trendsthatyou want people to be aware of as it relates to engaging with the Hispanic community?Federico:Yeah. There are a few interesting ones still talking about, like, mind-blowing, you know,details and insights. I'm kind of a numbers guy. And, But I likewhat numbers speak in data story.One thing that has been a trend for a while and could also maybe be a part of your previous question,is the misconception, but it's also a trend, which is, that Hispanics actually over-index in technologyadoption in general, in mobile specifically.We know that in terms of particularly mobile device use, we over-indexed by almost 12% of the othermobile users. This, I think, is an important fact to understand how to craft content for Hispanics in away that actually isorganic. So mobile-first, digital-first.And one thing that is not widely known also is that we tend to, live in multi-generational houses. Sowe under over index there, so we live with our our parents, our grandparents.And when you add the fact that weare kind of considered or we consider ourselves to be naturalinfluencers because we actually when we're buying something, we want people to have a say. And,you know, and we ask for opinions.And then maybe it's the song recommending, like, a mobile device to their parents or grandparents.So that becomes, like, you know, becomes almost like, you know, every everything every messagethat you give to the US Hispanic population, it's elevated to the power of Latino. Right? Like, youknow. You can share themessage, which is, I think, a nice community story, but also it's interestingas a marketer.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So you just mentioned community. And I think that a lot of times whenbrands are starting to engage different communities, specificallythose that are underrepresentedand underserved, they just start marketing.Maybe they change things up from a representation standpoint, but it's all very for me, it feels verytransactional. And I know you've been involved in some projects where it hasreally been abouthelping brands uplift and support communities.Can you just talk a little bit about why it's important not to just say, hey, buy my stuff, and actuallybuild relationships that uplift, support, and advance the community, specifically with issues that areimportant to them?Federico:Absolutely. In fact, it all starts with what you just said, which is community. There's acommunity impact in general for any brand, I think, should be always considered as part of theapproach as opposed to,yeah, this is my product, buy it. Right? Like, these are the features. That'snot the way not even it has Hispanics. Like like, that's not the way we as a community engage withproducts anymore.
5. 6Sonia:Yeah.Federico:Like, you're not going to buy a phone because it has, like, the best camera or whatever.Usually, like, what sells you is, oh, you can I can shoot my baby running, you know, in the groundwith this amazing camera? So there's a story behind the product. Right? And, I think that's, evenmore true when you think about minorities, specifically Hispanics.They do care more and more about the intentions, let's say, behind whatever brand wants tocommunicate. And I think it's very important to understand that themost organic way or let's say themost authentic way of engaging through content is the way that actually ends up selling, if thatmakes sense.Because we're talking about selling, but also creating the story behind it. And there's data thatactually backs this up. Like, you know, people in general, are not buying products just because ofthe price of of features.There has to be a story behind that. And if that story comes with, this community, you know, element,all for the better.Sonia:Absolutely. Yeah. A 100% agree with you. Do you have any best practices that you'd like toshare for marketers who are getting started engaging the Hispanic community?Federico:Yeah. So one thing that I believe has been a good change and I think there's room foreverybody in the marketplace.So, I think we could all share. But I like the fact that, over the last few years, there has been a shiftin trying to leverage the power of minority-owned companies. Like, we are a minority-owned certifiedcompany.But what I mean by that specifically is go to the people that that actually are your target. There'snothing wrong with going to the big companies out there, but I think there's a place for everybody.And I believe that when you're thinking about, like, you know, pointers to engage with this communityis, okay, talk talk to that people, as opposed to going to company x, targeting Hispanics withtechnology.Talk to the people that actually are part of the culture, so that you understand. I'll give you anexample. A few years ago, we were working with a brand, specifically, food content. And, theywanted to reach out to older generations of Hispanic studying specific products.And so they wanted to craft, what they wanted us to craft, a campaign for them, which we, of course,were happy to do. But the insights were telling us, Hey, you know what? This generation prefers tosee content in Spanish or a mix, not English.And because this company had already, like, a preset, you know, group of different creatives inEnglish,they said, no, no, it has to be English.And we ended up saying, like, I mean, that won't render results for you. Like, you know? And wewere trying to push them in that way, like, gently pushing in that way.And they decided not to go with us and to do it with somebody else just to run those ads.
6. 7Okay. That's that's a crazy story. Like, you know, it's like, oh my god. Like, how is it possible? Likeand I think that may be, kind of a pointer because maybe some other company would say, yeah, Irun your ads, which of course we can do.But don't you want to see a return on the ad spend on the other side as well? Like, you know, wecan help.Sonia:Yeah. I think we see that a lot. Right? Where when people are thinking about their Hispanicstrategy, and you said this earlier, it's, oh, we're gonna do translations. It's so much more thantranslations.But I think sometimes, like you said, it's not about taking what you already do and then just tweakingit for this community. Sometimes it means, like, completely abandoning what you're already doingor what you're accustomed to doing and starting with this community first in terms of, like, we'redoing specific content.I remember I was talking to my husband and he was telling me about the story, this kind of famousstory in Argentina. And he was, like, you know because in Netflix, they do a lot of local contentspecifically for the community or the different markets that they're in, because, you know, they wantto make sure that they're having these local, sort of, stories and content that is very relatable to thecommunity.And it's one of those things where, how do we start thinking about creating original content whereyou have the resources that resonates.And so it's not like you're trying to repurpose something that you've already created, not with thecommunity in mind, but you're developing content, resources, products specifically for thiscommunity.And people can really tell the difference whenever it's something that was created for them by peoplewho are part of the community versus something that we're, like, trying to send to you after the fact.Federico:Absolutely. I think it goes back to what you and I were discussing, like, 5 minutes ago,which is this culture and nuances. It's, true for the different groups of, Hispanics, and it's true forevery community in itself, like, you know, in and out of itself.Like, I can't, and and and that's one of the things that we always try to do, making sure that, youknow, at least if we're going to deliver a message because we need to send our kids to college, sowe need to make money off of it.But let's make sure that it's impactful, and that it makes sense for that specific audience. Like, ifsomebody came to me with an idea to reach African American or Asian, communities, I would say,like, look, I don't I don't really know.Like, I can't tell you that, yeah, let's let's translate or whatever, or let's change the images. Like, Idon't think that really cut it cuts it.Sonia:Yeah.Federico:Same thing for Hispanics. Like, it's almost applying the Google translate, like, you know,version of marketing. I don't think it really, does the job. I mean, we could always do it. But Yeah.Does it really drive any meaning to the target and to the brand? Probably not. I don't think so.
7. 8Sonia:Yeah. Alright. So along those same lines, I have I wanna switchgears a little bit. I have afew sort of quick-fire questions I want to hear. Like, what is your take or what is your point of view?So the first one is what should marketers how should they refer to the community.We hear Hispanic. We hear Latino. We hear Latinx. We hear Latine.There might be some other ones. What what should what what should we say and why?Federico:So I think, you know, it depends on, I it happens to me with my daughters all the time.Like, you know, I hear them speak and sometimes say, oh, no. I'm messing up.I'm not saying it the right way because there are so many different ways of saying things right now,and maybe for people like me, I would say, like, I think I'm older than you. So, like, I'm, usually, like,thinking, okay, this is what I learned and this is how it's said or done today.So I need to kind of adjust my approach. So with Hispanics, I think it's the same. So Hispanic alwayshas always been, like, the formal term, the US Hispanic, and that involves, like, the wholecommunity.I think we're fine with Latinas too and Latinx when you're not speaking about gender or anythingelse. So I think all 3 can work depending on the environment. But I don't think anybody will beoffended by any of those 3. SoSonia:Okay. What isyour take on AI Spanish translations?Federico:That's a hot topic. I would say, I'm in general opposed to translation by itself, whether it'sAI or some other type of translate translation. You it's funny sometimes it's funny to see the outcomeof, like,oh, we have this, you know, group or set of, creatives that need to be translated into Spanish.There are some words that actually don't have a translation or the meaning is different. So I think AIactually is an amazing tool, and we're using it, in different stages of the work that we do, like fromsales to, actually helping us sort of, sort of, content and optimizing for insights.But then I still believe and again, maybe old age again. I believe that the human element is soimportant, even as as of today.Basically, because what you and I were saying before, like, you know, there there are closernuances in how you read and interpret a message, whether you're Hispanic, Spanish down, Englishdown, or bi or bilingual.So I think, like, AI is good for alot of things. I think the cultural nuances arestill not there.Sonia:Got it. Got it. Alright. Subtitling versus dubbing. Do you have an opinion or preference whenit comes to content?Federico:I do. So in Argentina, I don't know if you if you know this. So in Argentina, we get all ofour cartoons dubbed. When we're kidsSonia:The Simpsons. Right?
8. 9Federico:The Simpsons. The Simpsons. Like, all of those cartoons are dubbed, but they aredubbed in Mexico. So our kids in general grew up speaking, like, Mexicans until they are, like, youknow, maybe 6 or 7.But then, like, they will use, neutral Spanish, whichis very it's funny to see. "Oh, hagamos esto,estamo aquí" instead of "estamos acá" which is the Argentinian. Right? So, I think and again, itdepends on the target. Right?Like, in general, I prefer subtitles because I think they give you an idea of theoriginal language in inwhich the content was recorded, and then you can read.But I know I know a lot of people don't like reading, so I think dubbing is fine for some cases. But Iwould say, like, dubbing should be probably, like, more, nuanced to the the culture. I supposeArgentina is growing up, speaking like Mexicans, and then they are, like, 10.Sonia:Yeah. No. No. Totally get They should definitely do it and hopefully put it with an Argentineaccent. So, yeah, it's it's very localized.Alright. And then the last one would just be and I think we might have covered this before, but justany stereotypes or tropes that you're just tired of seeing and that you just don't want to see anymore?You're over it.Federico:Yeah. I think it's pretty much likelanguage, technology, and buying power, I would say.Those are the 3 things that I usually see as misconceptions or stereotypes.Okay. With Hispanics. And when you look at, it's again, going back to the data, but, buying powerthat we're we're commanding, like, 2,500,000,000,000 numbers that I don't even get.$2,500,000,000,000 of buying power, and there are affluent Hispanics, like, pretty mucheverywhere. So I think, again, there's a misconception, and I think it may happen to all minorities.At some point, they are, like, you know, putting one specific silo where, like, where so many differentthings, You know?Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. No. Totally agree with that. Totally agree with that. Yeah. I think there's a lot oftired things. I remember a story where Jonathan was telling me about the movie Man on Fire, wherethere was a with Denzel Washington, and Mark Anthony is in it.And he was telling me there was a famous Argentine actor who decided to turn down the rolebecause he was just so annoyed with the stereotype that Latinos are always drug lords or into drugsin some way, and he just didn't want to be a part of that anymore.So him taking the role would have just continued to perpetuate it. So internally, he was just like, oh,I can't I can't do it anymore. But, yeah, I've seen a number of those types of things even with theblack community as well.Federico:Absolutely. Yeah. They have us everywhere. Like, you know, I would think, like, anyColombia that is offered, like, a drug dealer, like, you know, parties.Like, come on, dude. Like, you know, it's we're not all that. You know? And Yeah. Our continuoussame thing.
9. 10Like, you know, it's I agree 100%. I think that's why, you know, going back to what you asked before,whenever there are brands trying toengage or connect with these audiences, like, you know, go toI don't like saying experts, but just go to the people that are part of your target so that you at leastget an authentic result out of what you're doing.Sonia:Yeah. For sure. Can you tell meabout a time when a brand made you specifically as aconsumer feel like you belonged?Federico:That's a good question. I think, you know, there was a Target campaign. Like, I knowTarget went through, like, you know, a lot of different, issues last year.But, I when I moved here,my my kids were were very young.So at some point, like, running to Target was a thing, like, you know, where we would get, like, thetoilet paper and they would just see other stuff. And I remember, like, you know, of the signage thatthey had, like, where whereas I thought, like, you know, okay, here in the US, general market is onething and that's what you see everywhere.And I remember seeing, like, maybe, like, 6, 7 years ago, the the pictures that were shown were notjustof, like, you know, what you would consider, like, you know, vacation, you know, the vacation,you know, group. Like, you know, they had, like, different things.African American, Hispanic, like, and I felt, okay. Well, this feels more inclusive. Then weneed totalk about whether, like, you know, all Hispanics look the way the same way, all African American,like, that's a different conversation.But at least what I appreciated at that time was, okay, there's an intention. You know? And I wouldsay, like, I think that's important. And then one thing that I definitely like is when talking aboutHispanics, when they're actually being featured in big movies or series, like, you know, for example,you have Andor with, De La Luna, like, you know, different, different actors that are actually part ofsomething where they're not playing the Hispanic part. They're, like, just a character.You know?Yeah. So I kind of like that.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. When they do representation, it doesn't feel tokenistic. Right? Like, they'rethey're yeah.Totally get that. Alright. Where can people find you or find the work? All the great workthat you're doing? You mentioned your cooking series and your show.Where can people find all the great stuff that you're doing?Federico:Thank you for asking that. I would say a good place to start would be COSENA. We arecosina.com, and then socials everywhere.That's actually how we started thinking about authenticity. Food was the first thing that came to mindwhen trying to undertake this, you know, the big idea of, like, a huge undertaking, which is, okay,how do we connect brands and the audience to Hispanic culture? So food was the first thing.So Cocina, which we created with Aaron Sanchez, became the first of many brands that weretocome that Messena owns. Right? So we are casino.com will be the first one. Then, there's a a newbrand that actually we self launched a few months ago, which I think is something that the marketdesperately needs, which is called Starpix, starpix.tv.
10. 11And Starpix is what we like calling, like, the ultimate content discovery tool. If you think about it thisway, maybe maybe you know when I say this, like picture yourself Friday night, you're alreadyfinished binge-watching whatever series you were binge-watching.You don't know what you're going to watch next. So you're still with your husband, you turn on theTV, you flip through Netflix, Apple, Hulu, whatever that is, and you turn it off. 15 minutes later, veryfrustrated. You know what to watch. There's so much stuff out there. Say, oh, I don't know.Like, if if nobody recommended a series to you, you're not watching anything. It's like, okay, whatdo I watch now? Because there's, you know, an overwhelming amount of content out there.So we create the start picks for your stars, picking the content for you. So if you're a fan of Nice.Let's say, Anarone Sanchez or Chiquis Rivera, like she's an music, icon, for Hispanics, you likethem, you follow them on social.When they say, hey, go to my Starbuckschannel and, and see what I like watching in my free time,probably your interest is going to be picked. So you go there and you start enjoying and I don't AaronSanchez, as an example, likes Viking stuff, like history stuff, not just like food shows. Right? So Ithink, those are 2 brands that we really love that are, like, direct-to-consumer brands.And then, of course, our messenascrip.com. That's our company where we have all our our pillars,like our own brands, plus our media platform, our content studios, and our gaming division.Our mission of uplifting uplifting Hispanics has gone through all different passion points. And I andI don't like the word passion points, but different facets of being Hispanic. Right? Entertainment,music, gaming, you know, sports.So, hopefully, you know, there are a few of those, websites that can be checked by the audiencehere.Sonia:Well, I will definitely put all those, links to them in the show notes so people can access iteasily and check it out. I definitely wanna go and see what kind of stuff you'll have on Cocina. Iimagine there are some Asado-related things on there. Right?Federico:So of course, you have to matter too. Like, you know, they still have, like, cultural stuff.Like, so absolutely. Alright.Sonia:Alright. Well, before we get to your parting words of wisdom, please tell us the origins ofmate. I wanna hear aboutit.Federico:Oh, thank you for asking. I think it's a beautiful story. So I don't know if you know. This is,like, you know, mate for everybody that doesn't know. It's kind of like tea leaves, in a cup. Like thisstraw has a filter.The beautiful thing Ibelieve is that it's more like a ritual that you actually make you and then youshare with friends, usually with friends. And we dream from the same straw, which kind ofbringsthis idea of community.Right?You're sharing, like, something that is very intimate, like you're sharing this with your friends. Usually,you wouldn't go give this to people walking on the street, but your friends would do.
11. 12This actually, was born out of the native people in Argentina way back, The Guaranies, they werelike a tribe and they had this sense of community too. And what happened is when somebody diedin the tribe, they would bury that person, but they would have this deep feeling of loss because itwas almost like a part of their body that that was gone.Because again, in this community everybody owns everything, like, you know, they they shareeverything.So what they did is they started, you know, planting the seed for something that then became mate.And once the plant grew, they would actually boil water, put the leaves in there, and drink themtogether. And they felt that the person that was buried there was now a part of them.So they carry that person with them. And that plan that had, like, this weird name, you know, PlantisYerbalis, I don't know what, became Yerba Mate, which is what's in here. And that was the origin ofmate. Like, you know, boiling the water, putting the leaves there, but then sharing with other people.It's almost like we all share this as a community. So that's kind of a story that I like.Sonia:Very cool. Alright. Question for you. You may think this is blasphemy. Do you put sugar inyour mate or no?Federico:I need to leave now. No. No. I think, you know, I my brother is here visiting for my birthday.Today is my birthday, by the way.Sonia:Oh, happy birthday, Feliz cumple.Federico:Yeah. Thank you. Gracias. And, so my brother is here. He drinks mate with sugar, and Idon't. So we usually try to share the one that has a little bit of sugar for me.But I think, you know, for everybody, some people drink, like, cold mate, which is, you know,Sonia:TereréFederico:Tereré, very good. Yeah. Yeah.So I think, mate is mate. Like, yeah, I everybody can drink any any way they want. I prefer it, like,youknow, with no sugar. This is actually one of my perfect gifts for my mom.Sonia:Very cool. Very cool. Federica, this has been so much fun. I learned so much. Any partingwords of wisdom for marketers and business leaders who want to do a better job of marketing toHispanic consumers and serving them as customers?Federico:Thank you so much. First of all, thank you, Sonia. I had a lot of fun, and I was notexpecting the Argentinian background that you have. That was amazing.I mean, you were telling me that you lived, like, 4 years in Argentina, which to me was incredible. Interms of, things to consider, I would say, I think you touched on a few of those.The first one is whenever you want to craft campaigns or reach Hispanics, or say minorities, makesure that you engage with with with that target. Like, you know, whether it's African American,Hispanics, like, just talk to people that actually can help you market to those people in a meaningfulway.That's number 1.

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1. How to create a multilingual content strategywith Selim DahmaniWe live in a global world, which means that more and more as we think about the brands that weare managing and growing, we have to think more about and consider people who have the problemthat our brand solves, but who speak other languages and prefer toget their information in otherlanguages.I mean, there have been brands for decades, probably even more than a century, who have beenexpanding their reach to other markets, whether that's through actually physically opening locationsor shipping theirproducts over to people who live indifferentparts of the world.But depending upon what type of business you have now, thinking about engaging and reachingconsumers who have the problem that your brand solves, who live in other parts of the world orspeak a different language than the primary language that you operate in,there areseveralwaysthat we can think about how to engage them effectively as we think about inviting them to be ourcustomers as part of our customer acquisition strategy.So I'vebeen thinking a lot about various strategies for reaching people who speak other languages,particularly for brands who want to grow and know that reaching people in other markets or whospeak other languages even within the country that they're primarilyoperating in is a very importantaspect of that.So I wanted to talk with someone who's in the trenches doing this day in and day out to get someinsights. So I sat down with Salim Damani,part of the French growth teamat HubSpot. So day in,day out, hesits in Ireland and he's working to grow the consumer base of people who speak French,particularly for HubSpot, which is a company that is based in the US and Boston. Right?So Salim has a lot of really wonderful insights to share that are super helpfulfor you as you thinkabout what is the most effective way to reach people and convert people who speak other languagesas you're thinking about growing your brand and acquiring a new customer base.So after this short break, you will hear my super insightful, super actionable conversation with Salim.Sonia:Hey, Salim. Thanks so much for joining me today. How are you?Salim:Hi, Sonia. Thank you so much for having me. I'm I'm great. Thanks. How are you?Sonia:I'm doing well. I'm so excited about this conversation and really excited to learn so muchfrom you. But before we dig in to the topic we've got today, can you tell the people who are you andwhat do you do?Salim:Sure. So my name is Celine Damani. My background is in localization. That's where I got mymaster's. I've been working for 10 years in localization as a linguist, as a project manager, and Itransitioned to marketing. So I'm now at HubSpot as part of the French, growth marketing team, andI focus on the blog. I've done that for for the last, 5 years, and my area is really, editorial CRO, andI also manage our newsletter.
2. 2Sonia:Very cool. That's a lot of good stuff. I I and I'm sure you've got so many wonderful insightsto share on all of that. So, hopefully, we can get a lot as much as possible out of you today.But I wanna ask you a couple of things all about multilingual content strategy, and why should brandseven be thinking about in engaging and developing 1?Salim:Absolutely. I think, it's not something that's the first thought when building a company. Youknow, it seems far away, and it's much later when there's an established market in the originalcountry that maybe even sales are being generated from other countries that the thoughts, starts toform of how can we maximize that? How much revenue can be brought from the markets that we'renot focusing on at the moment? And it takes a few requirements to put that into practice.But I think it is generally it happens when the company becomes profitable. It knows it's capturing alarge portion of, the original market, and then it wants to expand. SoOne misconception, I think, is thinking a multilingual content marketing strategy is just localization.And maybe we candefine that a little bit more.I think, you know, the difference typically between translation and localization is that localizationtakes into account all the technical aspects of making sure it's gonna render correctly.I think it's now given that weare working in the digital world. Everything needs to be, eventuallyhosted on a website, on an app, somewhere digitally. So what's the difference there? And I think it'sreally in reproducing what's been done usually in English or in the original languagefor that targetmarket.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. I think, as you said, a lot of people are thinking about localization or even justusing the term translation, and it's so much more than that. And I guess, what the thought or thequestion that popped into my head when you were saying, like, a lot of times you start down thispath whenever you've got pretty well established in the language or in the existing market that youstarted in.I'm wondering, is it like a chicken or the egg type of thing when it comes toreaching out and startingto engage people who speak other languages? Do you start seeing, oh, wait, like, people in Franceor people who speak another language or in certain markets are interested?So if we wanna get more, we need to start thinking about strategies specifically for that market or isit, oh, we want to be able to reach this market, and so if we actually sort of build something for them,then they will come to us. Is it how do you decide, like, what comes first?Salim:Yeah. That that's that's a good question. And I think as soon as, you know, the the productis going to be popular, is going to be successful, it will be talked about in other languages. It will betalked about in other markets, and very likely, sales are going to be generated from other countries.At that stage. And that's when, as a company, you have to ask yourself, like, what is the gap betweenwhat I have and what I want? What's that small percentage of international markets that I'm currentlycapturing effortlessly?
3. 3Or maybe because somebody else is doing my own promotion. Agencies are mentioning myproducts. Influencers are mentioning them.And what is it what is it that I want? You know? Do I want to capture only the English speakers inFrance, in Germany, in Italy? Or do I want to be able to capture so much more? And tap the thetotal addressable market that lives in in that country.Sonia:Yeah. No. I love it. I love it because it also you talked about, like, your whole approach, thewhere you're working right now is all about growth, and this is the essence of growth helping.How can you find more people who have the problem that your brand solves in finding a way tosupport and engage them and serve them?So I like that framing that you have there. You mentioned localization, and then there's also, like,the overarching, you know, multilingual strategy.What are the components of that? I know you work on blogs, newsletters, a lot of differentcomponents, but whenever we're thinking about how to reach people who speak different languagesin other markets, what is, like, the, I guess, mediums or the core levers that need to be we need tobe thinking about that need to be pulled to effectively reach them.Salim:So from having one market, and I think we can assume, you know, for an American companybased in the US that wants to expand, you'll know already what are the channels that are workingfor your current market.So how much of social media is successful, how much of the blog is successful, how much of yournew newsletter is bringing in terms of contacts, in terms of revenue? So very likely, you'll want toreproduce these channels in the country.And then it's about the how. How are we gonna do that? And I think a mistake is usually to try andtake the contentthat's been created and just send that.Get it translated, get it localized, and assume that individual pieces of content, when localized, aregonna bring the same results. But that's counterintuitive if we really look at how we build that contentin thefirst place.Especially for the blog. I think the blog is where it is the most visible that the one-for-one equivalencedoesn't work. For a blog a blog to be successful, it means it's ranking well. It means I think a blog ismeant to bring organic traffic.Organic traffic means we have targeted keywords that we know are gonna bring that we know areresponding to an MSV. We know how much of that MSV is converting into clicks on the SERPs. Andwe know out of these clicks, how many are gonna turn into a conversion.So the the conversion can be very different. It can be anything from turning into a subscriber. Tobecome a lead by downloading, a content offer using a free tool.It could be requesting a demo. It could be res requesting a physical sample, but that gives us, youknow, the objective of the blog. So if we start completely ignoring the key points, we start ignoringthe keywords that are bringing the results, and we just say it works in English. Let's do it in French,in German, and Italy.
4. 4Salim:Thenwe're missing the the logic that made that success.So we have to try and go back andsay, okay. What was the starting point? It was it was the keywords.Maybe we can explore from what exists in English, which ones have the best potential, but reallystart taking that native approach of saying, we want to look at the reality of search in that market.We want to address the queries that people in these countries are looking for.We want to give them that content and try to get the conversions down the line. So the 1 on 1 matchis not gonna work already. You know? The reality of SEO tells us that.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. I love that because I think that that's kind of the default that people take. Like,let's just or maybe it's the path of least resistance or it feels the easiest, but the easiest because asof what you're just explaining, it doesn't mean it's gonna be the most effective for you.And ultimately, the reason why we're doing this is to be effective. I'm I'm curious. Also, you talkedabout SEO and keywords and things like that to help you get organic traffic and address theconcerns that people who are in these markets are having.I'm wondering also, do you have to do a lot of sort of planning of the overall customer experience tosort of, I heard you mentioned funnels before, like, to move them the way you want in the funnel,keeping in mind what they're asking for and what questions that they need or what it is that theyneed to move? Do you have to sort of design what that customer experience journey is gonna belike with the content you're producing as well as you're tying it to keywords?Salim:I think that's the natural progression. You know? If we're starting by saying we're gonnacreate native content on the blog, we're gonna have clusters topic clusters that are different.From what exists in English, then how can we convert for that specific, subject we're talking about?And that will often require creating assets that are very specific to that marketAnd gate them so that we request, you know, info to be submittedtodownload the content. If it'sbooking a meeting, it could be just that the page for booking that meeting is different. If it's to requesta sample, that page can be different as well.We knowthesearch is different. User behavior is different, and it's surprising to see how much. Ithink just from the phrasing, you know, a lot of English titles are often based on, like, mistakes toavoid.That's something we had a hard time with, and we conducted a study internally. The resultofthiswas very clear, like, the French audience doesn't make mistakes in their mind. So anything thatstarts with the mistakes you should stop making is not gonna get traffic.And that needs to be rephrased into x advices to get that result. So the the the same then is goingto be true about how we convert the content, you know, the the the copy we want to use on theCTAs.And I think it speaks to how much freedom is required for international marketing teams to besuccessful. If we look at going international only through the lens of localization. It is so restrictive.
5. 5It's it's as you said, it's the easy path, but we're not looking at the return on investment that we couldget from having a truly native approach.Sonia:Right. Yeah. So if I hear what you're saying correctly, what you have to do is do not put theprimary market or the the original market that you're starting with, let's say, is English. English shouldnot be your center of the universe whenever it comes toreaching other markets.You have to have customer intimacy for all the people that you're trying to reach and develop whatyou need to create for them to move them along that journey rather than assuming this is our startingpoint, this is our North star, and everybody else needs to sort of fall in line with that. That's not howit works. So that's not the path to be successful.Salim:100%. That's, that's true and I think it's it's even obvious from by the time the company goesinternational, the level of maturity.Theoriginal market is so much higher than what it's going to be in the new markets it's going to tryto address. So even at HubSpot, we've seen the reception of the freemium modelas something thatneeds so much more workin our internationalmarket.It's it's, I think we're in a day and age where suspicion is so high of everything.So something is free. That's fishy. Why is it? You know? And we had to explain so much more whyI think for the US market, it was much of of a given.So many things are free, and that's the way. It works. You you upgrade for, a certain amount ofmoney, but the freemium model was much more broadly accepted.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. And it just goes back to we have to sort ofabandon our assumptions.Youknow, one of the things that I like to say is this whole one salt onesize fits all is a lie. Right? Like, it's so you can't you have to sort of abandon the assumption thatbecause it works here, that it will work there.Yes. We're all, youknow, people. We have similar goalsandobjectives, but the path that we taketo get there can be very different. Right? So we need toconsider that.Salim:Yeah. And that's true for the content, and it's true for design. It's true for the microcopy. It'ssurprising to see the differences. You know, adding an arrow Yeah. In a certain color on a certainCTA is going to have a positive impactSay for Germany or for Italy, and it's not. It's going to have a negative impact in France. Like veryneighboringcountries. So we have to accept that the original market or the US market is differentfrom international markets, but they are also all different and unique, and we cannot have just, like,the one strategy we roll out for every other country.Sonia:Yeah.Yeah. I love it. Okay. What feedback have you heard from consumers over the yearsas you've been localizing content, creating new strategies for them? Have you heard, like, the samecommon themes pop up as they now have brands from other markets now trying to engage them?Like, are there common themes or opinions or expectations that you have heard from them in theirin their feedback or just even their behaviors of how they respond?
6. 6Salim:Yeah. And I I think it comes, if if we're not going native enough, we are already givingarguments to the potential customers to say no to our sales team.Sonia:Oh, okay.Salim:If it looks like this is not for me. You know, if you come as an American company in Francetrying to sell something and you you don't advertise it in a way that the French audience can say,okay, that's gonna work for me, the assumption is that it's not.If all the examples that I'm shown are about,you know, an American deliveryCompany, Americanfast foods, American train systems, bookingsystems that don't exist, I'm like, okay. It works, but itwon't work for me.And we have to break these arguments 1 by 1 and saying, okay. I'm showing that the the strategyI'm advertising for is something that has worked for industries similar to yours,for customers inthesame region as you are.And really, like, tackled it that way. So showing that I'm speaking to you and that your market,yourself are not an afterthought of my strategy, but that you are the center of the regional strategy.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. Basically, what you're saying is belonging takes center stage whenever it comestime to reach people in various markets.Like, you have to continue to give them reasons to see this is for me rather than supporting someskepticism that this isn't for me.Like, this is for people in another market. Right? And so you however you can go about removingwhatever friction might exist that gets them from where they are to converting to be your customeris what you need to be doing in your content, it sounds like what you're saying.Salim:Yeah. And it goes through there's different ways to achieve that. I think a big part of our jobis also to definehow we're going to write.I think HubSpot in the US is seen as, quite a fun brand.And I think the the French market in particular, even the German market are so much more formal.The way to address the readers is by default. The formalway of of, addressing. We want to avoidthe superfluous. You know? If you have information to give me, give it to me straight to the point.There's not much room for personal details. For how you came up with the story.We just need the advice, and it needs to be concise and to the point. And that's how we build thetrust. It's like I'm not, you know, wasting your time. I'm going directly to the point. And if I can getyour stress with the content, I'm more likely to generate a conversion.Sonia:Yeah. I love that. I love that. And it just kinda sounds like customer intimacy is at the heartof this and which is great because this is one of the principles of doing marketing well and particularlyinclusive marketing.I'm curious if someone wants to get started with reaching people in other markets, where shouldlike, what what is this a good starting point for them?
7. 7Salim:So, ideally, we think about, going international way before we need to. And I think at theearly stage when a company isgoing to consider what CRM. To purchase, what, CMS, to purchase,who to work with for content creation. We need to think about leveraging that. You know? If if we'respending a lot of money on designs, do we own the designs fully? Can we modify them as wewill?Do we have editable files as a Delivery? There's all all that part, and it's also creating a glossary,like, making sure what language are we speaking, how are we talking about our tools.And I think we need that in in any language. So in English, it's going to be necessary as well if wedo blog posts to put forward a specific approachTo whatever the industry, target it is. We need to make sure doing a search on that keyword that weuse is going to bring you to our product page where we sell that product, that solution, that service.So consistency is is super important, and to get consistency internationally, we need to have it fromthe start. So I think there's a pre a few prerequisites. That are very necessary, and it is difficult to gohalfway internationally. You know, just havingthe blog is is gonna be tricky.It's going to be aninvestment, and it's not going to lead to all the results that we expect.So there are ways to test the watcher a little bit. And I think it it in some cases, it's wise to try whatcan be done. So if we look at paid, if we do paid on social media, it means you don't have to haveyour account.You can just see what are the results I can expect with, like, a one off one off campaign on TikTok,on Instagram, on LinkedInwithout creating a fully fleshed profile, having a strategy of having somany publications every week.If you don't want to create the blog immediately, you can also do, you know, sponsored content. Onthird party websites, see what's the traffic you youcan send to maybe your English properties.But see what it is that's realistic. See how many views you have on that article that's been publishedon a good third party website that is, specific to your industry. You can leverage that a little bit to toseewhat you can expect and how hard it's going to be to stand out on that market.Sonia:Yeah. One of the things that you just brought up about social media made me think of aconversation that I had with a client a while back. They wanted to reach Spanish speakers in theUS, but still Spanish speakers, and I was recommending to them that they needed a Spanishlanguage version of their social media channels. And they were like, we're not resourced. We don'thave the budget to, like, support to. You know?Andmy thinking was that it's hard to, like, have it mixed in, or you just need to think more so aboutthe customer experience of whenever someone sees an ad, if it's connected to like, where it'sconnected to, and then where it's gonna send them.So I'm curious your point of view. Whenever you're thinking about even social media accounts, doyou need a different account for different languages or different markets?Salim:I think you do. And I think, that that's why paid is a good a good way to only, tiptoeon social.But we know we know the limits of paid. If if you do that, it's as long as you're paid, you're havingresults, the minute you stop, you drop. And I think the the inbound methodology in general is try tobuild a wheel that is self sustained. As much as as possible. But with social, if we have too much ofa mix, it's a bad experience for everyone.
8. 8It's it's very difficult to, you know, subscribe to a channel and then see a mix of languages in thecontent. It's difficult to also have, like, publications, and then if you want to comment on them, askfollow-up questions.There's no replies. It createsa poorer experience. So I think I go back here to my point of, like, nottrying to go for the 1 on 1. It's not because you have something in English that you have to have itin language.It'sbest to have less, but tailored and fully fleshed solutions than to force the replication of whatexists in the original language.Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. Totally agree. Okay. One last question before I switch gears. Therole of AI, Ikinda have a feeling I know what you're gonna say, but how should marketers be thinking about howAI could or should support them as they're thinking about engaging people from different markets?Salim:I think there's no doubt anymore. I think AI is here, and the capabilities are just getting bigger.So I don't believe there's an approach of of saying we have a 100% AI oriented workflow for anything.The same way there's no way we can have a any process that fully excludes AI. I think we need thatflexibility again to includeit when required, if required.But it it can speed up so many tasks. I think, you know, I was mentioning if you work with designers,you want to make sure that the design you paid money forYou can replicate, use them inother languages. Maybe AI is the way to do that. In some cases,maybe in other cases, you'll just want to take a a different, stock image. You'll want to create. A acomplete mock up, but you have to have that flexibility of using it.And I think the theparallel with AI and localization as part of multilingual content marketing strategyis very similar. AI and localization are tools that you need to use when you decide to use them, whenit's relevant to use them.So I think it shouldn't be imposed. It shouldn't be rolled out for any of the processes. The the askshould always be, like, we need that content to for that, objective. And then the content creationteam should be free to use AI if it's, relevant for a specific part of the of the process. Even if we say,you know, we want a blog article that defines that very topicAnd that differentiates all solution from that of competitors. Maybe there's a few paragraphs. Wecan translate from English because they are good as they are. Maybe there's a meta description wewant to generate generate with AI and then, go through maybe there's a few images we want togenerate with AI.So I think there's no denying it is a tool that can speed up a lot of the tasks. That belong to theprocess of of content creation, of even analysis. Soit just needs to be embraced, in my opinion, andand part of the day to day.And, again, giving that that flexibility, I think it would be counterproductive also to impose AI onspecific tasks the same way it would not make sense to impose localization of specific, pieces ofcontent.
9. 9Sonia:Yeah. Yeah. Totally agree. Totally agree. Salim, this has been super fun. I wanna switchgears a little bit and find out, your perspective as a consumer. Can you tell me about a time wherea brandmade you feel like you belonged?Salim:I think there are there are a few brands that managed to make you forget they are not fromyour country. I think in the in the b two c in particular, like, Green Giant, you know, Mr. Clean.Nobody really thinksabout that as being, like, from somewhere else. I theyfeel very nativeeverywhere, but I think there's a trend now in the tech industry to really go to the next level becausethe consideration before purchase is so much more important.We need to have the attract phase, you know, all the content that generates the the the attractionsof traffic, returning traffic, really detailing plays and solutions fully fledged, but it goes beyond that.It's also all, the conversion content, you know, the the the tools I can use to see what would thatsolution look like for me if it's anything from, software to, like, irrigation systems.Like, can I have a mock up of what that's going to look like for me? But also the oldest part aftersales, the delight section. Like,do I have documentationto help me, find solutions? And I think moreand more user generated content.You know, when we're talking about, social media, I think a big part of social is not what the companyis putting forth. It's the replies. It's the comments. So can you provide that community for me, whereI see, for instance, IKEA had a great, way of of leveraging content from users, and you can see,okay, he could build that furniture in less than an hour.So can I? I'll go the next step.I'll buy it,and Yeah. It fits in nicely. I see you can, you know, put the,I don't know, the angle so far on one end or the other. I think that part is key. So it's I think it's veryhard to convince the audience I'm doing that content for you.It's more about avoiding the frustration of never pointing out that, oh, you didn't think of me.Now I'mlooking for that piece, and it's missing.You know, really from every stage of the process. You know, I first discovered the brand in mylanguage.I convert into a leader, into a client in my language.And when I need help, I have it in my language. When I need inspiration, I have it in my language.And it it feels genuine. It feels true.And and this I I think that this is the the way to go for content. I think more than us saying it, it it'salso what Google is doing. I Feel the e e a t updates. Have really pushed for building expertise. Andit's very hard for any company to say, hey, our CEO is recommending this in 7 languages for 7different markets.So you need to really go native and have these teams look out for experts they can leverage incountry, maybe internal expertsBut showing that they have authority to speak on on specific topics.

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The Global Marketing Playbook

Get expert advice on planning, launching, and expanding your global marketing strategy.

• Build a global marketing strategy.
• Assemble an international team.
• Prepare for localization.
• And more!

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You're all set!

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