Communicating effectively in an international business can be challenging. Whether it’s uniting employees around the world with a shared purpose or communicating global change, inclusivity plays a big part. Get it wrong, and there’s an immediate barrier to engagement.
Fresh supports global purpose campaigns and international change communications for our clients, and we’ve won a few awards along the way. Here are our top ten tips:
- Develop a great creative – a picture really does tell a thousand words.
- Adapt your tone of voice to suit the local culture.
- Ensure messaging is crystal clear and jargon-free, so your meaning doesn’t get lost in translation.
- Test your approach before launch to ensure there’s nothing likely to cause offence in different cultures.
- Invest in translations, prioritising the most spoken languages in your organisation – tools like Google Translate and You Tube Captions can be helpful.
- Harness user-generated content produced in the local language to help messages resonate.
- Provide editable toolkits for adaptation to give local ownership of the message.
- Set up a network of lead contacts in each of your key markets. Empower them to develop local communication plans, choosing the best channels and tools for their audiences.
- Create a hyper-local network of change champions to support execution of communications and be a useful source of colleague feedback.
- Finally, don’t forget the importance of pre-briefing leaders and line managers. They can help their teams understand the change and deliver localised leader communications.
Looking for help with communicating effectively in an international business? Just drop us an email for an informal chat.