Multilingual Copywriting: Appealing to an Audience You Can’t Understand

I have SO many opinions on this topic, and the biggest one is that you cannot sell to an audience unless you've been immersed in their culture and language for a long time and speak it fluently. Even then, it's not the same.

Let's rewind.

Native English speaker, proficient Spanish speaker, can-kind-of-get-by French speaker here.

I've lived in Argentina and learned "the slang and idioms". Che!Boludo! Vos estas a full?

And that's exactly why I would never write copy in Spanish. I've traveled between Spanish-speaking countries enough to know that the idioms change on a dime, from country to country and city to province. Do you know that graphic of an iceberg used to explain Freudian psychology? My knowledge is like the top of the iceberg, and what you need to know to copywrite in another language effectively is the majority of the iceberg that's underwater.

That, however, is just me.

Let's review some popular tips for writing copy in our non-native languages and together, evaluate how effective it would actually be to try to persuade someone to take action in their native language.

P.S. This article is not a knock or affront to non-native English speakers who are copywriters or freelancers in other fields. I have massive amounts of respect for anyone who does anything multilingually - I know it's wildly difficult, and so is English(through, though,tough, headache)- and I think it's worth noting that since English is currently the most spoken language, English speakers, especially in America, have fewer chances to write in other languages than the other way around.

I would love to hear about your multilingual copywriting experiences! This article is based on my lived experiences as someone who also speaks many languages but doesn't have to keep them up.

1. Immerse Yourself

Okay, this was my first note. I agree that more immersion for a longer amount of time will lead to picking up the language much, much, more quickly and easily - once you get over that little hump where it all sounds like noise. One note I have is that learning to speak is a lot of learning to imitate the way other people speak. This is how we learn a language, whether we're 6 or 60. Learning to write or read in a foreign language requires a level of grammatical rigidity that speaking does not.

I say, "How y'all doing?" in my life, but I don't write it in my copy.

2. Improve Your Vocabulary

Another good suggestion. While complex words usually are a no for copy no matter what language it's in - most people don't like to read difficult words, even if they know what that words means- it's nice to know synonyms, and synonyms are useful to help you remember the meanings of words in the first place.

This is another place where reading/speaking vs. writing comes into play. A lot of language learners have active vocabulary, "I can understand this," vs. passive vocabulary," This makes sense in a conversation, but I can't use it when I'm writing."

In my experience, a lot of passive vocabulary was slang or words I hadn't learned yet. My favorite was "un monton." I finally asked someone what this mysterious, frequently used word meant after 5 months in Argentina. I could understand conversations when this word was used but I had never made sense of what it meant alone. They said, "you know, just a lot! A ton!"

3. Use Slang and Idioms

This suggestion came from an article on writing English copy for a Spanish-speaking audience, and I think it's hilarious in that it's a gross overgeneralization. It takes a highly technical understanding of a certain dialect to use slang and idioms in copy- I'm trying to incentivize you to take action with these words- and it also takes trust.

I could use slang or idioms in my copy - Si vos no llamas el estudio del arte ABC ya, no da. Connectarnos hoy, viste, por las mejores ofertas - but if the people who I'm speaking to view me as part of the outgroup, it's not likely that this copy will appeal to them. Even if I say, "If you don't call the ABC art studio today, no da. Contact us today for the best offers!"

I'm still (somewhat awkwardly in a way reminiscent of some past presidential candidates) inserting myself into their identity in a way that insinuates I'm co-opting their culture for my own ganas, or personal gains.

That's why I think this tip is more likely to fail than be a hit.

4. Write in the Foreign Language - Don't Translate

I couldn't agree more! This is a great tip. Writing in another language isn't just sticking some words together - you're trying to capture subtle nuances of the prose that links a whole culture together. Wow. If you start in your native tongue and translate, it'll probably sound grammatically bad.

Forcing yourself to get the hang of writing in another language will help you learn how to write in that language. You'll identify errors more quickly and understand where you're going wrong and what's going right.

My Takeaways

Learning to write(copy) in another language is like learning to speak in another language but honestly 10 times harder, at least. Language is like a piece of writing - so broad, yet so personal. It's how we communicate as a human species. It illustrates our past and tells the story of our place of origin, often all the way down to a specific region - for those who are good at listening to dialect.

I admire and respect multilingual copywriters, and I don't know if I would ever have the guts to be one, or the patience actually to become that fluent in another language again. Yet, I'm perpetually fascinated by how persuasive writing, SEO, and marketing translate. How they carry into other cultures. For those of you bridging those gaps, how do these trades carry over? What's the same, and what's different? I can speculate all day, but I've never written copy in another language.

Maybe I'll try, though.

Tu quieres aprender como escribir textos persuasivos para acciones? Yo puedo aprenderte como hacer sitios web y escribir contenido para las paginas. (Do you want to learn how to write persuasive texts for action? I can teach you how to make websites and write content for the pages).

Ick. Translation does grammatical structure no favors. And that was my attempt - but don't take it seriously. I'm still not offering e-courses, and I never will.

Let me know your take on multilingual copywriting!