Unlocking Global Growth with Powerful Content Strategies with Shaheen Samavati

Andy Splichal:

Welcome to the Make Each Click Count podcast where we uncover strategies and tactics that help businesses grow, scale and thrive in an ever changing digital marketplace. I'm your host, Andy Splichal and today we're diving into challenge that many businesses face taking their marketing global. My guest today is Shaheen Samavati, co founder and CEO of VeraContent, a multilingual content agency that helps brands expand their reach with expertly tailored content for international markets. With a background in journalism, corporate communications and startups, Shaheen has a deep understanding of what it takes to craft compelling content that resonates across languages and cultures. Today we'll be discussing some key elements of a successful global content strategy, common pitfall falls to avoid, and how brands can effectively localize their messaging to connect with international audiences. Shaheen, welcome to the show.

Shaheen Samavati :

Thanks for having me.

Andy Splichal:

Okay, so what inspired you to start your company, VeraContent and what problems were you trying to solve for people?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, well, like you mentioned in my intro, my background's in print journalism, so that had a big impact on my decision to start this company. I mean, basically I'd been working as a journalist in the U.S. i did my MBA in Spain. And then afterwards, as you kind of mentioned, my background was working in corporate communication and then in startups. My last job before I started Vera Content was leading marketing in a in a scale up company where we were producing content in a lot of different languages. So in my previous jobs I had experience like hiring agencies and basically I saw that, well, clearly there's a huge need to create a ton of content in pretty much any marketing department. And I found it difficult to find a provider that I that really kind of met my journalistic standards for producing that content. So I decided to start that agency myself.

Shaheen Samavati :

And that's kind of the story behind veracontin, the very short story. And I also started the company with two business partners named James and Daphne, who, who have a background in translation and my background's more in journalism. So we kind of combine forces to offer both services and. Yeah, specializing in, in global content marketing services and transcreation.

Andy Splichal:

So what languages do you service? I guess, for a better word, trans local. I mean, what languages do you work in?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, we work in a lot of different languages. More than 20 languages and more than 40 different international markets we've worked in. We specialize in languages and markets as we're based in Europe. And that's kind of how we started out, really helping companies enter into the European market. And if you want to enter like. Well, if, if you don't want to just enter one country in Europe, but want to enter more than, more than one at a time, you pretty much need to operate in multiple languages. So also, I should say, like, after moving to Spain and working in communications and marketing, that's really where I saw the huge need for the, the multilingual content production. So yeah, we're based here in Europe and we're specialized in all the major European languages, but we've done projects in a lot of other languages too.

Shaheen Samavati :

All the major world markets.

Andy Splichal:

So what are some of the challenges that a company might face if they're trying to get their messaging out in different languages?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, I think one challenge I see a lot is just deciding where to start. I think just because there's so. I mean, every, every company is producing so much content. So if you wanted to first of all localize all of that and then localize it for all the markets you're in, it can be like a huge endeavor. So it's like being strategic about what's the most important to start with. I think is. Is one challenge. And then also just like, especially for companies that are already doing a lot of localization, I think one challenge is like maintaining brand consistency across all the markets and, and of course like quality control because usually in the marketing department you have.

Shaheen Samavati :

Not everyone on the team speaks all the languages that you're operating in. So being able to know that the writers or the community managers or marketers in those different markets are actually representing your brand well, I think is a big challenge for a lot of marketers.

Andy Splichal:

Now I always hear the term translation, and you had mentioned localization a couple times already. What are the differences between those terms, translation and localization?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, I mean, localization involves translation, but it goes further. It's not just, not just translating the words, but adapting for the market. So that can involve like modifying images, colors, formats, and to like take into consideration like the local preferences and how.

Andy Splichal:

Or does AI come into a play when you're, when you're looking at doing some of this stuff?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, well, AI could help a lot with this. Definitely. It's had a huge impact on our industry over the past few years. And I mean pretty much, I mean, for many years now, machine translation has been widely used in our industry. Pretty much every computer assisted translation tool has machine translation built in. And now a lot of those tools have AI features built in as well. So not only can you like Google Translate automatically translates for you, but you can also use AI to enhance the wording of that translation. Because a lot of times machine translation sounds a bit stilted or isn't natural, but AI is really good at sounding natural.

Shaheen Samavati :

Only problem with AI is that it just does whatever it wants sometimes, sometimes it's not very accurate. So that's the risk of relying on it, I'd say for translation. So definitely as a agency working on really large scale localization projects, we are leveraging these tools, but we strongly believe that human input is needed to oversee what's being output by these tools. And of course a lot of times it gives you great ideas and it helps you do the work faster and better. But ultimately you need a human to be overseeing and actually making the final call on what gets published, you know.

Andy Splichal:

And you had mentioned localization that you'll change color preferences for certain taste of different regions. What are some examples? And I guess, I mean, where could a company really go wrong if they're, if they're not working with pros like yourself?

Shaheen Samavati :

I mean, obviously there's things that might be offensive in one market or another, but usually it's more like what's more effective? What would that market maybe respond better to? We actually did a social media post about this recently, looking at some examples about how McDonald's uses green in Europe versus the red and yellow that they use in the U.S. yeah, trying to give a more eco, I guess, vibe. So yeah, so it's interesting. We've also seen that a lot with like when we're doing social media posts, some of our designers in the local market say like that design really wouldn't work in this market. We need to change it to something else. So especially like we had a Middle east account, obviously there's certain sensitivities there, so we needed to adapt. When you're creating content around certain, certain events or different things, there's like cultural sensitivity to take into account.

Andy Splichal:

So I'm curious, what are some common mistakes that a company might make when translating or I guess, localizing their content and how can they avoid them?

Shaheen Samavati :

I think, okay, common mistakes that the companies might make is, I guess, as we were saying, like relying a little bit too much on AI. I think now that's, there's maybe the misconception that AI can do the heavy lifting for you in creating content. And I don't think that's the case. Yeah, so I think just the importance of, as I said, having a human involved in the process is super important. And yeah, I think another, I guess even more common mistake might be thinking that you can just use the same content in different markets. Like a lot of times you do need to actually create custom content or really think about like there might be content that just doesn't, doesn't work in that market. Like that. We had an example of a real estate company that we were creating content for that was about tips for landlords basically.

Shaheen Samavati :

And a lot of there's different laws and different things in the different countries. So you have to take into account that you can't just use the same article and translate it. But it really depends on the particular situation.

Andy Splichal:

So just walk me through it. So a client comes through the door and I guess first of all, when does somebody usually decide that they, that they need your service?

Shaheen Samavati :

Like, what situation are they in?

Andy Splichal:

What point in their business are they when they're like, we really need to get somebody in here?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah. So we do have like kind of two services that we offer. One is the global social media side and the other is the content marketing, blog creation and adaptation, web content. And I mean, definitely on the global social media side, I'd say we've seen a lot of times companies come to us because they've been on social media for a long time, they have accounts in different markets, but it's a little bit disjointed, like the way that it's been managed. And maybe they have some. A lot of times they say it's a retail business or a consumer products business and they have distributors, maybe the distributors are running some of the accounts and they decided they want to like do it all at a, at a corporate level. So it's, it's. They come to us when they kind of want to centralize and streamline and make sure that their brand is being represented well on social media.

Shaheen Samavati :

That's a pretty common occurrence because I think a lot of companies like started creating accounts maybe 10 years ago and, but weren't taking social media so seriously. And now it's like, oh, wow, actually social media is our Most important marketing channel. And we need to put real professionals in charge of it and not only in our home market, but in all the markets where we have a social media presence or maybe where we want to have one. And then I'd say the other circumstances when they're expanding. So a company that maybe is only operating in the US and wants to maybe is already doing business in Europe, but decide they want to expand their content marketing efforts there to grow their business in European markets.

Andy Splichal:

Yeah, that's, that's really what I thought you were going to say, is maybe a company coming over from the US Looking to, to expand in different languages in Europe.

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, absolutely. That is kind of both. Like, it's like established companies that have a presence and they want to centralize it, or companies that are ex. Are growing and expanding and want to do more content creation internationally.

Andy Splichal:

Okay, so you have a new client and what's the, what's the next step.

Shaheen Samavati :

After that in terms of like how we. Yeah, where do you go?

Andy Splichal:

Let's, let's take the second example where it's like a US Company decided they, they need a bigger presence in inside of Europe. You take over their, their social media accounts, you, you talk strategy. Where, where do you go next?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, it's like under truly understanding their needs. I mean, and usually there would be like a specific project that they have in mind that they would want to hire us for. But once they do decide to hire us, the next step is that we do a strategy workshop with them. So this is where we really get to understand what they want to accomplish with this content initiative and then also what their goals are to make sure that we can help them achieve those goals. And then we kind of lay out a roadmap for them for launching. But usually there's a big rush for producing content as soon as possible. So we also set a timeline for that. And usually like, say a company wants to like, start producing, they want to start producing blog content for these six markets.

Shaheen Samavati :

And I mean, if, if we, we start from the time we start with them, usually within one month, we can have the entire team onboarded and, and going sometimes even faster if they're really in a rush and if it's in markets that we're already working in. Yeah, but it also depends on the complexity and what, how much needs to be set up and everything.

Andy Splichal:

So can you give me an example of some successful campaigns that you guys have been able to run for clients?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I guess one example I was thinking of sharing was we work with a brand called Saint Balfour. It's like a fruit spread company, it's a French brand and we run, I mentioned we run their Middle east account and also their Australian account. And I think we've done some cool things for them, growing their following in those markets and also doing some cool influencer campaigns for them. I think that's something that we're able to help with, having local people on the ground in the markets where we're able to research who's important in their niche and finding people to collaborate with. I think we've done some really cool things there with different campaigns where we've partnered with influencers and we actually they already did a lot of partnering with like food influencers, which is logical considering their product. But we, we also helped them. They also wanted to be positioned as like a kind of high end, elegant brand.

Shaheen Samavati :

So we, we like put together a campaign for them which was partnering with like more like lifestyle influencers and doing kind of table setting type videos. And we did a campaign around that and a giveaway and stuff and we had a lot of engagement on it. So I thought that was a cool, cool project.

Andy Splichal:

So you had mentioned, you know, with a, with a new company there, they're talking about goals or what they want to do. Are you tracking results and what kind of, you know, profitability, roas, ROI do you can you typically show for some of these campaigns?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, that's always like the tough thing with content marketing. It's like difficult to attribute directly to a sale. So usually the metrics we are looking at is like reach and engagement. And depending on the particular client, we do work with some more like tech companies where it's like an app and so they're actually able to track downloads and that's an advantage. So if one of the goals is like, okay, we want to actually drive more downloads of the app through what we're doing on social media. That's something that's like you can actually show our ori. Yeah, roi. But when you're talking about selling fruit spread for example, that's a lot harder to tie it back to whether it came from something they saw on social media.

Shaheen Samavati :

So that's one challenge. But it's always a challenge for any type of content marketing really or a lot of, lots of types of marketing in general.

Andy Splichal:

So for a business that thinks this is interesting, but you know, they might have some limited resources and not a, not a really a big budget. What, I mean, where should they start? What are some first steps they could take.

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, I think definitely it can be. Well, interestingly, we're a localization company but like in our own marketing we actually, I mean we only target English speaking countries really are English speaking marketers. So we do our own marketing in English because we know how expensive and complicated it is to adapt it well into other languages. And I think if you're a smaller business, I think you have to think hard about if it's worth it to localize. And first of all, you can only localize for countries or markets where you're already operating and you're able to deliver your service. Because I've actually seen companies do that, that they start producing content or doing marketing in other markets and then they don't actually have a sales team for that market. And that's just a recipe for disaster. You have to be able to deliver.

Shaheen Samavati :

But yeah, I would say my advice is to you really like prioritize your markets. So and also making sure that you have like, don't replicate something that's not working in at least one market because when you're expanding into more, you're just like duplicating the cost and the complexity. So like for example, if you, you want to have like a really, you want to do more social media marketing in European markets, make sure that you're actually doing something that works on social media in your own market before you, before you take it to new ones.

Andy Splichal:

Yeah, that's some great advice. Now, looking ahead in industry trends, how do you see what you're doing changing for global content marketing over the next, you know, six to six months to a year?

Shaheen Samavati :

Well, I hope it doesn't change too much, but I know that we already talked a little bit about AI and I think of course AI is just like transforming every aspect of marketing and content marketing especially not only helping to generate and translate content and it's getting better and better at that. So I mentioned before that I think humans are totally needed in the process right now, but it's hard to say for the future. I mean, we already see, for example, YouTube just said that really recently that they're including dubbing as part of the default service on YouTube, basically. So someone who might have paid to have someone, an agency dub that for them now doesn't need to because YouTube is dubbing everything automatically with AI in many different languages. So I think we're going to see integrated localization and a lot of platforms and that's really going to change things for localization agencies. That said, I think the sheer quantity of things of content being produced, it means there's more and more work. I saw some statistic about there's not enough capacity of, of translation to translate all the content that's out there. Not even like machine translation.

Shaheen Samavati :

With all the machine translation power in the world, it couldn't all be translated. So I think there's still going to be work for agencies like mine, but it means we have to keep adapting and keep changing and knowing how to work with the tools as they come out. So that's our challenge going forward.

Andy Splichal:

So for listeners out there who might want more information about you and what you're doing, how can they best reach out?

Shaheen Samavati :

Yeah, well, they can definitely go to our website, veracontent.com or I'm also on LinkedIn. SHAHEENSAMAVADI well, this has been a lot of fun.

Andy Splichal:

Is there anything else you would like to add before we wrap it up today?

Shaheen Samavati :

Shane yeah, no, I guess kind of just reiterating what I said that I think that yeah, if you're just starting, like prioritize quality over quantity and just don't be afraid to test and learn.

Andy Splichal:

All right, well, thank you very much.

Shaheen Samavati :

All right, thank you for listeners.

Andy Splichal:

Remember, if you like this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave us an honest review. And if you're looking for more information on connecting with Shaheen or Vera content, you'll find links in the show notes below. In addition, if you're looking for more information on growing your business, check out our Podcast Resource center available at podcast.makeachclick.com where they compile all our different past guests by show topic and included each of their contact information in case you would like more information on any of the services discussed during previous episodes. Well, that's it for today. Remember to stay safe, keep healthy and happy marketing and I'll talk to you in the next episode.