Help Students Find Your English Language School

Posted On January 9, 2018 By UmeWorks In Multi-language websites /

Learning English as a second language is a challenging endeavor, and finding the right school to help you in a country where virtually no one speaks your language can be even tougher. If you are a provider of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, you may provide the very best lessons and still be struggling to bring in enough students to fill your rolls. One factor in this difficulty could be that your website may not be in a language that your potential students can understand. A website that supports multiple languages can be one solution to this problem.

Helping Students Find Your English Language School

While many students looking to study English as a Second Language may have some command of the language, virtually none will have mastered it to the extent that they will feel comfortable getting all the information that they need from an English-only website. Your website may boast about your industry-leading graduation rates or reasonable tuition rates, but if the message is not getting to your target demographic it may not lead to substantial results. A student viewing your website for the first time has a lot of questions. What are the tuition rates? Do you have student housing? What is the scope of instruction? Are you confident that you are answering these questions for your prospective students?

Multi-language Support Can Transform Your Website And Your Program

If there is one thing that you can count on, it is that your student body is going to be composed of individuals who are more confident reading, writing, and conversing in their native language. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and what does an English language site with no information in any other language say to the potential student? For the student who needs additional support, not just a classroom environment where they are expected to sink or swim, you could give a false impression that you are not running a student-centered program. While students may be able to translate your website using Google or other services, the results of electronic translation methods are famously garbled. You have the ability to make sure your message comes through loud and clear to the students you wish to enroll with nothing more than a single click of their mouse.

Consider What You Want Your Students To Know On Day One

Even if your website succeeds in promoting a sufficient amount of enrollment, a multi-language website can have many benefits to your students and your teachers. No educator really wants a blank slate of a student to show up to the first day of class. There can be a significant language barrier with ESL students and as much time as possible should be devoted to the lesson plan. Needing to take time to answer questions and concerns that should have been answered by the website can derail lessons and be a cause of frustration for everyone involved.

How A Multilingual Website Can Make A Big Difference

Consider this case study in providing multilanguage support. The ESL Academy of Orange County had an English-only website for many years, relying instead on bilingual recruiters at college fairs to fill their classes. However, after a website redesign that incorporated the most common first languages of their students – Spanish, Chinese and Korean – they realized that they were getting nearly a third more students signing up for classes directly through the website.

Do you have any questions about how multi-language support can transform your website and increase your class sizes? Contact our web designer at UmeWorks in Torrance for an estimate to translate your webiste, and for more information.

A Multilingual Website Can Increase Business for your Immigration Services Firm

Posted On December 27, 2017 By UmeWorks In Multi-language websites /

Providers of immigration services and legal aid have always had many challenges to overcome, and it is a difficult occupation under the best of circumstances. Those who practice this area of social services can be a godsend to new arrivals in this country as well as immigrants who have problems with attaining legal status or citizenship after living here for decades. However, one of the biggest challenges for both providers and their clients can be the first step of matching clients to the services they need, and a language barrier can make that even more difficult. In promoting the services that you offer, there are many good reasons to consider designing a multilingual website to reach those who need you the most.

How A Multilingual Website Can Increase Business For Your Immigration Service

In thinking about how building a website with multiple languages can help you to meet your goals, you must first think about what you want to accomplish with your web presence.

Do you want to:

Expand your client bookings?
Have better-informed clients upon a first visit?
Educate potential clients on immigration laws and processes?

All three of these can be accomplished by providing your website in multiple languages, including those that are only applicable to a minority of clients. With over 220 languages spoken by the residents of California, maintaining a bilingual website in English and Spanish is bound to serve the majority of your clients but also will leave a significant amount of clients in the dark about how your services can help them. Although many immigrants and residents seeking immigration services do speak English, those who do not have a strong command of the language have a natural reluctance to work with an agency who may not understand them or be understood.

How Difficult Is It To Create A Multi-language Website?

Retooling your existing website to support multiple languages is easier than you think. Half of the design infrastructure is already in place with your existing design, and most pages will simply require translation and posting of additional pages accessed by adding links to the new pages on your existing homepage. For the benefits that are realized from clearer communications with potential clients, it is a minimal investment of time and money that has the potential to substantially grow your client base.

A Multilingual Website Success Scenario

Imagine this – your immigration services agency, “Torrance Immigration Service Solutions” realizes success by using multiple languages in your website design. Torrance Immigration Service Solutions had already created a website with English and Spanish sections, which accounted for the majority of their clients. However, they realized over the years that there was a growing interest from other clients who were not from Central or South America. They found that inquiries were often not followed through by the client even when information was sent or attempts were made to book an appointment. Once they made the decision to update their website with a more inclusive mix of languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Tagalog they found that their booking rates were improving for those under-served populations in the Torrance area.

Serve Your Clients’ Needs With A Multilingual Website

The web design experts here at UmeWorks are dedicated to designing the perfect pages to reach your target demographics with a multilingual website. With the help of our translation partners, we can provide your business or agency with the promotional tools you need to get your message out in any language.

Contact UmeWorks today for an estimate to translate your immigration services website, or more other information about how we can help improve your online presence.

The Advantages of Your Bakery Having a Multi-lingual Website

Posted On October 26, 2017 By UmeWorks In Ecommerce, Multi-language websites /

In the bakery business, you may have found that more than half of your success comes more from the moves you make in the back office rather than ones made in front of the oven. As time goes by, less business is walking in off the street and more is coming by way of your website and e-commerce efforts.

Whether you have great success in this may depend on whether or not you have taken the time to promote your business with a multi-lingual website to reach a linguistically diverse population. The residents of Torrance California area is multi-ethnic and multi-lingual. In addition to English, the first language of a resident of the area is likely to be Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Tagalog.

Before you make the decision to make your website multilingual, take note if any of your baked goods are particularly popular among a certain ethnicity, or if your bakery offers any traditional pastries from other countries. It is important to ensure that your multi-lingual website reflects your specific client base, and what you offer your customers.

For example, a bakery with a Japanese language website may see an increase in website traffic and business from the Japanese community, but would not likely retain that business if it does not offer traditional Japanese pastries and other baked goods. Most Japanese do not enjoy the very sweet, rich flavor of American cakes.

The Advantages of Having a Multi-lingual Website for Your Bakery

The Los Angeles South Bay neighborhoods are a very diverse area that provides rich opportunities for your baking business. In addition to traditional moneymakers such as weddings and birthdays, there is an abundance of corporate events and ethnically specific occasions such as quinceaneras that may make up a significant portion of your business when it comes to delivering personalized cakes. In this last case, the advantage of having a website that communicates with Spanish-speaking buyers in their native language is a tremendous advantage over a competitor who has an English-only website.

Here are a few advantages that you may not have thought of:

Increased Search Engine Ranking in foreign language searches
Higher rate of referrals and conversions from new customers
Broader appeal for specialized regional recipes and special occasions
Market penetration into previously under-served populations
Ease of use for customers who may experience a significant language barrier

A Multi-language Website Multiplies Your Potential Sales

Imagine for a moment that you don’t have just one bakery company, but rather that you own three or five, all of which include employees that speak a different language and are in touch with a different culture. In essence, this is the virtual effect of having a multilingual website. This is especially true if you have an online store attached to your website that enables online ordering and/or delivery of your products. Each language that is featured is just like opening up an entirely new business that brings with it a whole new flow of business.

How a Multi-Language Website Can Outpace Your Competition

Let’s look at a scenario of a local baker wanting to expand her business. Because there is a significant population of Japanese living near her bakery, she hired a new baker who was skilled in making traditional Japanese desserts such as dorayaki, taiko manju, and castella. The response of those making walk-in purchases was good. Unfortunately, the owner did not see an increase in online sales to match what she was seeing in her store.

Her new pâtisserie suggested that they add a Japanese language website to promote the new items for holidays and special occasions. This turned out to be a very good piece of advice, as the business realized a substantial increase in ecommerce orders and even higher foot traffic at the bakery’s location. It worked out so well that she was able to expand her operation to include specialized Russian pastries as a part of her menu.

Whether you already have an ecommerce site or need to build a new one from the ground up, UmeWorks can help you create a multi-language website that can help your bakery business meet its sales goals.

Contact us today to schedule a free no-obligation consultation.

Why Intellectual Property Legal Firms Should Have A Multilanguage Website

Posted On October 19, 2017 By UmeWorks In Multi-language websites /

The business of intellectual property law is complicated in a number of ways, but in situations when that property may be subject to duplication or distribution in a number of different countries one of the biggest stumbling blocks becomes the language barrier. Intellectual property litigation is increasingly becoming an international affair, and a rising tide of overseas interests are becoming parties to these proceedings.

This presents a great amount of opportunity for those who are prepared for these situations. Whether you are a global law firm or a private practice, there is a distinct advantage in having a multi-language website.

Important Reasons for IP Firms to Have a Multi-language Website

When you are dealing with intellectual property cases, you will inevitably need to deal with patent law. You will need to have the capacity to translate documents into the language of the country in which the patent is held in order to meet discovery requirements during litigation. If a client is approaching a case in which courts in multiple countries will be involved, they will be looking for a firm that clearly offers multi-lingual services. This is especially true in the case that English is not the first language of the client in question. A potential client whose first language is one of the common foreign languages in the Torrance area (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) is apt to skip a website altogether if it does not provide any information in their native language.

In addition, many overseas companies have registered patents here in the U.S., so they will need a law firm here that can translate all the relevant documents and file them in the U.S. in the English language. If a foreign company finds a firm with a multi-lingual website that includes their language, that could be their deciding factor in hiring them.

A Cost Effective Way To Reach More Clients

The legal profession has never been more competitive, and even if your firm has a great reputation for the practice of intellectual property law in legal circles, it is a distinct possibility that a client who finds themselves needing to defend their rights for the first time will have never heard of you and know very little about the field of law. You need a quick, easy, and affordable way to build a bridge to this new client base, and a multi-language website caters to their needs in a variety of ways. Not only does it demonstrate the international reach and scope of your legal practice, but it presents essential information that they need to understand beforehand in as clear a manner as possible given potential language barriers. Since it is often a simple translation of webpages that already exist, this is a very effective low-cost solution to the problem of bringing in new clients to your practice.

Which Firm Would You Choose?

Let’s look at an example of two different firms. The firm of Silver & Brewster is well-known in its field but it conducts all business only in English and is content to let their website reflect that. Their cross-town competitors at the law offices of Lee, Sanchez and Phillips are used to handling cases where intellectual property rights have needed to be defended in EU courts and in China. Therefore, they designed their site with a mind to making it easier for clients to see that they have the linguistic capacity to defend their rights overseas. With this advantage in the market the firm of Lee, Sanchez and Phillips outpace the caseload of Silver and Brewster by almost two to one.

Make Your IP Website Multilingual

Do you need help designing the perfect website for your intellectual property legal firm? Here at Umeworks we specialize in multilingual websites that can bring clients through your front door. In addition, our translation partner can provide translation services for essential legal documents for your practice.

Contact UmeWorks for more information and a free estimate on how we can help your firm grow with comprehensive website design solutions.

Advantages of your Catering Company Having a Multi-lingual Website

Posted On October 11, 2017 By UmeWorks In Ecommerce, Multi-language websites /

As the owner of a catering company, there are many challenges that you face every day. There is often a shortage of skilled kitchen staff and high turnover of employees in general. The overhead of the business can be fairly high, requiring purchase and storage of specialized equipment some of which will not see any use for months at a time.

However, the single biggest challenge in the business of catering is marketing and successfully booking events on a regular basis. This is the one area where a good website can have the greatest impact, and one way to multiply the effectiveness of your website is to have a design that supports multi-language access for non-English speakers. And, if your website has online ordering capability, this even more true.

The Advantages of a Multi-lingual Website for your Catering Company

Would it surprise you to learn that only a little over a third of Internet users have English as either their first or second language? This unspoken truth is just one example of how a traditional English-only model of promotion is leaving behind a vastly underserved population of consumers. Even when a closer look is taken just at your customers at the local level – who are by far much more likely to book the services of your catering company – having a multi-language website can increase the traffic to your website and dramatically increase the number of event bookings you receive.

5 Reasons Why A Multi-Language Website Can Have A Big Impact On Your Bookings

There are many advantages to having a multi-language website no matter what business you are in, but there are 5 that you should consider for your catering company.

1. Ease of Online Ordering

When a customer is looking to place a catering order online, a language barrier can be a significant impediment that may make them reconsider using your service. Allowing your site visitor to view the menu selection and order online in their native language can knock down this barrier and encourage more online order placements.

2. Effectively Target Your Market

If your catering company specializes in a specific regional cuisine – such as southwest/Mexican, Korean bbq or Japanese sushi – having pages in those languages can help to target those markets that are looking for this specific cuisine for their events.

3. Build Trust and Affinity With Customers

When one is in a foreign country where ones first language is rarely used in public conversation or in media it can be a great relief to see a business that uses it. A multi-language website that includes their native language can make a great first impression on potential customers as well as grant them ease of access.

4. Get the Jump on the Competition

Competition in the catering business can be fierce, and this often results in a race-to-the-bottom in pricing in order to edge out other companies. This is not as effective as convincing a consumer that booking your company is booking the right company rather than just the cheapest. Clearly communicating in their language can do this quite effectively.

5. Market in a Cost-Effective Manner

Perhaps the best reason why a multi-language website has a big impact on your website traffic and bookings is that it is a relatively low-cost way to multiply your marketing channels. In essence, it is just a translation of information that already exists on your website, perhaps only doubling or tripling your number of pages with the effect of bringing in a commiserate amount of business.

Expand Your Website’s Reach and Increase Bookings

Do you think that your catering business could benefit from a multi-language website? Contact UmeWorks for a free no-obligation quote to expand your existing site to include other languages, or build a new ecommerce catering website in multiple languages.

Request A Free Estimate

Our Blog