Thai Email Translation Services 101: What You Need to Know

When you’re expanding your brand to the Thai market – the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, email marketing is a great way to connect with new audiences. 

• Effective tool: According to DMA, for every dollar spent on email marketing, businesses tend to receive an ROI of 42 dollars. 
• Best potential outreach: Email beats other digital channels on its widespread usage. Almost everyone has an email account, from professionals to students, anyone who wants to go online. Email is second to none when it comes to potential outreach, with about 3.9 billion individuals owning at least one email address. For comparison’s sake, the most popular social networking site on the globe, Facebook, has 2.5 billion active users per quarter.  

Email marketing is worth investing in, but it is not without challenges. You have many things to do with your Thai email translation services. This post will give you some useful tips to get a successful email marketing campaign in Thailand.

It Always Begins With A Good List

Email marketing is permission-based marketing. It’s a direct way to offer your value to customers who’ve shown interest in your values and want to know more. You might send them instructional materials, as well as discounts and special offers. What’s great here is that you know it’s something your audience has requested and will appreciate.

Effective Thai email translation services, however, will be in no way if your messages end up in the spam folder of your subscribers. Or, even worse, if their email service provider has blocked them.

When tapping into the Thai market, some try to boost their sales and approach customers by buying email lists. This is not only an unethical technique that may violate local regulations, but it’s also a one-way ticket to a blacklist – and the spam folders of all your subscribers.

The core of email marketing is good lists, so make sure that your content reaches the right people. Giving values to customers first, you will attract email subscribers then. Try to keep a tidy, high-quality list. Allow users to unsubscribe, and remember to remove invalid addresses or subscribers who have never opened your emails on a regular basis.

Segment Your Thai Audience & Localize Your Content

#1. Audience segmentation with Thai email translation services

Audience segmentation is overlooked by many businesses. When you enter the Thai market, it refers to dividing this country into groups or subgroups depending on various factors. This process will help you identify your potential consumers based on their behaviors, interests, demographics, priorities, and many others. Once you know what appeals to your customers, you could create efficient targeting email strategies. 

For instance, you are a game developer and you believe that your target customer is teens, so you focus on this age group. However, audience segmentation may reveal that adults are more interested in your sort of product than teenagers. Thus, developing youth-focused marketing methods will alienate your most important clients. You need to have different email marketing plans for these 2 segments. To put it another way, market segmentation helps you to adjust your email marketing strategies based on facts rather than guesswork and intuition.

#2. Content localization with Thai Email Translation Services

Content localization is a crucial step in your email marketing strategies, as:

• Thais are not good at English or any foreign language: Thailand was placed 89th out of 100 nations in the EF English Proficiency Index, with 419 points. This score is classified as “very low proficiency.” That means if you send an email in English, you may not reach as many Thai customers as expected. Thus, translating and localizing your content into Thai should be a top priority.
• You show your care with Thai email translation services: By providing local language content, you are showing an understanding and a direct interest in that community. A survey conducted by Common Sense Advisory reveals that 72.4% of respondents are more likely to buy a product with information conveyed in their native language.
• Cultural adaptation is essential:  Aside from the language barrier, the rich culture of the Thai people might be an obstacle for businesses looking to penetrate the Thai market. Thailand’s population is made up of individuals from Cambodia, Laos, India, and China, among other ethnic groups. On the one hand, the Thai market’s diversified population provides a significant advantage for foreign businesses with a wide range of potential audiences. On the other hand, it poses a serious threat if these companies do not study cultural spheres carefully. 

What you need to do is thoroughly study the Thai culture, language, and behavioral characteristics. You can also seek help for Thai email translation services from localization experts with in-depth knowledge of the Thai market and extensive expertise in the business.

Here are some email content tips when tapping into the Thai market:

• It’s common to keep some English terms rather than translate them when translating from English to Thai, especially if a direct translation is not available. Words like “artificial intelligence” and “Hogwarts” have been kept in their original English form. This is partly because English is a foreign language in all Thai secondary schools, together with the popularity of American pop culture. When translating English names of individuals and characters into Thai, the English name is sometimes kept with Thai text next to it.
• In Thailand, several content limitations must be adhered to in order to prevent content from being prohibited. Any content that is critical of the King or the Thai monarchy would be considered a major no-no and can result in a ban or even criminal charges. In Thailand, political information is severely censored, while sexual or pornographic video footage is prohibited.
• Line spacing is critical when preparing Thai text for subtitles/captions. If lines are too close together, the vowel characters of a nearby line may be obscured. If you are using Thai email translation services for a mere translation only, you should pay attention to this point. 

Measure & Adapt with Thai Email Translation Services

You have done audience segmentation and content localization, there are still steps to move. Once you’ve kicked off your email marketing campaigns, keep an eye on the data, and ask yourself and your team, how you can turn it into concrete actions. 

Like the rest of your marketing campaign’s assets (your website is one of them), let’s make A/B tests, listen to your consumers, and be ready to learn and adapt until you reach your expectations. 

Pick a Trustworthy Agency for Your Thai Email Translation Services

Thailand is one of the fast-growing economies in Asia, making it a promising destination for any business. However, email localization for this market requires far more than content translation.

GTE Localize, as a high-quality translation agency, offers a full range of Thai email translation services that connect you closer to Thai audiences.

Contact our localization specialists for additional information if you have any questions about this prospective market or would like a free quote for your Thai translation projects.