In order to attract EB5 investors from abroad, you need to be able to market your projects through an original and culturally sensitive EB5 marketing campaign that specifically appeals to the audience you are interested in reaching. This means addressing linguistic nuances and cultural elements specific to your target investors.
How To Develop An EB 5 Marketing Campaign That Appeals To Investors In Their Language
Marketing to potential investors is essential to garner enough interest in your project, and ultimately to get the necessary funding for it from overseas. However, there are layers of complexity when it comes to EB 5 marketing of projects. A large portion of this comes from the need to incorporate professional translation services for all materials in order to to adapt outreach to target cultural norms.
This goes beyond simple word for word translation, as the particular interests and “buying habits” of your target consumers must be incorporated into the wording and design of your materials. It goes without saying that EB 5 marketing material translations are costly, and like any marketing campaign carry the risk that the investment put in to advertising your project will not be returned.
However, price and risk shouldn’t dissuade you from pursuing translation for any projects you’re promoting through the EB 5 investor program. According to entrepreneur.com:
“Competition is fierce, and the only way to stand out to potential investors is to create a marketing campaign that establishes trust, showcases security measures, addresses investor concerns and appeals to regional interests.”
The best way to ensure the aforementioned? Market to your investors in their language.
It is essential to therefore make sure you’re translating EB 5 materials in a way that best convinces investors to choose your project while being as transparent as possible about what is involved. As previously stated, doing so goes beyond just translation – legal and cultural counseling and research, localization, and transcreation will all be incorporated in molding your message to an international audience.
What To Consider For EB Marketing Translations
There are several important factors involved in successful EB 5 marketing campaigns in order to attract potential international investors.
Special attention to linguistic and cultural factors in particular can make the difference between whether or not your campaign will successfully appeal to your target audience.
Standing out from your competitors is important if you are to attract potential investors. This means incorporating the following factors into your EB 5 marketing strategy:
- Create an EB 5 marketing campaign that establishes security and trust;
- Address any concerns your potential investors may have;
- Appeal to regional interests to help ensure that you reach your intended audience.
To start, you will want to highlight the benefits of your program; however, potential EB5 investors will also want sufficient information about the project as a whole. This includes legal information and details for investing. Any information regarding U.S. laws will need to be explained thoroughly as it is unlikely that potential investors will be familiar with the legal system.
While these rules generally apply across the board when setting up an EB 5 marketing strategy, the specific details that potential investors look for when choosing projects will vary based on their values and home culture.
Therefore, in order to successfully market to EB 5 investors you must first know your audience. Identifying any subtle linguistic nuances, such as if your target audience speaks a particular dialect, as well as identifying important cultural factors that may impact the way your message is conveyed or understood are both crucial factors in reaching your audience.
EB 5 Marketing for China
Let’s take a closer look at some of the factors that influence the decision of Chinese investors to apply for EB-5 legal residential status through U.S. investment, as China is currently one of the biggest markets for EB5 investors.
To know how to sell to a Chinese investor, you must understand what a Chinese individual values when considering business to business or business to consumer marketing.
Since a potential investor would be considering the lifetime return on their input in a business development project, we’ll look closer at business to business consumer characteristics.
Based on market research, Chinese B2B consumers tend to be focused on:
- The quality of a product or service
- Products or services backed by an established company with proven experience
- Reliability of delivery or service
- The clarity and directness of product or service offerings
- Whether or not the product or service addresses their needs, rather than its own benefits
While these apply to a B2B consumer, the ideas can be carried over into EB 5 marketing techniques. Before getting into how to incorporate some of these ideas, it is also important to research answers to a few more questions:
- Is your audience more interested in residential or commercial properties?
- What media sources do they use to research potential investments?
- Is this the first time they are investing in the United States?
- Which part of China are they from and what is their spoken language?
Knowing the answers to these questions from the start will help you prepare your marketing materials in a way that appeals to your Chinese investors, and in a way that lends itself to translation.
Confidence & Reliability of Service
As made clear by the standards of Chinese consumers, security and confidence in the success of the project are both large factors in the decision making process for EB5 investors.
Regional centers in particular will be able to leverage their experience funding a variety of EB-5 programs to promote their project as being backed by an established team. The more reputable and experienced the regional center, the more reliable the project will look to investors.
Otherwise, showcasing the track record of past developments, or other facts highlighting that the developer possesses a good reputation, will be necessary for instilling trust.
However, you can also portray confidence in the language you choose, and the aspects of the project you choose to highlight.
For example, it is likely that you would focus on the investor benefits of investing which will undoubtedly include information on the quality of your project in terms of its anticipated success and impact.
Ensure when doing this that the focus remains on what the project can do for the investors, as opposed to the project itself. Regardless of whether or not the project is considered “revolutionary” in some way, you will need to explain how that directly satisfies an investor’s needs.
Reliability of the project can be incorporated into proven experience, but market projections and statistics can convey that information as well. Make sure that they are to the point, and don’t over-exaggerate.
It is seen as much more trustworthy if you promote your project by focusing on your actual credentials and facts as opposed to building up the pros of your project with a lot of “fluffy” language.
It is also common for investors from China to first form a relationship prior to engaging in any business transactions. In-person meetings can obviously serve to garner trust; however focusing on actual credentials can serve to establish true confidence when building a relationship from a distance.
While we provided a brief overview on Chinese investors, similar research should be performed whenever you’re looking to attract international investors for your project. As mentioned, performing this research before contracting translation is much more efficient.
That being said, is translation for EB 5 marketing materials even required?
EB 5 Marketing Translation
It is required that all investor application documents undergo certified translation services into English when applying for EB 5 visas; however, the same is not true for marketing materials.
While it is not required that EB 5 marketing materials be translated, it is in business developers’ and regional centers’ best interest to do so.
Providing investors with information about your project in their language can help prevent confusion and even legal issues in the future.
Developers and regional centers alike should also take heed to the multitude of sources that say buyers prefer information in their native language – the same can be true for EB5 investors. This aside, it is also more respectful and more professional to provide potential investors with materials in their native languages.
EB 5 Marketing Translation Over A Project’s Lifetime
Many projects advertised through the EB 5 investor program can take years to build up funding and complete. During this time you will need continuous translation of any new marketing materials or project information you plan on providing to your target investors.
Most will agree that consistency across these materials is of paramount importance.
The best way to ensure consistency is to choose one translation agency and use them for the duration of the project. If something does go wrong, and forces you to change language providers before the completion of the project, you will need to acquire translation glossaries that the next translation agency can base their work off of.
Contracting A Translation Agency
When contracting translation for EB 5 marketing materials, you need to ensure the translation agency you choose is able to accurately represent the image you’re looking to portray.
This means the translation agency should have plenty of experience with both translation and localization services as well as native speaking linguists who are able to provide cultural input on various aspects of your materials.
While it is best to do plenty of market research before contracting a translation company, as any region specific marketing focus will need to be reflected in the source document, generally translation agencies and language service providers are able to assist in some aspects regarding text adaptation.
What Can You Expect to Translate for Potential EB5 Investors?
- EB 5 Project Brochures
- Websites
- PowerPoint Presentations
- Video and Audio Materials
For those conducting sales or marketing initiatives in person (or over the phone) such as with foreign migration agents, professional interpreting services providers can also aid in facilitating communication and hedging cultural barriers during meetings.
As with U.S. marketing materials in general, information that is deemed as being extremely misleading or deceptive can land developers or regional centers in legal trouble.
When providing marketing translation services (or any legal translation services for that matter), a professional translation company must use a translator that is knowledgeable regarding the U.S. legal system. For EB 5 materials in particular, translators should be familiar with tax laws associated with business investments in both the United States as well as the native country of the potential EB 5 investor.
Financial and legal terminology is standardized by the translator, and all documentation of monetary investments are recorded in accordance with the daily exchange rates between different currencies involved in the transactions specifically conducted in the process of investing and obtaining EB 5 status.
Translation Provided From International Partners
While we have described tips for developers and regional centers looking to handle their own EB 5 marketing materials, there are times when such work would be handed off to international partners working with the investors.
It is important to remember that you always want to check translations for accuracy, for consistency with the message you are trying to deliver, and to ensure that the language used abides by SEC policies regarding international marketing (often with the help of a lawyer).
If you needed any more reason to seriously plan out a translation strategy for your EB 5 marketing, consider this quote straight from the EB5 Investors Website:
“Well translated materials appear more attractive and more professional, and show your projects in a better light…Considering the complex and multifaceted nature of the EB-5 program, it is imperative to select a translation service that has experience with business and legal translations, to ensure as much as possible an accurate translation of necessary information.”
Partnering with an experienced and high-quality translation agency will ensure you appeal to your investors in the most effective way possible.
Learn More About our Legal Translation services!
Sources
- https://www.b2binternational.com/publications/chinese-marketing-selling/
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/does-still-make-sense-market-your-eb-5-project-china-michael-gibson/
- http://www.eb5diligence.com/articles/eb-5-marketing-materials-should-be-taken-seriously
- http://www.klaskolaw.com/article/iiusa-recommended-best-practices-for-eb-5-regional-centers/
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