Digital marketing, it is one of the essential B2B marketing activities in Japan. However, for some companies, leveraging their knowledge and experience in their home country does not always work in Japan.
Therefore, today, we discuss how to proceed with digital marketing in Japan and the importance of localisation.
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Colin:
Hello everyone, my name is Colin Snow. I am a member of the global team here, at Bigbeat Inc. For those of you don’t know, Bigbeat is a marketing agency located in Tokyo, Japan.
Today I am joined by another member of our global team Ms. Akari Matsumoto.
Akari:
Hello, my name is Akari Matsumoto, I am working at Bigbeat, dealing with global companies. Thank you and nice to meet you all.
Colin:
Thank you very much for joining us today.
Colin:
You are a member of the global team, so that means you work with a lot of inbound clients, right? Have you noticed any trends especially recently in regard to the type of industries that these inbound clients?
Akari:
Yes, recently, we kind of deal with lots of parts of IT related companies. Also companies related to what we call SaaS, which is a kind of trend now. Also, maybe some manufacturing industry and some medical industry focused companies.
Colin:
I got you. In general, you know that when going into a new country localization and everything is kind of a difficult, I think. But I’m sure, there are a few things that inbound clients don’t really know when the first try to make movements in Japan.
Colin:
Do you have any advice for any potential future inbound clients?
Akari:
Yes, so most of the companies they just come in with no idea . So, our first recommendation is to understand their goal and what they wanted to do. So that is the first phrase we asked and then after asking them like whether they want to do lead generation or brand awareness. Then we start to provide them the solution.
We are often asked to consult with clients who want to do digital marketing or lead gen in Japan, but even in these cases, we first ask them "who" and "what" they want to deliver, what would make it a success, and what is behind it.
If these are clear, we can make a good proposal that is likely to achieve the goal they want to achieve. On the other hand, if they are not clear, we may ask them why they decided to enter the Japanese market, why digital marketing, etc., and then work together with them to define their goals.
Colin:
Awesome, thank you very much. Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
Colin:
Now, a lot of the time when we think about doing marketing movements in a new country, we think about digital marketing, right? Can you tell us what kind of things it’s important to consider when starting digital marketing within Japan?
Akari:
First , so again a kind of targeting is really important because we have a massive number of ways to do it. So, yes, we first clarify what is your target industry and people and then we kind of select what solutions we can do for them.
Colin:
So, you know a lot of time these companies will start by doing some sort of a lead generation, but I’m sure but there’s also a lot of the companies that come in that are worried about their website, right?
Colin:
Is it possible to do digital marketing in Japan even though you don’t have a Japanese website?
Akari:
That is a good question. This is what Bigbeat can help with. Without the website especially in Japanese, it’s really hard to do the marketing activities. So first, it’s definitely good to have a Japanese website.
Colin:
That makes a lot of sense.You know, Japanese visitors, Japanese customers probably want to be able to view in their own language.
[take a short rest!] Why it is essential to have Japanese website?
Japan's English proficiency is low, ranking 78th out of 112 countries, according to 2021 edition of EF English Proficiency Index, which is the world’s largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills. Also, according to IIBC which operate TOIEC Program in Japan, 70% of Japanese business person have a poor command of English.
Colin:
What do you think about, especially recently, there has been a lot of translation services that are quite good. How do you feel about websites that have been translated using those translation services?
Akari:
Actually yes, we know there are like AI translated websites and that is kind of a trend. However, when it comes to like, for example an SEO point of view, AI translated websites are not really in natural Japanese, so that means it’s not a really good way to promote.
According to an American survey, Japanese is classified as the most difficult language in the world. We think, even AI translation cannot cover all the nuance of native Japanese expression now.
Therefore, we will kind of suggest to do a localized translation.
Colin:
So, although, the automated translation websites are improving day by day, they are getting better and better. However, there are still these needs, it’s very strong need for localization especially in places like in Japan.
Colin:
So, first I would like to know why you think that it is so important, and also do you have any examples of localization that you’ve done in the past.
Akari:
In that point, one of the most important things is the SEO point of view so if it is like a really not localize website, then it’s really affecting the SEO. For example, in one of the case studies we did, there is a website with just AI translated Japanese, but it didn’t have a good access, so, we changed a little bit of text, to localize the translation , then it really hit the SEO. So, it’s really up to the importance of wording because it doesn’t even start to get to the search engines, so that is that really key point.
Colin:
I got it. So, you just have to be very careful about the wording and everything like that especially when it comes to SEO right? You have to be very careful about that.
You know what words work really well for SEO in the US, but, for example, obviously the direct translation isn’t always going to work as well in Japan. And so, I really do understand the importance of a localizing a website. Especially in a country like Japan, it is very important.
Colin:
Now we got the website translated, you have got it localized; the next step is to do some kind of digital marketing.
What about things like advertising in Japanese using Google and Yahoo! or SNS, which is social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn etc.
Akari:
Yes, we pretty much have all the solution right now. So, especially like Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn it’s very common in the B2B marketing as well in Japan. We don’t definitely suggest all the companies to do everything. Some companies might be just do Facebook or might be LinkedIn, but it depends on their solution and their target.
Colin:
It is actually kind of an interesting thing that lots of viewer at home probably don’t quite know, that sometimes things are a little bit backwards in Japan when it comes to which website to use. Abroad, I think a lot of people would probably go to LinkedIn for B2B, but as you mention, in Japan, Facebook is also very viable option. Another kind of interesting point is abroad a lot of people might go to Google display or search ads, but in Japan, you know Yahoo! is also valuable choice for those.
You can check the report "Japan’s Top Social Media Platforms in 2022" from here.
Colin:
Well, thank you so much for your time today and thank you for your insight on all of these questions about localization and digital marketing. Before we finish up, do you have any closing remarks for the viewers at home?
Akari:
Bigbeat covers all the solutions, of course including digital, and also now it’s a little bit different story, but physical events too. We can do combinations of offline and online, so yes, we are happy to help you all, and please contact Bigbeat Inc.
Colin:
Speaking of which, she mentioned that there are lot of in-person events recently. If you want to know a little bit more about that, we have another video that talking about exhibitions, that you can check out on our YouTube page. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, we hope to see you all again. Goodbye. 
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