Expanding into France? Top Marketing Tips

How to market your company

France has a population of around 67 million people and, within the EU, is second only to Germany in terms of the number of internet users. At the same time, the huge growth in e-commerce seen in the UK and US has been considerably slower in France.  This means that there is an enormous potential for companies entering France, provided that their marketing is approached in the right way.

France is also a beautiful country with a rich culture and in South France the climate’s fantastic with 300 days of sunshine a year.  C’est la vie!

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Don’t rely on Google translate if you want your website to be visible in France.  Firstly Google won’t show automated translations in their search results as they treat it as automatically generated spam.  Secondly, whilst the translation gives an approximation of the meaning, it lacks the fluency and nuances that only French content written by a native French speaker can give.

  • Don’t use a .uk or .us domain name.  Google show these higher in their respective countries (the UK and the USA) and it will be hard to rank well with them.  You’re better to use an international domain (e.g. .com, .net or .org) for both languages, with the French site as a separate fr sub-domain or sub-folder, or better still, to use a dedicated .fr domain to target the French market.

  • Don’t use a CMS (Content Management System) that cannot adapt easily to having a multilingual website or that can’t display French accents.  There are several open source CMS’s, like Drupal, WordPress or Prestashop, that can easily add the functionality for different languages without compromising on the quality of the website.

  • Don’t use all the budget on the website creation and expect major changes to your business to happen the instant this goes live; you will also need to build links to your site via a French content marketing campaign in order to drive traffic to it and get Google to notice it.

Take this opportunity to review your existing website

Whether you are a small or large business, it is never wise to be totally complacent about your website.  Introducing a multilingual element to your business can be viewed as the ideal opportunity to overhaul your existing website and ensure that it satisfies all your requirements.  These considerations may include:

  • Does it reflect the corporate image that you want for your company?
  • Is it responsive to users of mobile appliances?
  • Is it easy to navigate?
  • Are the images interesting?
  • Would you do business there?
  • How easy is it to update it or carry out ongoing maintenance? 
  • How easy would it be to change to a multilingual website?
  • Is the SEO (search engine optimisation) for the site successful?  Is it as visible as you would like it to be?

Check with your developer if you are unsure of the answers to any of these question.  If you’re not sure whether to use your existing CMS or switch to a new one, then it’s worth reading this useful guide to translating a website into French that includes an interactive questionnaire that recommends the best approach.

How can you increase the visibility of your website in France?

First and foremost both the content on your website pages and any ongoing content for multilingual SEO have to be well written.  Working with native French speakers is essential. 

Before completing the translation, complete some keyword research to verify that people in France actually search for the term being used.  Often products or services have more than one possible title (as they do in English) and while working with a native speaker makes it more likely that your products will be aptly named, keyword research will confirm whether there’s a sufficient search volume to give you a good return on investment.  Indeed, if you’re budgeting how much your expansion into France will cost, completing this keyword research and analysing the competition in advance will give you a good indication of the potential traffic you will receive.

Interesting content as part of your ongoing SEO campaign is always essential to improve the visibility of your website, through unique articles, creative infographics or submissions to directories that are relevant to your business.

Google looks for natural links, therefore don’t be tempted to build links from English sites to your French site.  The vast majority of links to your site should be in the same language as the page they’re linking to.  Using French anchor text on an English article is also likely to get your site penalised, so should be avoided at all costs.

When expanding into France, take a long term view.  SEO takes a while to build up and the longer you run an SEO campaign, the greater the return on investment you will see.  If you can only afford to launch the site and do SEO for the first month, you may be best investing those funds on your English site first, establishing a stronger ground there and then creating your French site a little down the line.

French cultural differences

If you’re physically moving to France then it may take a while to get used to le rythme français!  The French take their holidays and their lunch breaks seriously and many businesses close for two hours for lunch.  If a shop says it shuts at 8pm (or more accurately 20h00, as the French always use the 24 hour clock), then it will probably close its doors 10 minutes beforehand, to give everyone time to finish shopping so they can literally shut up shop on the hour.

It’s a more relaxed way of life here and that’s one of the things that, now I’m used to it, I personally enjoy immensely.

With proper keyword research, the correct CMS and a fluently translated website the opportunity to expand into different countries is almost unlimited.  Perhaps expansion into France will be the first of many multilingual ventures for your business.