The use of vernacular content in digital marketing strategies has seen a spike in the last few years. With the drastic growth in the number of internet users, through the tier 2 and tier 3 cities, the regional content will be reigning over the digital medium.
More than 75% of the Indian digital users will be vernacular media users by the next year. On the other hand, the English language users are expected to grow only by 3% in 2021.
Before we get into the details of the importance of using a vernacular medium, let us share what exactly it is.
What is Vernacular content?
This is a form of content that is created in regional languages targeting the non-English speaking audience. With the increasing number of non-English speaking audience, there is a significant opportunity for aspiring digital marketers that speak vernacular languages.
Simply stated, nowadays, you don’t need to be proficient in English to continue digital marketing and social media marketing. In a country of 1.3 billion, only 125 million people have been speaking English. Thus, digital marketers have a huge market to explore.
Some interesting facts on Vernacular media users
- Did you know that 70% of the internet users feel that the digital contents on the local language are more reliable than the contents created in English?
- Rajan Anandan, the VP Operations of Google India and Southeast Asia, says, “English is over. Almost every new user that is coming online – roughly nine out of ten people are not proficient in English. So, it is fair to say that almost all the growth of usage is coming from the non-English users”.
- The estimated size of the vernacular media market is $53 billion in India.
- Numerous applications like ShareChat, DailyHunt, Khabri, TikTok, and Vokal have become extremely popular through vernacular internet marketing.
- An amount of $708 million was raised by the vernacular startups between the years 2014 to 2019.
Why is vernacular content important in social media marketing?
With the exponential increase in the creation and distribution of regional language contents, there has been an explosion in content consumption. This is what offers a major opportunity for the digital marketing companies of India to target the regional language users.
Here are 7 things that make vernacular media a game-changer for web & mobile marketing.
A multi-lingual web platform: Vernacular media marketing strategy helps in connecting with a broad spectrum of people. With a local platform, it becomes easier to generate higher traction and reach out to a large number of audiences. This is vital for any digital media marketing organization.
Major content creating platforms in India are targeting audiences through numerous Indian languages that include Tamil, Bengali, Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada, and more. With regional languages, people feel more connected to the brand.
Capturing regional nuances: As we already mentioned that 70% of the Indians feel more connected towards the local digital content than English content. Thus, this is the opportunity for the brands to start thinking in regional terms so that they can get better reactions from their target audience.
It is time for the brands to start thinking in regional terms of content so that they can speak to their audiences keeping in mind the right regional nuances. Exploring beyond the regional barriers in different formats (audio and video) will help the brands in targeting audiences of a different spectrum.
Regional videos: This is ideally going to be the future of digital content marketing strategy. 64% of the customers purchase a product by checking out a video of it online. When customers remember a video, they will also remember the brand.
Thanks to social media, the consumers share the videos that they like and it helps in expanding the brand name. For better content marketing, it is imperative for the brands to make sure that they are in sync with the objective of their marketing strategy in a language that the consumer prefers.
Combining voice & vernacular: By the end of the year 2020, more than 30% of the web-browsing will happen without any screen. How? With “voice-first interactions”! With the inclusion of the semi-literate sections of the society in the content revolution, the audio content will be the next step online searches.
Google voice searches are already becoming popular, not only in India but also in other parts of the non-English speaking countries of the globe. Thus, the brands need to be discoverable through voice searches so that they can stay visible on digital platforms.
Customizing communications: This is a major aspect of a content marketing strategy. For creating communication or products that the consumers find valuable, it is important for the brands to know who they are speaking with. Knowing the interests and concerns of your target audience will help in creating and delivering consumer-driven products.
Diversity is the core of India as it offers a new insight at every 100 km. it is important to capture these insights and leverage them in a relevant content marketing strategy to communicate better with the regional language users.
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Two-way communication: With an effective digital marketing and social media marketing strategy, the brands not only speak with their target audience but also listen to them. To have a meaningful conversation, the brands have to start conversing with users in their regional languages, especially in the social media pages.
The moment a marketer starts to speak the language of their audience, half the game is won. Not only you gain the trust of your audience, but they feel that you/your brand are something that they can connect with. Thus, it is important to use vernacular content in social media marketing promotions.
Not just translations but transcreations: The mere usage of Google translation will not help you in interacting with your non-English audience. In order to build a mutual understanding and rapport, the content marketing strategy and campaigns should appeal to them.
Transcreation is the process of adapting the mindset and thoughts of the entity that you communicate with. The brands need to come up with effective strategies that will help them in adapting the mindset of their target audience.
Vernacular content is such a segment that has remained untapped till date. There has been no significant use of vernacular blog management services until now. With the popularity of regional content, it is now the opportunity of multiple business organizations to capitalize on vernacular media marketing. Regional contents are going to propel the internet growth of India by 24%. This is just the right time for a digital revolution to make the most of this opportunity and reap its benefits.
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