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Recently, one of my LinkedIn friends, who is an SEO expert, wrote about a company she now supports with SEO. The company has been quite successful abroad, but since entering the Polish market some two years ago, it has not gained much traction.
Her initial investigation into the company’s problems revealed that while their products are absolutely up to par, their linguistic strategy is not. Among other issues, they decided to operate in Poland under a new brand name, which was unfortunately poorly chosen. What’s more, their Polish naming of products is inconsistent with the expectations of Polish clients.
These problems—and how relatively straightforward they are to solve—got me thinking.
The thing is, there was a time in the 1990s and perhaps the early years of the new millennium when essentially no strategy was required. If a Western company wanted to start operating in Poland, the hunger for Western goods and services was so great that almost anything sold.
This insatiable appetite for colorful products—after entire decades of Soviet-enforced drab mediocrity—was coupled with a young, enthusiastic workforce, low wages, low operating costs, and low real estate prices.
What this all meant was that contenders for a share of the Polish market didn’t have to get everything right. In fact, if they got half of the essential things right, they were well ahead of the curve and on their way to success.
Just like American towns established after a gold rush, the situation in Poland evolved rapidly. Imported Hi-Fi systems sold directly on streets from folding beds gave way to bazaars with fabric canopies, which in turn gave way to low-quality, barrack-like structures and small specialized shops—eventually replaced by huge shopping centres and malls.
I still have vivid recollections of Hi-Fi systems displayed directly on the main streets of Poznań (one of which still bore the name “Red Army Street”) and the huge bazaars offering everything from a Kalashnikov (allegedly) to the latest version of Microsoft Office (most certainly).
One could say that each decade following the fall of communism brought bigger changes to Poland than entire generations witnessed in the West.
The contemporary Polish market is very different. With the income per capita expected to exceed that of Britain by 2030, it offers great opportunities but is also much more competitive than it used to be.
This means that if you want to enter the Polish market, you must do so with a strategy, as both the opportunities and challenges are significant.
Just as my friend writes, you need a proper SEO strategy based on thorough market research and terminology used in real life by your audience. If you decide to cut corners and limit your SEO to merely translating the terms that work well in English, prepare for disappointment.
In the same way, you need a good strategy for your translations. This will ensure your communication not only uses proper Polish but Polish that is well-adjusted to your clients’ expectations.
The two hard truths are:
• Money must be spent.
• Spending money does not guarantee success.
One of the many traps you may fall into is making the wrong choice between formal and informal language. If you’re used to the ubiquitous “you” in English, you might be surprised at how sensitive Polish people can be to the tone of address.
Also, there is no guarantee that erring on the side of politeness will earn you any credit. If you address a young audience, they will expect a completely different tone than the one a car dealer might use to convince affluent professionals in their fifties to purchase an upper-class vehicle.
If you want to set yourself on a path to success when entering the Polish market, perhaps the best first investment would be a translation style guide tailored to your business and your customers.
I discuss such a style guide in greater detail in my latest article.
If your business is about to enter the Polish market or has already done so without much success, I invite you to a quick consultation.