Allowing for cultural differences

Hi Chanetsa,

Well, I think copywriters absolutely have to allow for cultural differences. It is the smart thing to do and I truly feel it makes you stronger professionally. As a copywriter, you will likely find yourself getting clients who may be located anywhere in the world, so in my mind having your writing reflect the language variations of your client is crucial to your success.

Chanetsa, you are right in your example. There can be subtle (and not so subtle) differences between American, Australian, and British people in how they may respond to a media message. Much if not all of our purpose as copywriters is to influence, motivate, or persuade in one way or another. So this cultural consideration would seem to be vital to how well our writing connects with the reader.

The good news is most of what we write will come across effectively with few problems in its interpretation. However, if we do not account for those small amounts of words or phrases that are a bit different, it can ultimately lead to poor overall work on our part. Therefore, we cannot be lazy here.

My wife is a translator, and our job as a writer in these types of situations is similar to the process she must go through when translating a text from one language to another. It is vital that she clearly understand the source material in its accurate meaning for the best translation. This includes, among other things, variances in meaning, context, colloquialisms, formality and style.

For us as copywriters, it is quite similar. For example, I am an American and currently in the middle of ghostwriting an eBook for a client who is from the UK. Most of my work was not too terribly difficult, but there were a few words, phrases, and spelling differences that I had to aware of so that my writing was reasonably consistent with common British writing.

What I find works for me is simple research. Google is your best friend for this task. I suggest reading similar texts to what you are writing about from the country of your client. Be sure to set Google's search engine to the target country you are writing for (google.com.au, google.co.uk, etc).

If in doubt about how you are wording something will translate to readers of another culture, type in those words and see what you come across. Finding news articles, websites, and blog posts should help. They will either confirm that your wording is indeed used, or they may suggest different words or phrasing that is more commonly used in that country.

I also want to mention there should be an open dialogue with your client. If you need clarification on the meaning of a few things here and there, you should be able to discuss those things during your draft revisions with the client. Usually that will not be a problem assuming you are not calling them every fifteen minutes to explain something! In the end, your client wants the best product so your open communication is likely to be appreciated.

I hope that helps a bit. Good luck!

Mark