As the Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to work remotely especially from home, companies and employees have become far savvier when it comes to doing business in the cloud. According to the CBC, 3.3 million more Canadians are working remotely than in 2019 and regarding the fastest growing job roles in Canada, 8 in 10 were related to remote work. While many might view remote work as the next best thing to working in the office, the ability for Canadian and English speaking talent work with people overseas creates a host of interesting opportunities.
Outsourcing digital project to talent in other countries is not a new phenomenon. The concept of Near-shoring, a process through which North American tech firms outsource project work to developers in Latin America, has become increasingly common in the American tech space.
What if we look at near-shoring through a different lens and shift our gaze towards marketing services? There are thousands of start-ups and SMB companies in Latin America vying to break into the lucrative U.S. and North America market. For any company to be a success in the U.S., there is no substitute for rich an engaging English language content.
Here are some of the benefits for Latin American companies to outsource their marketing services, especially digital work, to North American marketing agencies.
1. Time Zones
One of the commonly understood benefits of near-shoring marketing services to North American agencies are the similarities in time zones between North America and Latin America. Toronto, New York, and Colombia share a time zone. Halifax and Venezuela share a time zone. Brazil is only a half hour ahead of St. John’s. This benefits LATAM companies looking for English content to partner with Canadian and American agencies which understand these markets deeply. Sharing time zones makes scheduling meetings, managing projects, and setting deadlines much easier.
2. English Language Content Creation
78% of Americans only speak English and 75% of Canadian speak English as their primary language. Companies looking to break into North America must deliver original English content, while being mindful of various cultural peculiarities. An important detail for companies operating within Canada and America is to be mindful that although both countries are primarily English speaking, there do exist varied nuances in the ways Americans and Canadians communicate. Most of these differences have to do with word spelling, and various idioms used in everyday language.
As an example; Advertize vs Advertise, Modeling vs Modelling, Dialog vs Dialogue, there are many more than one might expect. Canadian and American agencies can help LATAM brands navigate through these tricky semantic waters, and help these companies communicate their brand messages to all audiences in a proper way.
3. Americas Team
Although most Latin American companies expanding into North America want to create and deliver English content, that does not mean they can’t communicate in Spanish and Portuguese with their North American counterparts. Canada and America are incredibly diverse countries, and this is cultural make up is heavily reflected within our business communities. Take our team here at We-Rel8 as an example; we are based in Toronto and have an international team from Canada, United States, Colombia and Brazil. Our team can speak and create content in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Latin American companies can reap all the benefits of creating and delivering English content for their North American expansion, while collaborating closely with an agency in their native Language.
As remote working and near-shoring marketing services have become the new normal, working with agencies from North America has become more feasible, manageable and resulting in higher ROI. With this in mind, there are boundless new opportunities for Latin American businesses to enter the North American market in a digital way. For those brands, finding an outsourced native English content creator can be a massive competitive advantage.
Written By: Eric Sheppard
Social Media Manager, We-ReL8