Although Australian local businesses are well supported, if your company is only targeting the Australian customers, you are working within a small pool with intense competition.

If you want to expand your business to just one foreign market, it makes a lot of sense to think about the Chinese market.

Benefits of the Chinese Market in Australia

One of the biggest advantages of the Chinese market is its population. The Census result shows that more than 1.2 million people are with Chinese ancestry and still growing rapidly.

Nearly half of these 1.2 million people with Chinese ancestry speak Mandarin at home, with the other most common languages being Cantonese and English. By connecting your business with the Chinese market, your product is exposed to 1.2 million people in Australia and potentially 1.4 billion people in China.

business conference

How to Prepare your Business for the Local Chinese Market

Attracting Chinese customers takes time and effort. You cannot just copy the business and marketing model that you are using on Australian customers and hope it will cross the international border.

There are a few things you need to keep in mind while introducing your business to the Chinese market.

Bridging Translation's senior conference interpreter is helping a Chinese delegation with a conference at Australian Energy Market Operator

The Language Barriers

One thing you need to bear it in mind is that most of your Chinese clients speak Mandarin or Cantonese as their first language. Even some of them can speak English well, when it comes to reading, they would prefer to read in their first language. Therefore, the best way to attract their attention is to localise your products into Chinese. Localisation is not simply translating your marketing materials into another language. It is a process of adapting a product that has been previously translated into another language to a specific country or region. Localisation involves a comprehensive study of the target culture in order to correctly adapt the product to local needs.

Chinese Cultural Awareness

When doing business with Chinese clients, it is important to engage someone in your company who has the same or higher position to deal with your Chinese partner. This will make them feel “having face”. You should avoid making your Chinese partner losing face at all costs because that will directly impact on your business relationships.

When having important business meetings, make sure you engage a professional conference interpreter who you can trust. The more aware your interpreter is of the background information about your company and your partner’s company, as well as your meeting objectives, the better they interpret the context of the conversation.

It is essential to translate/localise your marketing material, prospectus or other business-related information into Mandarin so that your Chinese partner can read about your company and product in their first language.

Bridging Translation Business Card

Business Cards

With the development of Information Technology, many Chinese businesspeople start to use WeChat E-Business cards. However, in some important meetings, the tradition of using printed business cards has been well kept. Business cards are considered as a crucial part of introductions. It is a symbol of showing respect to your Chinese business partners. If you are doing business with Chinese, make sure you have a Chinese business card or a double-sided business card, one side in English and another side in Mandarin. The accurate translation of the business card is crucial. Engage a professional Chinese translation company to help you expanding your Chinese market can be the best choice.

For more tips about doing business with the Chinese market, please contact Bridging Transaltion.

Written by Jack YANG

Bridging Translation