How to send email in multiple languages

Reaching an international audience effectively often requires sending emails in multiple languages. This approach allows you to follow up with customers in their preferred language, whether they've signed up for your newsletter or made a purchase. In this guide, you’ll learn how to set up multilingual follow-up emails.

Important note: Before setting up multilingual emails, ensure that each contact’s language preference is recorded in their profile. You can do this by adding a custom contact field or using tags. If this isn’t set up yet, do that first to ensure the automation works smoothly.

1. Start by creating an automation workflow to manage your follow-up emails. Choose a trigger that aligns with the action you want to follow up on, such as when a contact signs up for your list or completes a purchase.

2. In the automation, include an if/else step to segment contacts based on their language preference. This allows you to send emails in the right language.

3. When setting up the if/else step, use the condition builder to check each contact’s language preference: If you use a custom field for language, set the condition as: [Custom field Name] is for example [Spanish]. If you use tags for language, set the condition as: [Tag] is [Spanish]

4. Contacts with Spanish as their preference will follow the Yes path and receive a follow-up email in Spanish. Contacts who do not have Spanish as their preference will follow the No path, receiving an English email instead.

Important note: If a contact does not have a language specified in the custom field or does not have the designated tag, they will automatically follow the No path. In this example, they will receive the email in English. Since English is widely understood worldwide, it serves as a practical default.

However, if you are working with languages other than Spanish and English, be mindful of which version is sent to contacts who do not match any of the specified conditions.

5. After segmenting your emails by language, you can continue building out your automation with any additional steps you need to complete the follow-up process.

•  If a contact meets the condition, they will follow the Yes path and receive the email in their preferred language.
• If a contact does not meet the condition, they will follow the No path, which can then check for the next preferred language.

If you prefer to send standalone emails rather than automated sequences, you can do so by creating separate campaigns for each language. Simply set up a segment that targets the desired language preference for each campaign.

Alternatively, you can use conditional content within a single email to customize messaging based on language preferences. This method allows you to maintain one campaign while dynamically changing the content based on each contact's language.