When it comes to make a brand global, every content marketing team thinks about the languages into which translate their corporate materials. But quite often Italian is not part of their internationalization strategy. Why? There are many reasons.
Taking into account the most spoken languages in the world, Italian is not in the top list. Moreover, everybody thinks that with Italian you can target only people in Italy – so why to invest the budget for just one new prospecting market? There is also the common thought that Italy is not a high-spending country, therefore is not that attractive to invest for just one country which probably won’t buy enough to make your ends meet.
Keep reading to discover why these are only false myths.
Italian speaking countries
Italian is the 21st most widely spoken language in the world, spoken by 85 million native speakers. Where do you find them? In Italy (with 58 million native Italian speakers), San Marino, Vatican City, Switzerland in Ticino, Croatia and some areas of Slovenian Istria where it is spoken as a minority language. Bosnia/Herzegovina and Romania recognize it as a minority language. This makes Italian the fourth most common native language in the European Union. Even slightly more than Spanish, since it’s more spoken as a first language outside Europe. Argentines also speak Italian as their second language. There are many Italian speakers in the United States – according to the Italian Embassy in Washington, there are 17.3 million Italian Americans, the fourth ethnic group of European origin.
The widespread use of Italian as a second language outside of Europe is primarily due to the Italian diaspora. The first wave of this diaspora began after the Unification of Italy, between 1880 and 1940, driven by a lack of land and poverty, as Italy was still largely a rural society, especially in the South, from where most migrants originated. The second wave occurred from the end of World War II until 1970. A third wave is ongoing, with young Italians, known as the “fuga dei cervelli” (brain drain), emigrating abroad in search of better job opportunities and work-life balance.
The initial and second diasporas saw Italians primarily settle in the United States and South America, particularly Argentina, while the current wave has dispersed to destinations including Germany, Scandinavia, Austria, Belgium, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States.
Italians living abroad – a market worth to target
In 2024, 6 million Italians were registered with AIRE (the Registry of Italians living abroad) as expats. Half of them still live in Europe, the second half in the Americas. Apparently, it is the only Italy that continues to grow: young adults are constantly moving between countries after attempts of returning home.
The main reason why they are moving is to find better job conditions. According to the last study made in 2025 by Eurostat which analyzed the annual net earnings in the EU, Italy is among the last Countries for Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) of its citizens. The European PPS average in 2023 was 27,5 thousands PPS, whereas the Italian PPS average was 24 thousands. The average salary in Germany is 45% higher than the Italian, the French one 18% higher and the Spanish one 2% higher. Among the most developed countries in Europe, Italy is the only one where salaries are low for the cost of living.
This is why having a localization strategy in the Italian language means targeting especially Italians who live abroad. The major cities in Europe are becoming more intercultural year after year. In some of the big metropolises of the world, migrants represent over a third of the population and, in some cities, make up even half. To make your brand global, you need to niche down also locally.
This is a crucial aspect to take into account in the marketing campaigns – do not underestimate the importance of targeting Italians who are geolocated abroad. Everybody tends to research products and services in their own language, even if they have been living abroad for years. To be discovered by Italians, also those who live abroad and have a higher purchasing power, you need to have your content written in Italian.
Italian consumer behaviour
According to the Dimensions map of the world by Hofstede, the Italian culture falls into the category of high Uncertainty avoidance and Collectivist society classification. Such categories can give us a clear overview of the average consumer behaviour.
Italians value quality over price. This is also due to their low salaries, but there is this general idea that what should be taken into account before making a purchase is how a product has been made, the materials which have been used, if it will last long-term or not. Italians are willing to pay more if it’s worth it. But you should prove it.
That’s also why Italians research brands and products before making their purchase decision. They also rely a lot on recommendations and opinions from others – pay attention to the reviews you received so far!
The 84% of Italians prefer to enjoy content in their mother tongue
In Italy all foreign movies are being dubbed. Moreover, in the libraries the sections with books in foreign languages are always the smallest ones. It is very common for Italians to have entertainment content in their mother tongue.
In the movies, many people still opt for the dubbing simply because subtitles are distracting, but also by reading them you enjoy less all the nuances of the spoken and unspoken language. But most of all, listening to our mother tongue doesn’t produce the same effect on our brain as listening a foreign language. Neuroscience and cognitive psychology studies call this “foreign language effect”. There is evidence that shows that we elaborate emotions in a deeper way when they are expressed in our mother tongue; whereas we easily take rational decisions in a foreign language. This is because our mother tongue has stronger bonds with our emotions, since we have acquired them in such a language.
This is why a Netflix report of 2022 showed that 84% of Italians users chose Italian audio for foreign movies and tv series. Even in Netflix Germany and Spain, at the third position the Italian audio has been chosen. This is probably due to the high number of Italians living in these countries.
Why you should hire a human translator to localize your Italian content
If you decide to include the Italian language in your internationalization strategy, then hiring the right professional is crucial to make good use of your budget.
If you have an ecommerce, a blog, or a web platform, hiring a translator who is also an expert in SEO will make the difference. In fact, hiring just an SEO expert is not sufficient because not necessarily is also a linguist. Is not proficient in the brand’s source language, only in its target language. You already have a website in another language and your brand reflects the culture of your country. Therefore, hiring a professional who is capable of localizing your content is the best solution. In this process, the content is rewritten (to match the audience’s needs), translated into Italian, and optimized for Italian search engines.
One way to make your website more pleasing to the Google algorithm is in fact human translation. There is evidence that Google penalizes machine translation content. Historically, machine translation services can lead to low quality content and even spam, according to Google. Even using the post-editing is not that recommended for some kinds of texts, since the final output will never have the same quality of a standard translation.
If you really want to persuade an Italian to buy, remember that quality makes the difference!