As the world turns into a global marketplace, if you are thinking of growing your business outside the boundaries of your country, a localization agency can help you overcome the cultural and language barriers.
Localization is adapting any kind of text or multimedia material for the desired market, making it understandable, relevant, and culturally sensitive to local customers. Localization is used for various materials, from software and video games to ads. The process may appear simple at the surface — performing a translation or adapting the website content and layout for the desired region. Localization is more than just a translation; it allows you to hit the road running in a new country and leverage global demand.
To localize a product, go beyond simple translation of the text and understand the local cultural and business landscape so that your content sounds native and meets the expectations of your target audience.
Companies understand the importance of localization in capturing a large base of new clients. Therefore, in this article, we’ll detail how a localization agency can help your organization overcome the challenges of localization, like cultural sensitivities and language discrepancies.
We will detail the most common pitfalls your business may encounter and how these could be overcome to increase your total addressable market using proven best practices.
Finally, we’ll ensure your organization has all the acumen needed to take the next step toward the globalized world and enable you to utilize localization as a critical tool in accomplishing international growth and diversification.
By reading this article, your business will become better equipped to take the next step in your localization journey and take advantage of the globalized world.
Table of Contents
The Importance of Localization in Reaching New Customers
Source: gtelocalize.com
Why Localization Matters
Localization goes beyond translation; besides word-by-word translation, localization involves adapting the product and its marketing to match local cultural ways of doing and seeing things. More than three-quarters of consumers worldwide prefer to purchase in their native language, further explaining the value of localization.
While localization involves translating words to match the target country’s language, it also changes the product (like adding language options for digital platforms), the references to everyday culture, and sometimes the marketing strategy to better match the target market. Localization provides a better experience for consumers and builds trust in the product and the brand, which is almost impossible to replicate with a more standard approach.
Real-World Examples of Successful Localization
Companies such as Salesforce and Coca-Cola have been localizing successfully, and there are many examples of successful expansion based on localization. Salesforce offers international versions of its CRM platform, for instance, that not only make the product itself more accessible by providing a more effortless user experience on the web interface but also add features for regional compliance.
Coca-Cola localizes its product labeling and marketing campaigns: for example, Coca-Cola saw its sales in Australia skyrocket after putting every name usually found on Australian bottle tops inside the bottles themselves.
Challenges and Solutions in Implementing Localization
Source: tarjama.com
Common Challenges
These challenges include communication and cultural issues, but localization also comes with its very own set of challenges: the intricate details of vendors and timeline consistency that can get a project behind schedule, cultural nuances like greetings, body language, and even language use that can ruffle the feathers of new markets without the right deal of sensitivity, and the complexity of localization in the first place, which can easily deter a business from entering new markets without a precise, masterful plan to pull it off.
Effective Solutions and Strategies
These issues can be tackled through a robust communication system and tools such as Smartling that keep teams on track, alongside effectively prepared briefing documents, such as style guides and glossaries.
In-house teams or contracted professional translators experienced in local languages and cultures can help avoid mishaps. When applying the right ‘local flavor’ to marketing content, consistency can be maintained in content management with a centralized system and workflow across all platforms and channels. This approach ensures a regular, methodical, and strategic localization process.
Best Practices for Successful Localization
Source: locaria.com
Understanding Cultural Nuances
Successful localization involves understanding the details of a new culture: its sense of humor, most flagrant idioms, and social sensibilities. Engaged cultural consultants can help provide such nuanced translations and illuminate ways to reinforce a brand’s meaning and context for a new audience while avoiding offense. This, too, helps your brand be trusted in those new audiences.
Utilizing Local Experts and Influencers
If you work with local experts and influencers – people who understand what’s happening locally – they’ll interpret your brand message in a way that works for the local culture, increasing your visibility and that all-important sense of trust.
Local influencers are influential because people believe them. Branded content they’re involved in will appear to be the same. And when you begin your own flywheel, it generates all sorts of positive effects beyond brand awareness. The marketing should be neutral and imbued with the fundamental values of local culture.
Conclusion and Next Steps
Source: tlctranslation.com
Today, making sense of the intricacies and the stakes of localization is more important than ever as more and more businesses endeavor to go global. By walking through the themes of the go-to strategies, case studies, solutions, and success stories, this journey offers a clear roadmap for companies looking to expand into different markets.
Localization is no longer just a process but a strategy that can elevate a brand’s relevance to and with a global audience. When products and messages are adapted for local cultures and languages, businesses gain an unprecedented way to engage with markets and consumers.
In addition, challenges associated with localization – such as cultural practices, communication barriers, and others – require special attention and savvy to navigate. With cultural consultants and local influencers, companies can overcome those challenges, too. With the proper focus and tools, companies should be able to circumvent any tolls that may hinder penetration of the global markets and customer loyalty.
As long as companies can keep their eyes on the goal – expansion into international markets – globalization is a great opportunity. But tapping into that opportunity successfully requires more than just savvy women and cheap trains; successful globalization for businesses also entails an intelligent, long-term approach to localization.
