Did you know that only about 25% of the world’s population can speak and read English? This means there are many untouched markets around the world. Localization is the process of adjusting your brand’s content (such as websites or apps) for a foreign audience. Localization begins with language translation, but it does not end there. When it comes to expanding your brand into international markets, a content localization strategy is essential.
When Coca-Cola launched in China, they quickly realized the name didn’t quite have the same catchy ring to it. In Chinese, the phrase directly translates to “bite the wax tadpole”. This led to a country-specific rebrand. The world-famous drink is now known as Kekoukele in China, which has a much more palatable translation – “tasty fun”. But it’s not just brand names that don’t translate well into other languages. This is where content localization comes in.
What is content localization?
Content localization is the process of adapting your existing content for a specific new market. When you localize material, it must be translated for your new audience. It should be tailored to be culturally suitable and understandable to them. A word-for-word translation is insufficient due to differences in idioms, cultural sensitivities, naming practices, formatting, and linguistic nuances. To truly establish brand loyalty, focus your marketing efforts on your new international audiences and their individual needs.
Why is content localization needed for Global Growth?
There are numerous reasons why content localization is critical to your business’s growth. Nonetheless, they all come from the same premise: consumers who feel connected spend more. Customers want to feel connected to brands. When they do, 57% boost their expenditure and 76% choose to buy from them rather than a competition. The difficult thing is making a connection in the first place. A fantastic approach to accomplish this is to create localized content that is tailored to the interests and demands of each target market.
With this form of content, you demonstrate a genuine interest in who they are and what they want. Your customers will feel understood, and valued, and that you “get” them.
Creating customized content for your target market has numerous benefits for a global brand:
- It helps you enter new markets and establish your brand better.
- It makes you more relatable to your audience, improves engagement, and builds brand loyalty over time.
- It ultimately improves your conversions, which in turn enhances your sales and revenue.
Steps to Build Effective Content Localization Strategy
- Research target market: The customer is always right – or, at least, they are always right about what they want and need. Brands that believe they know what varied markets want are on the path to disaster. Assumptions are especially harmful when expanding into new cultures and destinations with drastically different interests and lifestyles. You must perform market research to better understand your target consumer. Begin by determining whether the markets you intend to target are a suitable fit: do they need or want what you’re selling? Most importantly, can they afford what you’re selling? Then, analyze who your primary competitors are in your target location. You’ll get an overview of what works, what doesn’t, and who dominates the space.
- Understand what content to localize: Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to translate and localize all of your content for new audiences.
Running a content audit and finding your best-performing items is a smart place to begin. It’s not that you shouldn’t translate all of your content but focus on your highest conversion pages. These can include high-conversion homepages and landing pages.
- Consider your wording: Now that the translation is complete, it is more crucial than ever to increase content localization by using words that are relevant to your target market. Even countries that speak the same language use words differently. For example, British people prefer the use of ‘colour’ and Americans use ‘colors’. It might not seem much but if a British person visits your website and sees you regularly referring to ‘colors’ he might feel like you are not talking to him. A word-for-word content translation requires some adjusting to ensure you’re communicating to local audiences, and glossaries come in handy. To speed up the content localization process, you can create rules like ‘always translate: colours to colors.
- Show up in local search engines: Visitors to different destinations employ different versions to achieve the same search objective. This holds for the search terms they’ll employ to find your items or services. Localized content allows you to target the specific keywords used in distinct markets, allowing you to dominate search results for that destination. Let’s take an example of sneakers vs trainers. If your content isn’t localized, and you consistently refer to “sneakers”, British visitors may never come across your site simply because they are typing “trainers” on search engines. That is why it is critical to align your translated website with the search intent of your target audience. Even if they speak the same language, regional variances will influence their search phrases.
- Personalized shopping experience: When it comes to localization efforts, there are a few additional factors to consider for individuals who own an e-commerce site. A huge majority of customers remain skeptical of internet payments. Handing over money into the ether is a daunting prospect, so we tend to stick with more traditional payment methods.
The issue is that preferred payment methods differ depending on your client’s location. A shopper in Brazil may decide to pay with Boleto Bancario. But if they don’t see that option, they’ll gladly go with whoever does. An Indian prefers to pay with UPI, credit cards, or cash on delivery but if they don’t find that option, they are more likely to not go through with your products or services.
Conclusion: Exploring new international markets is intriguing. You are no longer constrained by borders and can swiftly convert entire populations into potential buyers.
However, the trick is to get it properly. Localization is more than merely translating the text on your website. It is about providing each user with a personalized local experience. Start with these website localization best practices to determine who your new audiences are and what they want from you. Only then can you build smooth and entertaining experiences for consumers wherever they are in the world.
References:
- https://phrase.com/blog/posts/content-localization/
- https://localizejs.com/articles/creating-a-content-localization-strategy/
- https://rockcontent.com/blog/content-localization/
- https://www.contentbloom.com/blog/content-localization-a-strategy-for-building-global-engagement/
- https://www.acclaro.com/blog/how-to-create-an-effective-content-localization-strategy/
