Product localization should be a priority if you want to expand to international markets and reach out to new customers. Focusing only on a single area while forming a marketing strategy means you lose your business’s great potential of growing.
Whether you manage a start-up or a well-known company, you know how much effort it takes to create effective product strategies that pay your energy and cost. This is why having a localized product is so important: A CSA study indicated a significant point: 87% of people do not purchase if they do not understand the language of a website or a product description.
The results clearly show that if a potential consumer does not understand your marketing campaign’s language, he/she will not buy your product, meaning your whole work may go to waste.
Consumers don’t want to put their information and money on a website in a language they can’t understand. Yet, localization doesn’t mean making your product and relevant information in English: Not everyone feels comfortable with English. This is a vital aspect of product localization that has caused many global companies to fail at introducing their products to target markets.
Smart language solutions providers make up an enormous industry. Even though technology combines global needs and provides companies with low barriers for easier product localization, the language barrier still exists.
What Is Product Localization?
The definition of localization is to translate and adapt source language to target language, considering the cultural nuances, cultural differences, and social and behavioral characteristics of the individuals who speak the target language.
In the standard translation process, the words’ exact equivalents are translated from the source language to the target language, paying attention to the comprehension and utterance.
However, product localization involves much more: The meaning of the source language’s words and sentences is translated, focusing on the language characteristics and usage patterns in the region where the target language is spoken. Therefore, product localization is also a work of adaptation.
Product localization by itself is not enough; it should involve localization of these mediums where the product would be displayed and used:
- – Software localization
- – Blog or informational content localization
- – Website localization
- – Mobile application localization
- – Localization of marketing mediums such as social media posts, catalogs, and videos.
Why Should You Localize Your Product?
Linguistics and cultural differences are the main factors that interrupt the communication effort over the marketing industry. Every society has its idioms, proverbs, and words with particular meanings. It is not always possible to translate these words or phrases into another language.
The absence of a word that corresponds to a specific meaning in the target language makes the translation process for marketing purposes difficult. For localized marketing, a successful transfer of these elements to the target language creates a massive advantage over competitors.
This is why localizing your content is so important and influential – your potential customers can understand you better, which builds trust and sincerity between your company and your audience.
Localized marketing is also vital for enterprises that seek to expand their presence and reach out to new customers internationally; from product descriptions and services to marketing campaigns, every content needs to be localized while being translated.
Let’s take a translation of a novel as an example. A novel that has a strong narrative and a very fluent style in its native language may not give the same feelings to its readers when translated without localization.
A similar situation is valid for technical texts or product catalogs. For example, a technological device manufactured in the United States of America is produced based on feet and inches. Details in the user manual are also explained in this way. However, the company should convert these measurements into the metric system if it wants to introduce its products to the European market. This shows why content localization is crucial: It conforms the source content to the target language and audience’s cultural norms and practices.
The Importance of Localization
Content localization has been an essential requirement for websites, which form your audience’s gateway to all your products/services. And its contents are of strategic importance as being more understandable means reaching more customers. The localization work also allows the brand to be noticeable and recollective.
The localization process is preferred rather than word-to-word translation for the actual transfer of the context. The strong influence on customers that cannot be achieved with translation only can be incited by localization. Names of the products, information, phrases, and idioms used in the related texts can be revived according to the natural use of language, cultural nuances, or the targeted culture’s history.
Localization has become a valuable service, mainly due to globalization and the growing desire to address international audiences. Companies’ aspiration to reach individuals in different cultures, geographies, lifestyles and be more comprehensible has increased the demand for localization.
The whole connotation is recreated in the target language by-product localization, attaining a style, tone, and rhythm specific to that region, which gives the audience a native experience. Potential buyers from the target area feel familiar with and related to the product or the service. As a good marketing strategy is based on forming a bond between the brand and its customers with creative and exciting content, your localized marketing strategy should aim to achieve these goals.
How To Start Planning Your Localization?
To create a successful localized marketing strategy, it is essential to work with industry-specific experts who entirely command the target language. For this reason, localization should be carried out by native and proficient translators who have professional experience in localization.
A qualified translator should precisely know the characteristics of the target language, have a good command of the structure of that language and should be able to create contextual integrity that speakers of that language can easily follow. The localization study’s primary purpose is to pay extra attention to the speakers’ socio-cultural characteristics of the target language and the way they use their language.
Keeping these critical points in mind, you can start building your product localization process to thrive your business in new regions.
Building A Localized Product Strategy
Building a solid localization strategy requires very detailed research and analytical planning. It is not an easy task; it may take longer and cost more. However, if executed well, you can expect fast and solid outcomes that will grow your business.
Here are the steps that will help and guide you through building a localization strategy:
- Do A Detailed Research
Doing in-depth market research and cultural analysis should be the first steps you take. It would be too risky to dive into a market with a new language, not knowing if your service has the potential to succeed there.
You should look for answers to these questions: Is there a need for your product or service? Who are your potential competitors? Which advertising method would work best for you?
It would be best if you also kept in mind that a strategy that succeeds in a country may not be suitable for another region. Your ideas should be adaptable, innovative, and sustainable for lasting outcomes.
- Localize Most Relevant Content First
You likely have a deep knowledge of content circulating in your local market and its dynamics. However, you should not use the same content for a new market. Think about how you possibly can improve and localize your marketing strategy and creativity for the best.
Your research will be your best guide for specifying customer convention and local demands. So, you should prioritize improving the most relevant content according to the data. It would be an expensive mistake and waste of time to localize every product and content at once, focusing on understanding local conditions first.
For any situation, localizing your website should be a priority as the potential customer would most likely go through your website to know you and your products better. It possibly will give the first impression of your brand.
- Know and Follow Local Laws and Customs
There are many practical aspects to consider when expanding into a new market. You may aim to gain and develop a space within the market or register your brand legally to do business there. It is crucial to make proper arrangements to spend and receive money or to work with local partners. So you must know local laws and customs.
When you start your content or product localization for marketing, it’s essential to search for regulations that adhere to advertising, including wordings and visuals, as these vary immensely by region and country. Content that is free to publish in your home market may violate some laws in that area.
- Keep Reviving Your Content
It’s essential to be up to date at every step. Your brand has a distinctive style, vision, voice, and much more. Without completely losing your identity, you should regularly revive your content and product.
You should also conduct local surveys to find out buyers’ and individuals’ opinions about your brand. Do they understand your vision? Do your localized marketing efforts result in conversion?
Keeping your content fresh helps you stay relevant and exciting, drawing more and more attention over time.
- Work With A Qualified Partner That Understands Your Vision
This matter might be the most important one. No matter how hard you try, you may not achieve your international marketing goals without a partner that understands your business. The translation may sound simple: Finding exact meanings of words between two languages.
However, when combined with localization, the process becomes much more complex. As product localization aims to create an authentic connection with a global audience, working with a highly experienced language solutions provider, like Tarjama, would give you a great advantage in your localization process.
- Strive For Quality
When you find the correct language solution provider that you can trust, you will also know you will get exceptional results. Localization quality is the parameter that determines the way people perceive your brand in their markets. From the initial project setup to the end of a campaign, you should put high standards by:
- – Searching and selecting your service providers,
- – Updating your content and style and sharing the knowledge with everyone involved,
- – Educating your staff on the localization process, and
- – Conducting regular testing and surveys.
These tips may give you the confidence you need against the challenges that come with expanding into new markets. You and your partner with professional localization and translation experience can overcome any obstacles together. As Tarjama, we have your back when it comes to growing your company through localization. Contact us now for further information!
