Online Business Tips: What Does Successful Localization Look Like?
To paint your brand in the best possible light when branching out to the international stage, efforts must be made to localize your content.
Localization is the act of adapting your products, brand, and marketing strategy in order to resonate with a target market.
Sounds easy? It can be, but it can also be excruciatingly difficult without the right tools, techniques, and direction.
If you want a heads up as to what successful localization might consist of, here are some tips worth noting.
It Looks Perfectly Natural
Say your product pages were all described meticulously in English, but you wanted to sell to a French-speaking audience, the process of localizing your descriptions to meet the language requirements is far more complex than simply transliterating what you already have written down.
This is because to sell a product, it needs to come across as authentic, and that can hardly be the case if the translation does not appear natural in any way.
A dependable translation service like Global Voices can offer you the support you need in this area and generally make your content and brand more accessible to an international audience.
Going it alone can be difficult, but with some expert help, you should be able to guide your products in the right direction.
It Retains Your Brand’s Magic
A brand is somewhat defined by its tone of voice, which can be difficult to capture without a high-quality localization process.
In an effort to retain your brand’s magic and allow your idiosyncrasies to shine out, localization is key.
You do not need to change your brand’s entire aesthetic every time you want to establish a foothold in a new market or reach out to a new audience, but it does mean you have to be aware of cultural nuance and the difference in global sensibilities.
It Contains Tailored Content
Content that works for one particular country might fall short of the mark elsewhere, which is why making sure you tailor it to the target audience is so important.
For example, if you had a blog on your website and wrote about the current state of the U.S. auto industry, while it might be interesting, it may not be relevant or beneficial if you were trying to sell to an audience who live on the other side of the world.
Therefore, catering your content to resonate with a specific audience (in the right language) is what good localization looks like.
It Follows the Rules
If you launch headlong into the localization process without first taking a look at the rules and regulations in your target area, you may land yourself in some serious trouble.
To avoid ruining your brand before it ever has a chance to get itself off the ground, sticking to the rules is likely your best bet.
For example, this might mean checking whether your product is even legal in its destination country.
A sufficiently localized brand can help you establish yourself as a global presence to be reckoned with.
