The Internet has changed the way we do business. As globalization has made the world a smaller place, it has become standard for businesses to compete with other businesses near and far. And with information technologies’ development, more and more companies are conducting international operations.
But oftentimes carrying out these business activities without personalization and correct cultural targeting may lead to failures for the business.
If your business is looking for ways to carry out successful international marketing efforts, it is important for you to figure out how to make an impact in various markets and languages simultaneously. This will make a huge difference for any business that seeks to thrive in today’s competitive international marketplace. That is why many small and big businesses go for marketing localization.
What is Marketing Localization?
Essentially, marketing localization is the process of marketing your product or service to a specific area. It considers personalization as the backbone of a successful marketing strategy. The process involves crossing certain language and cultural barriers.
Many specialists believe that without marketing localization, marketing campaigns are destined to fail. That is why many businesses that aim to be successful internationally develop their marketing strategies based on regions. It helps them meet their audience’s expectations taking into account important factors like culture, language, religion, etc.
Marketing campaign localization is necessary to help you reach new markets. At first, many businesses who are new to the game may think that there is no need to spend tons of money on localization to be successful in new foreign markets. But very soon they realize that that is where they have gone wrong. Localization exists primarily to help you better understand the target audience of a foreign country. It helps you ensure that your product or service hits the market in a culturally and linguistically appropriate way. It also helps to deliver a clear and concise message. Marketing localization is not the same as translation. By doing marketing localization, you make sure that your product is well-represented and understood by the people in your target region.
Why does your Global Marketing need Localization?
As we can tell, marketing localization is a great benefit for your business, introducing you to many new opportunities. But it offers so much than that.
Increased Brand Reach
Marketing localization is a great way to increase your brand’s reach. It helps you enter new territories, discover new markets, and position yourself as a world leader in your niche. With marketing localization, your business gains a competitive advantage. In today’s competitive market, there is a really small chance that your business is the only one in the market in your field. And even if it is at the moment, the competitors will turn up quicker than you think. Marketing localization is a great way to outrun them and go international.
Bond with your Audience
If you are looking for ways to bond with your audience, global marketing localization is the exact thing to do. By creating content that is specific to their region, culture and language, your marketing efforts will feel personal. Localization will help to humanize your brand as well as have higher levels of engagement with existing customers.
Boosted Profits
Marketing localization is a must if you want to skyrocket retention and boost your revenue. By correctly entering new markets, you get the opportunity to increase your sales. It also makes marketing investments more cost-effective as it increases your potential for sales. And by offering sufficient materials for your regionally targeted individuals, with the help of localized content you can also cut down customer support costs.
Growth
Localization can expand your brand reach and awareness. As marketing localization is the acknowledgment and respect for local cultures and values, it helps to overcome market entry challenges. It also helps with customer loyalty. Marketing localization also offers an SEO boost.
What do you need to Localize?
Marketing localization truly is a great benefit for your business. It opens many new doors for your business growth. If you have decided to go for marketing localization, here are the steps to follow.
Region-specific copywriting
Region-specific copywriting is mandatory for successful marketing localization. Before starting, you need to do your research on the region. It will make you understand the culture, its specifics, and nuances to make sure your copywriting targets the region. If you miss this step, the best-case scenario is your business not being able to enter the market. Worst case scenario, you might unintentionally ruin your reputation.
Transcreation
After you do the culture-specific research, you can start either creating new content or doing transcreation of what you already have. Transcreation is not a literal translation, it is the process of translation based on cultural and regional specifics. It will ensure that you are targeting your new audience in the most successful way.
Human Translation
Machine translation is fast and cheap. However, what machines lack that humans possess is the understanding of cross-cultural and intercultural communications. That is why when it comes to marketing localization, and generally to localization, it is in the best interests of your business to trust the process to professional translators. They will ensure that your content is not only grammatically correct but it also corresponds to cultural norms.
Language-specific SEO
By optimizing your content for different languages you become searchable in new markets. With language-specific SEO people in different regions can find your website through organic search. Multilingual search engine optimization is one of the best ways to reach as wide an audience as possible. It might be tempting to rely on machine translation as Google translate. But the truth is that if you want to get a far superior result, both in terms of the quality of translated content and SEO, you need to go for a dedicated multilingual SEO strategy. International SEO has tips and tricks that you can learn about here.
Marketing localization is an important step for businesses if they want to go international. Trust this process to us and we will guarantee successful localization for your business.
