An Complete Guide for Improving the Localization Strategy of Your Organization

Aug 31, 2022
Multiple people discussing localization strategy

However, expanding to new markets may prove difficult if you're unwilling to modify your methods of marketing based on geographic location. A one-size-fits-all strategy doesn't cut it when trying to expand your presence across the world. Different markets have their own needs, sensibilities and preferences, as well as different the languages they speak. That's why you need to engage in marketing localization.

Localization requires beyond simply running your content through an automatic translator. It is essential to consider the local market in consideration and create a personalized buying experience for customers the same manner as you did when you first launched your services at home.

If you do not have an effective and precise planning strategy for localization, the plans for global expansion could fall completely flat. What is a localization strategy? What can you do to roll out the ideal localization strategy to ensure the success of your business in the future as you expand?

Find out more here.

What Is what is Localization Strategy?

The localization strategy you choose to implement is your business's plan to adjust your website and services to different languages and cultures. This is seen as an integral aspect of globalization considering the different styles, language preferences and sensibilities of an international customers.

This is why the product you offer must be presented in a manner that's distinctive, meaningful, and marketable for a global audience. What works in US markets may not work in Europe, Asia, or perhaps different North American markets like Canada.

Less than half of companies take the time to personalize their communications
A mere 45% of businesses decide to customize their messages ( Source: Segment)

If you come up with a localization strategy that you can shine a new light on your services in various areas based on the data from extensive analysis. It will allow you to provide your marketing more personalised for customers in these areas, showcasing the product or service you offer to a new market can be a part of.

This might include serving different requirements or issues in your target customers. Different markets have different demands, and it's the responsibility as a marketer and company owner to understand what they're looking for what they're seeking, the reason they're in need of it and how you'll convince them you've got the answer.

An image showing the coca cola site being different based on location
Coca-Cola's website is different based on location ( Source: Translate to Humans)

Do You Really Need a Localization Strategy?

You'll need a localization strategy in order to grow your business to international markets. This isn't something you can go half-speed on. It's crucial to your achievement and must be well-planned in order to succeed.

Ultimately, you won't begin to implement the localization process when you attempt to completely automate the process and put it in rails. The process requires a person's touch as well as constant focus. Without a solid, nurtured approach, you could lose possible new clients in those markets that you're hoping to expand into.

Initial impressions matter when it comes to brand recognition when you're stumbling from the beginning, you might not have a second chance.

Of course, if you're not planning to expand your business beyond your original market, there's no need for any localization strategies. It's expensive and time-consuming to undertake, so except for the possibility of a new, specific target market, it's not necessary to follow the procedures outlined in this piece.

But why is an effective localization plan so crucial to scale international businesses?

For starters, localized content naturally speaks to the people. Furthermore when you localize your marketing strategies it isn't going to cause any offence to anyone through accident.

The benefits of having a well-planned localization Strategies

An approach to localization helps you avoid a lot of wrong-headed cultural mistakes such as the one we mentioned above with the differences between an audience in the US versus an audience in India. What you don't want to do is to offend your potential customers.

When you invest effort and time in your translations, you'll be able to present the content to an unfamiliar public in their native language just as a native would. If you don't do this, it will make it difficult for your viewers to understand your message and make you look like an untrue company or fraud in the new marketplace.

Your strategy that you put in place requires the gathering of a great deal of data. It will help you discover the many issues of your customers who are in different regions. While the overall use of your product could be identical in several areas, the motivation of the product could differ.

Of course, one of the main benefits of having a properly-planned localization strategy is that its success is your success, and you'll expose your company to the world of a new market, and a lot more revenue.

Additionally, you can expand past the competition, giving you the edge on those rivals at both the international and local levels.

Starting: Localization Strategy Guidelines

Lay Out Your Strategy Workflow

The initial step in beginning the localization plan is to determine your strategy workflow. That's where you figure out what you're currently doing in terms of the localization process. You want to plan out the entire workflow from start until the end. You should note your current location and the direction you'd like to get there.

Make sure you're highly specific when doing this, as it can help you plan every step of your strategy.

This is also where you'll determine which areas you want to expand to and what needs to be accomplished to begin in those areas. In the end, you'll produce a roadmap that will lay the process of expanding.

When do translations need to be ordered to launch in date? What kind of style guide will you roll out in new countries for your content? How will you perform quality assurance in a way that adheres to the wants and needs of your new customers?

These are all questions to think about before you begin trying to move into a new geographic location.

It's also the time you'll be able to establish your budget. Consider the amount you're prepared to invest to grow to a new region to determine if it's feasible. If it's not, then you could have to put those plan on hold until the time you have the funds to the project.

Understand Your Audience

Before you market to an audience, you must know them to determine what they want and, more importantly as important, what they do not want.

What are the pain points of new customers in various areas? What are their similarities to the issues you're marketing to at home? How can you effectively market these areas of pain effectively?

What cultural distinctions are there in the new marketplace? What's considered over the line or acceptable to be seen in the media? Are you able to modify your current web-based interface and marketing material in order to meet these standards, or will you have begin from scratch?

Consider Your Objectives and KPIs

An image of a KPI strategy chart
It is essential to have a clear understanding of your KPIs ( Source: Translated By OnStrategy)

It is essential to keep a sharp focus on what you're trying to achieve. This helps you keep your eye on your ultimate destination and keep moving toward arriving there.

Make Things Simple

Though a strategy for localization may seem like an overwhelming task but don't make it too complicated.

It is important to define who does what job specifically so that you can understand every member of your localization team's role. You also should learn the most you can about this emerging market so that you can know what you need to know when creating the plan. By understanding the new market inside and out and you will discover the most efficient method to begin localizing.

Enhancing Your Localization Strategy 12 Essential Tips

1. Humanize Your Localization Translations

Do you want to know what we did to increase our traffic over 1000 percent?

Join the 20,000+ who receive our newsletter every week with insider WordPress tricks!

Don't rule out potential customers due to language barriers, though. If you are planning to localize your marketing strategies, your goal should be to consider how to connect at a deeper level to potential customers who are new.

Sentence structure varies by language
Sentence structure varies by language ( Source: 8020Japanese)

By not speaking their language, you risk possibly offending potential customers , and creating a hurdle against their decision to purchase from you. One of the key factors to successfully marketing to prospects is for them to understand what they're reading well.

This is why you must make sure that you are not just using the language of your native however, you're also doing it using it in a way that is grammatically correct. Sometimes a direct translation won't be effective, since the correct sentence structure may differ dramatically between various languages.

You should also take this time to change any culturally unimportant or inappropriate content for your brand new target audience.

2. Create a Localization Kit

The localization kit is document that contains all that you require to learn about your localization plan and the goals.

The first thing you should include in your toolkit will comprise a style manual with specific guidelines for your brand voice, colors as well as your overall objectives when creating material. This style could (and most likely will) be different according to the location the area you're advertising within.

A few of the things to include in your localization kit are:

  • Any common jargon your business uses and how it can be shared with clients
  • Parallels with brands you admire (regardless of their industry) so that you can learn from their expertise

This kit can be especially helpful for translators and can aid in keeping all parties in the same place and united in one vision.

3. Check Your Customer Journey

To create the most effective approach to localization, you must take a long review of your current customer journey.

What are the elements that could be carried over to the next market? Are there any? The first step is to decide if the steps you have in place are transferable and form your altered customer journey using the skeleton of your previous journey.

An image of a customer journey map
Create a map of the current journey your customers are on ( Source: Empire Flippers)

Are the habits of your customers different from your market? If so, you may have to roll out various promotions to your prospective customers to appeal to the shift in spending habits.

What problems have you experienced regarding your customer experience previously? Do these problems continue in the new market? If yes, then learn from your mistakes before rolling out your brand new customer experience completely optimized and ready to go.

Keep in mind that each stage of the current customer journey requires to be localized. You might get lucky, and some steps can just transfer completely, however, each step requires careful analysis and a lot of thought.

Of course, this will be a procedure you'll need to follow in every new market you expand into.

4. Pick and Choose Locations for your target

It's no longer enough to point to a country that you like and decide that you'd like to enter that market. The choices you make for expanding need to be strategic. In this regard, you must determine where there's an actual need for your services, then begin preparing localization strategies for those areas.

An image showing the GDPR is a data privacy law in the EU
The GDPR is a data privacy law in the EU ( Source: EUGDPR Academy)

There are also marketing rules across different fields which you should be aware of lest you violate the law by accident.

5. Find out the cost of your project

For you to determine how much profit you'll earn, you have to determine the cost of your services. What is the cost for you to begin marketing in new locations?

It is essential to incorporate your localization strategy into your overall budget. Every area that you service must have its own marketing budget.

6. Anticipate Needs

If you keep your future localization requirements in the very beginning, you'll simplify the process and make it easier on yourself down the down the. For example, play around on how your site will look with various translations. Integrate that in your site layout so that when the time comes for expansion, you don't have to reinvent every aspect.

7. Establish localization roles and responsibilities

It ensures that nobody gets in the way of anyone else's safety, and everyone knows whom they're accountable to. Create a master list that highlights each team member and their respective responsibilities as well as where they stand in the hierarchy of command. This will avoid time-consuming disagreements and miscommunications.

8. Understand Your Audience

Study your target audience in order for a better understanding of the people they're from, what they require, and the way they want to be marketed to.

In other words, where do they consume media? Does anyone watch TV? Are they on social media more frequently than the average user? Figure out where their eyes look to locate a way to place the marketing material you've created there.

It is also crucial to figure out the best way to interact with these people meaningfully. Figure out what their values and the marketplace's politics, and speak directly to the customers in that way.

Buyer persona image from AWeber
Buyer personas allow you to list all relevant details about your target audience ( Source: AWeber)

After you've gathered all this data, arrange the information into buyer personas, so that you are able to target your marketing campaigns and personalize your experience to the people you want to reach.

9. Create a List of Tools and Platforms

Write down a list for the applications you'll require in the event of expanding your business into other market.

These can include:

  • Social media management tools
  • Local advertising platforms

10. Use Local Resources

Make sure that your translators are native English speakers who have a good understanding of their native language's grammar rules.

11. Plan Culturally Relevant Content

The content you create must be specific and local to the target market you're hoping to reach. It's important to mark special events for your new audience on social media, such as legal holidays and independence days.

Try to inject a sense of history and pride in your content for localization. Let your viewers know that you are interested in their history and culture.

12. Measure Your Localization Results

By analyzing your data on a regular basis Through constant analysis, you'll be able to determine which strategies are effective and which ones don't, and you can take the necessary steps to change your approach when you're coming up in the wrong direction.

Summary

Localization is a crucial part of expanding your business globally. Follow the suggestions in this document in your mind when the time comes, and you'll be able to enter new market successfully.

Reduce time, money and increase site performance:

  • Help is available immediately assistance from WordPress hosting experts, 24/7.
  • Cloudflare Enterprise integration.
  • Global audience reach with 34 data centers worldwide.
  • Optimization using our built-in Application to monitor performance.