Localization 2022: Develop a Localization Strategy From Zero To Hero!

As Nelson Mandela said before, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Well, it goes the same way for your target audience! In order to build trust and understanding when you communicate with your audience overseas, you need to communicate in their own language.

What makes a global brand stand out when entering new markets, and achieve long-lasting success is composing an exceptional localization strategy. You might have heard a lot about Patrick Geddes’s “Think globally and act locally” and wondered how could that be achievable? The answer is crystal clear. Developing a customized localization strategy besides your local marketing strategies will unquestionably sky-rocket your brand sales and flood your ambitious global growth plan.

Local Marketing Strategies Go Hand In Hand With Brand  Localization Strategy

Local marketing strategies usually help you attract customers from within your local area. These strategies include managing your listing in search engines, targeting nearby social media users, registering with local business directories, sponsoring local events, cross-promoting with other local businesses, etc… However, if you want to establish a global brand, local marketing strategies are not enough.

To guarantee a polished international presence, formulate a great, global customer experience, and stand out from the ongoing competition, you need a comprehensive and outstanding localization strategy that is well-crafted to accomplish your brand vision and fulfill your customer needs.

What Is a Localization Strategy?

A localization strategy is a business overall plan and approach to adapting its content, offerings, services, and products in new countries that include its target audience.

Every company that aims for globalization needs to pay attention to the cultural and social preferences of its target audiences. Thus, It’s essential when creating a successful localization strategy to take into consideration the differences from one country to another concerning matters of language, culture, customer behavior, and social norms.

To set an example, product localization means to adapt or modify a certain product or service for a given language, culture, or region to fit the demands of one locale. so, if you own a video game design company and want to invade the MENA market, hiring a reputable video game localization services provider is a must!

You need to consider providing your Arab audience with website translation services for your website so they can easily access, purchase and download the game in the first place. As for the game itself, you might need your non-player characters (NPCs) to speak in flawless modern standard Arabic or allow your player to navigate through a group of Arab cities based on real-life countries for a more oriental look and feel.

Video game localization services will ensure equipping you with a Middle Eastern version of your game that has menus, subtitles, social media pages, websites, and dubbing in modern standard Arabic. Such a thing is considered a killer strategy that will undoubtedly enable you to win your Arab customers for life.

How To Create the Perfect Localization Strategy for your Business in 2022?

There are multiple things to consider when choosing to invest in localization. Here are some significant elements that every successful company aiming for globalization and building a localization strategy should keep in mind.

1- Select your Audiences’ Language and Region

Even if your audiences come from different countries and speak diverse languages, you need to be selective when it comes to developing a localization strategy. Deciding on your top-performing markets followed by the predominant languages in these markets is key for any significant localization strategy.

Accordingly, the viability of a language will depend on the services or products you offer, the target nation and its demographics, as well as its cultural norms. Entering a huge market is not always the right choice. For instance, entering the Mandarin market means that your content will be available for around 920 million Mandarin speakers; however, there will be a very high competition that might not reward you with the highest revenues and profits you’re expecting.

Hence, the best go-to practice is to start with a couple of languages in the target markets, where you can see the best growth is coming from. This would give you the opportunity to not only test the waters in such markets, but also get used to executing and refining your workflows.

2- Decide Specific Content to Localize

Certainly, all your content should be localized; however, in terms of priority, you need to begin with your top-performing content. Start by leveraging your current content that engages the best with your audience. Also, ensure that your content localization reflects your brand image, and that cultural differences can be accommodated without losing what makes your brand special.

As for the website translation services, it’s essential to make sure that your website will provide a user-friendly experience to all users as well as a unified and coherent global experience. One more additional thing is to maintain your website consistency and compliance with global standards, such as the CCPA, GDRP, etc…

3- Avoid Direct Translation

In order to do some content localization, you need to translate the content information provided into your audience’s native language. Despite that, a direct translation might lead to losing the original message. Thus, it is important that your content translation should not only be linguistically correct, but also should reflect the core message of the source language (SL) accurately along with paying attention to any cultural nuances.

In addition to that, as you keep developing your long-term global marketing content localization strategy, it’s impeccable to make sure you keep an ongoing database of cultural variations, local industry jargon, terminology glossaries, style guides, and other market-specific phrases and images.

4- Use Comprehensible Formats and Setups

When developing a localization strategy, it is necessary to use easily comprehensible formats and layouts that your target audience can smoothly understand and apprehend. These comprehensible arrangements and formats include:

• Currency (symbol and amount).
• Date and time configurations.
• Keyboard layout.
• Measurement system (imperial or metric).
• Punctuations, characters, icons, and symbols.
• Telephone number formats.
• Visuals and text content sensitivities.

5- Build your Own Localization Kit

• Identify the brand persona of your business as well as the buyer persona of your target audience.
• Use the appropriate tone of voice that fits your brand image whether it’s friendly, formal, or something in between.
• Conduct a market research and well analyze your competitors and their performance.
• Keep a style guide of common industry acronyms and phrases, and what they mean.
• Offer content in a variety of forms and designs.

• Start small and test new markets with localized messaging by working on microcopies, slogans, key messages, and CTAs
• Set up respective social media platforms profiles for new localized content, and consider new social networks.
• Use appropriate visual design elements considering the effects of photography, layouts, illustrations, color, and margins on your website.
• Optimize your website and leverage international SEO. Start by examining market-specific search engines and conduct keyword research to identify the relevant topics that matter to your audience.

6- Team Up with the Best Translation and Localization Company

To create an outstanding localization strategy, you need the perfect translation and localization partner. At the Translation Gate Agency, we are very keen on taking care of all your translation, marketing, and website localization needs, with the ability to localize your website content supporting +160 languages with over 1500 language pairs.

Our solutions will help you lead localized marketing campaigns and provide you with an exceptional experience, elevating the standards of content localization well beyond professional term selection and timely trend integration.

Get ready to improve your customers’ experience and accelerate your international expansion through our translation localization services. Request a free quote now!