Going global is the ultimate dream of every business today. A higher customer base always leads to higher profit margins and revenues. However, it is important for aspiring global businesses to build a robust global expansion strategy with an effective localization plan. Understanding the local interests and behaviors in a region is becoming more and more important for businesses.Any company that wants to target a global marketplace should come with an international market targeting, understanding its cultural nuances. Localization is not just translation, there areseveral things you’ve to take care of from budgets to KPIs.
A lot of hard work goes into it, that’s why it is recommended to bring in the latest technology, such as a professional translation management system. It will support your localization processes. In this article, we will be discussing how businesses should build the right localization strategy for them to win the global race.
What Is a Localization Strategy?
Any business that wants to capture a foreign market should come up with a localization plan first. A localization strategy determines how you will go about adapting your brand message to local audiences. For entering a new marketplace, you must have websites, social media, software, and marketing material modified to local preferences. A localized brand is more likely to resonate with customers because they can better understand the message and connect with it on a deeper level.
Considering your target markets, budget, and growth goals, you have to come up with an effective localization strategy that would help you achieve the growth milestones you’ve set.
Guidelines To Build Global Brand Localization Strategy
Creating a global localization strategy is not as easy as you may think. You must have a good understanding of your customers, target cultures, and the business itself to succeed as a global enterprise. Below are some important points to consider to build a perfect localization plan for your business’s international growth.
Choose The Right Markets
One thing you must know is that not every market is meant for your brand. It is very important for you to conduct detailed market research to choose the right markets for your brand. Getting into the wrong markets would only waste your time, money, and efforts, so you should better avoid it in the first place.
Finding the right markets with good potential for your brand could be challenging, but it is crucial for your brand’s success. For this, you can conduct surveys asking your customers questions related to your product, or you can test your product on a patch of customers and get their feedback. Make sure you are seeing the potential in the market before fully releasing your brand there.
Understand The Cultural Norms
Knowing the culture of your target market is also important, so you know what interests your customers, and which things that could offend them. Understanding cultural intricacies would help you address the target audiences the right way. You must figure out what the customers are expecting from your brand. In case you don’t have any idea about the culture of the targeted region, you better get advice from a culture consultant. Having a culture expert is important to make sure that you’re not attaching any negative connotations to your brand. So, for a good localization strategy, your brand has to be culturally appropriate. The better you know the culture, the better you can conduct your brand in a foreign marketplace.
Data-driven strategy
Data is becoming significant for businesses to maximize their revenues. Your localization strategy should be backed by data only. From choosing the right market to enter to the way you should localize your content, everything facet of your localization strategy should be determined by data science. Not just that data would also help you to analyze the results of your efforts and allow you to measure the success of your localization project.
Bring In an Enterprise Translation Solution
Having a professional translation management system can save you a lot of trouble. To keep the localization tasks optimized and well organized you must have a reliable enterprise translation solution. It would automate your translation operations, and you can conveniently manage the content translations on a regular basis. If your business is in a growing phase, your localization strategy would be more demanding. A TMS will speed up your localization operations, and you can accomplish the desired results in the fastest turnaround time. Moreover, it will reduce the workload of your employees, which leads to better performance and job satisfaction. Some businesses also hand over their localization project to a language service provider platform, which is also a great way to keep things manageable as your business grows.
Hire Native Translators
To maintain quality and relevance in your translation, it is important to hire native translations. Professional native translators are well-versed with the cultural and social nuances of a region which allows them to generate high-quality translations that are culturally appropriate. Moreover, native translators can better understand the linguistic intricacies, so your translations would be more accurate and clearer. You can easily find native translators on online freelance platforms and collaborate with them remotely through a TMS.
Never Hardcode
If you want to grow your business in other markets, you must create your website, software, and apps keeping localization in mind from the very beginning. It means you should never hardcode your content. Hire developers who can write Unicode. It will make it easier for your localization teams to make modifications to the content, whenever you want to target a new marketplace. Otherwise, hardcoding the elements in your code would make the localization process more complicated and time-consuming.
Conclusion
Make sure to follow all the guidelines provided in this article to build an effective localization strategy. Whether you are a language service provider platform, or a global business, having a robust localization strategy is essential for successfully targeting foreign markets.