By Sarah-Claire Jordan
There has been a lot of talk about localization in general on this particular blog lately. It may seem like overkill to some, but the truth is, there is just far too much information about localization out there to limit content to just a few articles. The amount of information we have on it is in a state of continuous growth, too, as we learn more and more about it and experts share their experiences and advice.
That being said, localization and data isn’t a topic that is talked about a whole lot, at least in the sense of how they relate to each other. According to some experts, the relationship these two have has the potential to revolutionize how we deal with localization in general and can pave the way for some real innovation in the area.
First of all, data on localization is everywhere, it just needs to be properly recorded. Any company that has ever localized a website for a foreign market has a wealth of data right at their fingertips that they can access and save whenever, to analyze later on. You don’t need any sort of fancy software either, just simple spreadsheet programs should have the right tools for analyzing this data.
Besides seeing what has worked, this data, once accessed and analyzed, can show what hasn’t worked so well. As anyone who works in marketing knows, this is just as important as knowing what methods bring good results. By having solid evidence in the form of data of what has worked and what hasn’t, crafting a new approach (and getting others behind it) becomes much simpler.
No matter what position you have in your company, being able to find, organize, and analyze any kind of data is a skill that will set you apart from the rest. Handling localization data, in this case, will set you up for more successful pitches, with real results. Everyone who is serious about business, no matter what kind, will relish in the thought of having the exact numbers available to back up what you are proposing, or to show that one idea wouldn’t be such a great one.
So yes, with localization data, you will be able to develop better marketing and localization strategies for your business that are likely to actually be used, and actually work.
Beyond this, however, it is important to note that, as someone who works in localization, you should be excited at the prospect that we are sitting on a goldmine of data waiting to be analyzed, and that this is all much simpler than it might sound. Think of it as taking localization to the next level: once you have data to show what works and what doesn’t, things go from unpredictable and risky and start to move towards reliable and safe. This means that localization will have the chance to really flourish and shine, and the data will back it all up.