By Sarah Claire Jordan
First of all, what is localization? It refers to the process of taking a product and doing whatever necessary to make it relevant to a different audience, usually a foreign one. Generally speaking, the original message doesn’t change, it just gets translated and adapted to suit a the target culture. If you were to take the original content and rework it in the target language, that would be transcreation, a relative of localization.
A good synonym for localization is cultural adaptation, which implies that the source material is still very much taken into account. Nowadays, if you are a business owner, big or small, in order to reach a broader market, you really should consider prioritizing localization. Here’s why:
1. You will get more business
This point may seem a bit obvious to those of you who are already implementing localization techniques, but for those who aren’t already doing so, you might need some convincing to show you that localization is the real deal. Basically, it all comes down to reaching a broader audience than before. If you localize and your product or service is adapted for even one more group besides your current audience, you will have more sales than you had before. If you go on to localize even more for other audiences, just imagine how much more business you will have.
2. Your target clients will feel the love
Since localization is all about adapting your message according to the language and culture of the audience you wish to reach, by choosing to localize you are already making more of an effort than companies that don’t localize to try and connect with your target clients. A lot of marketing and advertising is about the emotional response people have when they see or hear about a product or service, and whether they like it or not, this is really the deciding factor when it comes to which product or service they choose. When you localize, you are tapping into that emotional side of your target clients and making them feel like you care and want the best for them, because you are communicating with them in a way that they can relate to.
3. You will avoid offending anyone
When a company does the bare minimum in terms of making their product or service accessible to a new audience that speaks a different language and has a different culture, embarrassing things can happen. If the original slogan is simply translated into the target language without much consideration for the local culture, mistakes like using words that are actually offensive to the target audience as well as many other things can happen. With localization, you can avoid that.
4. You will get the most out of your money and time
If you implement localization right away when starting your marketing campaign, then you are making it easier to target different audiences later on. That’s an important thing to know about localization, that it works best when you work it into your original ideas. Otherwise, you have your whole campaign ready for one audience, but then you have to go back in and make all kinds of changes in order to make it relevant to another audience. That’s not what localization is about, and the time and money you’ll save if you localize properly will convince you once and for all that it’s the right way to go.
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