To run a business successfully, one must always look for means of improvement, weak points that need strengthening, and ways of growing. Stagnation may kill your business, and have it replaced with someone from your competition. That is why you have to have a winning mindset, and never stop working on being better and working on your business growth. One of the things you should definitely consider in your business strategy is localization.
Content localization is one of the best ways for a business to grow, increase their customer rate, and their profit. It gives your business wings to fly higher and allows you to expand your market immensely. If you're not quite sure what localization is or how it can make your business grow, we've got you covered. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know.
Reaching Out to a New Customer Base
Language is the basis of communication. And, communication is the basis of doing business.
We communicate our message to our clients, associates, and our competition. We use language to advertise our business and make it look professional and reliable.
However, if you only use one language for all of this, you're addressing only a small percentage of the world population, and leaving out a huge number of people.
That is why the number one benefit of content localization is the opportunity to reach out to new people on a yet unexplored market.
For example, you have reason to believe Italy would be a great new market for selling your product. You will:
- localize your content by translating it to Italian
- add an Italian version of your website
- use this to draw the attention of the Italian community
- offer them information in their native language
Not only will they be able to understand what you're offering, but they'll also feel privileged and special.
This way, localization allowed you to win over a new market and expand your customer base.
Reinventing Yourself
Although translation is the number one step in content localization, it's not the only one. Localization also includes adjusting your content to fit the mentality and cultural background of your new audience.
This means that you can't simply translate your content directly from the source to the target language. You need to make certain changes so as to make your text more suitable for your new audience.
For example:
- a cow is a sacred animal in India
- in the USA, it's the main ingredient of a burger
If you're translating something for the Indian market, you have to be careful not to insult their culture and tradition.
Therefore, the best way to conduct localization is to completely reinvent your brand and redesign it for the new market, creating separate platforms for them.
This means that you would:
- create separate social media accounts for each target country
- redesign the content visuals to make it more appealing to the newly targeted audience
- make changes to ensure you're not offending anyone
- create special versions of your content for each new market
By doing this, you're ensuring your new audience responds to your content positively, and slowly becomes your loyal customers.
The basis of a great content marketing strategy is publishing updated content on currently trending topics in order to stay in the spotlight and give your audience the information they're interested in at a given moment.
However, different things are trending in different countries. That's why localization requires you to keep your eyes wide open and stay updated about the latest events in all your target countries.
This means that for each target market and country you decided to localize for, you need to:
- conduct separate SEO and keyword research
- follow the trends in the country
- read the latest local news
- be in touch with their surroundings
This is the only way for you to actually conduct a successful localization. You'll be able to evoke interest in your target audience and stand shoulder to shoulder with your biggest local competitors.
The Bottom Line
Content localization requires 3 essential steps:
- translation
- adjusting content to fit the culture
- writing with the target audience in mind
You can't skip any of them and you have to ensure they've all been taken care of.
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Conclusion
Localizing your content is definitely one of the smartest moves you'll make once you decide you're ready to grow. It will open new doors for your business and help you achieve your professional goals. Just make sure you're being professional and through about conducting localization.
Hopefully, the advice above will help you localize your content properly and will take you to the heights you've been aiming for.