In the context of marketing, localization is the process of adapting a campaign to the culture and language of a certain region or demographic. To support your global marketing initiatives, translation is often not enough. Your brand needs to be aware of the economy, laws, or social values that vary from one market to the next. And if you take the time to truly understand what matters to customers in new markets, they are more likely to respond favorably to your brand.
Benefits of a localized marketing strategy
Like any marketing effort, the primary motivation for companies to work hard at creating a localized marketing strategy is about reaching a larger customer base, increasing sales, and expanding your business. These important benefits of localization are quite obvious. Simply put, if the target audience thinks what you have to offer is too foreign or unrelated to their own lives, there will never be a genuine connection.
Steps to create an effective localized marketing strategy
Quality translation
The term “localization” is often used interchangeably with “translation,” which while not entirely accurate isn’t far from reality since translation is a key part of the process. Nevertheless, a proper localization strategy requires much more than just looking for words with the same meaning in the target language. In fact, a good translation is never simply about changing a text word for word because languages simply don’t work like that.
Quality translation, regardless of the type of content, requires re-creating the text in the target language in a way that will help the new intended audience to grasp its meaning and all of its nuances as closely as feasible. This is why companies hire professional linguists and rely on a translation platform to ensure a high-quality translation product that will bring them the desired results—in this case, new prospects and increased sales.
Launching your product or service in a new target market requires making everything that represents your product and brand in front of your potential customers feel familiar and relatable. In other words, your company will need to have its website, online ads, or support content adapted to what your new target audience is used to, including social rules, legal and financial regulations, and so on.
Adapting to the new market
Aside from translating their content, companies need to reimagine their business in a way that will resonate with their newly identified customer base. To do so, your company will have to take into account things that you may have been taking for granted when you were first starting your business. Knowing your own culture gives you a unique perspective that wouldn’t be the case for a company that’s just trying to enter your local market, for instance.
In other words, to conquer a new market, you must know everything about the audience and their expectations as consumers. For instance, while you may be very successful at promoting your business on Instagram in your country, in another, this social media may not be as popular, and your target audience may simply not be present there. But aside from their online behavior, you also need to understand their culture, their beliefs, and their worldview.
In addition to complying with local regulations, using the popular communication channels they use, and, of course, offering a perfect translation of your content, the things that you must take into account so that you can successfully adapt your marketing to the new market, are mainly related to the cultural differences between your original target audience and your new one. They may include things like:
- the colors, design, and any visuals you use, to match the expectations and tastes of the target audience;
- dates important for their culture, religion, and for their nation (for instance, to create special ads or offer discounts for holidays);
- locally accepted formats for addresses and dates;
- showing prices in the local currency;
- using the locally accepted measuring units (inches or centimeters, Fahrenheit or Celsius, pounds or grams).
In a nutshell
Success in a foreign market is possible only if you find an effective way to communicate with your ideal local customers, which requires knowing exactly who they are. If you are striving to successfully enter a new market, you must make significant adjustments to your marketing approach, products, and brand to better suit the preferences of the locals, and be well-versed in the local laws. This means that you must provide excellent translation of your business and marketing content, and adapt your business, taking into account the local culture, religion, beliefs, expectations, and so on.