Ten Tips for Localizing Your Marketing

In today’s ever-changing globalized world every entrepreneur is focused on making sure that their business stays on top of global tendencies and engages all potential consumers around the globe, not just in their own country. This is when businessmen find themselves in need of translation to take their brand, products, or services across borders. Truthfully, nowadays simple translation won’t cut it, as what is needed for marketing purposes is closer to transcreation, which means recreating information in a way that transfers intended meaning as well as is easily understandable for the citizen of a different country. In this way it is more similar to localization than basic translation, localization being even more complex.

Localization requires so much more than just translation – it deals with adapting information from one language into another, preserving meaning, intention, mood, and style while taking note of the culture, local flavor of the target language’s country. But should you even bother with localization? Is it important for marketing? The answer is yes – according to research, over 72% of buyers would rather make purchases and interact with resources in the language of their own country.

Let your message resonate globally

Businesses need their brand to evoke similar reactions and emotions with target customers from other countries as they do in their home country. Therefore localization of marketing is usually employed to make sure that a certain message doesn’t get lost on its way to a foreign consumer, regardless of the form it may be transferred in – textual or graphic. This is crucial to marketing, as its main point is to engage consumers, which depends greatly on their perception of the message.

If done incorrectly, marketing localization may cause significant damage to the brand’s reputation, even lead to financial losses. That is why enlisting professional help with localization is a smart move – these best certified translation services listed at PickWriters can help you narrow down your top picks when it comes to localizing your marketing. This decision should not be done lightly and requires extensive research, so it is best to review your options ahead of time.

As confusing as it may sound, marketing localization is a job that can be done successfully but needs to be done with care and attention. One can often use some helpful tips for marketing localization.

These 10 tips will help you become a pro in marketing localization:

1. Research and analysis. Your research should include learning about traditional business practices of the target market, religion, common idioms and sayings, text formatting, consumer preferences and trends, online search habits, number, time, and currency formatting, international regulatory requirements, cultural norms of the target market.
2. Review logo, slogan, packaging, color scheme. This is worth noting because many companies, even famous ones like Nokia and Pepsi, disregarded this step and ended up regretting it. Certain colors or words are completely safe to use in one country and can get an overwhelmingly negative response in another.
3. Often overlooked, testing, however, is the only full-proof method that can shine a light on whether or not your finished product is suitable for the audience of the target country.
4. Getting opinions from experienced local marketing specialists. These are highly advisable because local professionals of the target country are often both equipped to assist you with questions about localization and local business tendencies.
5. Reach out to native speakers. Best way to ensure good localization is having it done or at least running it by native speakers of the target language. This will help eliminate regretful bumps along the way.
6. Engage influencers of the target country. A great way to market your product locally is a promotion by noticeable local social media figures or platforms to enhance global brand recognition and increase sales.
7. Get local customer care agents. Only local specialists that are native to the language can offer sufficient help with your product when interacting with the target audience.
8. Social media localization. Very important and often disregarded step, it helps with brand recognition and product popularization.
9. Doubt you can do it? Enlist professional help. It’s in human nature to try and do everything by oneself, but history has proven that best results are achieved when people focus their attention on a specific niche, rather than taking on everything at once. Therefore if you are serious about your marketing localization, do not dismiss the idea of delegating this task to a professional.
10. No half measures. If you decide to do it – do it all the way. Partial, insufficient, or incomplete localization is your enemy, as it can hurt your business and create a lasting negative effect instead of a positive one and be a sign of the company’s disregard and negligence.

Marketing localization is an essential task for businesses that aim for global expansion. In a modern world where cultural sensitivity is not taken carelessly, promotion and marketing should be done respectfully and attentively, so as not to cause rejection of foreign consumers. It is also a task that requires precision and shouldn’t be rushed, but one needn’t be discouraged from taking it on, as results for business are often fruitful and abundant.

BIO

Henry McDowell

Before starting on content creation, Henry McDowell was an entrepreneur but later succumbed to his true calling. Enjoys discussions and believes in free self-expression. Henry writes to stay in touch with his inner scholar and loves to interact with his audience.