There are billions of internet users all over the world. As of 2014, the Internet Live Stats reported that the internet population reached its 3 billion mark. But though there are billions of users all over the world, it does not give you an assurance of selling products and services effectively. If you have a marketing campaign that works very well in your main branch, there is no assurance that you can still market using the same campaign on a different location.
Culture, sentiments and needs play an important role in business and marketing. You are maybe a click away but if you don’t provide for their needs and preferences of your local market, you can only do so much.
To Go Globally, Start Localization
Localization is a marketing strategy that is tailored specifically to the preference of consumers in different business locations. In today’s online industry, one of the best ways for localization strategy and go global is to digitally transform your business.
The digital world is very diverse. In this vast global marketplace, you need an effective campaign to deliver your message across. This is an important element of online marketing that most marketers often overlooked. If you continue to stick to the global marketing approach you may miss out the opportunities of successfully connecting to different kinds of audience from various parts of the globe.
A survey in 2016 revealed that advanced personalization and user-centric approach in business are becoming a competitive advantage. It is expected that in 2019 location-targeted mobile ad revenues will grow up to $18 billion. With this opportunities to come, it is about time for businesses to start their digital localization. Though nothing is certain, there is a clear path for digital localization to effectively drive growth and optimize sales funnel of businesses.
Here are some tips to start your digital localization strategies.
Localize Content Without Compromising Context
Different people have different needs and every country has their own culture. You can’t just copy and paste your online marketing campaign from one location to another. You should provide diversity so can address their needs and respond to their culture accordingly.
Translating the English language into different variations is the basic digital localization approach you need to consider but it isn’t enough. Your overall content matters. Take for example, Forever 21, which is doing a great job in providing a seamless way to switch language and also currency depending on the location.
Localization By Transcreation
Transcreation is also one of the fundamental elements of localization which you need to include in your business. It is the adaptation of the original message of the campaign and translating it into different languages without compromising the style, context and the emotional encouragement it provides.
Mobile app localization uses transcreation so apps can be found by global users. Because of the limits in UI and low content volume, translation of language is not applicable for mobile app localization. So transcreation is used to change context without altering the message of the campaign.
Humanize Your Brand
You are dealing with people and people needs businesses that can provide them with genuine and humanize interactions.
Localization can help you cross cultural boundaries. It allows you to solve the needs of consumers from different cultures. Try to talk to your web development team on how you can tap into people’s emotions through your website.
Mapping out your target market based on their needs locally will help you understand their emotions and effectively structure a digital campaign which targets local sensitivity. But, without going overboard.
Before you run your ads in certain locations, try to ask the following questions.
- What are the important human needs of my target local audience?
- How can provide for their needs through my campaign?
- Will my approach bridge cultural differences?
- Am I being one of them through this approach or will this show disrespect to their sensitivity?
- Am I really providing regional relevance or am I taking advantage?
It is crucial for any campaign, digital or traditional, to know when, how and up to what point they have to traverse local and cultural boundaries. Visuals or imagery is a great way you to relate your product to culture. But you have to be very careful. You don’t want to end up like the recent Pepsi commercial where their cultural concept received a public backlash.
Always remember that culture is a sensitive matter. If you want to cross cultural difference and increase sales from different regions, you have to be aware of sensitive topics which each region is very concerned about.
Trust Drives Localized Conversion
According to Global Website Assessment Index 2016 research, the languages used in a website correlate to the financial success of a business. This is an indication that consumers would rather buy or avail the services of a business which is localized. Why? Because it is easier to trust a business in a native language.
But as mentioned above, localization is not just about the language. It is also about the localized message and the whole concept of your localized campaign. Before consumers can really trust your business, you need to understand first what they are up for. Determine the different interest of your target markets.
From these, you can create variations in your marketing which will help you connect with your consumers.
A little tweak in your marketing can bring out a huge appeal for your local audience. The data you gathered from your website or social media channels could give you an idea what to localize in your campaign. Analyze engagement, traffics, interactions and consumers purchasing habits in every region. This may be able to provide localized variations of your strategies.
To successfully localize to convert, you should see experiences in different angles. Not everyone sees the same scenario as you do. Trust is gained only when you see the same picture as they see. So try to navigate your brand marketing campaign to different audiences to create a localized campaign.
Conclusion
Localization is not simple, but it is neither as complicated as you think it is. You can come up with an effective strategy to help your business grow by using the right data to analyse of your target location and market.
Localization is about connecting to people through their culture and needs. And there is no faster way to connect to people from diverse communities than by digitally incorporating localization technique in your business. With the right mix of these important factors, you can enhance the consumer’s experience, build a positive brand identity, drive leads and increase lead conversion.
So why not give localization a try? Ask your experts. You’ll never know, this might be your chance to go global.