Introduction to Localization and Its Importance in Expanding into Global Markets
Every day, the world becomes increasingly interconnected, which means that, regardless of their size, more and more businesses will look to increase their digital reach beyond their home countries. However, globalization will not be without its challenges, particularly for companies whose native language is not the language of their target markets. For those companies, there are always the localization companies.
Localization is tailoring a product, a service, or a piece of content to the linguistic, cultural, and technical specifics of a given market. It involves going the extra mile in many ways that a simple translation cannot. It makes a consumer feel that a culturally nuanced piece of work is right for them, that it ‘has been done with them in mind .’A decent localization house can help a company establish itself in markets where it is unfamiliar or build into new cultures.
Benefits of Hiring a Localization Company
A localization company provides a definite advantage for businesses seeking to succeed in highly competitive global markets. There are several advantages to enlisting a localization partner:
- Linguistic Specialization: Localization companies have native-speaking, expert linguists who translate into their mother tongue, ensuring the same style and quality of the original text.
- Cultural Adaptation: A localization company is often savvy about the cultural sensitivities and quirks of any given target market and can thus help tailor the messaging, imagery, and brand ‘voice’ to align with that market.
- Technical: Most localization companies have access to software and other tools that help improve efficiency, consistency, and workflows during translation and localization into multiple languages and projects.
- Scalability: If a business expands its market and requires more words or projects to be translated, then a localization partner can scale up effectively and handle the increasing workload so that internal teams can focus on their core business.
- Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Localization firms have knowledge of regional legal and regulatory frameworks and can avoid exposing businesses to a maze of compliance with deep financial embarrassment.
How Localization Company Can Help with Language Translation
First and foremost, language translation is an essential element of localization. When it comes to localization services, a decent localization company is expected to provide exact translation services, given that more than word-for-word translation is needed. What can they do?
- Linguistic Fidelity: Localization companies employ native speakers of the target language, whose job is to translate the material so that it doesn’t sound like someone on the other side of the world is speaking it.
- Context: Good localization professionals are aware that the final product is of the utmost relevance, so they look for ways to leverage the context in which the work is to be used to produce good, culturally appropriate, and impactful translations.
- Terminology Management: Glossaries and style guides of target-language terms and company-specific terminology are constantly upheld by localization companies in all target-language materials.
- Quality Control: Layers of quality control with several iterations of review and editing should catch any remaining errors and inconsistencies in the target product.
- Formats: Localization companies are experts in the technical aspects of translation (i.e., ensuring that the translated text is the same length and shape and does not distort the visual appearance of the materials without changing the visual appearance of the materials.
The Role of Localization Company in Adapting Content and Messaging for Different Cultures
However, expansion into new global markets takes much more than good interpreters. A good localization company will provide insight into your target markets’ nuanced cultural considerations and preferences on an earnest and intimate basis.
Localization experts know the target culture and how it relates to the source content. They are best equipped to adapt the content so that the messaging, imagery, and brand identity will strike a chord on the local stage. They might:
- Adapt the Imagery and Visuals: Localization agencies will identify and replace any imagery or visuals that are culturally insensitive or inappropriate for the target market with local alternatives.
- Tone and Voice: Localize the brand’s tone of voice, language, and personality to fit the market style you speak.
- Cultural Sensitivities: Brand, political, social, or other sensitivities are understood and addressed where a localization team deems this appropriate within the context of a given document (to the extent that this is possible legally and practically).
- Local References: Localization companies can add local references, slang, or other cultural references to localize the content and make it more relevant to the target audience. For example, they add the phrase ‘That was fuckin’ excellent!’ to many of their translations of US films into UK English.
A savvy localization company with prior experience in the market will help ensure that the chosen linguistic version of the product or service successfully puts the brand in the proper local cultural context and generates an early local affinity, not at the expense of but enriched by it.
Best Practices for Working with Localization Company
To make the most of the localization industry and maintain a healthy relationship with a localization company, you should follow the following best practices: 1.
- Stay in Touch: Communicate with your localization team by staying in touch with your localization team regularly and in the clear, specifically, and on time.
- Write Style Guides: Write detailed style guides for your brand that specify how your brand’s linguistic persona must be translated, what exact terms are required (in the source language as well as the target one), your brand’s particular typesetting preferences, etc.
- Localization First: Figure out what the localization firm has to localize and do that content first.
- Maximize Technological Solutions: Use a translation management system, a computer-aided translation tool, and other technological solutions to maximize the efficiency of your localization process.
- Foster Collaboration to Improve Feedback: Ensure that localization takes place collaboratively so the localization team can provide feedback and opportunities to review or improve the process further.
- Localize, Review, and Improve: Review the locally created content regularly, get user feedback, and work with the localization vendor to find places for improvement and polish.
These guidelines do not guarantee that companies will have authentic, humanistic relationships with their localizers, but if they follow them, it should be enough to keep the roadmap of their global expansion pointed toward respectful cultural awareness.
How Localization Company Can Help with Website and App Localization
With the worldwide expansion of the web, website, and app, localization services have become necessary for any company expanding its online operation. A good localization company that understands your target markets can localize and adapt your website or app to the language and culture of your target markets.
- Website Localization: Localization companies can adapt not only the translation of the website content (text, images, videos, audio) but also the localization of the website layout and navigation and the user experience for local markets.
- Mobile Application Localization: Your company’s mobile application will be localized mainly by your localization vendor. The vendor can translate and culturally adapt in-app content and localize the app (its user interface and behavior).
- Multilingual SEO: If you need an unfair advantage against your competition when it comes to ranking high in the search engines of your target market – localizers can help you rank high in the search engines geared to your consumer’s mother tongue in the markets you target (to make local customers find your localized content more quickly).
- Maintenance and Enhancements: Localization agencies can also maintain and enhance a localized website or app to ensure the content is fresh in local users’ eyes.
- QA/Testing: Comprehensive testing and quality assurance ensure that tech and translation bugs are flagged and dealt with.
In this way, their collaboration with these localization vendors will enable clients to have an online experience translated and adapted to the linguistic and cultural realities of their destination market, thereby making it likelier that they will remain loyal to the service and buy into it—making overseas business more viable.
The Cost of Hiring a Localization Company and the Return on Investment
Any company that aspires to expand into a global trading hub should be bold in a localization company. Though a localization strategy might cost more upfront than a direct translation, the ROI is well-matched with your investment.
The cost of hiring a localization company can be influenced by several factors, including:
- Number of Language Materials: This means the number of languages, the number of language pairs, and the number of text lines that the Greeting Card company needs to translate and Adapt.
- Content Quantity: Total content size and complexity to be localized.
- Maintenance: Local maintenance: How much effort will be required to maintain localized content and assets?
- Dedicated Services: One of the following services can be added to your basic translation: website translation into multiple languages or app localization for a global audience; multilingual SEO optimization of the site for the target languages; or cultural consulting service.
Conclusion: Why Investing in a Localization Company is Essential for Global Expansion
It is now possible for companies to truly connect with customers using different languages and cultures and for communication to be an enabler for businesses looking to grow in a global marketplace. Working with a good localization agency can offer businesses the opportunity to navigate these pitfalls of worldwide business and harness new ways of working that can lead to growth and success.
A localization company can provide a linguistic translation, a cultural adaptation, and a technological solution that formats and encodes your product, service, or message so that it reads, looks right, and feels perfectly natural for your target audiences wherever you do business. Let a localization partner develop a more substantial brand reputation for you, increase your share of voice, and bring home the bacon, guaranteed. A satisfactory ROI is your ticket.
If you do it right, when it comes to going global with your business, you’re better off working with the crème de la crème. Localization agencies, working with native speakers and best-in-class software, take the overall user experience of your new audience to a whole new level. Our state-of-the-art tools, combined with tried and tested techniques, will supercharge your business into new markets. Get in touch with Protranslating.com to learn more about how you can optimize your global marketing and development efforts.
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