In a world of no boundaries, companies try to leave a mark on different markets with multiple languages to expand, which, if done right, will be a massive advantage for them. Nowadays, international businesses compete to launch the best advertising campaign; we see it on TV and social media, however, those big campaigns not only aim to get a more extensive reach but also to affect the audiences’ purchasing behavior and decision.
Going viral, or global, has many advantages for companies that will reflect their finances and goals directly, nonetheless, it is essential at first to know how to get a global reach in a way that all your different audiences will comprehensive, as well as, what is the role of marketing localization in this game?
What is global marketing?
When talking about global marketing, we refer to the procedure or actions that a specific company follows to interact, engage and satisfy its customers around the world. By default, it includes a global approach that guarantees a broad reach for companies in various countries and cultures as a part of the bigger strategy.
Some main aspects that must be considered in global marketing and might be changed according to the target audience:
– The product portfolio: Creating customized products and services is sometimes required to meet local or market needs.
– The message: Content should be tailored to each market’s preferences, economy, social trends and customs, which directly affect your sales.
– The channels: Your strategy for reaching your customers, such as social media, and local partnerships you may need to form in order to distribute or sell your products or services.
– The pricing structure: Putting the suitable price for the product or service differs from one area to another, in which a lot of factors are taken into account.
– The business model: How businesses show their product, their strategy, their financial plan and more will definitely be affected by several things, among them the tax regulations and structure in different countries.
What is localization in global marketing and why is it important?
In the context of global marketing, localization involves adjusting all aspects of your campaign to reflect the needs, interests, and context of your target markets.
To come up with a successful global campaign, you need way more than just translation, you need to understand the cultural preferences and context, the local requirements, the values and the surrounding conditions like economy, politics, religion and social aspects; in other words, you need localization.
Let’s take a closer look at Airbnb, a global online marketplace for short and long-period homestays and experiences. The company has been giving a great example of marketing localization as the user can live the same experience regardless of his language or destination.
As part of its localization strategy, the platform offers customized user experiences in 26 languages. In addition, it provides currency conversions, local credit cards, reviews, and listing descriptions in the local language.
It’s worth noting that their marketing team did an exceptional job in delivering the most usual and real experience, they collaborate with local photographers and content creators to provide the most authentic marketing campaigns. As a result, today, the company has 6 million listings globally that allow guests to connect with communities with no worries.
Where do I start with my global marketing localization?
As part of your global marketing plan, you should localize all elements while maintaining consistency across all channels: the website and landing pages you design for international audiences, global communication campaigns, and product offerings should all be localized. Launch events or advertising campaigns require a particular physical environment.
First things first, you need to work on the main aspects that make up your marketing localization, which are known as the 4Ps in the advertising world:
– Product
If your product is to be localized, it must be adapted to the local environment. For example, suppose a company in the electronics industry wanted to market a digital camera in the Caribbean. In that case, it might consider customizing it to include underwater modes to make it particularly attractive to local customers.
– Price
As for pricing, it is important to consider the cost of your product or service in the target countries and change your price accordingly, either higher or lower.
– place
In order to successfully manage global marketing campaigns, managers must consider factors such as distribution channels, retail locations, and web presence in each region.
– Promotion
Among your marketing localization, you need to convert your channels, starting from the website, social media platforms, online presence, campaign, public relations and so on.
How to implement localization in your marketing plan?
With the massive increase in viral reach, marketers have developed a strategy to localize campaigns smoothly and effectively. Each division is an essential part of the procedure, whether the translation itself, marketing ideas, or management; they are all equally important. Here are the main things to focus on:
– Work with a professional team
The team is the stakeholders of your business first and your success second. To ensure a cohesive approach across all stakeholders involved in the process of global localization, it is recommended to assemble a single team responsible for the entire process. This team should be responsible for planning, execution and post-campaign evaluation.
The team doesn’t only refer to translators and marketing officers, rather, it refers to each role of the process, including:
- Localization managers
- Product managers
- Developers
- Engineers
- Designers
- Translators
- Localization testers
– Select the target market
Ensure all stakeholders you work with are familiar with your product and the market you’re localizing for. In order to craft a user-friendly product, your team needs to understand the local market and its specific requirements in terms of marketing, design, and legislation. Once you know who you are selling to, the process gets clearer and easier to manage.
– Determine the localized content
It is not just sending the message using the right language, but also choosing the right message to send using the right tune and expressions that fit the target market. For this matter, choosing easy and friendly content to be localized is way better than spending time and effort on a complex one that might not give the desired results.
– Use machine translation
When translating small chunks of text without major repercussions for marketing campaigns, machine translation can be a useful resource. However, maybe it’s not the best tool to use when it comes to sensitive major content that requires excellent accuracy, and creativity or is well-crafted.
– Get a local feedback
Getting feedback on each campaign you launch or create is a great way to masseur the success of your procedure. Consider conducting regular customer interviews and adjusting campaign components based on the feedback to ensure you’re getting the most out of your localization efforts in all markets. Post-campaign evaluations should be conducted regularly to learn what worked and what didn’t work.
– Use technology and automation
Relying on human resources only isn’t enough nowadays, the world is evolving, and so does business. Specialists attend to automate marketing localization to speed up the process and get more effective results, besides optimizing the workflow.
TMS (translation management system) can help. Through a cloud-based TMS, your processes can be centrally and uniformly managed, glossaries can be created and used, costs can be controlled by an efficient workflow, performance can be monitored with comprehensive reporting capabilities, and a range of other features are available for managing localization projects.
Conclusion
No one ever says that it is easy to go globally, however, it is more possible than ever. It all starts with understanding the specialty of each market and knowing how to adapt it in the most efficient yet human way, which not only fits the different markets’ languages but also makes them feel involved.
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