Why You Should Invest in Marketing Localization in 2023
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Marketers are investing in marketing localization more than ever before, and this global trend isn’t going away anytime soon. This means they’re doing more than just translate copy – they’re optimizing all elements of their brand image to their target audiences.
Let’s do a big dive into some of the latest emerging localization trends in the recent years and the three biggest benefits you stand to gain by implementing your own localization strategy in 2023 and beyond. Stick around to learn the biggest localization struggle facing marketers this year and what you can do to overcome it.
Marketers are investing in Translation & Localization in 2023 and it’s paying off
A 2022 marketing survey, with 1,667 participants from 8 different geographies and companies of various sizes, revealed that 89% of responders plan on investing in translation and localization over the course of 2023.
While slightly more than 50% of the participants revealed that their plans involve translating and localizing their content in 1-4 languages, the rest have a greater number of languages in mind, for some even exceeding 9 languages.
The translation and localization spend of companies has seen a fairly stable increase in recent years, and the best part is – those investments are paying off dividends for the majority of those businesses. In this survey, 83% of respondents reported that localization has had a positive impact on their revenue growth.
Businesses aren’t approaching localization as a one-time investment, however – they’re instead focused on developing effective marketing localization strategies. This involves adapting many of their brand elements to their target international audiences, such as specific brand terminology, SEO, brand tone of voice, and imagery.
What is the difference between translation and localization?
In order to understand why marketers are embracing marketing localization, we need to start with the basics: figuring out exactly how it differs from regular translation.
On one hand, translation involves taking content from one language and conveying its meaning into one or more other languages. In translation, great care is taken so as to minimise alterations to the content’s semantic value.
Localization goes one step further than translation. The process involves adapting the translated content to its intended audience whilst paying attention to the language’s cultural undertones. Take humour as an example: French speakers might fail to comprehend a humorous expression of British origin, given the variance between the two cultures. You’ll therefore need to adopt a different approach when speaking to a French audience.
Why localization is important for your business to thrive
In today’s time and age, there’s a massive gap between what most internet users want and what they are actually getting.
Research has shown that the majority of online consumers display a preference towards content in their native language. However, according to globalization statistics, English dominates up to 60% of all online content available. That’s problematic given that English represents only 25.9% of internet users worldwide, leaving about 75% of users in the dust.
Marketers have taken notice of this growing global demand, making the focus of business shift from English to multilingual content.
However, building genuine trust with their customer base is a must, and definitely not an easy task; it requires more than making information available on the internet for the world to see – instead, the goal is to make the brand-to-consumer interaction as seamless as possible.
That’s where localization comes in. Although translation allows businesses to make information surrounding their brand available for non-natives, localization takes the brand experience to a whole new level by adjusting it to the consumers’ cultural perceptions.
Consider localizing your brand’s tone of voice, an integral component of conveying what your brand is all about: failing to adjust your tone of voice to the target market can lose you potential leads in a flash.
For example, when localizing your tone of voice in French, the aim is to use slightly more formal language. That’s because when you compare the French and English language, French is the more formal of the two. Therefore, the line “Article created, you did it!” would register to a French mind as “Article created, you magnificent wizard!”. This way of phrasing wouldn’t produce the desired effect in your copy and would be considered culturally-inappropriate by a French audience.
So what exactly do you stand to gain by investing in localization?
The big 3 benefits of investing in marketing localization
1. Increase SEO traffic
A strong trend in localizing SEO is becoming apparent for 2023, with 41% of marketers claiming they’re implementing a multilingual SEO strategy for each of their target markets (i.e., optimizing content in multiple languages).
This doesn’t come as a surprise, given that most internet users navigate the web in their native language. Unless you make content available for your target audience to find, they’ll never be exposed to it.
Localization is an important aspect of multilingual SEO. For example, the keywords you’ll choose as part of your strategy will differ between markets, simply because they might not be a direct translated equivalent from one language to another. In order to overcome this challenge, you will need to build a unique list of keywords for each target market.
Localizing your SEO will increase traffic to your website and ultimately attract thousands of new leads to your brand.
2. Build trust with your audience
Attracting people to your website alone isn’t enough. You need to be able to nurture those leads, with the aim of building long-term trust and rapport.
A massive CSA Research survey found that 65% of internet users prefer content in their native language, irrespective of its quality.
With this statistic in mind, you can only imagine how satisfied your leads and customers navigating your website would be if you were to make an effort to combine both translated content and quality. Not only would this showcase understanding and respect towards your customers’ individual cultures, it’d also help your audience see commitment and effort on your part.
Therefore, showing your audience you’re committed enough to speak their language properly and personalise their experience across the board, through a localized website and other marketing content, is the best way to make the trust-building process quick and simple.
3. Increase sales
If there’s little to no information available about your product or service in your target market’s native language, chances are, they won’t place a purchase with you.
Another finding of the CSA Research survey showed that 76% of global consumers prefer to buy products with information in their mother tongue. In addition, up to 40% of participants responded they’d never buy from non-localized websites. This means that businesses, which fail to meet the demand for localization, risk losing a whopping 40% of potential customers in their target market.
This is sensible given that words hold the key to a persuasive sales message. If you can’t convey your message in a compelling and culturally-appropriate way, it won’t hit home with your prospects. Adjusting your tone according to your target audience’s preferred way of communication will make your copy sound clear, legitimate and, overall, more convincing.
The biggest challenge facing marketers in 2023: Translation quality
This marketing localization endeavour doesn’t come without its own set of challenges. The overwhelm of options out there, from choosing between machine and human translation and figuring out which marketing materials are best to localize, makes building a marketing translation strategy from scratch a headache for many marketers.
However, the biggest challenge that marketers are facing in 2023 is related to translation quality. Up to 67% of marketers aren’t pleased with the quality of their translations because of their highly or partially manual localization processes.
A manual localization process is substandard when compared to API-integration technology, given that potential for human error is higher and the turnaround time significantly slower. That’s particularly the case when there’s a great amount of content and number of languages requiring localization.
Therefore, it’s paramount to have the necessary processes and tools in place to ensure optimal translation and localization quality.
Professional translation and localization services for maximum translation quality
The most effective way of tackling the quality problem head-on is by entrusting a professional language service provider with access to the latest translation technologies and automations.
Pangea makes use of cutting-edge technologies that guarantee outstanding translation quality, stylistic consistency, and fast turn-around for projects of all complexities and sizes.
No matter the number of languages you plan on localizing your content for in 2023, our team of over 600 subject-expert, professional translators, copywriters and trans-creators is on your side to help you meet the current demands of the translation economy. Whether you’re looking to localize your website, paid ads, blog posts, product pages, or other marketing materials, we’re perfectly equipped to repurpose your marketing message for more than 75 markets!
