A localization strategy is a unique market approach a company takes to address purchasing habits, customer behaviors, and overall cultural differences in each country it works in. It also means to change more than simply the language. Cultural references, the structures of the pages, and images should all be reviewed in light of a new culture. One of the places that are often forgotten is error pages, instructions, and headers. Often, these things do not change from their original language.

Many companies fear that localizing their products might cause increased administrative overhead and might slow down the release cycle and is thus just not worth the time. This can be true, but there’s really no getting around it entirely if successful expansion is your goal and I’m willing to bet that it won’t be as bad as you think.

Successful small business marketing is all about relevance. If you’re trying to promote your business and get new customers, your marketing campaigns should reach the right audience. A great way to establish relevance is to pursue a content localization strategy.

How to build a localization strategy that works?

You’ll want to make sure you’re flexible, adaptable, and actively communicating among your team members, creating the expectation that localization is always a work in progress.

When should you make your global localization a strategy?

The most successful global companies consider global localization at the beginning of their globalization process. So, if you are considering going global, you should already be considering how to localize most effectively and efficiently.

What 3 things to Keep in Mind When Localizing Your Content?

1. Create content localization in mind

This one is especially applicable to your business if you have just started creating content that will be localized in the future. Why is this important? You need to understand that your language most probably differs a lot from the languages you will eventually translate.

Taking English as an example, it is usually much shorter than German and French, and its plural differs from Slavic languages where the plural form depends on the number of subjects and objects.

2. Check for potential problems

Chances are that you are reading this article because you already have content that needs translating. In this case, you can apply the advice from the first point to the content you create from this day forward.

For example, if the translated text cannot be shown on a button on your website, you know that you have to deal with this before going live with any form of a localized website

3. Don’t translate word-for-word

It should be clear by now that translating your content word-for-word is never a good decision. The main reason for this is the fact that most of the expressions and phrases used in your native language cannot be translated into other languages as they are.

Here are 5 benefits of a content localization strategy for your business: