What is localized content?
Localized content is the process of customizing content to a given destination. It involves ensuring that the content provided is culturally appropriate to ensure that the target audience finds it relevant. Content localization is often vital for businesses that are venturing into new markets and want to create brand awareness, customer loyalty, and address potential market entry barriers.
How can you utilize localized content to your advantage?
Any business can use localized content to its advantage in several ways. Some of the ways that you can utilize localized content to your advantage include:
- Utilize localized content to minimize barriers to new market entries. If your company is expanding to a new market, you might encounter several obstacles, such as government monopoly, tight competition, and limited brand awareness. You can use localized content to manage these barriers and enhance market penetration.
- Localized content can customize customer experiences. A business can customize customer experiences by providing localized content. This is because the content helps your organization address customer needs in different locations.
- You can always provide culturally appropriate products through content localization. As businesses venture into new markets with new cultures, localizing their content is essential in minimizing cultural conflicts with their customers.
- Use local content to enhance local business development and create brand visibility. For any business that is venturing into a new market, using area-specific content can promote brand visibility and expansion.
Benefits of Localized Content
Here are some of the benefits of using localized content for your business:
- It enhances interaction with potential customers from other cultures. Many companies are going online, and this gives them a global presence. As most of them realize later, adopting content localization is essential in making the interactions between them and new cultures more effective.
- The content also enhances communication with potential customers and other stakeholders. Although technology allows for automatic translation of online content, it is not effective since much of it often loses meaning. A multinational company cannot rely on translations hence the need for localized content to communicate appropriately. Use of freelance translators is an appropriate way of providing locally appropriate content. As explained by Contentful, ‘Freelance translators can be found in marketplaces where you can review their profiles, rates, and ratings.’
- Localized content offers better performance as compared to the global scope. According to a study by Socialbakers, using localized content on social media platforms like Facebook can generate 350 more interactions as compared to generic content.
- It helps increase sales. Many consumers are likely to buy products described in their native languages as compared to those in standard languages. This means that providing localized content would significantly increase sales.
Why you might need localized content
As competition becomes stiffer, businesses need to offer localized content to maintain customers and attract new ones. Here is why a company should provide localized content:
- To ensure culture relevance: The first reason why any company should focus on localized content is to ensure they remain culturally relevant. The customers that businesses target boast of diverse cultures, and there is a need to ensure that they are all respected. Providing localized content ensures that businesses avoid embarrassing situations and ensure customers feel appreciated and valued. This works to enhance customer loyalty.
- Using customized content helps build trust among customers. Investing resources in localizing content ensure the customer feels that your business is committed to passing information accurately. Many customers want to buy goods and get services from companies that they can relate with and know. Localized content enhances trust in your brand and enhances loyalty.
- It helps create genuine connections. The vital aspect of any business is developing relationships with every stakeholder. Investing in localized content can help your business build and nurture real online connections. This will bring out your dedication to serving local populations and eliminates obstacles to business success.
- Localization of content is a vital aspect of segmenting the international market. Market segmentation is significant for any business with a global market presence. Most businesses segment markets based on geographical locations or language. Every segment of your market requires unique content to achieve the desired results.
- When creating optimized content, it is vital to incorporate local SEO. For your content to be discoverable online, it has to be search engine optimized. Localization of content is part of search engine optimization and works to increase your firm’s digital footprint.
How does it work in today’s tech world?
Content localization in today’s tech world comes in several ways. Some of the common forms of localizing content include:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Translation of content to local languages
- Adapting content design and layout
- Ensuring compliance with local regulations and other legal requirements
