7 Reasons to Use Localization in Your Digital Strategy

More companies are reducing spending on traditional advertising in order to spend more on digital marketing efforts. There are many reasons for this. For one, customers are finding traditional advertising less compelling. They’re also engaging with brands on social media platforms, apps, websites, and messenger services: all places that are not served by traditional advertising.

While it’s wonderful that brands can use digital marketing to reach their audience members in new ways, there are some significant challenges emerging. Saturation is a real issue. Virtually every company is committed to digital marketing, and this means customers are practically bombarded with brands trying to get their attention.

To truly reach customers, your digital marketing strategies must be a real hit. Relevance is key. If your company operates on a global scale, that means reaching your customers with marketing content that resonates with them. Your digital strategy must include localization.

Here are seven reasons why:

1. You’ll Improve The Experience For Your Target Audience

By implementing a good localization strategy, you make your digital content that much easier for your audience to navigate. That’s because localizing goes beyond translation. It involves making content more familiar.

Simple things like using the correct date and currency formats make a big difference. So does choosing the right dialect, laying out pages so they work with languages that may not read left to right, etc. All of these localization efforts improve the user experience.

All of these elements combine to create a seamless website, app, even social media experiences for customers in your newly targeted markets. This leads to better relationships, improved trust, and more engagement.

2. Localized Marketing Efforts Deepen Connections With Local Consumers

When you take the time to localize your content, you adapt it to the needs and expectations of the local audience. That leads to your content covering the items that your audience cares about. Once members of your target audience see that you are committed to reaching out to them with content that is relevant to them, they will engage accordingly.

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This leads to deeper brand loyalty and stronger connections with your customers. That, more than price and value, can turn customers into brand advocates. It also helps you to gain a competitive advantage.

3. It Helps You Overcome Market Entry Challenges

You can face a lot of barriers to entry when you try to enter into foreign markets. You may have to contend with complex new laws and regulations, established competitors, financial challenges, international tax complications, language barriers, and cultural issues.

When you invest in localization efforts, you can better overcome those last two challenges. This is even truer if your competitors have not spent time localizing their marketing content, packaging, advertisements, etc. Localization can give you an advantage where you might otherwise struggle.

4. Localization Requires Research That Can Improve Understanding of Customer’s Needs

In order to properly apply localization, you have to understand your customers’ needs and expectations. When you do that, you are better able to satisfy your customers, by providing them with relevant products, and relevant content.

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For example, many companies entering markets in emerging nations have struggled, because they base their marketing and product offerings on assumptions. One of these assumptions is that customers in these nations don’t care about branding. Another is that they simply don’t spend money. As it turns out, both assumptions are untrue.

These consumers absolutely do care about branding and have the same associations between brand, quality, and prestige as customers in other markets. They also spend proportionately more on consumer goods. Where they do differ is that they tend to seek out products in smaller quantities, such as single-use items.

Of course, the specific differences are going to vary depending on the market you are trying to enter. All of these are things that a good localization expert from a highly rated service that is recommended by PickWriters will understand, and be able to implement.

5. It Shows Respect For Local Culture And Values

It doesn’t take much searching to find several cringe-worthy examples of brands blowing it in new markets because of cultural insensitivity. Some of these stories are on the humorous side, such as KFC’s ‘Finger Licking Good’ catchphrase meaning something entirely different in China.

In other cases, the gaffes are truly offensive and can cause lasting damage. 

Localization helps to ensure that your digital strategy aligns with local culture and values. This way, you avoid causing unintentional offense, or embarrassment. This is very important now more than ever when consumers often feel as if brands simply don’t care about or understand them.

6. Localization Increases Conversions

When you provide your users with content and website experience that is relevant to them, they will spend more time on your website. In turn, they’ll learn more about your products and services. That makes it easier for you to drive them further through the sales funnel

Even better, when the elements of localization are combined with language translation, you are much more likely to increase sales. This is because customers are willing to pay more for products and services when your website is in their native language.

7. Improved Local Search Results

Localized marketing content is naturally, SEO friendly. This is the case for several reasons.

  • It addresses topics that are current and relevant to your target audience.
  • It contains locally relevant keywords.
  • It’s optimized for search engines that you may not have otherwise considered.
  • Locally optimized content and web pages can help search engines ensure that your content reaches your target audience.

Localization works because it is a country and region focused, not language-focused. This is because it takes cultural differences into consideration. These can exist, even among countries that share the same language.

Final Thoughts

If you have or plan to create a global presence, your digital marketing strategy must take localization into consideration. By taking local culture, values, and norms into consideration, you will be much more likely to create relevant marketing content and better customer experiences.