Localization 101: Everything You Need to Know About Translating and Adapting Content

Key Things to Keep in Mind About Localization

In today’s fast-paced world, effective communication across different regions becomes a critical component of growth strategy for companies and startups. Let’s explore the basics of localization, how to effectively adapt your content for various markets, and which localization service to use.

Why Localization Matters

What you need is localization of your content: website, landing pages, marketing materials, and the rest of it. Localization goes beyond translation, ensuring that content resonates with diverse audiences by adapting to cultural nuances, language differences, and regional preferences.

The competition is fierce, and a simple translation won’t cut it anymore. And the market responds to this too: in 2022, the global software localization market was valued at $5.9 billion and is expected to grow significantly, reaching an estimated $15.6 billion by 2032. This growth is driven by rapid digitalization and increased demand for localized content across various industries in the world. Tapping into this opportunity helps businesses boost their potential, expand operations to new markets, and, of course, grow revenues, which every company is ultimately after.

Localization 101: Basics

The decision to go global is no joke, especially when it comes to the organizational side of things. So much to keep track of while there are only 24 hours in a day! That’s why it’s good to keep in mind these basics before launching your localization project:

1. Understand Your Target Market

Research the cultural nuances, language preferences, and legal regulations of the region you are targeting. Tailor your messaging to resonate with local audiences. Study websites and landings of your potential competitors, get in touch with professionals from this region, and conduct extensive research on current trends — this will help you create a clearer vision behind your project.

1. Focus on Cultural Relevance

Go beyond translating words — adapt your content to align with local customs, traditions, and values. This could mean adjusting imagery, tone, or even product offerings to suit different cultures.

For instance, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) changes their website’s visuals and content depending on the region where it is accessed to make sure that their materials are relevant to the given audience. After all, people in Australia are unlikely to care deeply about Canadian bears.

Another example is Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign in China: the company recognized that Chinese first names are much more diverse and unique than Western ones, replacing names on their bottles with more generic terms of endearment like “close friend” and “classmate”. This way, the company carried the same message but modified it to fit the local market.

1. Partner with a Reliable Localization Provider

Having done the hard work of laying down the vision and strategy of your localization project, your next step is to launch it. If linguistic technicalities and the sheer amount of translation work are not something you are accustomed to, the best way forward is to find a reliable translation management service (TMS). There are plenty of offers on the market, which complicates the process. The key factors to take into account when choosing one are: prices, functionality, processing speed, and simplicity.

Here’s a quick guide to help you: if you are a large company with plenty of resources and time to spare, Lokalise and Smartling are the way to go. They are expensive but efficient, you pay for what you get. If you have your own team of translators and managers, an established provider like TransPerfect is your choice. With it, your team of many professionals will get localization done in no time.

If you are a smaller business or a fresh-out-the-oven startup with limited budgets and pressing deadlines, Localit is your perfect choice. With its flexible pricing, AI-driven translation services, and quick processing speed, your localization will be done in no time. The service offers expertise, advanced tools, and a streamlined process to ensure your content is effectively adapted for each market without compromising quality.

1. Maintain Brand Consistency

While adapting content for different regions, ensure that your brand’s voice and core values remain consistent across all markets to strengthen global brand recognition. For example, English does not have a specific pronoun to address someone politely, opting instead for Sir, Mr., Ms, and so on, while Romance and Slavic languages have a separate pronoun that can replace something along the lines of “Dear Sir” with just one word. If your tone of voice (ToV) includes being demonstrably polite, you have to review and adapt your localization strategy accordingly.

1. Test for Usability and Accuracy

After localization, thoroughly test your content to ensure it works across different platforms, languages, and devices. Make sure the localized version is free from errors and fully functional.

With these basic notions in place, your localization project will always be heading in the right direction. However, there are also a few tips we can offer to make sure that your business is ready for what this journey brings.

Localization 101: Tips

Here are five in-depth localization tips that go beyond the common advice:

1. Adapt for Regional SEO

Optimizing your content for search engines in the target region is just as important as having a top-notch translation. Research local keywords, search habits, and preferred search engines to ensure your content ranks well. Localizing meta tags, alt texts, and even URL structures can make a significant difference in visibility.

1. Adjust Date, Time, and Measurements

It may seem minor, but adapting formats for dates, times, currencies, and measurement units is crucial. This move enhances the user experience, making the content feel tailored and intuitive for the local audience. The US uses MM/DD/YYYY for dates, while the rest of the world prefers DD/MM/YYYY. Pounds, meters, ounces, kilos, and the like are also vital for other audiences to understand what you mean.

1. Account for Local Humor and Idiomatic Expressions

Jokes, humor, and idiomatic expressions often don't translate directly across cultures. Take extra care when adapting these elements, as they can lead to confusion or even offense if not handled properly. Ensure your humor or colloquialisms are relevant to the local audience or consider replacing them with culturally appropriate alternatives.

Consider this: when KFC first introduced its "Finger-lickin' good" slogan in China, it was mistranslated to "Eat your fingers off," causing confusion and discomfort among customers, which damaged the brand’s initial launch. Though the error was quickly corrected, it temporarily harmed the company’s reputation in the local market. You don’t want to be known as a “finger-eating company”, do you?

1. Modify User Interface (UI) Design for Local Preferences

Localization also involves adjusting the design elements of your digital platforms. This can include font size for languages with more complex characters (Chinese or Japanese), text direction (for languages like Arabic and Hebrew), and even color schemes that may have different cultural connotations. A user-friendly, localized UI makes a huge impact on engagement.

1. Plan for Expansion During Development

If you’re developing content or software from scratch, plan for localization early by using internationalization best practices. This means designing your content and platforms to be easily adaptable, like ensuring enough space for text expansion in languages that require more characters (German often takes up more space than English, while Chinese will require significantly less of it), and supporting multiple languages from the start. This saves time and resources when localizing for future markets.

With these basics and tips in place, your company can boldly take on a new localization adventure. One thing left to decide is whether to go on this journey alone or find a third-party platform to help you every step of the way.

Choosing a Translation Service

Companies that struggle with localization often do so because they either try to do it with their own manpower or turn to bulky and inefficient software. Many Translation Management Services (TMS) exist on the market, and making the right choice can seem daunting. Useful features are spread across the field, while disadvantages of certain services can plague your project from the start.

Localit, a brand new modern AI-driven localization service, recognized these issues and created a platform that strives to meet your needs whatever your goals and capabilities are. The company conducted extensive research on the market to build a truly cutting-edge solution to going global without any hassle. Wonder what its competitive advantages are? Let’s dive right in!

From Tool to Comprehensive Service

Localit was born as an effective answer to the gaps in the market, like the lack of communication inside of a localization platform, processing speeds that cannot match the current trends, and accessing more freedom in choosing AI translators, while maintaining the opportunity for human input. Once the tool was successfully tested, the team realized that they’d created something that could be offered on the market as a full-fledged solution.

The product continues to develop and improve in line with the ever-changing demands of the digital age. Striking a perfect balance between affordability and quality, Localit positions itself as a fierce competitor with other TMS like Lokalise and Smartling, which get the job done with much higher costs and less than robust UI, making it difficult to operate the platform.

What Makes Localit Unique

To address the current gaps in the market, the Localit team developed a set of productive features that make it stand out from the rest of the field. These are:

• Built-in Chat

Chat with your team, translators, and project managers inside the platform. Send voice notes, pictures, screenshots, and more without losing time. Get notified instantly when new messages are sent.

• High Processing Rates

Upload thousands of keys in your project within seconds. The platform reaches a speed of almost 200 ms, so forget about constantly checking on the progress bar.

• AI Translator Choice

Prefer one AI over another? No problem for Localit! Just choose among such popular AI translation tools as ChatGPT, Google Translate, and DeepL, and get straight to work.

• Logbook and Rights

No changes will go unnoticed with the convenient logbook that keeps track of every action taken in the project. On top of that, you can assign well-defined rights to every user working on the project to make sure that everyone does exactly what they are supposed to.

Affordable Pricing and Free Plan

As a company built on understanding the struggles of modern businesses and startups, Localit offers a flexible price package that can be tailored to what you need. The plans can be found below:

Conclusion

Localization is not easy, let’s be clear about that. But with the right tools, a comprehensive strategy, and a trusted partner you can be successful and reap the rewards of bringing your business to new markets and expanding your audience. Localit can be your guide in the world of localization, removing a lot of unnecessary stress and strain, helping your team, and maintaining high quality. Discover more about Localit here, take its features for a ride with the free plan, and get in touch to learn more.

Instant localization, just add Localit! / Don’t Google, just Localit!