Les technologies numériques actuelles rendent plus simples que jamais la capacité pour les clients internationaux de trouver les produits et services qui répondent à leurs besoins. Et ils recherchent ces informations en ligne, dans la langue qu'ils parlent. A recent study has shown that 56% of consumers rated the ability to obtain product information in their preferred language to be even more important than price.
Suppose your company's website isn't localized to appeal to customers willing to purchase based on brand connection to their language. In that case, you're missing a significant opportunity to build your business. However, you are also giving your competitors a significant advantage in the quest to increase market share.
Brass tacks: When you’re expanding globally, investing in website localization services isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s mission-critical.
Why is Localization Important?
Introducing new products to a global marketplace typically requires both translation and localization. Translation converts content from one language into another. Localization moves beyond changing existing content and marketing collateral into another language.
Localization is vital in how it establishes a connection with potential customers on a personal level. This is because the localization process involves understanding how culture and market conditions affect customers' buying behavior and not assuming you'll be successful in your target market simply because you exist there.
The localization process aims to adapt meaning to relevant content for a targeted market. In addition to changing language, localization might incorporate different images, conversions to new measurement systems, time zones or currencies, and different layouts to accommodate language changes (such as if a language is read right to left, or if words in the target language tend to be longer than in the original language).
Below, you'll find examples of the significance of localization. Then, dive deeper into the benefits and advantages of localizing content when planning a global expansion.
Localization is Crucial to Successful Expansion
The localization process is crucial to global expansion. Expanding would be fruitless if potential customers don't or can't understand your content, products, or services. Companies that tend to be the most successful balance the desire to meet global standards with the need for local flexibility. If you're looking to expand and don't prioritize localization, your business can seem static and impersonal to potential customers outside your home base.
Developing a proper localization strategy can assist you as you prepare for expansion. A localization strategy takes a very close look at the who/what/why/when, and how questions you need to answer before you take measures to expand. Developing a localization strategy involves the integration of language translation, image appropriateness, cultural message matching, process definition, and regulatory compliance. Once you work through your strategy, the localization process becomes predictable and repeatable, so you can continuously grow measurably.
Localization is a Growing Global Marketing Trend
Désormais, les clients internationaux veulent des contenus en ligne rédigés dans leur langue. Ils quittent rapidement un site ou une marque qui ne se plient pas à cet exercice. Regardons ces statistiques de mondialisation :
While 60% of all content on the Internet is in English, native English speakers only make up about 5.4% of the world’s population. Only 25.3% of the Internet market share prefers English-only content, which leaves nearly 75% who prefer to consume content in another language.
China and India are still winning the Internet. China currently has over 1.02 billion online users, while India ranks second with over 658 million. L'anglais ne fait pas partie des langues prioritaires dans ces deux pays.
Global shopping has gone mobile. More than 55% of global smartphone owners use them to shop online, and they like to do so in their preferred language. Trends like these prove that speaking your customers’ languages through localized content is essential to your marketing success.
Localization Turns Cultural Differences into an Advantage
Pourquoi un marketing localisé, culturellement pertinent, est-il si important ? Pour commencer, c'est ce qui signera le succès ou l'échec de vos relations avec les consommateurs.
For example: Imagine that you're sharing content with Italian customers about a Christmastime holiday sale. Si vous faites la même promotion qu'aux États-Unis, vous allez rencontrer un problème. Le marché des États-Unis donne une place importante à la veille de Noël et au jour de Noël alors que l'Italie est plus portée sur la date du 6 janvier, l'Epiphanie.
On pourrait dire qu'il s'agit là d'une erreur somme toute bénigne. Elle peut cependant compromettre vos efforts marketing en démontrant que vous ne connaissez pas le marché italien aussi bien que d'autres marques. Les clients le remarqueront. Et ils n'apprécieront pas.
En revanche, lorsque votre site Web est traduit et localisé pour la clientèle internationale, vous montrez que vous comprenez ce marché, et qu'il est important pour vous. Ainsi, vous établissez des liens plus forts.
The Benefits of Localization
Les sites Web et les autres contenus numériques localisés vous permettent d'établir des liens véritables et authentiques avec les clients et de bénéficier des avantages suivants :
1. Increased trust
You can show that your brand respects other cultures through website translation and localization. According to CSA Research, 60% of non-native English speakers rarely or never buy from English-only websites. In fact, 64% of buyers say they value localized website content. You can gain genuine trust from your target audience through cultural adaptation.
In turn, when trust is enhanced, key performance indicators (KPIs) see a sizable lift. KPIs measure the performance of a company, its activities, processes, and the progress of projects. In order to be significant, KPIs must correlate to quantifiable business goals. Determining the success of any localization program is tied to the overall expectations of the expansion project or business strategy.
The increase in trust localization creates can lead to important retention KPIs improving, including
- Generating higher sales
- Higher customer satisfaction
- Delivering an excellent customer experience
- Increasing net promoter score (NPS)
- Lower attrition rates
2. Easier interaction with your brand
Les vies des clients sont influencées par leurs outils du quotidien tels que l'utilisation des réseaux sociaux, des sites mobiles, etc. Content localization makes your online presence available in multiple languages, across all channels, and ensures that your company will be able to reach more people where they live and work. This enhances a positive user experience for global customers and helps them trust your brand.
A positive user experience directly results in an increase in sales conversion rates and engagement rates, as well as lower bounce rates. User experience has become incredibly important, especially when looking at statistics that show how 74% of customers can switch brands if the purchasing process is too difficult for them; or, that 86% of users are inclined to pay more for a great customer experience. It's no wonder that global spending on customer experience has been estimated to reach $640 billion by 2022.
3. Driving better online search results
Localiser votre présence en ligne ne s'arrête pas aux contenus lisibles sur votre site. Grâce à une bonne solution de traduction, tous les éléments (images, multimédia, réseaux sociaux, PDF dynamiques, etc.) peuvent être localisés. Keywords, metadata, and hreflang tags can be localized to improve global SEO efforts and drive engaged global traffic to your website. Once there, global customers will benefit from an enhanced user experience and content that speaks directly to them.
4. Stronger brand consistency
Translating websites for your global markets gives you full control of your message, and delivers a consistent brand experience across all markets. Cela permet de transmettre plus facilement votre message comme vous l'entendez, plutôt que risquer de compromettre votre communication en passant par des sociétés ou des agences tierces. Localization takes this a step further, ensuring that the content is not only translated, but accounts for the cultural nuances and preferences of each location. This ensures brand consistency and improves brand image.
5. Better segmentation
Today’s leading website translation services and localization solutions make it easier than ever to share customized messages to customers in different global markets. Vous pouvez garder le contrôle de votre message en ligne tout en répondant aux besoins locaux et en développant en même temps votre emprise numérique. This improved ability to segment markets and speak directly to local audiences can enhance the effectiveness of messaging and targeting.
6. More support for in-market teams
Les sites Web localisés sont une ressource utile pour les clients, mais aussi pour les équipes de ventes et de support locales. Un site localisé peut promouvoir les produits et services propres à un marché, se conformer aux réglementations et lois locales et fournir des informations que les équipes marketing locales peuvent utiliser dans leur démarchage commercial.
Take Advantage of the Benefits of Localization
These days, your company must speak the local languages of your global customers. Et cela permettra de renforcer le pouvoir et la réussite de votre équipe marketing en offrant un contenu en ligne localisé sur tous les canaux, dans tous les pays que vous servez.
To make the most of your online localization efforts, partner with a digital-first translation agency that employs expert human translators hand-in-hand with advanced technology solutions such as translation memory, to get your marketing message to your customers in the languages they prefer. Translation memory is a part of a larger system called a CAT (computer assisted translation) tool, which describes software used to increase translation productivity, catch mistakes, and improve consistency.
Utilizing translation memory helps support the localization process by allowing the re-use of translations for other projects, such as document translation, app localization, image translation, or for translating emails or other content.
MotionPoint provides website localization services that support business localization goals anywhere. MotionPoint's technology minimizes operational complexity and maximizes translation and localization impact, and can provide you with flexible and consistent brand imaging, messaging, and marketing content through global markets.
Dernière modification : 05 août 2022