Companies with an international or global reach are quickly realizing that there’s a lot of value in making their marketing or outreach materials more precisely targeted to a particular audience. This is often called “localization” and is pursued along with other marketing efforts such as technical translation of documents into multiple languages. Localization is becoming a higher standard that companies use to make sure that they get what they want out of international or multi-lingual campaigns. Project managers, creative directors, and others are looking at how to secure services that can work localization into various parts of a campaign, from brochures and visual ads to web content and printed slogans on different kinds of product marketing inventories, and using professional, highly trained experts to perform quality assurance on their efforts.
Principles of Localization
What localization takes into account is that technically translated communications are often more effective when they appeal to a particular local dialect and culture. Here, the idea is that language, to a local audience, is much more than a set of words or “lexicon.” It’s the way words and sentences are said, along with references to local culture and customs that help the language seem authentic, to give communications the appeal of “language on the street” rather than artificial or formal language of many technical communications.
Why Localize Marketing Materials?
When people read marketing documents or take in marketing campaigns in any media format, they’re more likely to pay attention to things that ‘sound the way they do.’ Many technically translated marketing documents may not sound quite right; they don’t have the common mannerisms, characteristics, and inflections that a local population uses every day. Materials can sound wooden, stilted, out of touch, or even forced or contrived. Professional translators who can match results to a local population through localization deliver a much different set of results: materials that engage, that catch the listener’s or reader’s attention, and that fit into a local culture seamlessly.
Benefits of localization include better customer loyalty over time, higher rates of conversion, better returns on investment, and a better reputation for the business that’s behind the marketing campaign. All of this is accomplished through the same principle of “language precision” that suggests that in order to be effective, language has to really match a local community, and not just a technical standard. Think about using professional translation firms to work localization into what you use to reach out to customers.
