How Can You Localize Your Product in A New Language? 

A significant way to boost your business revenue, value, and brand visibility is to expand the reach of your product. This means taking your product from your local environment to the foreign market. To effectively achieve this, you must localize your product to build brand awareness in the target regions.  

Without the right tactics, you might find it challenging to survive in the global market. Most businesses fail in their quest to enter a new market because they adopt the same principle of survival as that of their local environment. Hence, it would help if you had a more strategic plan to thrive by localizing your product in a new language.  

This article will explain the several factors that need to be considered for efficient product localization into a new language. 

Why is Localization Important?  

For you to maximize profit in your business, you need to reach out to more audiences. A new market means new potential customers, and this will consequently offer great potential for business growth and expansion globally. The international market is a very competitive space; therefore, your brand must be distinctive to stand out. 

As the European and Asian markets offer endless opportunities to earn more profits, it is essential to analyze the sales potential before entering the foreign market. Making a critical analysis of the target market is vital—even if you have a unique product. The result of the market survey will give an insight into the potential growth of your business in the target market. If it shows significant potential, then you can localize your product. 

Localization involves modifying a particular product according to the foreign market’s culture, regional preferences, and language. This will endear your product to the local audience as though it is made locally. As a result, you are making your product acceptable in your target market, which will, in turn, set your business up for success. 

How to Localize Your Product 

Product localization needs to be considered at the early stage of product development for easier implementation. However, it is not a limitation for existing products as they require more resources for their localization process. More like starting up a business, product localization also requires strategic planning. It would help if you put into consideration: 

• The language and culture of the target market
• Their potential challenges
• Their local laws, tax rules, and any custom duties
• Your local competitors and their strengths
• The right products and services to be localized
• The right selection of material to be localized

Here are some effective ways to localize your product in a new language. 

Target Market Language 

The main aspect of localization is the language of your target audience. Although English is the most widely spoken language globally, a survey conducted by Common Sense Advisory shows that most people prefer to buy products in their native language. Therefore, every necessary means should be employed to make your product customized to the local language of your target market. Your website, sales portal, or e-commerce store must be properly translated to their most preferred native language. Also, you can employ the service of a local sales firm to communicate directly to the prospective customers in their local language. 

Cultural Nuance 

Understanding cultural nuances is key to effective translation. When planning localization, you must have full knowledge of the local culture of your target audience. You must be familiar with their norms, habits, and preferences. Cultural understanding is beyond just avoiding translation mistakes. It involves knowing your new audience’s in-depth way of life, topics, words, colors, and prohibited images in such regions. For instance, selling meat burgers in India can adversely affect your brand image because most inhabitants are vegetarians. 

Currency and Payment Methods 

This is also a significant part of product localization. Most people prefer to shop online with their local currency. A recent article by Shopify on e-commerce shows that local currency is favored by 92.2% of online buyers, and 33% of them said they would cancel the purchase process if the only currency accepted is the US dollar. Also, the preferred payment method in each region varies. Some prefer the cash-on-delivery payment method like Eastern Europe, while the digital payment systems is preferred in Western Europe. It could also be the credit card payment method, which is most popular in the United States. Therefore, your target audience’s currency and payment method must be considered to localize your product effectively. 

Material Localization 

You must consider the necessary materials to be localized when making a product available in a new target market. This varies according to the product and the localization strategy. As earlier said, the website is a key aspect of localization to reach foreign customers. Therefore, your website should be locally translated for better understanding by your target audience. Similarly, materials such as the manuals and user instructions of your product should be translated to the most preferred language of your new market. 

Work with a Professional Localization Service 

To achieve the best localization, there is a need to partner with localization experts. No matter how hard you try, you cannot localize your product or translate content by yourself in the standard acceptable way. You have to hire localization services to help you achieve this. They have vast knowledge and experience that will help your business achieve the best product localization you can ever think of. Ensure to partner with a localization service that understands your vision and the international marketing goals. 

Conclusion 

It would be best if you had intelligent strategies to get your business to the global market. And this can be accomplished by localization. It involves translating all necessary contents and materials of your product to your target market’s most preferred local language. Hence, you need to research the new market to know the best localization strategy to implement. With the right approach, your business will thrive in the global market. Finally, you should partner with a professional localization service to help with effective localization of your product.