How important is website localization for companies wishing to expand abroad?
Conquering a market means entering the hearts and minds of potential customers. Know his habits, his interests, his values. Only on the basis of this knowledge, a company has all it takes to achieve success at a local level and important recognition at an international level.
Often companies that intend to enter a market other than their native one must ensure that their brand identity and their products or services are accessible and usable. When a company moves abroad, therefore, it uses means of communication and tools in the market or country of its interest that can make its values shine through and tell about its offer.
The international fairs and expos that are organized annually by sector represent a springboard for companies that have clear objectives of expanding their business. On these occasions, materials and multimedia contents are specifically studied, structured and prepared with a view to ending up in the hands of potential buyers.
Traditional marketing focuses its attention on the printing and dissemination of paper materials, such as brochures, menus, catalogues. These documents contain general and specific product/service information that must attract the attention of participants at trade fairs or expo.
However, what cannot be underestimated today is the potential that the digital world holds in the possibility of obtaining engagement for a company undergoing foreign expansion. The website specifically represents a business card that is constantly available and accessible.
When a customer interfaces with a new company, visiting the site and browsing the various internet pages is one of the first steps they take with the intention of getting to know the company better and understanding what it offers.
Since this is still a foreign market, before proceeding with the translation of the site into the target language, an in-depth market analysis is carried out in order to define the buyer personas and capture details of the reference target audience. The preliminary phase therefore deals with studying the socio-cultural background of potential market customers.
The culture, habits, interests, habits and customs of a society are reflected in its own language. Therefore, having a broad knowledge of these factors and identifying elements is necessary to be able to proceed with the translation and localization of websites.
The potential foreign customer who enters the company website expects a comfortable browsing experience, which can leave him with a positive memory and which can translate into an incentive to return to that site. If he were to find information that was unclear or “out of place”, not in line with his identity, in relation to himself as an individual and as part of a community, he would feel forced to abandon the site and finish browsing.
A flop in translation and localization equals a flop in successful foreign expansion and conquest.
The home page is the first page a customer visits. It’s like a landing strip for an airplane: it must know how to guide, welcome, direct, inform. The information contained on the home page of a website is used to give a first impression of what the company offers, how and why it offers it. For this reason, the digital contents published in it must undergo a precise text localization process for websites. Not only the linguistic aspect in terms of translation and localization, but also the aesthetic one through a desktop publishing service must be taken care of to perfection.
Once the customer is familiar with the home page, he can go further and begin real navigation on the site. The menu must follow a logical and schematic sense, exhaustive in its explanation and clear in its internal division. Likewise, the menu must be translated and localized in a compliant and relevant way. The localization of product pages or even more so the localization of the contact page must also take into account the linguistic and stylistic differences that can arise between one language and another. Product pages usually include specific product information: units of measurement, currency, and other elements may change in the translation phase. The address of the registered office or production site displayed on the contact page must comply with the form that best suits the target language.
One of the things that most come under the radar of web users are the so-called “calls to action“. Whether encouraging phrases or buttons, website calls to action require an immediate response and immediate action. The user is unlikely to continue or respond to a specific action if the call to action contains a non-localized phrase or word.
To conclude, the localization of websites and the localization of texts for websites is an activity that requires great mastery of the language and a deep knowledge of the target culture. Trimming a machine translation or relying on non-professional translators can be detrimental to the company.
LingoYou offers high-quality translation and localization services. It has a vast network of translators and expert linguists who can contribute to company growth with maximum efficiency and professionalism.
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