You’ve got a new goal and that goal is to enter a new, foreign market. You have a killer product or service, and your studies have shown that you can take a good slice of the pie in the country you’re going to be targeting. Thing is, just translating your website into the local language of the country you’re trying to penetrate won’t be enough. What you need is something called “Localization”. Yes, that’s the new buzzword and brands, both big and small are now embracing it!

In this blog post, we run through the top 7 reasons why both established, internationally recognized companies, as well as startups and small companies, are turning to localization firms like GTH.

Localization Reason 1 – Increasing your slice of pie

Website localization can and will greatly expand your global reach. We talked to our friends at the leading market research company, Gartner, and they shared some really interesting stats with us. In 2019 Chinese speakers (that’s predominantly Mandarin speakers, not Cantonese speakers) made up about 35 per cent of all internet users. That’s huge! Mandarin users made up approximately 560 million internet users, yet only 2.8 per cent of all internet content is in Mandarin. If any of your target audience includes Mandarin speakers, adding Mandarin as a language on your site will give you the edge over your competition, plus it will allow you to better serve the market.

Localizing all your content, and not just the content that’s on your website, allows you to tap into target markets and make your products or services more appealing to those markets.

Localization Reason 2 – Build long-lasting credibility

By making an effort to speak in the native language of the audience you’re serving, your potential consumers will see that you’re serious about earning and keeping their attention while also catering to their needs. Now here’s the kicker; if your website visitors have a pleasant and enjoyable experience interacting with your brand, credibility will be built. If you can then reach out to them via social media, email, videos and even on apps like WhatsApp, all within their local language, you’re going to build longer-lasting relationships. The lifetime value of your clients will rocket and your goal of entering and succeeding within a new market would have paid off.

Thing is, if your website visitors aren’t having the best of times on your website, their lack of good experience on the part of your brand will see your goal fail. If you visit a website that’s been poorly translated and you can see that the company in question has made zero effort of reaching out to you properly, how likely is it that you’re going to be opening your wallet and handing over your money? Here at GTH, when we start what we like to call the LQA (Localization Quality Assurance), we start with the fundamentals. By doing this, we ensure that your website visitors understand the content that’s being served to them.

Localization Reason 3 – Increase customer engagement

When your website users continue to have positive experiences on your website and across your social media channels, chances of them interacting with your business in the future will be quite high. If you’re the type of business which needs repeat business, then customer engagement is huge. If a potential customer found what they were looking for during their first visit on your site, they’re much more likely to return and even bring others with them through word of mouth. The better you are at communicating, the more profits you’re going to make. This is what localization does – it gives you the edge when it comes to communicating with clients who are in other countries. Localization serves the cultural side and this is what you’re getting when you turn to a unified localization provider like GTH.

Localization Reason 4 – Consumer brand identity

If your website is local, which means speaking and communicating in the language of your target market through all your messaging, potential clients are more likely to identify with your brand and rely on your business as a solution to their needs. Here at GTH, we call this “Localization Brand DNA”. We take your brand DNA and localize it for the market you want to break into.

Simply translating your website isn’t enough. We need to go deeper and filter through the cultural differences. Only then will your website be fully native and local to the target market you’re targeting.

Localization Reason 5 – SEO benefits

Content is king and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is there to help keep your content kingdom intact. The need for SEO relevancy is higher than ever, and if you’re going to be ranking for a list of keywords on local search engine search results, you’re going to need our help. Let us give you this example of what we’re talking about.

A financial institution came to us asking us to review their website. The had and English and a Spanish version of the website. Unfortunately, they had asked a translations agency to translate all the English content. Now, when it comes to the Finance industry, we’re quite clued into what needs to be done as we’ve been serving financial institutions like Forex brokerages for over a decade now.

The translations agency took the word “spread” and literally translated it. The Spanish translation of their website wasn’t talking about the spread (the difference between the bid and ask price of two financial instruments), but focussed on butter, and how to spread butter. Yes, butter.

So, do you see why localization is key here, and especially when it comes to the SEO side of it? We all like butter, but we prefer to see it on toast, rather than on a website where it simply doesn’t belong.

Going back to SEO, it’s really important to know what SEO keywords in other languages are significantly less competitive. Why? Because there’s a lot less content created in other languages than English. Our friends at Gartner provided us with some stats on this too. English makes up 84% of the SEO market. That’s a whopping statistic!

So, if your website is multilingual, we can help you open the door to rank for some of the less competitive keywords in other languages. By doing this, you’re going to drive more traffic to your website and it also means you will also not have to spend too much on customer acquisition via Google, Microsoft or social media ads.

If you’re ranking well in other languages, you’re also likely to see an increase in Domain Authority (DA), which could help you better rank for keywords in your original language. Here at GTH, we put you on a win-win pathway where SEO localization is concerned.

Localization Reason 6 – Cost-effective alternative

If you’re going to be targeting a new country, chances are you’ve looked at adding a few team members into your expansion budget. Thing is, if you create a multilingual website that’s not just multilingual, but is fully localized, it’s going to allow your brand to spread into new markets without having to fully invest in a new team. As sales grow on your localized multilingual site, you’ll be in a better position for further investment, and we’ll also discuss this with you in person, as we’re great at helping our clients scale.

Localization Reason 7 – New customers

The number one goal for entering a new market is to bring in new customers. More customers equals more profits. More profits means you have the scope to build your business further. If you have all your localization done and dusted, you’re going to be in a position to acquire new customers and increase sales.

Why choose GTH as your unified localization provider?

GTH translation is a premiere global localization agency, servicing companies across all industries. We have, for the past ten years, empowered businesses to localize their website content and optimize success by transforming language barriers into revenue-maximizing opportunities.

Get in touch with us and we’ll show you a localization strategy and pathway that can boost your business and take your brand to the next level.