Localizing your product or service's user interface, website, emails, ads, presentations, e-books, and newsletters is a crucial first step in selling your product or service and growing your revenue across multilingual audiences. But that's a lot of content to localize, and no one has an infinite budget and time. So, how do you prioritize? You can make strategic choices by looking at content across the funnel and understanding how customers travel along the path to purchase.
This blog post will help you understand the critical content in each buyer journey stage, prioritize from among the various content types, and offer some initial thoughts about a localization approach.
Awareness (top-of-funnel) content
Awareness content aims to draw in a large audience and introduce them to a company, good, or service. It seeks to generate early interest and recognition by informing and educating potential customers about the existence of a brand and its services. Increasing brand awareness and reach is the main objective, as it frequently represents potential customers' initial point of contact.
Specific Awareness Content Types that need to be localized:
Blog posts and articles: These offer insightful analysis, useful information, and solutions about the issues or interests of the audience, and they assist in establishing the brand as an authority in its sector. Localize your top traffic posts or posts specific to that new target audience.
Tips: Note which ones are the most popular across your audience base and whether you have readers in your target market. When localizing your top blog posts and articles, be sure to modify references, illustrations, and stories to conform to regional customs and accepted norms. Replace any references that might not be clear or pertinent to the audience in your area.
Social media posts: When localizing this type of content, consider the most widely used social media channels in each of the target countries. Create distinct social media accounts for every nation, for example, a Facebook page in the US and one in Japan, to ensure the appropriate people see the customized material. Doing this lets you keep translated information from an English stream and give your local audiences a more interesting and relevant experience.
Tips: Modify the information to take into account regional holidays, events, and cultural quirks. Enhance the relatability and engagement of your content by incorporating culturally meaningful topics, idioms, and local references. Use hashtags that are popular locally and participate in trending discussions.
Marketing advertisements: This type of content is critical to localize – all of it – because ads are one of the ways they learn about your solution for the first time. In this case, you need to pay attention to transcreation, or creative translation, which is adapting content from one language to another while maintaining its intent, style, tone, and context. This goes beyond direct translation, focusing on conveying the same emotional and contextual impact in the target language. If it's too difficult to adapt your home market content for your new audience, you may need to create it from scratch in the country.
Website/Landing Page: Web pages are your product's digital brochures and are findable by search and browsing. Prioritizing localization makes your website more friendly and successful for broad consumers, increasing engagement and conversions in many regions. Again, translation only would be a mistake. Be sure to transcreate text elements and adapt imagery, colors, etc, to appeal to your new market.
Also, user testing should be conducted with a local audience to gather feedback on the localized website or landing page. This helps identify any cultural mismatches or areas for improvement.
Consideration (Middle-of-funnel) content
Middle-of-funnel (MOFU) content, or consideration content, is intended to engage and nurture leads already familiar with a brand or product and currently weighing their alternatives. Potential clients are looking for more thorough details and comparisons to make an informed choice. The objectives of consideration are building trust, proving value, and assisting prospects in understanding how the good or service may fulfill their needs.
Presentations and e-books: E-books and presentations allow you to discuss your product with your audience at a deeper level.
Tips: Localizing popular and relevant e-books demonstrates your dedication to serving the local market and helps you make an excellent first impression when extending your business into new nations. With a stronger relationship with your audience, localized e-books can increase engagement and loyalty. Employ qualified translators who are knowledgeable about the subject and are native speakers. Ensure the translation accurately conveys the original intent, tone, and meaning.
Newsletters and emails: When sending emails or newsletters to a broad, global audience, you should localize them. This is especially crucial for big events and holidays exclusive to a given location and during promotions, product debuts, and upgrades.
Product Listings: Localizing product listings is essential when entering new markets or reaching a global audience. This Includes translating product descriptions, specs, reviews, and any other pertinent data. Before starting marketing activities in new areas, localizing product listings should be done to guarantee a smooth and thorough consumer experience from the first.
Conversion (bottom-of-funnel) content
Conversion content, also known as bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content, is created to convince leads on the verge of purchasing to proceed with the transaction. Potential clients are now looking for assurance and a last push to become paying clients after doing their homework and weighing their options. The fundamental purpose of conversion content is to answer any remaining questions and facilitate the purchase decision.
Product demos, tutorials, and explainer videos: Your product should be localized because they are a top strategy for drawing in and keeping users from various locations.
Tips: First, hire qualified, native translators to translate all text elements in the video, such as the text, menus, buttons, error messages, tooltips, and directions. Modify the demo to take into account regional customs and preferences. If the demo has audio instructions or a narrative, consider having native speakers record voiceovers in the local tongue.
Post-conversion (onboarding) content
Onboarding content, sometimes called post-conversion content, is intended to captivate, inform, and assist new clients immediately following their purchase or service sign-up. It aims to facilitate a seamless transition from a prospect to a satisfied user, laying the groundwork for a favorable customer experience and long-term retention.
Localizing onboarding content is crucial for raising user satisfaction and retention rates and guaranteeing that new users feel supported and welcomed. When onboarding content is provided in the user's local tongue, it improves comprehension of the product, lowers annoyance, and immediately establishes trust with your business.
Tips: Use native speakers who are aware of the cultural context to translate and localize all text and audio components of onboarding content. Make examples and graphics appropriate for the local way of life. Furthermore, make sure that any tutorials, support materials, and instructional videos are available in the local tongue. You should also offer customer service representatives who can respond to questions in the user's mother tongue.
Post-conversion (retention) content
After initial onboarding, post-conversion (retention) content aims to maintain customers' interest, satisfaction, and loyalty. This type of content helps customers find value in the product or service, reduces churn, and increases the likelihood of upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
We adore how HubSpot puts it: a one-time consumer's interactions with your business following a purchase turn them into recurring customers.
Localizing post-conversion (retention) material is essential for sustaining engagement and loyalty by ensuring that continuing assistance and communication are easily understood and culturally relevant. User manuals, updates, and customer support materials can be translated into the user's native tongue, and content can be modified to take into account regional preferences and conventions.
Product: During the post-demo conversion phase, the customer actively utilizes your digital solution to fully experience its value and capabilities. Users engage with the interface and anticipate a smooth experience when navigating the features.
Customer Success Communication: You can entice customers to become long-term clients by showing dedication to their success through frequent check-ins and customized communications.
These highlights capture the crucial moments in a buyer's journey through the digital marketing funnel, helping them turn awareness into devoted supporters of your digital product.
Lastly, what about people who haven't taken the risk yet or may have turned around throughout the marketing process? How can you keep them interested in what you offer and sustain their engagement? Here are two more touchpoints that you can consider localizing:
Remarketing advertisements: Retargeted advertisements help prospective customers remember your brand by reminding them about your digital solution when they browse the internet.
Engagement on social media: Customers interact with your business on social media to learn about new features and business news and to gain a sense of your brand's tone and personality.
By localizing these touchpoints, you can successfully lead prospective clients through their journey, making them feel appreciated and understood at every stop. This will convert awareness into enduring loyalty.
Do you require a dedicated group of fluent translators to consistently convey your brand's message and complex jargon to international markets? Contact us to find out how we can support your project's localization.
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