
Phrase and beyond
Localization strategy
Companies on track for global growth often face language as a major barrier to market entry. While English is technically the number one language on the internet, it represents only 25% of the world’s internet users. What is more interesting is that unlike English, user numbers for languages such as Chinese, Spanish, or Arabic are growing at unprecedented rates.
For a product or service to earn trust and attract buyers across markets, it doesn’t only need to “speak” their language but also have a local look and feel. The adaptation process required to go beyond mere translation, known as localization, involves designing a whole new user experience that takes into account local expectations, currencies, legal requirements, and more.
Every company pursuing a serious global expansion strategy needs professional localization services that are powered by modern localization technology. To help you better evaluate which localization services may make sense for your business needs, this guide will walk you through everything you need to know about localization services as a lever for growth.
Localization is the process of adapting a product to suit the language and culture of a target market. When implemented properly, it enables the product to connect with customers in a language and format that feels native to them. Besides translating written content from one language into another, localization has a great deal to do with:
Localization services are used to adapt products to the culture and language of customers in different target markets. Aiming to make a product look and feel local, localization services providers include teams of translators, developers, designers, local marketing experts, linguists, localization or translation project managers, etc. In an ideal scenario, they all work together on a cloud-based localization platform, regardless of time zones, locations, and backgrounds.
Localization services are the result of a team effort in which different experts contribute their knowledge and expertise to help you achieve your localization goals. These experts include:
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Whether you’re just starting to explore new markets or you have already built up a customer base in multiple countries, localization services can take your business further. More specifically, localization services can be used for:
The use cases for localization services are endless, with new opportunities emerging all the time as the world becomes increasingly globalized. If done right, localization can help you tap into new revenue streams, better engage your customers, and build a strong foundation for long-term success in any market, whether you want to:
Depending on the product or service you offer, as well as your localization goals and budget, you may need different localization services. From software localization to video game localization, the options are very diverse. Here are some of the most common localization services:
Software localization is the process of customizing the look and feel of a software application—for example, an app or a web-based tool—to match the preferences of users in a specific target market. The aim is to meet the linguistic, cultural, and legal expectations and requirements of the local market while still preserving the software’s core functionality and features.
This includes adapting the user interface (UI) of your software product, user experience (UX) elements—such as menus, labels, buttons, and error messages—written content, and all accompanying assets into the target language. It also entails making sure that the software functions properly in the target market in terms of locally preferred hardware, currency, payment methods and delivery options, and so on.
This type of localization is very similar to software localization but with a focus on mobile apps. In addition to translating and adapting the app’s UI and UX, it also includes optimizing the app for different devices, local standards, and user expectations in the target market.
App localization aims to amplify the app’s coverage and discoverability, download and adoption rates, as well as ROI by making it as relevant and user-friendly as possible for a local audience. During the localization process, app developers and localization experts will work together to ensure that every asset in the app—including in-app copy, app store descriptions, metadata, visual elements, and more—conforms to the cultural norms, preferences, and expectations of the target market.
Website localization is the process of adapting a website—including the written content, visual elements, user experience, and functionality—to meet the expectations of users in a specific location. People around the world are far more likely to buy from a website that’s available in their own language and relevant to their local context.
This type of localization also normally involves SEO localization, which is the process of optimizing a website for better discoverability in different regions and markets. This includes researching and incorporating relevant local keywords, as well as adapting the website’s meta data, hosting, and other technical aspects. Prior internationalization (i18n) is what often makes website localization much easier and more effective, and post-deployment testing should also come as part of the process to make sure that the localized website is up to par.
Amazing graphics, sound, and gameplay aren’t enough to make a video game successful in today’s global market. In order to reach and engage players with the widest possible audience, video game localization has become essential. The aim is to make users feel like the game was developed specifically for them, in their language and cultural context.
During localization, you can adapt all the content in the game—from the storyline and character development to the UI and in-game copy—to better resonate with players in different markets. It’s essential to find linguists who are also gamers, as they’ll be able to adapt the game in a way that captures the spirit and feel of the original while still making it relevant to a local audience.
No matter how good your product or service might be, it won’t sell itself—especially if you’re targeting international markets where language barriers might be an issue. This is where marketing localization comes in, as it’s all about adapting your marketing strategy, assets—including your website, social media presence, product descriptions, and advertising campaigns—, and processes to better suit the needs of a specific target market.
Marketing localization can help you boost your brand’s discoverability, reputation, and bottom line by making sure that you develop the right messaging and tone for each market you’re targeting. When you consider that emotional connection—something that speaking your customers’ language can help you create—is twice as valuable as customer satisfaction in terms of competitive advantage, marketing localization starts to look like a very attractive proposition.
Knowledge bases, user manuals, help files, software documentation, FAQs, how-to videos, and other types of technical content need to be localization-friendly in order to serve a global audience. This means that they need to be easy to understand—the technical aspects as well as the language—and relevant to the needs of users in different markets, while still being accurate in terms of the product or service they’re describing.
Technical localization is usually part of wider multilingual customer support efforts. When you provide your users with accurate technical translation of key documentation or how-to videos, self-service becomes an option and support requests start to go down. Moreover, by localizing this type of content, you can make sure that everyone understands how to use your product or service, which can help you avoid customer churn.
Localization testing is about making sure that a localized product or service works as intended and meets the needs of users in a specific market. This type of testing goes beyond checking for typos and grammar mistakes, as it also includes functional testing and usability testing to detect and fix any localization-related issues prior to release.
Localization testing is essential for ensuring a positive user experience in the target market. Just like testing the original product or service is essential for finding and fixing any bugs before release, localization testing should also come as part of the process to verify that the localized version is equally polished. It should work as expected, meet the cultural and technical expectations of local users, and check out from a linguistic standpoint.
The human element is key for localization, but it’s not the only thing that you need to consider when looking for localization services. Professional localization providers also need to have the right tools and processes in place to ensure quality, consistency, and efficiency throughout the localization process.
A combination of technology and localization expertise is what gives localization providers the ability to scale their operations and handle large localization projects without compromising on quality. The best and most professional localization services providers use a mix of localization tools and processes to streamline their workflows and manage their localization projects more effectively.
The least resource-intensive localization solution is to use localization software—e.g., a translation management system or localization platform—that integrates with your existing tech stack and that supports the localization processes from start to finish. This way, you don’t have to worry about integrating multiple tools or dealing with silos of content in different formats. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are what make this possible, as they enable localization tools to communicate with each other and exchange data in a structured way.
No localization service can be called professional if it doesn’t rely on modern technology to some extent. For example, localization providers that use localization platforms can take advantage of localization automation to automatically extract content from source files, speed up the process with the aid of AI-driven machine translation, programmatically insert translated content back into the file, and much more.
Human expertise and modern localization tools working together are what enable localization providers to offer high-quality, scalable localization services—and it’s precisely what you should look for when choosing a localization provider for your business.
When looking for localization software, there are certain key features that you should consider to ensure that the tool can support, automate, and potentially scale—if needed—your localization processes. Here are some of the most important localization software features to keep in mind:
When comparing the benefits of using a localization platform to doing all the work manually side by side, the differences couldn’t be more striking.
Why working without a localization platform is painful | How you can excel thanks to a localization solution |
You have to carry out lengthy and tiring manual work | You can be more efficient through automating recurring tasks |
There are no useful resources to rely on, such as a translation memory | You can retrieve past work to speed through your projects |
You’ll have to shift through and fix a ton of human errors and mistakes | You can avert most errors immediately through built-in quality control |
You need to start each new localization project from scratch | You can exploit your translation memory to accelerate new projects |
It takes longer to build a product without the use of technology | You can finalize a product more quickly, sometimes, with just a few clicks |
You need to employ additional tools for delivering different tasks | You can use the same simple platform for various tasks across projects |
Reporting and monitoring will have to be done manually at every step | You can create reports and check your project status with one click |
The criteria for choosing the best localization services provider should depend on various factors. Your needs might be different from another company’s, so it’s important to think about what’s most important for your localization projects before making a decision.
Some questions you might want to ask yourself include:
When done right, localization services can help you go from a domestic market player to a global one. But with the vast array of localization providers and technology solutions available, it can be tough to figure out where to start—or even what localization services you need.
To get the most bang for your buck, make sure that you choose the type of service that works best for your specific content and context, the technology that will save you time and money in the long run, and the provider that offers the right mix of quality, speed, and service level for your needs.
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Want to learn how our solutions can help you unlock global opportunity? We’d be happy to show you around the Phrase Localization Suite and answer any questions you may have.
Last updated on March 21, 2023.