Modern businesses rely on a range of digital channels to attract new customers – most of which require a constant supply of content to capture leads. For multilingual brands, the list of channels can be even larger and the volume of content required is multiplied with every language.
Digital localisation helps modern brands make these channels relevant to every language audience and produce multilingual content for them in the most cost-effective way. In this article, we look at five of the most common types of digital localisation that modern brands can’t do without.
#1: Website localisation
The first kind of digital localisation modern brands need is probably the most obvious one: website localisation. Instead of simply translating pages, localisation takes a closer look at the non-language aspects of your website to make sure they are relevant to each audience.
This might include having the local address and contact details show, converting prices into the local currency and formatting information like dates so they are interpreted correctly in each market.
You also have to think about the best way to implement language selection so that users can easily see, understand and change the default language when necessary. Likewise, an important aspect of website localisation is making sure the code of your site is optimised for translation and adding other languages in the future.
#2: Content strategy localisation
Multilingual brands can’t simply translate all of their content and expect it to have the same effect on each target audience. Topics of interest, consumer needs and cultural factors vary across markets and your content needs to cater for these, which means you have to create original content for each audience to address their unique needs and interests.
To achieve this, you will want to localise your content strategy for each target market so you are creating two types of content:
- Universal content that can be translated for each/multiple languages
- Unique content for specific audiences in their own language
Content that is relevant to multiple languages can be created first and then translated for each target language. While content that is unique to specific audiences will be created directly in their language.
#3: Social media localisation
Social media can be one of the most challenging channels for multilingual brands. First of all, you need to establish which networks to use for each target audience and the best platforms to use can vary across markets.
When you have a single platform catering to multiple language audiences (for example, Facebook), you will want to create separate accounts or pages for each language so you don’t end up with multiple languages on the same page.
Once again, you will also want to localise your social media strategy to suit the needs and interests of each audience, too. And you’re going to need native-speaking account managers in charge of each account instead of trying to translate interactions.
#4: Email marketing localisation
Email marketing is actually one of the easiest digital channels to localise, as long as you have the right strategy in place. Most of the leading email marketing software platforms provide extensive automation features that deliver relevant emails to each target audience as they progress along the consumer journey.
So the delivery aspect of multilingual email marketing can be handled by software.
However, you still need to localise your email marketing strategy and this follows a similar process to the content localisation we discussed above. Some of your emails will be relevant to all audiences, which means they can be translated from your source language into each target language.
Once again, though, certain audiences will respond to different messages and this will require unique email offers created in their native tongue.
#5: Video localisation
In 2020, 92% of marketers say that video is an important part of their marketing strategy and this makes video localisation crucial for multilingual brands. With translation taken care of through subtitles, voiceovers or a combination of both, you also have to scrutinise the non-language aspects of your footage.
Depending on the nature of your video, this might include the people involved (actors, interviewees, etc.), locations used, topics covered, cultural references made and the overall message. Your aim is to ensure these aspects are all relevant to each market, even if it means creating multiple versions of the same video.
In less extreme cases, you may simply shoot and edit footage for each target market – something that requires forward planning.
If you want to find out more about digital localisation and how to overcome the challenges of managing your digital presence across multiple languages, feel free to contact us.