Multimedia localisation is a term modern businesses need to be familiar with. Translation alone is no longer enough to connect with multiple language audiences across an expanding digital landscape. For companies and brands that wish to reach the most valuable people to their business and build profitable relationships, it is important to start with the build of a comprehensive multimedia localisation strategy. Without one, brands risk losing their voice and it won’t take long for competitors to jump in and take the lead with target audiences.
Marketing is a multimedia game
Today’s companies can’t rely on one or two media formats to reach target audiences. Prospects are spread out across a range of digital and offline channels, consuming a wider variety of content formats than ever.
Now, a typical buyer could interact with the following media types every day:
- TV
- Radio
- Streaming/Video OTT services (e.g. Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.)
- Podcasts
- Search (e.g. Google Search, Bing)
- Social media (e.g. Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn etc.)
- Online video (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, Social media reels etc.)
- Physical/OOH ads (e.g. billboards, wallscapes, posters, transit ads etc.)
- DOOH ads (e.g. digital billboards & signage, point of purchase displays etc.)
These channels connect prospect buyers to every media format available, from audio, video, text and imagery, to an emerging array of technologies such as, augmented and virtual reality, as well as programmatic advertising.
This means that companies need to establish a strong multimedia marketing strategy in order to reach their audiences across every relevant channel. For companies targeting multilingual audiences, the web provides the perfect platform for reaching people around the world without necessarily relying on physical content such as OOH content for example.
Unfortunately, it is often underestimated how much of their content needs to be localised for each audience.
Maximising audience reach & engagement
Producing multimedia content for multiple language audiences is a big investment. Maximising ROI is essential and this objective cannot be achieved by using the exact same content for every audience.
In many cases, translation alone isn’t enough to fully connect with people from different cultural backgrounds. Localisation takes translation several steps further to maximise reach and increase engagement with every audience.
The easiest way to explain this is by looking at some examples. For the sake of simplicity, we’re sticking to just one channel – and one that every modern business can relate to: websites.
Now, let’s look at some of the ways website localisation steps beyond the limitations of translation alone:
- Website localisation: Optimises the structure and code of a website for translation and multiple language audiences (including domain structure, hosting services, loading times and many other factors).
- UI localisation: Optimises user interfaces for translation, allowing enough space for larger words (text expansion) without breaking layouts.
- Language selection: Most commonly, this combines a system of geolocation tracking to select the local language by default with a language selection menu for users to choose alternative languages.
- Multilingual SEO: Optimises each language version of a website to rank for searches in the correct language.
- Content localisation: Adapts web content to maximise relevance with each target audience – and, when necessary, optimises content strategies for each one.
- Image localisation: Ensures every image is relevant to the target audience, including any text that may require translating.
- Numerical formats: Optimises numerical values, such as currencies, date formats, units of measurement, etc.
Complete website localisation includes many other tasks, but as you can see from the short list above, relying on standard translation isn’t enough. Localisation prepares a website for translation, ensures translated elements are 100% relevant to each target audience and optimises a variety of non-language elements that impact both website and user experience.
Now, if this thinking and approach are to be applied to any other channel and media format in a marketing strategy, it quickly becomes clear why multimedia localisation is so important.
Multimedia localisation is the go-to translation service
For modern brands, multimedia localisation is the go-to translation service because the traditional method of converting text content into another language isn’t enough anymore.
Companies have to produce a constant stream of multimedia content – for every audience – to keep them engaged. This includes blog posts, social media posts (including video clips for some networks, images, interactive surveys or polls for others, and paid ads for most of them), video content, e-mail marketing campaigns and a variety of other types, depending on the nature of each business.
For companies operating on the international stage, there is no translation without multimedia localisation.
Is your multimedia strategy maximising its potential?
If your multilingual marketing strategy isn’t maximising its potential, then it is time to revise your translation process. Developing a more comprehensive multimedia localisation strategy will help maximise relevance with every target audience as well as boost engagement and expand audience reach.
To learn more about our multimedia localisation offering, get in touch with our localisation experts today. translate plus is a #1 multimedia localisation service provider globally, according to CSA Research, which now makes multimedia localisation one of our most in-demand services.