Company Localization: 5 Best Practices to Drive Global Growth
This post was published on Nov 8 2022 and updated on Aug 15 2024 for completeness.
Expanding into global markets is an exciting opportunity, but it requires meticulous planning. While many companies understand the importance of translation, the task of developing a successful and effective company localization process is often overlooked. This oversight can lead to costly mistakes, missed opportunities, and a diminished brand reputation.
To help you navigate this complex process, we analyzed hundreds of projects across various industries to identify five key elements that all successful company localization processes contain. This blog details best practices you can follow to prepare your company for sustainable and scalable growth in overseas markets.
Want to drive overseas growth with cost-effective and proven localization methods? Milengo’s clients leverage our 30+ years of localization expertise to achieve more than just great translations. Through the strategic implementation of translation tools and technology, we help our clients establish streamlined and automated localization solutions that make localization easy and affordable. Are you ready to master localization?
Book a consultation call with our localization experts.
The importance of company localization
Localization is the cornerstone of global consumer trust. It is the process of adapting and tailoring your company’s product and stakeholder communications to resonate deeply with diverse cultures, markets, and consumer behaviors.
By demonstrating a genuine understanding of local customs, preferences, and nuances, you foster a sense of connection and reliability amongst consumers. This trust translates into increased customer loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and a stronger brand reputation.
Consider these real-world examples of localization:
- Market expansion: A tech company aiming to enter the Japanese market must localize its website, software interface, and marketing materials to align with Japanese cultural preferences and reading habits.
- Customer experience: A global manufacturing company must tailor product descriptions, customer support, and payment options to suit local customs, regulations, and currencies.
- Brand reputation: A multinational corporation facing a product recall must localize its crisis communication strategy to effectively address concerns in different regions and languages.
By investing in localization, businesses can:
- Increase market share: By catering to local preferences, you can capture a larger share of the target market.
- Enhance brand reputation: Consistent and culturally relevant messaging builds trust and loyalty.
- Improve customer satisfaction: Localized products and services create a seamless user experience.
- Mitigate risks: Avoid costly mistakes and negative publicity due to cultural misunderstandings.
5 best practices for a successful company localization process
Here are five best practices to keep in mind when developing your company localization process.
1. Ensure your product is 100% ready for internationalization
While often overlooked, a product’s readiness for internationalization is a critical factor in determining its success overseas. This applies not only to software and apps but also to physical products, services, and marketing materials in manufacturing, industry, and other sectors.
Before expanding into foreign markets, it’s essential to ensure your company’s offerings are designed with a global audience in mind. This means considering factors like cultural nuances, language differences, and regional preferences from the outset. For instance, a product’s packaging or user manual might require adaptations to resonate with consumers in different markets.
Some considerations for localization include:
- Cultural sensitivity: Conduct thorough market research to understand local customs, preferences, and regulations to avoid cultural missteps.
- Design for adaptability: Products should be designed to accommodate various languages, units of measurement, currencies, and cultural preferences without requiring significant modifications.
- Content management: Ensure that all textual content, including product descriptions, marketing materials, and user manuals, is easily separable from the core product to facilitate translation and localization.
By investing time and resources in internationalization upfront, businesses can save significant costs and inconveniences down the line. Neglecting this crucial step can lead to costly reworks, missed opportunities, and damage to brand reputation.
2. In-house or outsourced: Choose your localization setup
The decision to handle localization in-house or outsource it to a professional language service provider is a critical strategic choice with significant implications for your business. Several factors should be considered when making this decision:
- Project volume and complexity: Evaluate the scale and complexity of your localization needs. Is it a one-off project, or will localization be needed on an on-going basis?
- Budget: Assess the financial implications of both options, considering both upfront and ongoing costs.
- Timeline: Determine the required turnaround times for your projects.
- Resource availability: Evaluate your internal resources and capabilities to determine whether they will have the bandwidth to effectively manage localization.
- Risk tolerance: Consider the potential risks associated with both in-house and outsourced localization.
In-House localization
In-house localization is typically suitable for companies with a high volume of consistent localization projects that require deep integration with product development, or the handling of highly sensitive content.
Advantages:
- Control: Greater control over the end-to-end localization process.
- Efficiency: Potential for faster turnaround times due to dedicated resources, and improved communication with internal teams.
- Intellectual property and data protection: Protection of sensitive information and proprietary knowledge.
Disadvantages:
- Costs: Higher upfront costs for hiring and training staff, as well as ongoing operational expenses.
- Scalability: Less flexibility in scaling resources to meet fluctuating project demands.
- Expertise: Requires specialized language skills and cultural knowledge, which may be difficult to maintain.
Outsourced localization
Outsourcing is generally a good option for companies with limited in-house resources, those entering multiple new markets rapidly, or those seeking to optimize costs and time-to-market.
Advantages:
- Cost-effectiveness: Often more cost-efficient as budgets are only spent when necessary.
- Expertise: Access to specialized language professionals and cultural experts.
- Scalability: Ability to quickly scale resources to meet project demands.
Disadvantages:
- Dependency: Reliance on external providers can introduce potential risks to project timelines and quality, if not properly managed. Working with a professional translation service provider that also provides project management support, such as Milengo, can mitigate these risks.
- Intellectual property and data protection: Increased risk of exposure of sensitive data. To reduce this risk, ensure that the language service provider you are working have proper data security protocols in place, and use NDAs.
Carefully consider these factors and weigh the pros and cons of each option so you can make an informed decision that best suits your organization’s specific needs and goals.
3. Plan a quality control approach
Appoint a localization champion within your company to oversee and manage the quality of translations on a permanent basis. Make sure this person coordinates with external localization managers and internal global departments. This will ensure that your brand voice and common business terminologies remain consistent across markets and departments.
This champion could even create a translation taskforce to get support from regional staff to verify and approve translated content. The last thing you want to do when you’re just getting started in a foreign market is to make a cultural faux pas!
4. Develop terminology management as early as possible
Standardizing product terminology from the beginning is a very small investment with a very large pay-off. By creating a glossary or a database with key terms and phrases in all languages you require, linguists won’t need to search for the right terms to use in translations, saving them time and thus reducing your translation costs.
Having clearly defined terminology also ensures that your internally defined corporate language for things such as products or key processes are consistently used throughout company assets.
5. Automate and streamline processes with tools and technology
A holistic localization process encompasses far more than simple text translation. It involves project management between multiple parties, file handling, and technological integrations.
A translation management system (TMS) is a centralized platform that orchestrates and streamlines the localization process across different markets and departments. By unifying project components and enabling seamless integration across departments and markets, a TMS empowers organizations to scale localization effectively by:
- Centralizing project assets: Storing and managing all project-related files, such as source and target documents, style guides, and translation memories, in a single location.
- Automating workflows: Streamlining repetitive tasks like file import, export, and distribution, freeing up time for higher-value activities.
- Improving translation consistency: Ensuring consistent terminology and styles across all projects through translation memories, style guides, and glossaries.
- Facilitating collaboration: Enabling seamless communication and collaboration among team members, including translators, project managers, and subject matter experts.
- Enhancing quality assurance: Implementing automated quality checks and leveraging machine learning to identify potential errors.
With numerous TMS solutions available, it’s crucial to consider your company’s specific localization needs when choosing one to ensure optimal results and maximizing your return on investment.
Case Study: Scaling, optimizing and innovating Infor’s localization framework
Infor is a leading global provider of ERP software. Operating in over 40 countries, they deliver innovative business applications to more than 90,000 customers worldwide.
We have worked together with Milengo since 2007. In this time, they have taken care of translation requirements for several of our flagship products and core languages. Their solution-oriented approach has allowed us to develop efficient processes for what can often be very technically demanding translation requests.
What’s more, our customer base includes many of the world’s largest companies and brands, and it’s critical that we deliver extremely high-quality localized versions of our products. In Milengo we have a vendor that we can depend upon to consistently meet our expectations.
– Arie van den Berg, Senior Global Director at Infor
Challenge
During an active expansion phase, Infor saw the number of target languages required for their flagship products increase from 11 languages to 27 languages over the span of one year. This increase in volume and target languages created a knock-on effect of greater project management effort, larger linguistic teams and more engineering requirements.
Solution
Milengo developed a custom script to streamline the translation of large volumes of XML files for Infor, reducing the need for manual file handling. These scripts were provided at no additional charge for internal use. At the same time, Infor also adopted a TMS, memoQ, to aid with project management.
Outcome
As Milengo’s partnership with Infor evolved, efficiency improvements led to more sophisticated and customized processes tailored to Infor’s localization needs.
- Milengo’s custom scripts for XML handling delivered an innovative solution that condensed thousands of files into manageable batches, significantly boosting productivity and lowering costs.
- With the adoption of memoQ, Infor were able to attain more efficient file handling and cost reductions. Furthermore, Milengo’s expertise with the tool meant Infor could rely on us for advice, implementation, and optimization of the tool.
The overall result is a more efficient workflow, allowing project managers and linguists to focus more on ensuring top-tier translation quality.
Unlock the full global potential of your business with Milengo’s expertise
Expanding into new markets is an exciting venture, but it also presents unique challenges. Whether you’re a seasoned global player or just starting your international journey, a well-developed localization strategy is essential for success.
By carefully planning your expansion and investing in the right localization solutions, you can adapt your products and messaging to resonate with diverse audiences. This strategic approach not only drives sales but also strengthens your competitive edge.
Milengo offers over three decades of experience in helping businesses navigate the complexities of global markets. Our localization expertise empowers you to connect deeply with customers worldwide, delivering exceptional experiences that drive growth.
