Regardless who you’re gearing your online marketing to, localized web content has been shown to be one of the most important factors when it comes to successfully achieving your results. As such, it isn’t uncommon to find online marketing efforts employing every trick it can muster to localize its pitch. What factors come into play when you reach out to customers this way?
1. Language. If you’re reaching out to a Spanish demographic, it pays to localize the language of your website. Should the cost of a full-fledged translation be difficult to shoulder, you can opt to get a translation software instead. Of course, we should warn you now that impeccable software-based language translation is not possible at this time. For the most part, most automated translations will be prone to error and unclear sentence formations.
What we suggest is to use the language software to localize shorter phrases, which these types of tools can handle very well. Menus, labels and headers, for instance, can easily be machine translated with no errors. Slogans and short sentences can also be translated in this way. While it may not be as good as a full website translation, the results it can get might surprise you.
2. Images. If you’re marketing to a particular ethnic demographic, doesn’t it make sense to use images that depict their ethnicity? Instead of filling your Chinese-targeted landing page with blonde and blue-eyed models, why not look for pictures of yellow-skinned Asians instead?
3. Global English. If you’re going to keep most of your copy in English, make sure to write it in such a way that it doesn’t prove too difficult for non-native speakers to understand. Use simpler constructs, avoid confusing figures of speech and write sentences in a way that sounds natural.