Every person enters the new year with great expectations because they want to benefit from the innovations and opportunities it brings. You set new goals for your business and brainstorm how to achieve them. If you own a business, you probably want to grow. Which ambitious company wouldn’t want to grow anyway?
We’ve been thinking a lot lately about achieving growth and how to prepare for it. However, such a broad and comprehensive concept does not have a single equivalent.
For one company, growth may mean expanding its market share, while for another it may mean creating a new product line. That’s why it’s so important to know what growth means for you and your company.
Of all the growth strategies, let’s talk about market expansion, which is the most accessible option for all companies, from small to large. Let’s say you developed a product or service that customers want, what would be your next step? Of course, to deliver these to more customers. Let’s take a look at the important roles localization plays in the path to growth.
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How does localization affect success in market expansion?
As research conducted by leading companies in Asana and localization reveals, companies that adapt their products to the language and culture of the target market achieve success by growing more internationally.
Expanding into a different language market can make it harder for you to connect with potential customers, and may even cause you to miss out on those customers. People naturally prefer to do business in their own language. We can see this in many examples:
- It is not a coincidence that the companies that are among the top 10 in the world with their software services offer their services by localizing them to an average of 17 languages.
- 42% of Europeans say they always prefer to purchase products and services in their own language.
- 56.2% of consumers state that accessing information in their own language is more important than prices.
- 78% of people say they prefer to shop online from online stores in their native language.
Localization can be accomplished in countless ways, but if you want to deliver a good customer experience in different languages, you should include localization in your important strategic planning.
Even if your organization is small and growing, it makes sense to consider localization when creating your strategies. So how can you achieve this and what role should localization play in your go-to-market strategy?
If you are asking these questions, research conducted by Asana and leading companies in localization may give you the answer you are looking for.
In the light of these studies, it was understood that companies that adapted their products to the language and culture of the target market achieved success by growing more internationally.
What role should localization play in your go-to-market strategy?
You should include localization in the following two phases of your go-to-market strategy.
1. Market research
Before stepping into a new market, you need to know and understand the market through research. Before launching your product, you need to do all the research you do, such as product-market fit, target audience, social media, market research, surveys, for each of your new markets.
During your market research process, you will also research and prepare for a kind of localization. This gives you insight into local consumers’ preferences, including product features, cultural differences that may influence consumer behavior, and communication channels. The information you collect here helps you connect your business or brand with your target audience.
2. Strategy development
Second, outline your localization strategy in your market entry plan. Be sure to include the languages people speak and work in (these may differ) as part of your strategy, and list areas of cultural significance.
Localization helps you avoid situations that could damage your image, such as using sales methods that don’t suit local customers or being too pushy in a market where soft sales methods are preferred. It also allows you to offer experiences or products that differentiate you from other businesses and appeal entirely to local customers.
If you want to reap the rewards of your success early, you should prepare for localization with market research before stepping into a new market. Thus, when you step into the business world or launch your product, you can create a brand that appeals to local customers.
What about after?
Once you determine your strategy and take steps towards localization, you will no longer have anything to worry about when communicating with your customers.
Marketing
Marketing localization is the adaptation of existing physical and digital content to appeal to local audiences. This process is a natural result of increasing market demands.
For example, let’s look at the results of a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, which provides consultancy services to companies. 76% of respondents say content tailored or personalized to their industry, role and department is an “important” or “very important” element influencing technology purchasing decisions.
With localization, you will see the difference in all of your website, landing pages, blog posts, e-books and paid ads. However, you do not have to implement such an important step for everything at the same time.
It will always be best to start small and test new markets with localized content. First, you can try to measure the pulse of the market with a small-scale campaign.
For example, you can localize the landing page of a website and then run some localized advertising campaigns on the page with PPC (cost per click) model. You can then follow the remaining steps of localization based on the data you obtain from here.
Edward Cooper, Head of Crypto at Revolut, a London-based financial technology startup, summarizes this issue well with the following words: “When some start-ups and scale-ups started to localize their products, it was clear that they started to grow in other markets as well. However, if you are a small enterprise, you have to choose carefully which horse you will play on.”
Sales
In the process of localizing marketing content, it is of great importance to provide your sales team with the tools they need to sell to new markets. So, you need to localize sales content like sales slides, brochures, success stories, and demos.
If you want to handle this process in full detail, you may consider collaborating with a team that is experienced and knowledgeable about the local you target.
Product development
Your product team also needs to make room for localization in the workflow. Localization must become part of continuous workflows so that your products can meet customers all over the world at the same time. You can make your customers always feel valued by delivering your latest product to every corner of the world at the same time.
For example, the Dogo App team decided to localize their app from day one. They did this not only to open the app to a wider market, but also because they didn’t want to deprive people of the chance to discover the product in their own language. Their app is currently available in ten languages and has been named Apple’s “App of the Day” with two million downloads.
Tadas Žiemys, one of the co-founders of Dogo App, expressed his thoughts as follows in an interview: “You don’t need many customers in one country for localization. Having customers in different countries will be enough. Because when you gather these people, you still have a large customer pool.”
The extent to which localization should be incorporated into the go-to-market strategy varies for each company. One thing is clear; That is, localization should definitely be included in this strategy.
Otherwise, you may miss great opportunities. Discussing the 2,475% revenue increase on the Inside Intercom podcast, Prime Growth Manager Ed Fry noted this about international market expansion and localizing products to suit different audiences: “Small improvements can pave the way for big increases in total revenue.”