De digitale technologieën van vandaag maken het voor internationale klanten gemakkelijker dan ooit om de producten en diensten te vinden die aan hun behoeften voldoen. En ze zoeken die informatie online, in de talen die ze spreken.
A recent study found that 56% of consumers rated the ability to obtain product information in their preferred language as more important than price. If your company’s website isn’t localized, you’re missing a significant opportunity to connect with international customers—and handing your competitors an advantage.
Brass tacks: When you’re expanding globally, investing in website localization services isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s mission-critical.
Why is Localization Important?
When introducing new products to a global market, localization is key to success. While translation converts content to another language, localization goes beyond that—it adapts your content to resonate with local cultures, preferences, and market conditions. It’s not just about language; it’s about connecting with customers on a deeper level.
Localization involves more than just translating words. It might include adapting images, changing measurement systems, adjusting time zones and currencies, or even reformatting for different reading directions (like right to left).
The Benefits of Localization
Gelokaliseerde websites en andere digitale content stellen u in staat om echte, authentieke connecties te maken met consumenten en zo te kunnen profiteren van voordelen zoals:
1. Increased trust
You can show that your brand respects other cultures through website translation and localization. According to CSA Research, 60% of non-native English speakers rarely or never buy from English-only websites. In fact, 64% of buyers say they value localized website content. You can gain genuine trust from your target audience through cultural adaptation.
In turn, when trust is enhanced, key performance indicators (KPIs) see a sizable lift. KPIs measure the performance of a company, its activities, processes, and the progress of projects. In order to be significant, KPIs must correlate to quantifiable business goals. Determining the success of any localization program is tied to the overall expectations of the expansion project or business strategy.
The increase in trust localization creates can lead to important retention KPIs improving, including
- Generating higher sales
- Higher customer satisfaction
- Delivering an excellent customer experience
- Increasing net promoter score (NPS)
- Lower attrition rates
2. Easier interaction with your brand
Het leven van klanten wordt beïnvloed door wat ze elke dag gebruiken, zoals hun favoriete sociale media, mobiele sites en meer. Content localization makes your online presence available in multiple languages, across all channels, and ensures that your company will be able to reach more people where they live and work. This enhances a positive user experience for global customers and helps them trust your brand.
A positive user experience directly results in an increase in sales conversion rates and engagement rates, as well as lower bounce rates. User experience has become incredibly important, especially when looking at statistics that show how 74% of customers can switch brands if the purchasing process is too difficult for them; or, that 86% of users are inclined to pay more for a great customer experience. It's no wonder that global spending on customer experience has been estimated to reach $640 billion by 2022.
3. Improved Global SEO & Search Visibility
Uw online aanwezigheid lokaliseren, is niet beperkt tot wat klanten kunnen lezen op uw website. Met de juiste vertaaloplossing kan alles gelokaliseerd worden: beelden, multimedia, sociale media, dynamische pdf's en meer. Keywords, metadata, and hreflang tags can be localized to improve global SEO efforts and drive engaged global traffic to your website. Once there, global customers will benefit from an enhanced user experience and content that speaks directly to them.
Benefits of localized SEO:
- Higher rankings in international search results
- Increased organic traffic from global audiences
- Better click-through rates (CTR) from non-English users
4. Stronger brand consistency
Translating websites for your global markets gives you full control of your message, and delivers a consistent brand experience across all markets. Het is gemakkelijker om ervoor te zorgen dat uw merkboodschap wordt gecommuniceerd zoals u wilt, in plaats van miscommunicatie door externe bedrijven of agentschappen. Without localization, your brand message could be misinterpreted-or worse, ignored. By adapting content to local cultures and languages, you maintain brand integrity while resonating with diverse audiences.
5. Better segmentation
Today’s leading website translation services and localization solutions make it easier than ever to share customized messages to customers in different global markets. U kunt uw online bericht onder controle houden en tegelijkertijd tegemoetkomen aan de behoeften van regionale klanten en digitale reikwijdte van uw bedrijf vergroten. A localized strategy lets you segment and target markets more effectively. Customizing messaging for different regions improves relevance and boosts engagement in key demographics.
6. More support for in-market teams
Gelokaliseerde websites zijn niet alleen een geweldige bron van informatie voor consumenten, maar ook voor lokale verkoop- en ondersteuningsteams. Een gelokaliseerde site kan marktspecifieke producten en diensten onder de aandacht brengen, aan lokale regelgeving en wettelijke vereisten voldoen en informatie verstrekken waar lokale marketingteams gebruik van kunnen maken bij de opvolging van prospects.
Localization Turns Cultural Differences into an Advantage
Waarom is cultureel relevante, gelokaliseerde marketing zo belangrijk? Om te beginnen is het bepalend voor het feit of u al dan niet een echte band met consumenten tot stand brengt.
Target’s Failed Expansion into Canada
A prominent example of a failed international expansion due to poor localization is Target’s entry into Canada in 2013. Despite being a household name in the U.S., Target’s venture into the Canadian market fell flat, costing the company billions of dollars.
Key reasons for failure:
Supply Chain Issues: Target struggled with its supply chain, resulting in empty shelves and inconsistent inventory. This left customers frustrated and gave them little incentive to return.
Product Assortment Misalignment: Target did not localize its product offerings to meet Canadian consumer preferences. Products that were popular in the U.S. didn't resonate with Canadian shoppers, and local competitors like Loblaws and Walmart Canada were better at meeting local needs.
Pricing Confusion: Target's pricing strategy didn't fully account for the difference in exchange rates between the U.S. and Canada. Many Canadian customers were unhappy with the higher prices at Target compared to what they saw in U.S. stores, despite the proximity of the two markets.
In just two years, Target closed all 133 of its Canadian stores, marking one of the largest retail failures in North America. This example underscores how failing to localize product selection, supply chains, and pricing strategies can lead to disastrous results, even for well-established companies.
Maar wanneer uw website wordt vertaald en gelokaliseerd voor internationale klanten, bewijst u dat u hen begrijpt en belang aan hen hecht. Op die manier creëert u een sterkere band met uw klanten.
Localization is a Growing Global Marketing Trend
Tegenwoordig verwachten internationale klanten online content in de taal van hun voorkeur. Ze navigeren snel weg van websites en merken die dat niet kunnen. Kijk maar naar deze globaliseringsstatistieken:
While 60% of all content on the Internet is in English, native English speakers only make up about 5.4% of the world’s population. Only 25.3% of the Internet market share prefers English-only content, which leaves nearly 75% who prefer to consume content in another language.
China and India are still winning the Internet. China currently has over 1.02 billion online users, while India ranks second with over 658 million. Geen van beide landen gebruikt het Engels als eerste taal.
Global shopping has gone mobile. More than 55% of global smartphone owners use them to shop online, and they like to do so in their preferred language. Trends like these prove that speaking your customers’ languages through localized content is essential to your marketing success.
Take Advantage of the Benefits of Localization
These days, your company must speak the local languages of your global customers. En u kunt het bereik en succes van uw marketingteam alleen maar versterken door gelokaliseerde online content aan te bieden via elk kanaal en in elke markt waar u actief bent.
To make the most of your online localization efforts, partner with a digital-first translation agency that employs expert human translators hand-in-hand with advanced technology solutions such as translation memory, to get your marketing message to your customers in the languages they prefer. Translation memory is a part of a larger system called a CAT (computer assisted translation) tool, which describes software used to increase translation productivity, catch mistakes, and improve consistency.
Utilizing translation memory helps support the localization process by allowing the re-use of translations for other projects, such as document translation, app localization, image translation, or for translating emails or other content.
MotionPoint provides website localization services that support business localization goals anywhere. MotionPoint's technology minimizes operational complexity and maximizes translation and localization impact, and can provide you with flexible and consistent brand imaging, messaging, and marketing content through global markets.
Laatst bijgewerkt op 12 maart 2025
