According to a recent SDL report, there should only be one language for global businesses – the customer’s. In order to be truly be successful in today’s global environment, businesses must stop making translation and localization efforts an after-thought, but instead their top priority.
Global Translation businesses were once able to get by with just translating their go-to-market materials along with the ebb and flow of various product launches.
But in today’s “multicultural, mobile and digitally-empowered society” it has become vital that businesses keep pace with the constant real-time multilingual conversations that are taking place 24/7 around the globe.
In order to achieve this businesses must make translation and localization strategies central to everything that they do. It’s not enough anymore to simply deliver a product in the local language, but you must also “speak to your customers in ways that compels them to share your content and create brand advocacy in their language of choice.”
Here are SDL’s 3 reasons for making sure that your business becomes increasingly multilingual through a stronger translation and localization strategy:
1. Language improves sales and loyalty: As Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in HIS language, that goes to his heart.” By getting the translation and localization strategy right your business will have an increasingly significant impact on the customer experience – and revenue potential.
2. People will pay more if the buying experience is in their language: It’s simply only the starting point to get the product in the target language. The more you can get the whole buying experience in the customer’s language the larger the payoffs will be. Businesses need to stop focusing on “selling into markets,” but instead making their brands a part of the customer’s culture and conversation. By tailoring your communication and messaging to create a brand experience your customers can truly relate to you’ll be able to create a dramatic competitive advantage over the companies that are not doing this.
3. It’s not just about geography; Global customers now live locally: According to the SDL report 1 in 4 Millennials living in the US speak a language other than English at home. In Australia that ratio is just 1 in 3, and in Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway 1 in 2 Millennials speak a language other than the local language in the household. Consequently your language and localization strategy become significant not only for your international markets but for your domestic market as well.
As you leverage your customer data, ensure your language strategy takes into account real customer preferences, not just their location.