If advertising in the 21st century has taught the business community anything, it is that the “Golden Age” of classical advertising is behind us. No longer can a business count simply on consumerist euphoria to drive their sales, and catchy advertisements and colorful signs will only carry sales so far. In order for businesses to successfully advertise, a lasting connection with the consumer needs to be developed. As many businesses have come to understand, the modern consumer seeks product knowledge, insight into companies’ actions and an understanding of how a particular product can benefit them and their lifestyle. Accordingly, issues previously irrelevant to a buying decision such as a company’s participation in social responsibility initiatives now heavily influence consumer choices. Therefore, clearly defining your corporate image and product line as well as communicating effectively how both can benefit consumers is vital to the success of a business. Market localization is designed to translate these messages effectively. Earlier this week we have looked at the preliminary stages of a successful website localization project. Today, we will survey the actual localization phase.
Once the proper research and SEO planning has been conducted, the website pre-localization process begins. In addition to setting up the content management system, this phase includes:
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setting character encoding standards (Unicode for all language versions or a specific standard for each different language version)
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creation of a style guide
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development of cascading style sheets and website template
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glossary development and translation memory management
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database content translation
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translation of content management system exports
In the meantime, writers and designers work on developing the corporate branding strategies so that the finished website will produce the best possible impact in each market. This process can be quite tricky. Advertising, much like politics, is local, and all about forming a connection with your potential market. A successful message needs to effectively communicate to a specific audience and address that group’s local culture, customs, and language. Decisions that have to be made in this stage include whether or not a company’s slogan, logo, text, mission statement and tagline are going to be localized or kept into the source language.
After the corporate guidelines are defined, translators, editors and graphic designers can begin localizing the textual and interactive website content. This process includes:
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translate all content according to predefined keyword choices
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select appropriate language variants (e.g. French language for target audience Canada or Belgium)
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adapt style of the language that reflects the target audience’s culture and customs
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adhere to regional linguistic specifics in vocabulary, grammar, punctuation
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cultural localization of graphic content
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symbol and icon localization (icons, bullets, corporate identity symbols)
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flash, multimedia interactive and audio and video contents localization
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website navigation and layout localization (not all languages are read from left to right, this will affect the positioning of the website’s navigation menus and sidebar content)
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web forms and plug-ins localization
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web and social media widgets localization
After all content is successfully localized, edited and designed, the final step is the review of the localized site in the local markets themselves. There is no better judge of your localization efforts than a group of actual consumers in the market that you are targeting.
Localization done right can be a long and tedious process. But it doesn’t have to be. EVS Translations can help every step of the way. Our team of translators, IT specialists, and web designer localizes websites and other marketing collateral into more than 50 languages.
Learn more about how we can help you capture new business around the world and give us a call TODAY:
Our US and UK translation offices will be happy to answer all your questions!
Atlanta office: +1 404-523-5560 or send us an email: quoteusa(at)evs-translations.com.
Nottingham office: +44-115-9 64 42 or send us an email: quoteuk(at)evs-translations.com.
– > Website Localization Done Right—Part 1
