Understanding Language Costs and Expertise  

When translating content into multiple languages, it’s important to be aware that translation rates can vary depending on factors such as language pair availability and subject matter expertise. Hiring professional translators who specialize in the required fields ensures accurate and culturally appropriate translations. To optimize your project’s investment, consider comparing translation rates and exploring cost-saving strategies.  

Finding the Right Talent 

One of the most significant challenges in tackling a multilingual localization project is finding the right talent. The complexity lies in identifying linguists who possess the necessary language skills, cultural knowledge, and localization expertise. Evaluating the qualifications of these linguists becomes particularly challenging when you lack proficiency in the target languages, making it difficult to gauge the quality and accuracy of the localized content. Proper research, collaboration with language experts, and leveraging reputable language service providers can help address these challenges and ensure the selection of qualified linguists for successful multilingual localization. 

Effective Project Management 

Managing a multilingual localization project requires meticulous coordination due to multiple stakeholders, deadlines, and potential time zone differences. Establishing a plan to optimize overlapping working hours and strategies to address issues when linguistic teams are offline is crucial for project success. Language service providers employ experienced project managers who handle every aspect of the project, reducing unnecessary stress. They leverage Translation Management Systems (TMS), task lists, spreadsheets, and other tools to ensure seamless project tracking.  

Efficient Handling of Queries 

During the translation process, linguists may have questions to help ensure accuracy and context. Implementing an online query sheet centralizes all inquiries, avoiding repetitive emails and providing linguists with easy access to information. This streamlined approach saves time and promotes efficient communication for the translation team. 

Maintaining Quality and Consistency 

Something to bear in mind as well is how to manage quality and consistency when you’re working with multiple languages and vendors. While we won’t get into detail about this here because it may be too early in the process to worry about that, if this is a concern for you right now, we suggest you take a look at this blog post for helpful insight. 

The Takeaway 

It may seem daunting, but armed with the knowledge of these key considerations, you can approach a multilingual localization project with confidence. Understanding factors such as language costs, working with expert linguists, effective project management, and streamlined communication can significantly enhance the outcome. To make the process smoother, consider partnering with a localization expert who can assess your project’s specific needs and provide invaluable guidance. With the right support, your multilingual localization project can successfully reach diverse audiences and unlock new growth opportunities.

The post Navigating a Multilingual Localization Project: Key Considerations and Tips appeared first on Terra Translations.

One way to assure stakeholders that localization is worth the investment is to present them with cold hard numbers that measure the return on investment (ROI) the company is getting after localization occurs. It can be quite challenging to fully prove ROI for localization, but there are some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be valuable to examine.  

Let’s take a closer look at the KPIs that can help companies better understand their ROI, as well as which metrics aren’t as valuable as they seem at first glance. 

Ignore Metrics Specific to Localization 

First things first, when trying to establish the ROI on a localization project, it’s important to forget the popular localization metrics of the past. These metrics aren’t as helpful as they seem at first glance and while they may help you evaluate the quality of a localization project, they won’t be able to tell the full story your stakeholders are looking for. 

• Number of localized words per language 

• Number of localization errors per language 

• Average turnaround time 

• On-time delivery rate 

While the localization team should be looking closely at these metrics to measure efficiency, other stakeholders won’t be able to take much away after reviewing them.  

Common KPIs for Tracking Localization ROI 

The key to finding KPIs that will provide the insight you need is to specifically choose ones that are unique to your industry, company, and product or service. The following KPIs are simply suggestions to get you started. You’ll need to choose the ones that make the most sense for your business, and that align with your goals.  

Some of the most common KPIs for tracking localization ROI include, 

• Sudden or consistent website traffic increases from a region with a recently localized language 

• Increased website session length 

• Decreased bounce rate 

• Conversion rates on localized landing pages 

• Steady SEO improvement in a region with a recently localized language 

• An increase in market share in a region with a recently localized language 

• Higher social media engagement  

• Sudden spikes in lead generation  

• Usage rates of your product in different markets 

• Incremental sales in regions covered by supported languages 

• Larger number of support tickets per language 

It is a good idea to track the customer experience in the different markets you localized your content and products for. It can also be helpful to conduct a survey to learn more about customer satisfaction and to look for areas where you can improve your localization efforts.  

Patience is Key 

Another important element of localization success to keep in mind is time. Seeing an ROI doesn’t happen overnight. Which is why it can be a good idea to use analytic tools to compare and contrast your KPIs from the period before localizing and the period after. That way, you can see the impact of your efforts over time.  

The post What Metrics Can Help Measure Localization ROI?  appeared first on Terra Translations.

What is culturalization and when is it needed?

Let’s start from the beginning. What is culturalization and when is it needed? Culturalization takes translation a step further to make linguistic and non-linguistic changes that can make an impact. This may include changing imagery, colors, jokes, music, or cultural references to better suit a target audience.

Some real-life examples of culturalization can be seen in the video game Age of Empires and the movie Inside Out. In 1997 Age of Empires was released and featured a historical event in which Japanese forces from the Yamato dynasty invaded the Korean peninsula and took over the Joseon Empire during the Middle Ages. The problem? While the majority of historians believe this event occurred, the Korean Ministry of Information claims it never happened. In order to launch this game successfully in Korea, Microsoft had to decide if they would change history in order to make their game appeal to this new target audience or maintain historical accuracy. In the end, Microsoft’s solution was to release a Korea-only patch that changed that specific scenario to having the Joseon Empire invade Japan (which never happened).

In the film Inside Out, a father tries to feed his toddler broccoli but the child dislikes it. This is a relatable and funny scene in the US where many kids don’t like broccoli. However, in Japan, children don’t have the same dislike of broccoli, but they do dislike bell peppers. In the Japanese version of the movie, the broccoli was swapped with bell peppers to make the scene as impactful in Japan as it was in the US. Including broccoli in the Japanese version of the film wouldn’t have caused offense, but it also wouldn’t have had as much of an impact. These two examples show the different solutions culturalization can bring to the table.

How culturalization improves ROI

If we want to discuss culturalization ROI, what we really need to consider is whether building relationships with customers and strengthening a bond with them really impacts your ROI in the long run (this is known as “relationship marketing”). Understanding the culture and values of an audience, as well as what drives potential clients in a certain market becomes crucial if you want to create a bond with them and nurture those relationships.

If your product does not take into account the particularities of a target audience, no matter how good the product is, it has very little chance of being successful. This is because two things can occur. It can fall flat or it can cause offense unintentionally—either way it fails.

Why Culturalization and Not Just Translation

When you incorporate culturalization into your global expansion strategy, you’re making sure that your product will be well-received and you won’t be getting yourself in trouble. Essentially, culturalization sets your product up for success.

The whole point of culturalization is adapting content to appeal to specific markets and cultures. If you stop at the translation or localization step, you may discover that your content or product is not attractive to a given audience and therefore your efforts have been in vain. Yes, they will be able to understand it, but they won’t be motivated to engage with it in a meaningful manner. Especially not to an extent that will make them want to continuously consume your content or buy your product.

The Takeaway

If your content is good and is culturally appropriate, chances are you’ll get more clicks, more conversions, and ultimately a good ROI. Additionally, you will have strengthened your brand, as well as gained loyal customers that can become your local advocates everywhere. All of which can help you find global success.

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