As a business owner, you’re thinking globally, right? In our mind’s eye we can see you nodding — and that’s good. That means you know that localization is important for your business. What — you don’t? Then you should. Here’s why.
Ever since the internet became a globally-used tool, it’s opened up endless possibilities for revolutionizing industries. This includes the voice over industry, for example — open marketplaces like Voice123 would never have existed.
Sure, it’s great to be given practically infinite choices at any given time. Think choice of career, choice of which shoes to buy, choice of entertainment. But it may set us up for oversight.
Particularly, oversight of localization. Our eyes are now stretched so far across the globe we sometimes fail to see what’s in front of us!
Like a local hardware store, localization might provide just the tool you need. The alternative is scouring the internet for a reasonably-priced solution.
What is localization?
Google says it’s “the process of making something local in character or restricting it to a particular place.”
In our instance, we’re referring to making something local in character, to help benefit your business.
Localization means making your product, branding, marketing, and whatever you’re presenting to your audience, local to them.
Say your product is lime soda. Or maybe a cucumber soda. Whatever the flavor, even if it’s not typically consumed in the area you’re selling it in, localization is the act of making it seem like the flavor fits right in.
Localization can be a great tool to relate with your target audience. Especially since the world is now super-saturated with content. While a generic ad will fail to catch an audience’s attention, a localized ad will. It will inevitably stand out from the generic info overload.
Why?
Because it shows that your business goes the extra mile to serve your customers’ specific needs. They’ll appreciate that. It also gives your brand a personal style, a voice, and something truly relatable.
It’s also been proven to be highly effective. If you don’t present a product in a customers’ native language, you could be losing out on 55% of consumers. The reason is strightforward. They buy from websites that provide information in their own language.
How can I localize my business?
Check out how Mc Donald’s masterfully localizes its ads. In an American ad, it touts patriotic and strong motifs. For Taiwan, it focuses on social issues and familial love. In other ads, it touches on cultural traditions and national preferences.
You may have also noticed that the products cater for people in a specific area. Take McArabia (which comes in a Kofta option) for Saudi Arabia, or McSpicy Paneer for India. Localizing products like this gets you closer to what the consumer wants, and is used to buying. That’s great news for your business.
Let’s summarize what McDonald’s does. Localization uses words, phrases, language, color, and even video style that fits right in with the customers’ culture. That’s great marketing. On a deeper level, localization leverages a culture’s values and beliefs.
From your perspective as a Voice123 user, it comes down to finding the right voice, whether it’s a brand voice, or just a great, professional voice over.
Using a voice for localization
It’s fascinating just how adept the human voice is when connecting with people. There’s a variety of factors that go into using a localized voice. These are language, tone, pace, color, diction, pronunciation, localized colloquial phrases, personality, and so on.
Most of these are applicable to a brand voice as well. The big player in localization is the human voice. Hiring a voice actor who is native to the region you intend marketing in, gets you well beyond halfway there. A voice like that is credible. Relatable. Trustworthy. And natural.
When searching for your voice acting professional on Voice123, most you come across will state where they’re from and what accents they can do well. Use this information to guide you in securing the right voice for your localization efforts.
Closing thoughts
Proper localization requires extra effort. It sometimes requires extensive research. What’s certain is that it will pay off. If you didn’t click the hyperlinked ‘55% of consumers’ above, that’s just one of the many instances of localized marketing impact. Here are 14 compelling statistics about the importance of localization. And believe us when we say they’re ‘compelling’ for good reason!
There’s just so much content out there these days that people actively tune out. If not that, they’re super-selective with the content they consume. The best marketing breaks through that selectivity barrier by speaking to the consumer directly and as if the person speaking is someone from their midst.
In the final analysis, ask yourself this: who would you rather buy something from — a trusted local, or a generic corporation? The trusted local. You wouldn’t even blink. Consequently, localization is the best way to secure the success of your business if your focus is global.
And with that, we finally wish you the greatest success!