What are the three most iconic brands you can remember right now? And what do they all have in common?
Probably a stunning annual revenue, an accelerated market expansion rate, and a loyal customer base…
These are all correct answers, but what do you think happened before that helped them reach their current level of success?
Well, they simply crossed their own country’s borders and started talking to potential customers abroad with more than translation services.
And guess what…
IT WORKED.
Language is vital for human connection.
You wouldn’t invite a stranger to randomly sit in your living room, right?
There are many steps to be taken before we feel like sharing our life and space with someone else.
International brands are aware of those steps and they will make sure they present themselves as this nice and trustworthy person who understands you and speaks just like you.
So… Are you ready to speak your customers’ language?
If not, then you should know that according to a survey conducted by the market research firm Common Sense Advisory and published in Harvard Business Review:
- 72.4% of consumers are “more likely to buy a product with information in their own language”.
- 56.2% think that obtaining information in their native language is more important than price.
Many tech companies, having realized the need for translating content in a fast-paced mode, have created free and easy-to-use machine translation tools.
However…
They are also very good at making your content get lost in translation.
Don’t get us wrong.
Technological innovations have played a major role in shaping the translation services as we know it today, but human intervention remains just as essential to achieving the best linguistic solutions.
That’s because translation is just the first step of a much more comprehensive process called:
If you have a digital product or service that has a great potential for captivating new audiences, then localizing it to new regions will substantially improve its chances of success and, consequently…
Localization
Of increasing your company’s market value and revenue.
Localization started to be discussed and performed in the 1980s, as Microsoft and other American software companies started having regular users all over the world, who required language-friendly platforms.
Today, almost thirty years later, Localization has become an indispensable process in the gaming, software, and e-commerce industries, to name a few.
Why info products’ global expansion plans FAIL due to poor translation services
Despite the struggle everyone had to go through during the Covid-19 pandemic, the “new normal” pushed the necessity of a more digital world with online solutions.
E-commerce is experiencing speedy growth, and the info-products are a big slice of that pie.
One of the info products’ top characteristics is the transformation brought by a well-designed educational approach that makes consumers eager to experience more than just entertainment.
There is a genuine desire to learn, to feel empowered, and, often, to obtain a life shift.
Online education helps students save both money and time. And for the ones who thought e-learning could never replace in-person education, after the 2020 pandemic they were forced to think twice.
The worst experience an info product could provoke on its user, especially when they’re just arriving for the first time, would be calling them “stupid”.
You might think: Who the hell would do that?.
Well, directly probably no one, but indirectly… many.
Let’s imagine a guy from abroad who decided to purchase a digital product available in his native language and is now watching the video class about the topic he’s really interested in learning.
But instead of using 100% of his focus to just absorb the information, part of his mind is wondering why the author’s explanation started to not make real sense…
Or, even worse, the user might unconsciously start to blame himself and wonder things like:
“Is what the author is saying really making sense?
“Am I the one not understanding?”
“Is this too complex for someone like me?”
We wouldn’t be surprised if that customer disappeared and never came back, right?
The best reward to any translation services is to be invisible, which means that the final consumers, most of the time, are not fully aware of the whole process required to make that material feel so native, friendly, and easy to go through.
And that type of connection is the priceless result you should be looking for.
So, to wrap up:
Speaking English is just not enough, and translating is just not enough.
It’s time to go further and boost healthy relationships with loyal and happy customers in their own native languages.
Localization is essential to achieve this goal and it simply cannot be done by a machine alone. It’s worth taking the time and finding a professional translator or specialized agency to handle your product-safe trip abroad.
Of course, finding the right localization partner makes the difference between conquering new markets through multilingual expansion, or an expensive global failure.
And what better way to expand your info product business to different audiences worldwide…
…than partnering with a one-and-done localization agency that lifts the entire process off your shoulders and serves as your voice in multiple languages?
Here at InfOhana, we specialize in taking all of your content, marketing, graphic line, etc., and make it feel as if it was made in the languages you want to expand to.
This could be Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, or all of them.
If that sounds like something you want for your business, let us know what your product is about and we’ll tailor the strategy that works best to achieve your expansion goals.
Just click the link below and let’s make it happen: