We live in an increasingly digitized world. Everything is controlled and optimized by technology, and companies have long been able to use different forms of technology for the improvement of their operations.
One area of business operations that is especially dependent on technology is marketing. Today, your marketing efforts will go a long way in determining how big a portion of your target market you’re able to conquer and reach. And, just as well, a large chunk of your marketing efforts will depend on your ability to take advantage of technology as well.
The primary objective of marketing is to raise awareness for your brand and what you sell. You want to communicate the benefit of your offering to people and convince them to patronize you. To do this effectively, it is important to reach out to them personally – speak their language, understand their wants, and work towards meeting their needs. This is where localized digital marketing comes in.
At its core, localized digital marketing allows you to easily build your marketing strategy to target a specific target market – essentially, a local audience. The point is for you to be able to start locally, building out your campaign to fit a group of people first.
In this article, we’ll look into the basics of localized digital marketing, as well as how to get started building a strategy.
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Localized Digital Marketing: What Is It?
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a significant level of development in digital marketing. Companies can use social media, Email, and other tools to improve their reach, building relationships with customers on the other side of the world.
However, localized digital marketing is an optimization tactic that focuses on adapting your marketing efforts to a specific local context. In a nutshell, localized digital marketing involves taking your brand, product, service, and message, and optimizing it for customers in a specific location.
With localized digital marketing, you’re customizing your message so that it seems like your product or service was made specifically for a local audience. This form of marketing usually includes:
- Translating your content into the language of the local audience – especially if you’re running a global campaign
- Incorporating local slang and lingo into your marketing content to appeal to the audience
- Changing your marketing assets’ layouts and styles to match the preferences of a local audience
- Tweaking your campaign visuals and design to appeal to the local audience and conform with customs and traditions
- Using the most popular communications channels for your target audience
- Showing products in the local currency – not just what you’re used to
- Using locally accepted formats for things like addresses, phone numbers, and dates
- Considering local regulations when setting up your marketing campaign
Why Do You Need Localized Digital Marketing?
When it comes to digital marketing, one of the most important trends at the moment is personalization. Customers want to be spoken to in a way that they understand, and they will most likely only patronize brands that they believe are relatable.
This ability to relate better with people is exactly what localized digital marketing helps you to achieve. You can show people that you share their values, understand their aspirations, and speak their language. Thus, localized digital marketing helps you to improve the customer experience and build the right relationships with your audience members.
Once you can build this loyalty in your customer base, it becomes less of an effort to get them to patronize and place orders on your behalf. As a result, you get to convert better and can even save money on ads in the long run.
Right now, there’s a slim to no chance that your company is the only one in its industry. And even if it is, you will most likely be facing some stiff competition soon as the business world tends to get very competitive very soon. By localizing your digital marketing efforts, you will be able to stay one step ahead of your competition. While they use generic marketing to cast abroad net, localize your efforts and ensure that you can target multiple markets, each with its own specific message
Incorporating Localized Digital Marketing Into Your Business
Now that you understand what makes localized digital marketing so important, it is worth understanding how you can get started with it. As a business or a marketing manager, here are a few tips that could help you out:
Mark the Distinctions
Before you start working on a localized digital marketing plan, you would want to consider the difference between two critical terms – translation and localization.
Generally, your objective here is to ensure that you send a message that the locals want to hear and will resonate with. This means that you will need someone with translation skills to help you out. And, note that it doesn’t necessarily have to be literal translations – sometimes, you need someone who understands the slang and lingo of your target audience. That way, you can have a more seamless time reaching out to these people.
Primarily, you need a translator to help you appeal to a diverse range of people. So, besides being fluent in the specific language, you also need someone who can help you connect much deeper with your target audience.
On the other hand, localization means getting formatting for things like ties, numbers, and other unique elements based on the specifications of your target audience. It adapts much better to your local community, meaning that you will most likely need something that goes beyond the pale of ordinary translation and which is more culturally relevant.
Use Research for Proper Market Insights
When it comes to any form of marketing, you should know that insights and research are your best friends. So, it definitely plays a critical role here too.
With research, you know the markets you’d like to pursue and the right channels to work with for proper localization. To that end, you want to keep the following in mind:
- Know your target audience: When researching new markets, it is impossible to emphasize how much you need to know your target audience. Survey them to know what they need and find the best ways to give this to them. Otherwise, your entire business model could be doomed from the start.
- Keep the important stuff: From the onset, you want to know what’s most important to you. What details do you need to get concerning your market? Do you need to know more beyond just the ideal market? Look into all the possible details and ensure that you have all the questions answered.
Treat the most important stuff first: You should also document your observations based on their importance. As soon as you get responses, start to prioritize them.
- Prioritize analytics: You also need to understand the place of social media and web analytics. As a marketer, you want to know what your target audience is saying on social media and what they’re searching online to understand how you can target them best.
You should keep in mind that market research can be a time-consuming process. So, don’t expect to start getting the insights you need in a day or even a month. Spend time with it, and be ready to commit to the process to get the best data possible.
Work With Your Audience
The next step will be to find people who are fluent in the target language as you try to localize your marketing strategies. This is where you need the services of a translator or an interpreter.
Infiltrate local social media
The best way to break into a country is through social media. And in many ways than one, you can start your campaign with it.
When building a localized digital marketing campaign, you want to create social media accounts that are targeted toward your audience and the region you want to penetrate. Today, several brands already have accounts that are optimized for specific audiences and countries. Some of them use these accounts to target their customers in these countries and talk directly to them, making it easier for these people to contact and engage.
When you’re looking to put an ad campaign in place, localized social media can definitely help you. It’s easier to sell an idea to a new demographic and engage with them.
Get Local Influencers to Help You
If you’re looking to bring a new product or service to a target audience, then one of the best ways to do so will be to get influencers who can easily sway public opinion and get people to take action.
The influencer marketing space is expected to hit $16.4 billion in value this year. Brands are expected to improve their influencer marketing spend, and you can rest assured that your competitors will be doing the same too. So get ready to engage some influencers.
However, as you work with influencers, you want to keep a few things in mind:
- Influencers come with large followings that you will automatically be exposed to. So, be sure to speak to prospective influencers and talk to them about the industry and what you aim to do. Understand what they think is important to do, and work with them on the best approach.
- Even while you work with influencers, you want to ensure that your message is as organic as possible. Most people in these target markets understand that influencers get paid for the brands they promote, and the last thing you want is for them to sound like they’re just promoting you because they got paid.
- You should also opt for micro-influencers. They connect more with the people because they sound like regular people. Micro-influencers are more trustworthy, and they charge less. If you’re looking to save money on marketing expenses, you need them.
Localize Everything
Finally, you want to remember that your localization attempt needs to actually cover every aspect of your marketing. So, go all in. Build local social media channels that can speak to people in the language they understand. At the same time, localize every facet of your website for every region you’re looking to enter. As you hope to enter new markets, you want to make a strong first impression. So, don’t go small at all.
As you work on your campaign, you want to avoid the following:
- Inadequate research: When your market research and analysis are insufficient, your implementation will be wrong. If research is a bit of a hassle, then hire someone to help you with it. The research will help you a great deal as you hope to optimize your marketing efforts, so don’t trivialize it.
- Sending mixed messages: If you hope to localize your marketing, ensure that all of your materials are localized. Get your translator or interpreter and ensure that they vet everything that goes out to ensure that it is on brand and in line with who you’re hoping to target.
- Trivializing customer service: You need to implement customer service for your local audience as well. If any issues arise with your customers, it helps to know that they have someone to talk to.
All in all, you should always remember that localized digital marketing can be an important part of your overall strategy. Treat it as a crucial part of your entire approach, and consider every step as you hope to implement.
Final Thoughts
One of the best ways to reach out to new customers is to talk to them in the language they understand. With localized digital marketing, you have the perfect opportunity to do just that – and more!
That being said, the steps toward implementing a foolproof strategy can be arduous – especially because you might not necessarily know these people and their behaviors. So, be sure to take your time and be meticulous with your approach.
