An Introduction to Localization for Omni-Channel Marketing

In the age of digital marketing, localization companies are often asked to translate:

• Websites
• Marketing collaterals
• Point of sale materials
• Campaign material
• Slogans
• Tag-lines
• Brochures
• Catalog descriptions
• Search engine keywords
• Social media text
• Videos

Digital marketing content of this type is a growing vertical in the world of translation and localization as companies look for fast and effective access to new markets and channels.

‘Full’ context is key

It is widely recognized that for a translation company to provide maximum quality they need to understand the context of the text they are translating. Here’s a simple example: if a piece of text refers to ‘a ball’ it may be helpful for the translator to know if it refers to a tennis ball, a medicine ball, or even a dance.
So context is key. It is less widely acknowledged, however, that your provider will be able to offer a better quality, more meaningful and economically attractive service if they understand the ‘context’ in a broader sense. By that I mean the medium in which the content will be used, the target market, the intent of the content, and how it fits into the overall marketing strategy.

Growing a global brand

Developing, creating and maintaining a brand is not a cheap business; doing it on a global scale can significantly add to that cost. It is, therefore, critical to maximize your chances of success and that means working closely with your language provider and supplying the level of information necessary for them to deliver optimum quality and service.
One example of where deeply integrating your language provider into your global digital strategy could result in improved results is in the area of channel adoption. With the advent of digital marketing and new media came two new broad digital marketing strategies that could be employed by organizations with multiple outlets for their goods and services: multi-channel and omni-channel marketing.

Multi-channel vs. omni-channel

In layman’s terms, the difference between the two strategies lies in the fact that in a multi-channel marketing approach the objective is to make it simple for the potential customer to buy from the company in whatever way is easiest for them, whether this be a website, catalog or retail outlet.
It is important when marketing across different platforms and channels to ensure consistency in order to avoid customer confusion and dissatisfaction. Consistency of product descriptions and pricing is key, and so multi-channel marketing usually requires the implementation of platforms, content management systems which regulate and manage content and needs, and consistent updating and maintaining of content, as well as allowing for such things as promotions, which may vary depending on the outlet medium.

Customer experience

With omni-channel marketing, the aim is to provide a seamless experience for the customer regardless of the channel or device. The customer engagement experience will be exactly the same regardless of whether customers have accessed the seller by way of their website, by entering a store, or even by calling the company on the phone. The right platform and effectively managed systems become even more critical if a true omni-channel experience is to be provided.
In essence, then, you could consider that multi-channel marketing allows you to connect with the customer within the environment they are using, whatever that may be. In omni-channel, you are respecting the fact that a customer may start their journey in one channel, switch to another for, say, research and ultimately purchase in a third environment, and you are ensuring that regardless of the medium or outlet the experience is consistent, seamless and connected.
So ultimately, there are common and unique challenges presented by each strategy. When the element of international transactions is added, you can appreciate that these challenges are exacerbated.

The global customer experience

Omni-channel can offer an unparalleled unified experience for the consumer. For the marketer, it can facilitate a great customer journey and ultimately assist in driving brand loyalty. When it comes to being able to offer the right experience, the multilingual content management challenges include complexities of content creation and deployment, as well as organizational and technical silos and the requirement for fast, streamlined and consistent update processes.
When using an omni-channel strategy to manage your brand on a global scale, consideration needs to be given to such issues as how to monitor content activity and how to evaluate which content does and does not require translation effort, and then how to control the entire, often lengthy translation process to ensure that international users enjoy the same high-quality experience.

More than just translation

Consistency is also a primary objective when localizing the content.  The strategy relies on a seamless customer experience, and this would clearly be obstructed if different terminology, product names, descriptions etc. were employed depending on the medium used. As well as consistency in terminology, there also needs to be consistency of style, tone of voice, and in design and user experience.
Effective centralization of assets and maximization of reuse is also important for supporting an omni-channel engagement. By centrally managing and translating content, your provider can maximize reuse of translation, which, as well as ensuring consistency, will minimize cost and speed up translation time, achieving simultaneous release and quick updating of global content.
So, returning to the theme introduced at the start of this article, I hope you can start to see why it might be important to include your digital marketing translation agency in the process and ensure that they appreciate the strategy being employed, in this case, omni-channel. This will mean that they can provide feedback and guidance on how best to address the challenges of consistency, terminology management and design, and employ an effective translation management structure and technology that integrates into your content management systems and ensures a seamless, consistent and quality process, similar, in fact, to the experience that you are aiming to provide to your customer.