Localization tips for Startups

Oleksiy Ponomarov

Starting your own business is no easy task, even when economy is growing. But what about launching a startup when the coronavirus outbreak is severely hurting the global economy? Does this seem to be completely impossible?
Surprisingly, if you have an idea on how to build a profitable product or service, it might be a great time to act right now and get ahead of competitors.

The very first step for your startup to go online is creating a company website. There are millions of potential customers who use the internet every day, but how do you reach them? In addition to traditional online marketing tools, such as SEO, PPC, social media and content marketing, we suggest you consider localization of your website. With that step, your company will gain an additional worldwide market share, by reaching an audience that does not speak English or does not feel confident enough to use it for purchasing.

Where should you start? With localization in mind, website creation itself might be performed differently, by taking into account the internationalization of content, and preparing your original website to be translated into different languages, including design, writing programming code and different character support, such as Asian or right-to-left languages.

Localization of website and marketing materials requires a considerable budget, therefore it is necessary to perform research first to determine which markets are most suitable for your new and attractive product. There is no doubt that your offer will be more popular on particular markets, depending on demand, purchasing power, local competition and many other factors.

Once target markets are defined, set the priorities and start creating localized versions one by one. Your localization provider will help you define the process and fit it into your budget for every language.

Make sure that you are using the best linguists for translation, able to convert the original message to the local language in a way that touches the hearts and wallets of your customers. The power of properly used words is much more effective than any design or friendly user interface.
And finally, do not overlook the importance of linguistic and functional testing of localized pages before going live. Errors and issues will spoil the great impression you intended to make with your localization efforts.

There are many other things to consider, such as keywords, proper CAT tool use, terminology management and SEO optimization, and each of them has a great impact on your localization project success. If you need support and guidance in the world of linguistic services, Janus Worldwide will gladly give you a hand and make your journey to success faster and easier.