Content Localization allows presenting yourself to new markets, going deeper in the marketing funnel, and providing learning experiences for people in different markets in relatively low-cost ways.

The main benefit of content localization is engaging people in new markets without actually being there, or having any representation.

It’s like saying “Hello new market, we just arrived, what do you think about our product? Want it?”.

What is Content Localization?

Localization is the process of making your messages understood in other people's cultural contexts and language.

In the B2B business context, businesses willing to expand to new markets (or go deeper inside the current market) need to explain their brand values, business activities, marketing, and sales operations learning to new team members and social impact in a way that people in new potential markets will comprehend and relate.

I had the chance to work mainly on video content localization, Which is a complex form of localization because it is based on scripted text, narrated audio, visual graphics, and video footage.

Localization was from Hebrew to English and from English to Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, and French.

What are the 3 Levels of Content Localization?

There are 3 base levels of content localization

Basic Localization

The user is able to understand the content in his own language. A basic localization example includes adding subtitles to videos or translating a blog post to another language.

Audiovisual Localization

The user feels that content takes his considerations into account, even it wasn't originally produced for his needs. Users can both see and hear in their own language, and therefore more cultural nuance is experienced. Audiovisual localization may include an English website with pages and resources in different languages and even some cultural considerations like hosting a local podcast. In videos - reproducing the narrator in other languages increases a positive experience for the user.

Cultural Localization

The user identifies himself with the content narrative. This workflow takes content architecture alone, like taxonomies structure, nomenclature and makes a totally new content piece from it.

This is probably the deepest way of localization since It takes into account many aspects of culture. In some cases, it can include company name adaptation (very popular in Chinese market localization), new marketing messaging including strong UX writing, and micro-copy taking language and culture into account, localized visuals such as photos and videos. Cultural nuances like people, pop culture, tradition, and locations are taken into account in visuals rather than stock footage or content that is already owned. Cultural localization is most accurate when provided by local providers.

In website and app building, localization levels are broader and include 5 levels of localization.

Learning Content Localization Examples:

Basic content localization example

I mainly experienced video content localization. In video content localization I usually script in English first in order to effectively outsource technical translation and proofreading to true native translators living in the source country where content will be published to.

Here is an example of a basic video content localization project I did for Sure Universal, an IoT company, now focusing on healthcare.

Basic localization took place from scriptwriting what the client’s business development manager needed into English, producing the shooting day, video editing and after final approval, sending it to subtitle production to Mandarine Chinese. Luckily my Chinese studies came in handy here and I was able to evaluate at some level the meaning of the subtitles.

Here’s the result:

Audiovisual Content Localization example

Here’s an audiovisual localization project for Project Bar Group, an AgriTech company looking to expand its business overseas.

Project Bar leadership was looking for a video turn-key project producing an explainer video, and distributing it in Hebrew for their local clients, English and Chinese for opportunities overseas.

The process began in scriptwriting in Hebrew for easy communication with the client’s team. The script was written in a way that the only thing to do after the Hebrew version was ready, was to replace the narrator’s voice, add new language subtitles, and replace animated titles as possible.

Cultural Localization example

At the beginning of this use case, I mentioned cultural localization as a high form of localization taking into account many aspects of the market audience culture.

For example, this Hebrew and Russian diabetes prevention video content series were made for MSD.

In collaboration with Russian-speaking director, Igor Raizberg, We met doctors to research our content before production. writing talking points together with them to better fit the local audience while taking into account multiple localization factors such as language, content, and context.

In the Hebrew version, for example, we focus on adapting middle eastern diet habits while in the Russian version focus was on the reduction of carbohydrates and alcoholic beverages.

The content architecture was similar in both cases keeping a lifestyle-cooking TV talk show style since the overall popularity of these shows on local TV.

Key points to consider in video content localization?

1. Localization isn’t only about how to enter a new market in a new country. It may also be getting deeper in your existing market, for example, immigrant-based countries. These countries are identified as places where a significant amount of the population may not speak the mainstream language and wouldn’t engage with your otherwise.

2. You may not always be able to read the localized content, and should always take in mind a trusted 3rd person to check if the meaning is clear and didn’t come out from a low-quality machine learning translation test.

3. Localization level should reflect your actual maturity level and effort in entering a new market. If you are only looking for a proof of concept you may not want to invest in a full cultural localization project. If you already have some activity and consider making a new base - only then consider a full-scale localization solution.

Conclusion

In my opinion, content localization is a great prototype tool for the evaluation of potential interest in new markets or with defined audiences. It also allows rich learning experiences for various stakeholders in various markets with relatively small efforts.

Also take into account, whether localization will be handled internally or managed by an outsourced professional. Unless you have an internal content localization team or professional, I see maximum efficiency in working side-by-side client PM with content localization professionals. This way you move on the stress to someone else, provide quick feedback from all stakeholders and contribute the specific voice while the pros handle all content editing, proofreading, production, translation, and manage all steps execution according to milestones.

Better be awarded that localization efforts should be followed by further market research and a clear go-to-market strategy so the content impact will be maximized.