Pay Smart: How to Choose the Most Cost-Effective Localization Solution

October 2, 2023
#Localization
Pay Smart: How to Choose the Most Cost-Effective Localization Solution

Expanding your reach requires content localization. To be more specific, it requires adapting your business (therefore, not only text) to attract new customers in new locales - which often means adjusting everything from language translation to imagery part of the business.

While localization isn't a small investment in both money and time, especially when we talk about a vast cache of translatable content, a successful process guarantees high Return on Investment (ROI) and the ability to go global with and rapidly expand into your products and services.

There are several options for how localization can be done in 2023. The first option is to use professional localization services, where you hire a full team that organizes the entire process. While this option has long been the only way for companies to reach new customers, and it is often an incredibly costly way to localize the business, now the market sees more solutions that reduce costs while still providing quality results.

If you are ready to start website localization, then why pay more for the same job? Explore how to choose the most cost-effective yet top-notch solution to organize a global reach in 2023.

What is the Localization Process?

Localization isn't pure translation. It is obvious that translations are one of the key parts of the localization process, but it doesn't stop there. The process involves many steps and many elements of existing business to be localized. While we will elaborate on each step later, showing where you can reduce costs, the most crucial elements that should be adjusted to the new target audience are:

  • Content;
  • Marketing assets;
  • Visuals.

Localization allows companies to compete on a world stage today. The majority of businesses today are trying their hand in new locales, so staying in one locale will make it hard for any company to open up new revenue streams and stand out from the crowd.Β 

Translated texts alone are not enough to beat the competition and overcome local and international companies. That is why localization is not considered as going the extra mile - it is now crucial for any business looking for multilingual content creation and market success.

Who Needs Localization?

The short answer is everyone. However, not every company has enough time, local market presence, brand awareness, and time to consider localization at all. Thanks to the presence of new cost-effective solutions to glo global, everyone who is trying to reach new customers and improve sales needs localization.

For example, the ones that make decisions regarding localization are:

  • CEO;
  • Marketing Manager;
  • Content Manager;
  • SEO Manager.

Translation vs. Localization

Translation and localization terms are often confused. The translation (T9N) is one of the steps in localization. Translation is the process where you convert the text from one language to another - and that is pretty much it. Therefore, translation doesn't cover cultural differences and aspects that should be taken into consideration.

While translation should be accurate and is usually done by native speakers, localization is the only process that modifies the translated content for a new culture.Β 

Even though the US shares the same language as those in the UK, words that define one thing here can mean another across the pond. You can avoid potential linguistic lapses by taking localization into account.

Let's take a word jumper as an example. It refers to a knitted top in the UK. But when we talk about US residents, a jumper refers to a person attempting to jump from a bridge or building. That said, if we want to sell knitted wear in the US market, we should use the word Sweater.Β 

Localization develops the essence of the message and describes something in the most authentic way possible. Therefore, the goal of localization is to make the content fit different target markets and cultures.

Internationalization vs. Localization

Internationalization (i18n) refers to a strategy that makes services and products localizable. You can consider internationalization as preparation to ensure that a product or a service can be successfully localized.

Therefore, internationalization is a crucial step of the localization process that ensures you enter new markets.

Let's say you are looking to break into Arabic markets. The key steps of the internationalization here may include the following:

  • Supporting the local Unicode for character encoding - most of us know that Arabic content reads from right to left.
  • Designing navigation, layouts, and buttons so there is room for text expansions - in comparison, sentences in English usually take a smaller place on the web page than in Arabic.
  • Investing in a universal language using relevant illustrations.

Internationalization is a vital practice for furniture and technology providers. Thanks to their tech business nature, their websites and mobile apps often end up with a large volume of diagrams and illustrations to either explain the product or how it can be used. While these are definitely good, try more relevant and engaging illustrations when you are at the step of internationalization.

  • Tailoring services and products for local markets.

Let's consider KFC here - one of the most popular fast food chains that successfully localized their products all across the world. KFC's restaurants in Asia serve different menus than they serve in Europe - like there is a wide variety of choices of early AM sets, such as pancakes, waffles, soups, etc., in Singapore.Β 

Transcreation vs. Translation

Translation is a party of localization. And translation is also a part of transcreation. As the word implies, transcreation refers to a mixture of translation and creation.Β 

Transcreation is usually done by writers when they think about such elements of content as:

  • The tone of voice;
  • Cultural references;
  • Factual details it contains.Β 

Then, they convert all the insights into an accurate translation tailored to a completely different local context - which is one of the essential elements of localization.

For instance, we are all probably familiar with Haribo - a well-known company based in Germany that produces gummy bears. The German slogan of the company is: "Haribo Macht Kinder froh, und Erwachsene Ebenso" which in English means: "Haribo makes children and adults happy".Β 

This slogan has changed during the localization process, though the marketing team found a great solution that later was easily translated into other languages, and now it sounds as: "Haribo is a treat to be enjoyed at any age."

What are the Benefits of a Well-Thought-Out Localization Strategy?

While an effective content localization business strategy can benefit each business differently, it should at least do these three essential things for your business:

1. Expand Reach

Experts say that businesses that are not localizing their products and services can lose 40% or more of their total addressable market (TAM) β€” and website content is also included.Β 

That TAM isn't limited to markets you are currently presented in. It also includes those you plan to break into. By identifying and calculating the total number of potential customers that exist in these locales, you can easily gauge the percentage of them your localized content is reaching.

As a result, this will give you insights into optimizing the distribution strategy or making any changes to the existing process so you can get a higher percentage.

2. Promote Increased Positive Engagement

Based on the research performed by a Common Sense Advisory, 66% of customers on EOS, though most prefer as much relevant information as possible in their native language.

Such tolerance reveals a high interest in what businesses have to say and/or offer. Therefore, you can imagine how the interest in customers would increase if you provided a fully localized user and customer experience, making content as authentic for them as possible. The more elements of the business are localized - the better engagement metrics.

3. Positively Impact Your Bottom Line

Increased engagement means a sense of connection. A recent study reveals that when the target audience feels related and connected to a business, almost 80% of them will choose it over competitors offering the same products and services. Simply put, you should notice a steady increase in order values, sales, and overall market share once localization is done.

What Localization Solutions Are There?

Apart from translating content, a website will also need to communicate a consistent message in one brand voice across different locales and channels. This will involve more than translation to localize the website content to different languages and cultures while preserving its original meaning.

While localization is a complex process, the market is currently filled with a range of solutions that have been designed to help with just that. These localization solutions can't create a localization strategy as it also requires comprehensive data collection, though they can reduce up to 80% of human work and reduce overall human involvement in the process while still delivering quality translation.

If you have a website, there are three common types of website localization tools, such as:

  • Self-translation services;
  • Translation services;
  • Automatic website localization software.

1. Self-Translation Services

We are all already familiar with these DIY translation services. The working process is extremely easy: create a copy of a paragraph of text into the translation service and choose the destination language; the platform will translate the text into any chosen language and the best thing - absolutely for free.

Some popular examples of such services are Google Translate, DeepL Translator, and Bing Microsoft Translator.

2. Translation Services

In contrast to the first option, which relies on specific algorithms to translate content, translation services involve humans - but not business owners. While the quality of human translations is better than in Google, the cost is usually high. Such translation services can assist in the following:

  • Translating websites, web apps, particular web pages, documents, software, and more.
  • Proofreading the translated text.
  • Streamlining translations of large volumes of text using API.
  • Providing other services like video subtitling, multilingual chatbots, and Google Ads translations (however, this often depends on the chosen provider).

3. Automatic Website Localization Software

Automatic website localization solutions are probably the most popular and cost-effective option today. This software combines all mentioned above and goes further by using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Processing (NLP) and neural machine translation technologies.

Working as a complete localization solution, these apps contain almost every feature you need to successfully break into new locales. The price will depend on the chosen tool, though the cost is much smaller than with human translation, and the results are often better in terms of ensuring the new content matches the target market's cultural nuances.

The best automatic software localization software has the following features:

  • Machine translation post-editing: Once the text is translated by machine, you, a professional proofreader, or a team within the localization solution can edit the text to ensure it fits cultural needs and differences.
  • A vast range of languages: With human translators, you should look for a particular native speaker for each new locale. And you don't want to do the same time-consuming and costly job when using such software. So, the ideal machine translation software offers a vast range of languages to choose from and does not require extra costs for each new locale (or the extra fee is low).
  • Advanced features for other types of content: When choosing localization software, it is best to find one that has simple website translation features and advanced ones as well. That is vital since we bet you have more content than just website text, like emails, marketing campaigns, and videos, that should also be localized.

How to Choose the Most Cost-Effective Localization Solution?

There is no best localization solution since everything depends on your specific needs and business criteria. However, there are some essential things you can still consider to choose the best solution for your budget and needs. Some questions you may ask yourself are:

What markets will you be targeting?Β 

This is a crucial question that should be answered at the very first stage of the localization work. Depending on the number of locales you want to reach with localization, you can identify what software fits your needs best.Β 

Some apps are costly since they provide over 100 languages, others are cheap and free because they can translate content only in 5 languages, and there are apps like Rask AI that are cost-effective, though they offer over 130 languages for content translation.

Will your workflow be agile, lean, or traditional?Β 

If you follow rigid processes in every business process, then you will need to choose either a localization tool with great customer support to assist you throughout the process or hire translators who can work quickly and adapt to the communication flow of your company.

How much content do you produce daily, and what are the types of content?

Translators won't be able to deliver high amounts of content, and you will also need to hire extra specialists with each new type of content to be localized. That is where high costs are involved, and the process tends to be slow - the entire website can be translated within a few months.Β 

That is where automatic localization solutions with translation memory come into the picture. If you choose apps that work based on AI - one piece of content can be translated within a few seconds, so there is no limit to the content you can translate each day. In addition, some of these apps, like Rask AI, can easily translate and localize different types of content, including long videos and YouTube Shorts based on translation memory technology.

Will you break into all markets at once or take an in-region, phased approach?Β 

When more content has to be translated simultaneously, your human translators will have to manage localization projects and workflows for multiple markets. While this might be true for some providers, the cost is still the highest when compared to other localization solutions available today. Machine translators can't get tired, so they can do work for you while you sleep or focus on other business tasks.Β Β 

What timeline are you comfortable with?

There are large translations providers and small teams, so choosing the right one will play a key role in how quickly they can translate your website content and other business elements for localization. The thing here is that humans still take longer to translate content and adjust it to the culture you target.Β 

Even though they can still hurry up and provide expected results, imagine the cost of hiring a large team for your business. AI tools for automated translation, dubbing, and localization resolve this issue by delivering translated and ready-for-localization content in just a few clicks.

Are your plans to scale?Β 

Scaling is crucial when it comes to reaching new markets and standing out from the crowd. Not every business has plans to scale once the localization is already done, though it is still a great practice in most cases.

So, if you constantly produce large volumes of content and plan to reach more markets in the upcoming future, the most cost-effective and long-run localization solution here will be machine translation software like Rask AI.

So, What Software to Choose for Your Localization Project?

The short answer is choosing flexible software. Flexible software allows businesses of all sizes and different volumes and types of content to easily manage the localization process. Whether the localization is done by the marketing team or CEO, whether you need to translate only a website or video content, or maybe you need more advanced features alongside simple translations - flexibility in choice will be the key.

That is why it is crucial to choose a localization tool that gives you freedom without extra fees for each new feature, new language, or new user added to the plan. While some quality apps will still require fees for some features, you should still be able to choose from several available plans, one that suits your projects budget (and, therefore, business goals) the best.

Rask AI is currently the best solution for translation, dubbing, and localization. This localization tool offers a free trial, allowing users to test available features and only then decide whether to continue or not. It offers over 130 languages for content localization while also being packed with the most advanced features for localization like dubbing, generation of Shorts for social media channels automatically adding subtitles and captions, and much more. The app has several plans to choose from, and it is considered to be the most cost-effective solution for almost every localization project in 2023.

Last Thoughts on Choosing Localization Platform

As you grow, your localization platform should grow with you. Localization software is usually made based on a subscription model, including different prices for each plan, new features, and amount of users. Such localization solutions tend to be best for businesses with pretty stable localization needs and content workflow - ones that consider breaking into new locales and expanding their reach either on a regular basis or continuing to adjust new content to chosen locales.

Choosing the software that suits your budget and needs also involves the features you are looking for the most. You should consider what type of content you need to localize, ease of user interface, how much of it has to be translated based on chosen markets, and whether you will need quality assurance for regulatory compliance or not. Regardless of your choice, give automated translation software platforms like Rask AI a free try before committing to any solution so you can be sure you found your wild card.

FAQ

What is a localization solution?
What is an example of localization?
What does a localization company do?
What are localization platforms?
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Only insightful updates, zero spam.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

That's interesting, too

Lip Sync Meaning in the Digital Age: A Game-Changer for Creative Marketers and Content Creators

Lip Sync Meaning in the Digital Age: A Game-Changer for Creative Marketers and Content Creators

December 1, 2023
#Lip-sync
Rask AI launches a Lip-Sync Multi-Speaker Feature

Rask AI launches a Lip-Sync Multi-Speaker Feature

November 30, 2023
#news
Automatically Generate Captions for Videos and Social Media Posts with a Caption Generator

Automatically Generate Captions for Videos and Social Media Posts with a Caption Generator

November 28, 2023
#Subtitles
Boosting Video Views with Accessibility: A How-To on Closed Captioning for Videos

Boosting Video Views with Accessibility: A How-To on Closed Captioning for Videos

November 28, 2023
#Subtitles
From Repurposing to Resonance: Translating and Localizing Your Marketing for Global Reach

From Repurposing to Resonance: Translating and Localizing Your Marketing for Global Reach

November 27, 2023
#Video Translation
Automate Video Translation and Dubbing with Rask's Localization API

Automate Video Translation and Dubbing with Rask's Localization API

November 22, 2023
#Localization
Content Factory: Beyond Single-Channel Creation. A Multi-Platform Dialogue

Content Factory: Beyond Single-Channel Creation. A Multi-Platform Dialogue

November 21, 2023
#Content Creation
The Marketer's Toolkit: How to Add Subtitles to Video for Global Impact

The Marketer's Toolkit: How to Add Subtitles to Video for Global Impact

November 20, 2023
#Subtitles
Bridging Linguistic Chasms: A Deep Dive into the Global EdTech Language Diversity Rankings 2023

Bridging Linguistic Chasms: A Deep Dive into the Global EdTech Language Diversity Rankings 2023

November 9, 2023
#Research
How Rask AI helped a Czech TV Company Break the Ceiling in Viewership

How Rask AI helped a Czech TV Company Break the Ceiling in Viewership

November 8, 2023
#CaseStudy
Rask AI on French TV: β€œLa France a un incroyable talent”

Rask AI on French TV: β€œLa France a un incroyable talent”

November 8, 2023
#news
Add Captions to Video: The Untapped Technique for Amplifying ROI

Add Captions to Video: The Untapped Technique for Amplifying ROI

October 30, 2023
#Subtitles
Best Meme Creators: Discover the Ultimate Services for Meme Magic

Best Meme Creators: Discover the Ultimate Services for Meme Magic

October 26, 2023
#Content Creation
Rask AI Feature Spotlight: Tutorials and Insights

Rask AI Feature Spotlight: Tutorials and Insights

October 26, 2023
#news
Best 200 Tools for Video Content Creators: The Ultimate List

Best 200 Tools for Video Content Creators: The Ultimate List

October 25, 2023
#Content Creation
Lip-Sync Apps: The Ultimate Lip-Sync Solution for AI Video Translation

Lip-Sync Apps: The Ultimate Lip-Sync Solution for AI Video Translation

October 25, 2023
#Lip-sync
The Future of Education: Unpacking Interactive Learning

The Future of Education: Unpacking Interactive Learning

October 23, 2023
#EdTech
How to Make Money with Podcast: The Ultimate Guide

How to Make Money with Podcast: The Ultimate Guide

October 19, 2023
#Podcasts
30x More Views on YouTube: A Canadian Catholic Association Expands Outreach with Rask AI

30x More Views on YouTube: A Canadian Catholic Association Expands Outreach with Rask AI

October 19, 2023
#CaseStudy
Multilingual Education: Bridging Cultures and Languages

Multilingual Education: Bridging Cultures and Languages

October 11, 2023
#EdTech

Related Articles

Automate Video Translation and Dubbing with Rask's Localization API

Automate Video Translation and Dubbing with Rask's Localization API

November 22, 2023
Why Pay More? Choose Best AI Video Editor for Localization

Why Pay More? Choose Best AI Video Editor for Localization

September 14, 2023
Breaking Barriers: The Role of Game Localization in Global Success

Breaking Barriers: The Role of Game Localization in Global Success

August 28, 2023
Driving Global Sales: The Crucial Role of E-commerce Localization

Driving Global Sales: The Crucial Role of E-commerce Localization

August 16, 2023
What is Localization? Definition, Benefits, Examples, Tips

What is Localization? Definition, Benefits, Examples, Tips

July 26, 2023
What is Software Localization?

What is Software Localization?

July 28, 2023
Mobile App Localization: Everything You Need to Know

Mobile App Localization: Everything You Need to Know

July 21, 2023
Internationalization vs. localization (i18n vs l10n): What’s the difference?

Internationalization vs. localization (i18n vs l10n): What’s the difference?

July 15, 2023
Unleashing Growth through Marketing Localization: How to Connect Emotionally with Local Audiences

Unleashing Growth through Marketing Localization: How to Connect Emotionally with Local Audiences

July 4, 2023
Language Localization: Which Dialect is Most Localized in 2023 + 10 Tips To Go Global

Language Localization: Which Dialect is Most Localized in 2023 + 10 Tips To Go Global

June 27, 2023
Translation and Localization | Key Differences

Translation and Localization | Key Differences

June 8, 2023
Localization Strategy: The Game-Changing Approach You Thought You Didn’t Need

Localization Strategy: The Game-Changing Approach You Thought You Didn’t Need

May 25, 2023
How Video Content Localization Can Help Scaling Your Products Globally

How Video Content Localization Can Help Scaling Your Products Globally

June 1, 2023
Best Practices for Budgeting and Cost Management in Localization Video Projects

Best Practices for Budgeting and Cost Management in Localization Video Projects

May 24, 2023
The Business Impact of Investing in Localization Videos

The Business Impact of Investing in Localization Videos

May 24, 2023
The Advantages of Implementing an AI Localization Video Platform in Tech Support

The Advantages of Implementing an AI Localization Video Platform in Tech Support

May 24, 2023
Maximizing ROI for Your YouTube Channel with AI Video Localization Platforms

Maximizing ROI for Your YouTube Channel with AI Video Localization Platforms

May 24, 2023
Streamline your Customer Support with AI Localization Video Platform: The Future is Now

Streamline your Customer Support with AI Localization Video Platform: The Future is Now

June 4, 2023
How YouTube Creators Can Leverage AI Video Localization Platform to Reach a Wider Global Audience

How YouTube Creators Can Leverage AI Video Localization Platform to Reach a Wider Global Audience

May 24, 2023
Maximize Your Global Reach with AI-Powered Video Localization

Maximize Your Global Reach with AI-Powered Video Localization

May 24, 2023
By clicking β€œAccept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information.