Introduction
Finance is one of the most influential sectors in today’s world. The World Economy is growing at such a rapid rate. This is all due to businesses and companies opening up their new franchises in more than one country. Setting up businesses and companies in a foreign land must be challenging especially when the languages are different like they can cause localization errors.
There would be a hurdle in understanding between the newly set up business and its clients. This hurdle would lead to a problem in communication. To minimize and solve such problems, translation companies enter this scenario. Trusted and good-reputed translation companies play their role when respective clients hire them for the translations.
These translations are not meant to be of business-related documents only. The translation companies also help you with the translations of all kinds of software, video games, websites, products, programs, and any other kind of multimedia content. This leads to a rise in sales or viewership of multimedia content.
The linguistic and cultural adaptation to the targeted locale drives more and more audiences to that particular business or company that sought such services. Till now, you may have heard about translations of birth certificates, death certificates, divorce certificates, transcripts, USCIS, driving permits, and every other kind of documents.
With technology and the economy simultaneously growing at such a rapid rate, the market demands different kinds of translation services. To sum it up, the translation companies offer “Localization services” which are translation and cultural adaptation of all types of multimedia content.
To help you get started, we would introduce you to the term “localization” and very summarily discuss all sorts of Localization errors.
Inception
Different products and multimedia content such as video games have a specific language. This language guides and instructs about the product or the multimedia content. If the company of that product or multimedia content wants to make the product internationally available then they would need to localize it to every part of the World.
Wherever they are willing to distribute it. So let us clarify what localization is, to make it easy for you to understand as you may need localization services at any time of your life.
What is Localization?
We can define the term “localization” as the adaption of a product, applications, documents, or multimedia content such as video games, websites according to the linguistic, cultural, and other requirements of a targeted market. Sometimes localization is also referred to as “l10n” because there are 10 letters between L and N of the word. Localization is a business strategy and service that is often sought by companies and business-minded people.
Companies that offer localization services can do localization of all kinds of multimedia content whether it be a program, video game, website, or even technical communications such as voice-over and videos. It is done to meet the particular business-related requirements of a particular geographical area.
Why Is Localization Important?
Localization holds a strong significance. Here are some factors that localization greatly impacts:
- It is important to drive more audience or customers to your content or product. A stronger customer base means a stronger position in the marketplace.
It earns you a special significance in the market. Localizing your products or services would increase the chances of getting more monthly or annual revenue. Localization earns you positive reviews and customer satisfaction that can make your business stable.
- Localization frames your content, products, or services to be more appealing. It increases the engagement for your services and lures customers to buy your products. An easy and understandable translation of your services or products according to the language of that particular area, automatically increases the reach of your business.
- Companies that localize their services and products also tend to grow at a rapid rate. Localization helps businesses and companies to overcome cultural and linguistic barriers. This helps them enter new markets. The customers tend to spread the word for the good services. This helps you increase the total revenue and engagement of your company.
All of these factors leave no reason for you to not localize your product. Considering all the positive aspects of localization, your business may reach its heights if provided with good localization services.
Translation Vs. Localization
Often confused by the common audience, translation and localization are two completely different terms. The translation is the process of reworking text from the original language to the target language to share equivalent meaning.
On the other hand, localization is a process to adopt a product or service according to the cultural requirements of another country or area. It may or may not involve linguistic aspects of the product. It just depends upon the type of product or service you are localizing.
Globalization Vs. Localization
Just like the case with translations and localization, people also often confuse the terms “globalization” and “localization”. Globalization makes the service or product internationally accessible. It does not require the adaptation of products to specific cultures or areas. On the contrary, localization makes the service or product available to a targeted locale. Localization adapts the service to a specific area or culture.
What are Localization Errors?
No matter how reliable and trustworthy a company you hire for the localization of your services, the localization may eventually end up with several errors. Localization errors are the flaws that you encounter in the localization of your services. These errors may create a challenge for your business’ reputation.
Top 10 Localization Errors to avoid
Here are some errors that you may encounter in the localization of your products:
- Machine Translation: Machine translations may play a vital role in delivering on-time translations but with a disadvantage. We cannot trust machine translations as do may lack personal touch and naturalness.
- Incorrect Meaning: When translating word-by-word, it may result in having the incorrect meaning of the translation in whole.
- Poor Translation of Names and Places: Translators sometimes avoid translating names and places. They should research how a name is referred to in other languages to retain professionalism in the translation.
- Losing Product Titles in Translation: Product titles should be detail-oriented. Customers like the feeling that the product is designed especially for them. So, the translator should also modify the product title according to the locale.
- Same Payment Methods For Every Region: Different people enjoy and are comfortable with different payment methods. You should have a variety of payment methods to satisfy your customers instead of setting up a single payment method for every region.
- Lack of Diversity or Inclusion: Your content should support diversity and inclusion. Again, customers want to feel like a product is oriented only for them.
- Getting Political: You should keep politics out of your business campaigns. Politics have a very personal effect on an individual. Different political opinions may result in driving your customers away so you should avoid getting political.
- Missing the Small Details: The smallest of the details make the biggest of the differences. You should not neglect small details such as clock format or calendar format.
- Linking Strings Together: The process of linking strings end-to-end may make the coding of your content more efficient.
- Specifying by Language instead of Locale: Specifying by a language instead of a locale drives away the potential customers.
Denouement
Localization is an effective way to rocket-boost your business especially when there is so much competition in the marketplace. Just like translation and globalization, it is another factor significant for pulling more customers to your business.
