App localization translates web content or mobile apps into other languages. It is now accepted as a crucial aspect of marketing, as it is integral to the brand’s growth.
Since mobile devices have become a vital part of life with 6.7 billion users worldwide. As a result, businesses are now focused on creating user-friendly and inclusive mobile applications that appeal to a larger user demographic.
One approach for this is using localization services, as it can broaden the reach of an application. Let’s explore in more detail what app localization is, its challenges, why do it, and actionable tips to localize an application successfully.
What Is App Localization?
Application localization entails the adaptation of mobile apps to meet a target market’s specific cultural, language, and related requirements. It involves the addition of locality-specific features, UI elements, and the transcribing or translating of text that is reflective of cultural differences.
Mobile app localization is different from globalization, which is the process of selling one app version in several markets. The former basically tailors the existing product to each kind of market.
The Challenges Faced During App Localization
Localization can be quite difficult in global marketing efforts, as it requires a wide-ranging knowledge of cultures, languages, social norms, and other details, specific to non-native regions. The common challenges faced during app localization include the following:
Technical Challenges
Localization is a technical process where issues with character and font size encoding are prevalent. Letter combinations can differ depending on the language, which can impact how text is displayed on screens or how it looks on different mobile devices.
Cultural Context
Localization doesn’t just refer to translating text; it means holding true to the different cultures of the localities you’re targeting. This includes how you address the audience, the differences in dialects, attitudes, and more. These are all important aspects that you need to look out for during mobile app localization.
Translation
Of course, translation is a significant part of localization. However, the process of translating all the text in an app to your target market’s local language can be tedious. It may require reliable, professional services to save time and ensure accuracy.
Reasons To Localize A Mobile Application
Mobile app localization is a stepping stone for businesses looking to enhance user experience and enter new markets. It also helps increase user engagement, retention, and the number of downloads. Let’s dive into the major reasons to localize your mobile application:
Boost Revenue
A major advantage of app localization is that it helps in boosting business revenue. This is because localized apps perform better than non-localized ones, especially if they’re e-commerce related. Therefore, businesses that wish to increase buyers can market to them using their local language and cultural cues.
Personalize User Experience
A considerable benefit of localizing an app is that it makes it feel more relatable and personal to users. It enables you to connect with customers in ways that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. This will increase product and brand familiarity, which will increase trust and will, ultimately, lead to loyalty. Generally, customers don’t like conducting business with a company that doesn’t speak their language or understands their background.
Increase App Downloads
When an application is translated into different languages and localized, the rate of downloads simultaneously increases. The global mobile app market is booming, with people increasingly using mobile applications and devices in their native language. Therefore, through app localization, you can reach a broad audience and increase downloads as a result.
Enhance Customer Service
Companies that take their time to understand different countries’ cultures can enhance their customer services by offering more support options based on the locality. For instance, if a person from a non-native country makes an inquiry, they would want detailed responses. For businesses, providing these answers can be difficult, especially if the customer is unable to interpret the technical jargon. Through localization, customer service through applications can improve and relieve the frustration of potential clients.
Increase Engagement
If you have a particular market you’re targeting with your application, then localization will increase reliability. It will enable you to engage with them more appropriately and enhance communication as you will have insight into their culture, how they socialize, and what they like to do, among other critical information. Therefore, you can create more relevant content for your application and make it enticing and appealing to users.
Actionable Tips for a Fruitful Localization Campaign
If you would like your localization campaign to be successful, then following these tips is necessary:
Test the Mobile App before Launch
It’s crucial to ensure your app is actually making a difference. So, test it in your targeted locations before the launch. By doing this, you will be able to identify any formatting, translation, or grammar-related issues ahead of time.
Don’t Just Focus On Translation
As stressed earlier, localization is more than the translation of a text into other languages. It means ensuring that you are accounting for even the subtle differences in culture, such as the order in which dates and names are written depending on the country. Moreover, there are other things to consider, such as units of measurement (miles vs. kilometers) and currency symbols.
In Conclusion
There is potential for you to find app users worldwide, so be sure to make use of that opportunity through app localization. To do this, you need to think beyond application translation, as there is much more involved when trying to entice audiences from different regions of the world.
Because of this, it is advised to take the help of professional localization and translation services that are proficient in mobile app localization and know exactly what people of other cultures relate to. Moreover, this can save businesses time, effort, productivity, and costs.
LatinoBridge is a service that provides translation, interpretation, and localization services to help you meet your business goals. Contact us today if you’d like experts to help you with application localization. We offer comprehensive start-to-finish services, so you don’t need to worry about translation, integration, testing, deployment, or any other important part of the app localization process.
