As language specialists, the Albion Languages team understands that preparing your business for international expansion involves much more than mere translation of your business and marketing materials. Localisation is a crucial ingredient for global growth. One essential step is to localise your online presence and website design to suit new audiences.
In this blog, we discuss how tempting it can be for companies expanding into new international markets to just jump into translating their website – and marketing materials – and why that could be a costly misstep.
Website localisation
The key to successful website localisation goes so much deeper than simply translating existing content into other languages. Even the design and visuals must be tailored to suit the cultural norms in your new target location.
Fully localising your website – and marketing materials – is an essential component when looking to secure cultural acceptance for your brand.
Sometimes it can be easier to understand the process by analysing businesses and organisations which have already cemented their overseas market positions by executing their translation and localisation strategies to perfection. In this blog, we have decided to focus on the practices of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and provide useful insights to help your business make informed decisions when expanding internationally.
World Wildlife Fund
As an international symbol for conservation and animal welfare, the World Wildlife Fund has offices in 80 worldwide locations and localised websites that appeal to consumers in over 100 countries.
The WWF excels at website localisation. The stories, layout and imagery of each country’s website are tailored to each specific location.
By understanding the passion of different regions for their own local wildlife, the WWF has increased online interest and boosted the success of their ongoing campaigns.
The above image shows the homepage of WWF’s Indian website. To the untrained eye, it might look similar to the other country homepages. However, when you look closer, it becomes obvious that each story has been handpicked to cover local issues which the target audience will feel passionate about.
The Canadian WWF homepage has the same strong, segmented website design but again features articles on relevant local issues. You can also spot minor changes to the navigation, ‘our work’ becomes ‘what we do’ ‘blogs’ becomes ‘news and reports’ ‘shop’ becomes ‘store’. These are all important areas of localisation and emphasise how the WWF has clearly given considerable thought zo its end users.
Choose Website Translation and Localisation Services You Can Trust
Translation is complex in itself, but adjusting the design and content of your website to reflect differing sociocultural norms is even more challenging.
As language specialists, we have a proven track record of helping companies consider cultural values, behaviours, and preferences when localising their online marketing materials – including their website – into other languages for international markets. Our transnational team can work with you to build your brand presence in new international markets. Contact our expert team today.