In today’s competitive and constantly changing B2B landscape, businesses can no longer rely on outdated and inefficient processes. As B2B organizations continue to grow and expand globally, the need to make their localization processes as effective as possible becomes paramount.
At our last LocTalk conference, Jose Palomares from Coupa Software shared a series of strategies to help organizations revamp and scale their localization practices. Here are 10 key takeaways from that session.
1. Do your own research
When making decisions, it’s important to avoid relying on generic market research. Collect your own data and focus on the specifics of your business, offerings, and B2B context.
“Don’t trust market research. Even if you have worked in similar organizations, don’t believe what you’ve learned.”
Jose Palomares, Coupa Software
Part of this means understanding what localization entails and how you can make it work for your business. The B2B sales cycle is long, which means there’s a significant time and resource investment in nurturing relationships before closing a deal. Before taking any action, organizations need to ensure that their products or services are suited to any potential new markets. Equally, their focus should be first on those markets where there is data to support that they are most likely to succeed.
However, don't be blinded by the drive to localize when expanding internationally. In fact, your findings may reveal that it is wiser to target English-speaking markets first and push back internationalization in favor of feature innovation.
Localization is not something that should be undertaken at all costs, and your data should inform you as to what the best plan of action is moving forward.
2. Consider partially localizing your product
Whatever your research shows, keep in mind that localization does not have to be an all-or-nothing endeavor. It is not always necessary to localize every single aspect of a product or service for it to work in new markets. This will depend on the industry and market, but many products can meet customer needs without being fully localized. For example, users can receive training on certain features that they need without having to localize the whole product in their local language.
Additionally, when selling B2B services or products, stakeholders who speak English proficiently may not realize that products can sell well even if they have not been fully localized.
In an ideal world, everything would be perfectly localized, but in practice, when the alternative is no localization, some localization can be better than nothing.
3. Pay attention to online discussions and industry events
It’s easy to assume that companies are aware of what their users and audiences make of their brand and products, but in reality, feedback does not always make it all the back to the decision-makers. For instance, end users may not have access to the appropriate channels to leave feedback, and even if they do, administrators often lack the time or resources to investigate issues thoroughly.
That’s why it’s important to get a sense of people’s opinions from sources other than the feedback provided directly to the organization. Consumers will often talk about their experiences on social media or at corporate events.
Use these channels to your advantage – gather the data you need to inform your localization goals and practices.
4. Fulfill your contractual obligations
Be sure to keep track of any commitments made to your customers. What languages are you offering? Will you keep the same languages or add new ones? Will you provide documentation and technical support for all languages or a select few?
Whenever a product is launched, contracts need to be checked to make sure that nothing has been forgotten that could resurface later. It’s easy to make promises and then forget about them, especially if the initial release date of a product took place over 10 years ago. Always follow your contractual obligations, as oversights of any kind could lead to lawsuits.
5. Listen to your audiences and beta customers
What causes are communities rallying behind? Things can change quickly and there are many reasons why new languages may suddenly become popular. Sometimes, new languages are introduced to please certain customers, other times, it comes down purely to corporate social responsibility. A good example is the recent increase in the demand for Ukrainian translations.
Pay close attention to the latest trends in your markets, industry, and audience demands. The information you gather will help you decide on the direction of your localization strategy.
6. Prioritize your content
Although all localized content should be of high quality, in reality, businesses have different content tiers with different quality requirements. Quality is important, but it may not always be the priority if other factors, like speed or availability of information, become critical.
Free content, less visible content, or user-generated content, for example, are types of content that don’t always need to be perfect to serve their purpose.
To make the most of your localization efforts, be sure to establish different content tiers and prioritize budgets accordingly.
7. Assess the cost of localization errors
Some industries have a much lower tolerance for errors than others. A failure to translate a medical prescription correctly, for example, will do more damage than a misleading translation of furniture assembly instructions.
What are the costs going to be if significant localization errors are made, and how easily can they be fixed? It will be a lot easier to correct a localization error that appears in a software interface as opposed to a physical product that’s already in circulation and needs to be recalled and repackaged.
When designing your B2B localization strategy, always consider the possibility of these mistakes happening as well as the cost of fixing them.
8. Trust the experts in the field
Put your trust in the language and localization professionals on your team, as they are the ones who know best how terms and expressions are used in their markets. They are familiar with cultural sensitivities and can help you avoid significant pitfalls.
Similarly, make sure you give them the space they need to fulfill their potential in their roles. Get them involved from the beginning and prepare communication guidelines and query management processes to facilitate collaboration.
When it comes to regional content leads, assess their market experience, expertise, and connections to determine how much guidance they need, as they may know more about the local market than your team. If they do need some direction, you may want to work with them on an extensive glossary and style guide, or find local SMEs to support you.
9. Plan ahead for new product acquisitions
Acquisitions can happen overnight, leaving you with the challenge of quickly incorporating new products and creating new content. You may also need to build a new team, working with vendors and contractors without much notice.
To anticipate these sudden changes, create a 30/60/90-day plan and make sure you can follow it. However, before making any suggestions, spend time talking to your new team and stakeholders to understand their current localization and globalization processes. It’s important to respect their existing terminology and discuss any necessary changes, such as creating a unifying terminology database.
It may be impossible to tackle everything at the same time, so prioritize tasks and manage everyone’s expectations by creating a tiered globalization roadmap.
10. Experiment with machine translation
AI and machine translation have a lot to offer, even if you're not an expert in the technology. Talk to people who understand and work with machine translation to learn about it and explore how it could serve your business. Specifically, find out more about the practical applications and consider using it to increase your capacity and productivity.
“Machine translation isn’t just about doing translations cheaper and faster, it’s about what can you dream of doing that you’re unlikely to be able to do with your current setup.”
José Palomares, Coupa Software
A good rule of thumb is to identify low-risk, high-reward areas in your business and start from there.
Getting localization right in B2B
The success of B2B localization is ultimately determined by how efficiently organizations use their assets to enter and remain in new markets.
If localization efforts aren't carefully planned out, you could be limiting your true value, wasting resources, failing to reach new audiences, and losing your competitive edge in the marketplace.
Good practices like doing your own research, prioritizing content wisely, listening to your audiences, and trusting the professionals you work with will help you establish a localization strategy that is both effective and cost-efficient.
在当今竞争激烈和不断变化的B2B环境中,企业不能再依赖过时和低效的流程。随着B2B组织在全球范围内的不断发展和扩张,使其本地化流程尽可能有效的需求变得至关重要。
在我们上一次的LocTalk会议上,Coupa Software的Jose Palomares分享了一系列帮助组织改进和扩展本地化实践的策略。以下是该课程的10个要点。
1.做你自己的研究
在做决定时,避免依赖一般的市场研究是很重要的。收集您自己的数据,并专注于您的业务、产品和B2B环境的细节。
“不要相信市场调查。即使你在类似的组织工作过,也不要相信你学到的东西。”
Jose Palomares,Coupa软件公司
其中一部分意味着了解本地化需要什么以及如何使其为您的业务服务。B2B销售周期很长,这意味着在达成交易之前,需要投入大量时间和资源来培养关系。在采取任何行动之前,组织需要确保他们的产品或服务适合任何潜在的新市场。同样,他们应该首先关注那些有数据支持他们最有可能成功的市场。
然而,在国际扩张时,不要被本地化的驱动力所蒙蔽。事实上,你的发现可能会揭示出,更明智的做法是首先瞄准英语国家的市场,然后推迟国际化进程,转而支持功能创新。
本地化不是一件应该不惜一切代价进行的事情,您的数据应该告诉您最好的行动计划是什么。
2.考虑部分本地化您的产品
无论您的研究结果如何,请记住,本地化并不是一项全有或全无的工作。要想在新市场中发挥作用,并不总是需要对产品或服务的每个方面进行本地化。这将取决于行业和市场,但许多产品不需要完全本地化就能满足客户需求。例如,用户可以接受他们所需的某些功能的培训,而不必将整个产品本地化为他们的本地语言。
此外,在销售B2B服务或产品时,精通英语的利益相关者可能没有意识到产品即使没有完全本地化也能卖得很好。
在理想情况下,所有内容都将被完美地本地化,但在实践中,当替代方案是不本地化时,进行一些本地化可能比什么都不做要好。
3.关注在线讨论和行业活动
人们很容易认为,公司知道他们的用户和受众是如何看待他们的品牌和产品的,但实际上,反馈并不总是能让决策者得到所有的反馈。例如,最终用户可能无法访问适当的渠道来留下反馈,即使他们这样做了,管理员也往往缺乏时间或资源来彻底调查问题。
这就是为什么除了直接提供给组织的反馈之外,从其他来源获得人们的意见是很重要的。消费者经常会在社交媒体或公司活动上谈论他们的经历。
充分利用这些渠道-收集所需的数据,为您的本地化目标和实践提供信息。
4.履行合同义务
一定要跟踪对客户做出的任何承诺。你们提供什么语言?您会保留相同的语言还是添加新的语言?您将提供所有语言的文档和技术支持,还是选择少数语言?
每当一个产品推出时,都需要检查合同,以确保没有忘记任何可能在以后重新出现的东西。人们很容易做出承诺,然后忘记它们,特别是如果一个产品的最初发布日期发生在10年前。永远遵守你的合同义务,因为任何形式的疏忽都可能导致诉讼。
5.倾听受众和测试版客户的意见
社区团结起来支持什么事业?事物变化很快,新语言突然流行起来的原因有很多。有时候,引入新语言是为了取悦某些客户,有时候,这纯粹是企业的社会责任。一个很好的例子是最近对乌克兰语翻译的需求增加。
密切关注市场、行业和受众需求的最新趋势。您收集的信息将帮助您确定本地化策略的方向。
6.确定内容的优先级
尽管所有本地化内容都应该是高质量的,但实际上,企业有不同的内容层,有不同的质量要求。质量很重要,但如果其他因素(如信息的速度或可用性)变得至关重要,质量可能并不总是优先事项。
例如,免费内容、不太显眼的内容或用户生成的内容,这些类型的内容并不总是需要完美地服务于它们的目的。
要充分利用您的本地化工作,请确保建立不同的内容层并相应地确定预算的优先级。
7. 评估本地化错误的成本
有些行业对错误的容忍度比其他行业低得多。例如,一个医疗处方翻译不正确,比家具组装说明书的误导性翻译造成的损害更大。
如果出现重大的本地化错误,成本会是多少?修复这些错误的难易程度如何?纠正软件界面中出现的本地化错误要容易得多,而不是纠正已经在流通并需要召回和重新包装的物理产品。
在设计您的B2B本地化策略时,请始终考虑这些错误发生的可能性以及修复它们的成本。
8.信任该领域的专家
请信任您团队中的语言和本地化专业人员,因为他们最了解术语和表达在其市场中的使用方式。他们熟悉文化敏感性,可以帮助您避免重大陷阱。
同样,确保你给他们所需的空间,让他们在自己的角色中发挥潜力。让他们从一开始就参与进来,并准备沟通准则和查询管理流程,以促进协作。
当涉及到区域内容线索时,评估他们的市场经验、专业知识和关系,以确定他们需要多少指导,因为他们可能比您的团队更了解当地市场。如果他们确实需要一些指导,您可能希望与他们合作,制定一个广泛的词汇表和样式指南,或者找到当地的SME来支持您。
9.提前计划新产品采购
收购可能在一夜之间发生,给您带来快速整合新产品和创建新内容的挑战。您可能还需要建立一个新的团队,与供应商和承包商一起工作,而不需要太多通知。
要预见这些突然的变化,请制定一个30/60/90天的计划,并确保您可以按照计划进行。但是,在提出任何建议之前,请花时间与您的新工作组和利益相关者交谈,以了解他们当前的本地化和全球化进程。尊重他们现有的术语并讨论任何必要的更改(如创建统一的术语数据库)非常重要。
同时解决所有问题可能是不可能的,因此要通过创建分层的全球化路线图来确定任务的优先级并管理每个人的期望。
10.尝试机器翻译
人工智能和机器翻译有很多可以提供的,即使你不是一个技术专家。与了解和使用机器翻译的人员交流,了解机器翻译并探索它如何为您的业务服务。具体来说,了解更多有关实际应用的信息,并考虑使用它来提高您的容量和生产力。
“机器翻译不仅仅是更便宜、更快地进行翻译,而是你梦想做什么,而你不太可能在当前的设置下完成。”
José Palomares,Coupa软件公司
一个好的经验法则是在你的业务中识别出低风险、高回报的领域,然后从那里开始。
在B2B中实现正确的本地化
B2B本地化的成功最终取决于组织如何有效地利用其资产进入并保持在新市场。
如果没有仔细规划本地化工作,您可能会限制您的真正价值、浪费资源、无法接触到新的受众,并失去在市场中的竞争优势。
良好的实践,如自行研究、明智地确定内容的优先级、倾听受众的意见以及信任与您合作的专业人员等,将帮助您建立既有效又经济的本地化策略。
以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。
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