Gone are the days of generalization. In are personalization and localization. You can’t do a general advertising blast, with no regard for your target consumer. These days, there’s just no way out of data-driven personalization and highly specific localization. You need both for content marketing, to drive your product or service right to the target consumer’s hand.
Localized content and personalization for the user go hand-in-hand in content marketing. This is how to leverage both in a content marketing strategy, and why you can’t have one without the other. We’ll break down both of them, and how they work with one another.
Can The Best Translation Services Personalize Your Brand?
Personalization is the act of creating a product or service with the use of it to an individual in mind. In content marketing, this means knowing the audience, and targeting or connecting with them in a meaningful way. 71% of consumers prefer personalized ads, and about 16% will make a conversion through personalized ads, recommendations, or landing pages.
In the days before computers, personalization already existed. At the time, there was market segregation, where consumers were put in segregated groups, and businesses would then target and personalize by the group. Think retailers like Macy’s and their advertisements on billboards and their shopfronts.
Now that the internet exists, personalization has taken on a new, but similar form: data-based personalization. Based on consumer data and analytics, personalization means making human experiences for the consumer in all stages of their journey.
So, you know now the ways to humanize your brand. To take it to the next level, the best translation services, which ensure relevant content with a fast turnaround, uses this method of data-gathering. By collecting consumer data, they can further personalize your content.
Why Personalization Without Localization Won’t Convert Your Consumers
Localization is the process of targeting a certain audience who are based in a specific location (region, country, or language). Localization has long been a buzzword for industries that want to touch base with audiences both in popular destinations and in remote areas of the world.
Localization-driven personalization can lead to meaningful moments for the consumer. It can have an individual, personalized impact on someone living in Iowa, or Reykjavik, or the Caribbean.
Personalization without localization will likely get ignored because it wouldn’t be taking into account the cultural differences, language differences, and regional preferences between different consumers. Localized-personalization is key.
According to a 2019 study by Gartner, “Organizations that focus their personalized messaging around helping consumers can expect 16% more impact on commercial outcomes than those that don’t.”
Localized personalization of your messages may mean making your infographics carry individual messages of your brand to what appeals to demographics in certain regions, based on your consumer data.
There is personalized branding, used by individuals, then there’s corporate branding, used by businesses. Whether you’re using a personalized brand or you’re personalizing your corporate brand, you still have to appeal to individuals in a global audience.
So how can you do localized-personalization for your brand?
- Do Market Research – You need to research your target consumer. In the first place, where are they? What items/services/brands do they like? How do they shop/watch/read? What are their patterns of behavior? What time of day do they go online? In conclusion, anything and everything related to your consumer can be added to data-gathering for your market research.
- Create User Personas – A user persona is your ideal user, in a nutshell – it’s a representation of a real consumer group. In fact, they are imagined profiles of your real consumers, based on real data and real analytics you’ve gathered. Usually containing names, bios, preferences, demographics, personality traits, goals, and motivations, they can help with targeting these consumers through social media, email marketing, and the like.
- Map Out the Buyer’s Journey – Mapping out the consumer’s journey will help you identify your touchpoints for personalized interaction with them.
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Decision
- Localize Everything – You can gather data from their name and address and thus customize certain parts of their experience:
- Custom domains
- Landing pages (custom)
- Custom UI
- Personalize Everything – Make sure to do the last step, which is to cohere everything previously mentioned to a one-to-one interaction with your brand for the consumer.
- Custom advertisements
- Custom social media outreach
- Customized solutions
If you aren’t giving a personalized message, like an infographic, for your audience, no matter what language it’s in, they won’t pay attention to it.
Success Stories of Brands Who Are Leading In Personal Connection
Amazon’s Whole Foods – This online grocery carries personalized recommendations; location-centric recipes and cooking tips; nearby delivery suggestions; and more–using AI-based personalization with omnichannel marketing (targeting customers both in-store and online).
Netflix – Netflix is the King of Personalized Recommendations. They put a special emphasis on localization, too, generating personalized recommendations based on country or continent. Then they take data such as your viewing history, preferences, and ratings, and compare it with others. In addition they take data of what you’re watching such as the title, release date, genre, categories, actors, etc and the time of day you watch, the devices you are watching Netflix on, and how long you watch, to create a truly personalized experience.
Apple – From getting AirPods engraved with your name to personalized advertisements to location-centric personalized stories, recommendations, and spotlights, the Apple Store is generating revenue from one-on-one communication with customers.
Further reading: Is Emotional Intelligence the Key to Success in Business?
