The best content localisation strategy?

Is in-house management or outsourcing the best model?

This is the third and final post from Karen Nielsen in her series on localising marketing for international marketing. In her first post she reviewed the opportunity from international marketing and in the next she recommended how to plan and deliver a successful location strategy.

This post gives guidance on the pros and cons on the different models available to manage your strategy, a reminder on what can go wrong and how to measure your localisation strategy.

Generally speaking, I find that companies give localisation very little thought until such time as growth begins to stagnate and they are forced to look at alternative revenue streams. So what happens when you have exhausted the potential in your domestic market?

Since creating innovative products and services can be an expensive, high-risk strategy; it is not surprising that the majority of companies opt to go global instead. What may surprise you, however, is that very few have any sort of strategy around their localisation programs and so they eventually lose out to savvy competitors who were quicker at adapting to selling to a global audience.

What is the business case for localisation?

Convincing Finance Directors to allocate budget to support your localisation program can be a tedious and frustrating endeavour. You should prepare yourself for comments like “everybody speaks English these days so why bother with the extra expense?”.

In actual fact, it is estimated that only 28% of online consumers speak English while the biggest online consumer nations outside the UK are South Korea, China and Japan where English is not as widely spoken as you might think. Why would you not want to tap into those markets?

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) recently published a report estimating that there will be 3 billion Internet users globally (almost half the world’s population) and the Internet economy will reach $4.2 trillion in the G-20 economies by 2016 (and that’s excluding B2B).

Consider that while running a localisation program does not come cheap, it is a lot more cost effective to establish an online presence than a physical presence and returns can be quick and rewarding.

Remember, in order for your venture to succeed, you need to be certain that your new audience will relate and buy-in to your brand, products/services and values.

TIP: The most common and gravest mistake organisations make is falling into the trap of thinking that translating some content is all it takes to succeed in a new market.

So why bother with localisation at all? ...a reminder of the benefits

1. Market research (to assist with prioritising markets and languages. How do you know where to start?).
2. Brand research (how will your brand be received in foreign market?).
3. Phased roll-out approach to save on initial capital expenditure (e.g. which languages have the widest reach?, prioritising content: web, UI, print, support etc.).
4. Cultural considerations (e.g. How do existing products/services need to be localised for new markets?, how will international customers be supported?, how do you establish rules regarding appropriate imagery and terminology?.
5. Initiating localisation – Options for managing a localisation requirement either; internally or with a partner (pro’s and con’s for both).
6. Measuring results and ROI – though not always tangible (unless eCommerce)

It's also important to remember that localisation involves a lot more than translation. Here are some reasons and examples of why straight translation isn't effective:

• This is a very important point and one that some of the World’s biggest companies still don’t seem to grasp!
• What does ‘Localisation’, ‘Transcreation’ and ‘Cultural Adaptation’ actually mean?
• Why straight translation is not enough?.
• Which attributes (e.g. imagery, website layout, terminology, straplines, logo’s etc.) should be considered for cultural adaptation and why? (I have some good examples of instances where famous brands got it wrong as well as some personal anecdotes).

Who should manage your localisation strategy?

Now that you have digested all of the information you obtained during your consultation process, you should be well equipped to take the leap and make some practical decisions as to how the daily localisation needs of your organisation will be met. There are three options available: In-house management, partly outsourced or fully outsourced management.

Here are the pros and cons of each approach:

Option 1.  In-house localisation model

Involves 100% dependence on internal resources and may involve sourcing from your own ‘crowd’.

Pros

• Product/service and culture know-how is second to none
• Little or no learning-curve / easy to implement

Cons

• Lack of relevant localisation expertise
• Lack of professional, mother tongue expertise
• Capital investment (training, specialist software, salaries)
• Lack of flexibility
• Limited scalability

Option 2. Partly outsourced localisation model

Involves outsourcing only part of your localisation program. Typically, organisations may use a 3^rd party vendor to provide a translation and proofreading service but nothing more.

Pros

• Product/service and culture know-how is easily retained
• Can outsource elements where in-house expertise is limited or unavailable
• Provides access to expert advice and guidance depending on partnership approach
• On-demand access to qualified linguists without the overhead of hiring permanent staff or managing your own freelance resources

Cons

• Some up-front investment will be required for specialist software and staff
• 3^rd Party vendors often don’t see the whole picture and so translations are provided in isolation which frequently leads to quality issues and a miss-match of expectations
• 3^rd party vendors are often restricted from optimising your localisation program because of internal politics and lack of technical know-how
• The unit cost of hiring an agency will be higher than working directly with freelancers though this is usually off-set when ‘soft costs’ associated with internal management are taken into account

Option 3. Fully outsourced localisation model

Involves outsourcing every aspect of localisation from technical considerations and execution through to workflow creation, risk assessment, consultation and so on. In this scenario, you would simply send a ‘package’ for localisation and your vendor will do the rest.

Pros

• No additional in-house overhead associated with localisation other than time spent managing your ‘partner’
• You can be more demanding of an external partner than in-house resources
• On-demand access to localisation expertise and sector specific experience in delivering similar solutions, often for your competitors
• Access to vast databases of qualified, professional linguists
• Little or no capital investment required – you only pay for what you use
• Scalability to meet the changing needs of your business with little or no notice (volumes, languages, content mix)
• Access to specialist software and tools that are deployed by qualified Engineers and Project Managers.

Cons

• The unit cost of hiring an Agency will be higher than working directly with freelancers and you will pay for project management and engineering time (usually included in the unit rate per word or charged as a percentage)
• Loss of total control and transparency
• With over 33,000 translation agencies out there, sourcing the right one can be a daunting task for someone who is unfamiliar with the industry.

On balance, Option 3 tends to make the most sense for organisations who are just embarking on implementing their first localisation program. This is the path of least resistance and usually presents the lowest risk overall. Be prepared to negotiate and ensure that you are clear about the requirements and objectives we discussed earlier before you engage in dialog with potential vendors.

If you outsource,what is best practice for selecting a supplier?

Some questions to ask yourself when choosing your supplier. For more information, you may with to read Karen's recent post on providing tips for translation buyers.

• Measuring quality. How to measure quality on an on-going basis and drive continuous improvement?
• Commercial considerations. What affects the price and where should caution be exercised?
• How to craft an RFP for localisation services and who should you invite?
• Geographical considerations for selecting suppliers
• Insight into the ‘agency’ business model (what buyers should know?)
• What level of support should your supplier/partner expect from you (reasonable versus unreasonable demands)?.

Controlling costs and measuring the return

Many inexperienced Localisation Managers are read their marching orders when the FD catches sight of the annual account statement from their localisation agency. Why? because they were so busy doing all the right things to make the dreams of international expansion, a reality but neglected to focus on that little word ‘RETURN’.

As discussed previously, deciding how you measure your ‘return’ should form a crucial part of your consultation and planning phase. If you do this correctly, you can work with your localisation partner to ensure that they provide you with statistics and reports that support your business case.

In an eCommerce environment, measuring the return is easy. You simply off-set the cost of delivering the localisation against the total transactions that were completed in your new market/s.

The water becomes muddier when we are talking about indirect sales (transactions that are not made on your website). How do you measure the impact that the localisation of your site is actually having on the decision makers who are perusing your services portfolio but are not yet in ‘buying mode’?

Although by no means exhaustive, here are some ideas to get you started to measure your strategy:

• Google analytics. Take time to see how many hits you are getting from your new markets and analyse the results. This may help you to demonstrate that you are gaining ‘traction’.

• Track inbound sales enquiries. Ensure you have a mechanism for tracking the origin of all inbound enquiries whether these are received by telephone, email or other means.

• Use online information request forms wisely. Ensure that your forms include some mandatory fields that will help you capture data that is relevant to reinforcing your business case. You should focus on who the enquirer is (organisation and job title) as well as what their annual budget for your product/service is.

• Track the value of inbound opportunities. It is important to keep a record of the overall value of every opportunity you receive. Note that you should track every opportunity, irrespective of whether it resulted in a sales conversion or not as these are the figures that will state your case. If your sales team then failed to convert them, then your FD will have another scent to follow.

• Look for other value. Extracting value from your localisation program does not always have to focus solely on sales. For example, if you are an agency who uses freelance resources, perhaps you want to measure how many new applicants you have from your new market. Your localised website may also have attracted lucrative partners to your business. What value or revenue has their contribution added?.

• Ask the audience. Obtaining feedback from customers and prospects can be an equally powerful tool when it comes to stating your business case. Consider surveys with carefully crafted questions that will assist you in getting the answers that you seek. Beware though, you may not always get the result you were expecting so be careful to seek advice.

Localisation has to compete with other business functions to attract top-management attention and buy-in. In many cases, organisations do not consider localisation to be a function in itself and thus do not account for the cost/result of localisation as a separate line-item.  In these situations, localisation costs are usually absorbed within other budget pools such as Marketing or IT.

Remember, the onus of elevating localisation to a strategic position lies in the hands of those who recognise its importance and see its potential.

Some takeaways for the most common mistakes made with localisation:

1. Scrimping on the budget. It can end up with something that does irreparable damage to your brand.
2. Selecting a partner blindly. Buyers must educate themselves on the basics before outsourcing so they are not baffled with science and are aware of some basic industry standards.
3. Thinking that a straight translation will suffice. This is the most common mistake organisations make because it’s the cheapest option but will not deliver the same results.
4. Lack of input. Clients who think that they can completely outsource the service without ever being involved in the feedback loop are setting themselves and their supplier up to fail.
5. Ignorance about technology. Technology and tools play a vital part in ensuring projects run efficiently and that localisation is cost effective long term. This needs to be a major consideration when selecting partners.
6. Re-inventing the wheel. We see lots of customers who have their own ideas, tools and processes which they have developed at great expense and are mostly utterly useless.
7. Briefs. They need to be clear in terms of target audience, instructions for linguists, style guides etc. It is impossible for a translator to do a good job without one.

Thanks to Karin Nielsen for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Karin Nielsen is Commercial Director at Codex Global Translation Services. She has 7 years’ experience in localisation solutions and technology and was previously on the board of a global top 10 language services company as EU Sales Director. You can connect with Karin on LinkedIn.