As international markets become more and more connected, product and service providers in all industries are turning to localization. Localization is the process of translating, adapting, and customizing products and services for certain locations. It’s much more than a language barrier: successfully localizing requires an in-depth understanding of target audiences as well. In this article, let’s explore how to identify a target audience for localization.
Why is Localization Important?
In order to effectively penetrate a new marketplace and understand its culture, diverse resources should be consulted. Improving the knowledge of this target audience can involve leveraging either the language skills of employees within the country or enlisting specialized marketers to garner an understanding of the culture. In turn, this information is essential for creating tailored marketing tactics that account for the various parameters among different countries.
This is something that many companies miss. For this reason, you need to find the best online translation service and ask that several translators do the job over and over again. Once you have a few translations, you can proceed to test the target audience. This is usually done in-country, and you may need to record their responses. The results they show are what the market probably will show.
Why Is Localization in El Salvador Difficult?
Product localization in El Salvador presents several challenges. First, the country’s small size and minimal market share render El Salvador less attractive to potential investors. Furthermore, a lack of infrastructure and resources may impair the production and distribution processes of localized products. Finally, the political instability and economic uncertainty could detract from successful local product launches in El Salvador.
In addition to this, the country’s rich history and culture pose other difficulties. An ideal target audience would be a homogenous group of people, all of which are interested in your product. However, the more diverse a country is, and the more varied its linguistic background, the more complex the penetrating the market is.
How to Localize Business in El Salvador?
For all the aforementioned reasons, localization in El Salvador can be difficult. The country speaks predominantly Spanish, but the rich cultural milieu makes it difficult to focus on one age/cultural group only. If there is no one to assist in (cultural) translation, the job can become notoriously difficult. There is more than one example where even large brands failed to penetrate a market.
Is Spanish Enough?
As we’ve said before, Spanish is spoken in the majority of El Salvador. However, this does not mean that Spanish is enough. Portuguese communities exist as well, while entire villages speak Nahuatl and Poton — native languages in the area prior to the Spanish settling the area. All in all, Spanish may be enough.
If you have a website and would like to do localization, pay attention to the content you have and the intent behind the website. In most cases, to localize your website, you only really need to translate the content. SEO optimization is another must, but so is localization, especially if you have an e-commerce website.
Cost-Effectiveness
Being able to translate into a single language and penetrate the potential market of an entire country is a great thing to have. This improves the cost-effectiveness of your localization marketing campaigns and improves the ROI on each dollar you invest. Being able to translate into one language is great, but cultural factors also play a role.
Conversion Rate
These cultural factors can degrade your ROI and lessen your chances for success. In most cases, market penetration is a failure, so understanding all the nuances and the needs of exact market subdivisions is a necessary step to improve your likelihood of success. Advertising in certain parts of the country, while not in others, may also be a great way to increase conversion rates relative to exposure.
Final Considerations
El Salvador presents a business opportunity that many companies have found successful. With a growing economy and 6.3 million people, the market is ripe for products and services tailored to their needs. Expansion into El Salvador can also provide businesses with the chance to grow in Central America, allowing them to develop their localization model as a result. As the El Salvador market is still forming, this can mean that there are good branding chances if the initial hardship is overcome.
Christian Duke
Christian Duke has an avid passion for reading and writing. Although the latter is a hobby, he’d love to refine his skills in order to one day open his own writing consultation agency. In his off time, Christian enjoys playing video games.
