Localization

Focus
audiences than what you’ve experienced
elsewhere. Because resources
aren’t unlimited, particularly with
startup companies, focus on enabling
the right experience in the right language
with the right nuance for the
right locations.
There is no lack of analytics or
data related to mobile applications or
their adoption rates and usage. However,
to derive the most benefit from
these resources, you must select the
ones that will lead to the best decisions.
Use data as input for strategic
planning, according to one of the
following three scenarios.
1 Extending an existing product:
if the app amplifies a current product
or service by offering a subset of
functionality appropriate for mobile,
review in-house business intelligence
data from your own team first.
2 Developing a revenue-producing
app: if your mobile app is intended
to generate sales, allow time to
research payment processing methods
and local income levels, and to store
download statistics for competitors.
Balance issues such as ease of payment
against revenue opportunities. Beware
of countries where you experience
high download rates coupled with
much lower conversion rates.
3 Marketing via mobile apps:
when you design mobile apps to promote
brand engagement, products
or services, your management may
require return on investment justification.
Review analytics from Facebook
(or the local market equivalent)
to gauge possible response to localized
versions and to track changes in
conversion rates over time.
Ease into the mobile
app localization scene
It’s reasonable to experiment via
app stores to determine the languages
that make the most sense for
localization. In practice, this means
translating or transcreating the app
store description page and adding
keywords in the languages that you
want to test, while leaving the mobile
app itself in its original language. It’s
better to wait until you’re convinced
about a local market’s viability before
investing in a full-blown localization
and testing process.
For revenue-generating apps,
consider offering a subset of localized
content and functionality on
an app download page and track the
locales and languages represented
by visitors who download. This
works especially well for companies
trying to determine if they should
stick with colonial language versions
such as French or English for
Arabic-speakers, or support indigenous
languages. In this example,
the marketing challenge they must
resolve is, “How much larger is the
market for versions in the mother
tongue?”
You can also furnish more choices
in dialects for their mobile apps,
especially in the consumer space.
Example of a localized description page for a non-localized app. Source: Common Sense Advisory, Inc. and WhatsApp.
32 April/May 2016