Growing your business and entering new markets can be an exciting, but also challenging journey. From hiring the right team, through effective finance management, to boosting your marketing efforts – each and every aspect of scaling up can make your expansion process bloom or fail, depending on how your approach it.

If your growth strategy includes crossing the borders of your home market, there’s one important step you can’t miss – localisation.

Below you can find three reasons why localisation should be the key element in your expansion plan:

1. Developing local presence

By localising your website and social media profiles – so by adjusting the content to the language and culture of your target market – you will be able to build a trustworthy image. Publishing posts in the languages and cultural context of your target customers will prove that your brand is within the reach and understands the reality of the local buyers. The same goes for the localised website – adapting the content to the habits, culture and needs of the local users sends a signal that you care about the local market and enhances your business presence.

2. Attracting and retaining more customers

To grow your business you’ll need an effective strategy to acquire new customers and keep the influx of different consumers steady. When it comes to growing on the international scale, localisation is one of the tools that will help you move forward. With a localised website, social media or mobile app you can easily reach to users from foreign markets and promote your product and services in the language that they can understand. After all, as many as 72% consumers are more likely to buy products from website they understand.

Remember also that online users usually search for products and services in their native language (or language of the country where they reside), so make sure that your target customers can find you.

3. Generating more revenue

If you plan to grow your business across the borders, localising your online content will help you to generate more revenue. When your target customers understand your content, they are more likely to engage with your brand and bring in some profits. With a culturally adapted website or mobile app, your business growth can accelerate, increase your reach and eventually – your sales. Of course, first you’ll need to invest in localisation, but once you research your target market thoroughly, decide which language and locations are the most profitable for you, and collaborate with a competent localisation team, your efforts should pay off.

Whether you’re a new business or have been operating for several years, taking your business to the next level is an essential step to keep moving forward. With a localised content on board you can add a new dynamic to your growth and cross the language and cultural barriers more effectively.

Dorota Pawlak

Dorota helps digital brands infuse their content with a local touch. She is a localization consultant, translator specialized in IT, prompt engineer, and a book author. Dorota teaches online courses on localization, writes for her blog and a Medium publication. She also runs a Small Biz AI, a Substack newsletter for freelancers and small business owners ready to discover handy AI tools.