When you’re ready to expand your business globally, some ad-hoc translations won’t cut it.
Without a foolproof localization strategy, you’re looking at products that don’t excite buyers and missed growth opportunities.
A well-planned localization strategy can flip this script completely. It helps you build more authentic connections with your audience, compete against local players, and build a thriving global presence.
But the tricky part is knowing where to start. Should you hire local experts first? Or focus on adapting your product to match regional needs?
We’ll break down exactly what it takes to build and execute a localization strategy that actually works.
What is a localization strategy?
A localization strategy is a blueprint to adapt your products, services, content, messaging, and marketing to meet the linguistic, cultural, and functional requirements of a new market. It aims to make your brand more relevant and useful for local buyers.
A good localization strategy goes beyond basic translation to cover:
- Market-specific user experience and products
- Culturally relevant content and messaging
- Localized SEO and marketing campaigns
- Compliance with regional regulations
Let’s understand how strategic localization can fuel business growth.
Why your business needs a localization strategy
A strategic approach to localization sets your business up for international growth.
You can gain a competitive edge in new markets and build a brand reputation that resonates across different cultures. It allows you to tailor the customer experience for local buyers and win their loyalty.
Many businesses think about localization at a tactical level within projects and business initiatives. But if you want to deliver a remarkable customer experience, you have to design a localization strategy through higher-level strategic discussions.
The bottom line: Localization shouldn’t be an afterthought in your business expansion strategy.
A well-thought localization strategy can help you:
- Build genuine customer relationships that drive loyalty
- Gain a competitive advantage to boost revenue from new markets
- Improve long-term finances to support sustainable growth and expansion
- Solidify your reputation that resonates with buyers across different markets
Put simply, you need a gameplan to localize your brand and grow in international markets. Now, let’s learn how to build this strategy from the ground up.
8 field-tested tips to build an airtight localization strategy
If you’re ready to build your strategy and you want to do it right, follow our tried-and-tested tips to tie localization into strategic initiatives and create stronger, global customer relationships.
1. Define business goals and build a localized marketing plan
Your business objectives will anchor your localization strategy—whether that’s preparing to enter a new market, increasing market presence in a particular region, or anything else.
Clearly outlining your goals has two-fold benefits. You can:
- Zero in on markets that align with your vision
- Define what success looks like (goodbye, vanity metrics)
Once you’ve defined your goals, start with a localized marketing plan before going all-in on comprehensive localization.
Think of localized marketing as your test drive in a new market. It lets you:
- Sample market receptivity without massive upfront investment
- Discover cultural nuances through practical experience
- Collect real feedback from potential customers
This is your low-risk sandbox. Learn what works, adjust what doesn’t, and save yourself from committing expensive mistakes.
Here’s a breakdown of the processes that fall under “localized marketing”:
| Process | Purpose | What gets adapted |
| Marketing translation | To have a process wherein a marketing message is created to resonate in other markets | Message (copy, text) |
| Marketing localization | To have a process wherein an experience is created to resonate in other markets | Message, visuals, UX elements |
| Localization marketing | To set out a digital marketing strategy that leverages localization in order to achieve growth | Systems and processes (in support of the strategy) |
The smart approach: Localization isn’t one-size-fits-all. So, consider your long-term international expansion strategy, company stage, and scale before you invest in localized marketing.
For most companies, it’s best to start small and test new markets with localized messaging. Focus on the microcopy to get started, like slogans, key messages, and CTAs. Launch a pilot campaign and see what sticks. Then, use those insights to guide your next moves.
Expert corner: “It was clear that when some startups and scale-ups began localizing their product, they saw a big uplift in business in other markets. But when you are a very small startup, you have to choose your battles.” Edward Cooper, Head of Mobile at Revolut.
2. Conduct market research to learn more about your audience
Effective localization goes beyond linguistic differences.
To make sure your brand truly belongs in a new market, you need to invest in some good old-fashioned market research.
Market research will reveal rich insights about:
Language variations
Think all Spanish is created equal? Wrong! The Spanish spoken in Madrid could land you in hot water in Mexico City.
Many languages have subtle differences and dialects that can make your localization strategy a hit or a miss. You need to go many layers deeper to discover these subtleties.
Cultural values
Immerse yourself in the local culture, especially in the context of your product/service.
What makes your audience tick? What jokes make them laugh? And most importantly, what topics could torpedo your entire campaign? You have to understand the cultural differences that delight and offend your buyers.
Local competition
Analyze your local competitors and identify gaps you can fill. When you know what customers like and dislike about these companies, you can target specific pain points to position yourself as a better alternative they’ve been waiting for.
Regulatory requirements
Nothing kills momentum like a legal roadblock.
Every market comes with its own maze of privacy laws, consumer protection rules, and compliance rules. Map out these legal requirements early so you don’t find yourself backtracking later.
Run user interviews and surveys to get first-hand feedback. Or roll up your sleeves and analyze existing customer data to familiarize yourself with a local market.
Remember: The time and brainpower you invest on market research pays massive dividends down the road. Skimp on your efforts, and you might as well be throwing darts blindfolded.
3. Anticipate localization needs in the design stage
Traditionally, companies build their products, websites, and other resources in a primary language first. Then, they scramble to localize everything once it’s complete. This reactive approach treats localization as an afterthought.
As a result, team members discover localization challenges too late in the process and struggle with costly reworks, design constraints, and unanticipated delays.
In an ideal world, you should be thinking about localization from the design stage.
Design-stage localization is a powerful way to continuously release fully localized products like mobile apps, web apps, and games. This approach proactively brings localized content considerations into the design process and creates more adaptable layouts from the outset.
When you design with localization in mind, you designers can:
- Create prototypes and mockups in Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD
- Populate them with different languages based on your target markets
- Check how the design will look with different marketing translations early in the process
That means your designer can adapt the design to suit different locales before a single line of code is written. You’ll catch any potential bugs or design breaks before they happen, and most importantly, you can increase your time to market.
Bottom line: You already prototype user experiences in the primary language of your product, check to see if text fits within buttons, how layouts change on different devices, etc. Why not do this for your global audience?
4. Implement an agile localization workflow
Once you’ve designed your brand keeping localization at the front and center of your strategy, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get the ball rolling. But even the most thorough localization strategy can collapse under poor execution.
That’s why, at Lokalise, we recommend agile localization—a set of software development methodologies based on iterative and cross-functional team collaboration.
In the agile framework, teams work on localization needs right from the start of the development cycle. When new iterations are released, translators can localize these changes in real-time.
Here’s what this localization workflow looks like:
- Developers supply the source code to product managers/marketers
- Product managers/marketers submit the content for translation
- Translators work their magic and localize the material
- Stakeholders review the localized content
The result? Your team can localize every asset in real-time without any roadblocks in your core development cycle. And you can see the impact of your localization efforts immediately without delays.
Let’s be real, though: Managing all these moving parts can get complicated real fast.
That’s where a translation management system (TMS) comes in clutch.
A TMS allows teams to automate file handoffs and track progress across the board till translations go live. Lokalise, for example, offers advanced localization automation tools like Webhooks, API, and integrations with GitLab and Bitbucket to seamlessly integrate localization into your continuous delivery workflow.
5. Document your brand and build a comprehensive localization kit
Want to avoid localization headaches down the road? Document everything.
If you don’t already have a style guide, create one. It should be a single source of truth with information about:
- Tone of voice: Spell out exactly what your brand sounds like—playful, witty, formal, professional, or something else. This makes it easier for translators to capture the same energy, regardless of language.
- Terminology: Create a localization glossary of commonly used industry and brand-specific terms, acronyms, and phrases with their meanings. This prevents the risk of translators reinventing terminology for every market.
- Helpful references: Add examples of competitors you like or dislike and explain your rationale behind every reference.
- Language guidelines: Does your French marketing copy use the formal “vous” or informal “tu”? Share language conventions and instructions to consider when translating content.
- Brand personality: Is your brand the bold innovator? The trusted expert? The helpful friend? Discuss your company’s personality traits that should be reflected in the messaging.
Translators use this style guide to make sure their work accurately reflects your brand. Plus, since multiple translators will likely work on a single project, these guidelines keep everyone on the same page.
Besides language guidelines, you should also document your website structure and other best practices for mobile versus desktop coding and browsing.
6. Create shared ownership of the localization strategy
Localization isn’t a one-person show. Your entire team needs skin in the game—from your developers writing the code to the executive team approving the budget.
As Bill Lafferty, Solutions Architect at Acclaro, one of our LSP partners, puts it, “It will take your entire team to build a localization process that works for everyone.”
Each department plays a critical role in the process:
- Designers: To design defensively and choose culturally relevant images.
- Developers: To understand the code implications for multiple languages.
- Marketers: To craft campaigns that work across markets.
- Product managers: To stay on top of deadlines and markets.
- Business leaders: To see how localization fits into their tactical perspective.
Shared ownership also means everyone feels invested and contributes mindfully to the project.
The payoff? No departmental silos, improved coordination, and faster time-to-market.
7. Optimize your website for multilingual SEO
Your website is one of the core assets for localization of any scale. That’s why you need a multilingual SEO strategy to rank well on local search engines for different countries.
Focus on these critical elements for multilingual search:
- URL structure: Consider different SEO implications and available resources to choose a relevant URL structure between subdomains (fr.example.com), country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs like example.fr), or subdirectories (example.com/fr/).
- Correct hreflang tags: Hreflang tags tell search engines the language used on a webpage and the alternative language versions available for this page. Check the accuracy of these tags to prevent duplicate content in any language.
- Meta tags and structured data: Give search engines and users a localized experience by translating key website elements including page titles, meta descriptions, and structured data markup.
As a best practice, you can set up different domain properties on Google Search Console—one for each language version of your website. This makes it easier to track SEO performance for every version.
💡 Take the next step Learn how to build an international SEO strategy to maximize your brand’s search visibility in new markets.
8. Deploy local user testing panels
Create multiple testing panels of native speakers to collect customer feedback and steer your localization efforts in the right direction. No amount of internal review will give you the clarity and intel that these testing panels can offer.
Conduct testing at multiple stages:
- Early concept testing with wireframes
- Milestone-based review of translated assets
- Pre-launch testing of the localized experience
- Continuous feedback collection after the launch
Look beyond linguistic accuracy to focus on assessing more critical aspects like cultural relevance and emotional resonance. You can ask a mix of objective questions and scenario-based tests to get actionable feedback.
More importantly, close the loop by integrating this feedback into your localization workflow. Set up checkpoints in your process to refer back to user feedback and make changes.
How to measure your localization strategy
Localization isn’t a “set it and forget it” process.
The real work begins after you go live—monitoring performance and measuring impact across markets.
Without clear metrics, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, track these key performance indicators (KPIs) to understand the real ROI of your localization plan:
- Incremental sales: See how revenue is growing in your target regions. Track the additional sales coming from these specific markets.
- International SEO: Keep tabs on how your localized content performs in organic search. You can monitor search rankings for a set of main keywords for each market.
- Market share: Calculate your company’s presence as a percentage of the local market. It can indicate the impact of your efforts on market penetration.
- Pageviews: Compare traffic before and after implementation. Effective localization leads to an increase in visitors from the target market.
- Conversion rates: Analyze the percentage of visitors completing desired actions (purchases and sign-ups) before and after localization.
Set up regular reporting cycles to review these metrics. What’s working in one market might need adjustment in another—let the data guide your next moves.
Case study: How Revolut built a growth engine powered by localization
What happens when you get localization right? Just ask Revolut—the financial app serving over 20 million customers across 30+ countries.
What started as a scattered effort without a dedicated localization team turned into a strong growth lever, fueling an impressive 186% increase in their customer base.
But how did the team achieve this feat? By building a robust localization infrastructure to manage its high-volume requirements effortlessly with Lokalise.
Every Revolut asset—mobile/web apps, notifications, emails, FAQs, and blog posts—lives in a centralized hub on Lokalise. Automated workflows take care of the handoffs between internal and external stakeholders at every stage of the localization cycle.
In short: Every asset automatically flows from creation to translation to implementation without any manual intervention.
The results speak volumes:
- Scalable implementation that grows with their business
- Lightning-fast implementation without compromising quality
- An astonishing 60,000 words localized daily across 22 languages
Ready to create your own localization success story? Now that you understand what goes into a localization strategy, it’s time to put it into action.
Grab a free Lokalise trial to implement your localization strategy, so you can improve your customer experience and accelerate international expansion.
