If you’ve ever wondered why your marketing campaigns don’t seem to land the same way across borders, you’re not alone. Many brands face the challenge of growing internationally, only to realize that a word-for-word translation just won’t cut it.
Marketing translations can be quite challenging. That’s a fact.
Think about it. Even when you’re designing a campaign in a single language, there are so many factors that play into writing the perfect slogan, copy that converts, or creating a heart-felt advertisement that draws customers closer to your brand.
So, how do you successfully translate your marketing efforts to different languages? How do you make sure the communications stay consistent, regardless of the various cultural nuances?
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🧠Expert insights inside This article is intended as the ultimate guide. It includes actionable tips and insights from localization and marketing experts such as Martina Russo, CEO at MovingWords, Emilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing at Userpilot, and Nataly Kelly, former VP of localization at HubSpot. |
Understanding marketing translations
Let’s first take a look at the terminology and the difference between marketing translations, transcreation, and marketing localization.
Marketing translations
Marketing translations are all about adapting your brand’s messaging and external communications (e.g., social media, press releases, articles, ads) so they resonate with people in different countries.
You’re converting the text from one language to another while keeping the original meaning and intent. It’s a delicate act of balance–to maintain the tone of the original content while ensuring accuracy is there. This is why marketing translations are a bit more creative than technical translations.
Transcreation
You can think of transcreation as a mix of translation, creation, and copywriting. It’s about recreating a piece of content in a new language while capturing the same emotional response or impact as the original.
Transcreation can involve completely rewriting slogans, taglines, or other marketing messages to fit the international audience.
Marketing localization
Marketing localization goes beyond translation. It involves adapting not just the language but also cultural references, imagery, colors, and even symbols to fit the target market’s preferences and norms.
Localization ensures that the entire marketing campaign feels local, not foreign. It takes into account local customs, humor, and values.
As you can see, marketing translations, transcreation, and localization are not mutually exclusive. In fact, you will likely have to localize your marketing efforts, and creative translations will be an integral part of this.
Example of a marketing translation gone wrong
Everyone loves a funny example of a marketing translation gone wrong. We have just the thing.
When KFC first entered the Chinese market, their famous slogan “Finger-lickin’ good” was initially translated into Chinese as “Eat your fingers off”.
That obviously wasn’t the intended message.
However, they quickly realized the issue and adapted their entire marketing approach, which led to their long-term success in China.
Moreover, they invested an effort to deeply localize both their marketing communications and their menu. They offered not just their signature fried chicken, but also incorporated traditional Chinese dishes based on local preferences.
They further adapted by promoting family-sized meals and positioned their restaurants as social dining spots. This aligns with the Chinese custom of gathering for meals.
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❗Important lesson Mandarin’s complex tones and subtle variations can drastically alter the meaning of words and phrases. Additionally, Chinese local culture is deeply rooted in symbolism and metaphors, which means brands must be careful when entering the new market. When you do make a mistake, move quickly to resolve it. KFC was fast to hire local experts to fine-tune their brand messaging to better resonate with Chinese customers. |
Top 3 marketing translation challenges
Understanding the challenges of marketing translations is important. It helps you avoid costly mistakes and make sure your messaging truly connects with people in across different cultures.
We talked with several marketing localization experts to identify the top challenges. Because let’s face it–it’s far easier to prevent bottlenecks when you know what are the common problems.
Challenge #1: Making the right type of compromise
One of the biggest challenges in marketing localization is finding the right balance between preserving the original messaging and adapting it to resonate with the new audience.
It’s not just about getting the words right—it’s about maintaining the impact.
Translators have to make tough decisions on how much to stay true to the original text while ensuring that the translated version feels natural and compelling. A five-word catchphrase in English might require a complete rethinking in another language to carry the same weight or evoke the same emotion. This requires both technical skill and creative finesse. Even small changes in wording or tone can significantly affect how the message is perceived.
Challenge #2: The complexity of short copy marketing translations
Many clients mistakenly think that short texts are quicker and easier to translate, but those few words can be the most challenging. In marketing, every word counts. The wrong translation can completely undermine a campaign’s success.
This often involves answering key questions:
- Will the audience get this reference?
- Should the pun be altered, or replaced entirely?
- Is the writing too direct for this market, and how can it be softened without losing its impact?
Martina Eco, creative translator and localization expert working at 3P Translations, shared how companies often underestimate how much research is involved here:
“You need to fully understand the brand identity and tone of voice, research the target audience, their language, needs and behavior, the actual product or service being sold, and how it meets customer needs in different markets.”
Marketing translations are no joke, and you shouldn’t underestimate the amount of time needed to get them to a good place.
Challenge #3: Making marketing translations feel native
Marketing content is often written without any consideration for future translations. This leaves translators with the task of making it feel natural in a different language. The goal is to create a translation that reads as if it were written specifically for the target audience, rather than a mere adaptation of the original.
Martina Russo, CEO at MovingWords, pointed out how important it is not to treat localization as an afterthought, and to provide context to anyone who’s working on the project:
“You can’t just drop your content that took your marketing team weeks or months to come up with, and expect your translation partners to develop it across languages without the same amount of context. If you want your campaigns to work well in other countries, you need to involve your localization team from the very early stages.”
This challenge highlights the paradox of great translation work—when it’s done well, no one notices. But when it’s not, the dissonance can disrupt the entire campaign.
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💪The power of great marketing localization All successful marketing translations have something in common: they feel completely organic. The marketing message resonates as effectively as it does in the source text. Nestlé is a great example. They are the masters of adapting to local tastes. For over a century, the company has tailored its products—coffee, chocolate, and ice cream—to suit regional preferences. Their country managers have the authority to reject campaigns or products that don’t fit their market. The success of this approach is clear: many consumers around the world think of Nestlé as a local brand, not a global giant. |
The business value of marketing localization
Nataly Kelly, former VP of Localization at HubSpot, emphasized the importance of localization as a core part of business strategy, particularly in marketing:
“Localization is completely centralized at HubSpot, but marketing makes up the vast majority of our work. Content marketing is a big part of our GTM approach, so marketing localization is huge.”
She also highlighted the need to understand cultural nuances, avoid common mistakes like entering too many markets too quickly, and the importance of thinking strategically about international markets, not just languages.
Localization makes your brand feel familiar and relatable. It helps you build trust and create a stronger connection with global customers, which consequently leads to more sales and loyal relationships.
So, how do you organize the project of translating and adapting your content?
Managing marketing translations and ensuring your product gets adapted the right way is not a walk in the park.
Emilia Korczynska, Head of Marketing at Userpilot, shares that you need to do an entirely new product discovery to understand what the target audience wants.
You also need to internationalize and localize both the website and product interface, think about the payment method localization, your pricing strategy, the way you’ll adjust third-party user onboarding, chat, knowledge base, and more. The list goes on.
How to start localizing your marketing content
When it comes to translating and localizing content, the process can seem overwhelming. Let’s zoom out to see what would be the main steps.
Step 1: Start with the strategy
The decision to enter a specific market is usually based on an existing global marketing strategy. Internal and external data can help you make an informed decision.
For instance, you can take a look at your online data to see if there is particular interest or a great number of leads coming from a certain country or region, and calculate the cost of customer acquisition. You can also analyze where your competition is expanding.
- Look at global markets that your competitors are in (but you’re not) can aid you in determining where there is a demand for products like yours
- Read reviews of your competitors from a new potential market can uncover any unmet demand based on current offerings, which can help you differentiate yourself when you enter the new market
- Research the competition to assess how penetrable the market truly is
For example, if your e-commerce site shows significant traffic from France, but low conversions, it might indicate you have to better adapt your French-language content. It’s an indication that you’re missing the mark somehow.
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💡Pro tip For most companies, it’s best to start small and test new markets with marketing translations. Work on the microcopy first – slogans, product descriptions, and CTAs – before going all in on website localization. Do a pilot project to gain some initial traction, and then consider localizing entire experiences based on the data. |
Step 2: Assemble your localization team
Invest in local experts who understand your product and the regional market.
Remember: translation is a part of localization, but it’s not the only part. You have to to make sure that your team not only understands your product or service, but also gets the intent behind what they’re translating. The final product has to be fully adapted to the preferences of the wider audience.
Your team might include:
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Role |
What they do |
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Localization managers |
They oversee the entire localization project, ensure smooth collaboration between teams, and keep the project on track |
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Marketing translators |
Native speakers who understand both the language and cultural nuances of your target market |
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Subject-matter experts |
They make sure industry-specific terms and concepts are accurately translated and culturally relevant |
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Marketers |
Local marketers who can adapt campaigns to fit the regional tone, trends, and consumer behavior |
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Designers/developers |
They help adapt visuals, layouts, and functionality to suit the local audience’s expectations |
To learn more about the role of the marketing team in the context of content localization, take a look at this step-by-step guide to building a strong localization team.
Step 3: Pick the right tools and build a marketing translation workflow
A modern and lightweight localization platform will not force you to stick to a certain predefined workflow. It will be flexible and customizable to serve your processes and team.
Your tool should help you automate routine tasks and provide you with everything you should have to take control of the localization project. Plus, you’ll have more time to focus on the creative part and increase value for your end users.
Instead of managing all your translation efforts in a spreadsheet, you get a single source of truth for all things localization that allows you to collaborate on, manage, and review translations efficiently.
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💡Pro tip Automation, when done right, streamlines your workflow and removes manual tasks–without sacrificing quality. Make sure to choose a robust Translation Management System (TMS) that integrates with your CMS, marketing platforms, and design tools. Dedicated TMS solutions have all the necessary built-in tools, such as translation memories that store all your previous translations you can immediately reuse. |
Translating marketing content from HubSpot
Today, localization has become easier, especially if you use the right tool stack to manage, track, and control the pace of your localization project.
You can now use dedicated tools to manage an entire localization process, and integrate with your marketing tools to streamline the workflow.
Example: How Lokalise for HubSpot works
Here’s how easy it is to localize your marketing materials using Lokalise and HubSpot. Watch the video below for an overview of how this integration works, and then explore the five easy steps to localizing your marketing content.
Step 1: Connect Lokalise and HubSpot
Step 2: Select the web pages, landing pages, blog posts, and emails you want to translate.
Step 3: Choose the target languages and assign translation tasks
Step 4: Let translators and reviewers do their work. Lokalise will notify you via Slack, Asana, email, or other tools of your choice once translations are ready, or you can track task completion in real-time analytics. You can always provide feedback to translators using Lokalise chat.
Step 5: Publish or send your brand-new web page, landing page, blog posts, email in the targeted languages.
If you are working with a design team to create banners or other print materials, make sure to connect Lokalise with your design tool. This will allow designers to push designs directly to the platform, and developers to automatically create translation keys.
Bottom line, if you are a marketer and your product or service can be sold across borders, you should leverage technology to take control and localize content. This is the only way you’ll be able to deliver consistent messages while increasing both traffic, engagement, and conversions.
The tools you use for marketing localization can make a huge difference. How you work is equality important of the actual localized experiences you’ll deliver.
If you want to simplify and speed up your localization process, try Lokalise for free. There’s no risk to it and we won’t ask you for your credit card info. You’ll be able to create personalized, impactful campaigns, and launch your GTM plan in no time.
