In a recent post, we talked about the value of website localization. Whether you operate just in the United States or in multiple locations around the globe, content translation and behind-the-scenes multilingual support in your CMS is fundamental to good business.
Fortunately, updated tools and strategies make it possible for organizations to evolve their approach to localized content as the needs of their businesses change.
Since our post, a client has shared some incredible results that highlight the potential impact of a well-executed localization initiative.
Read on to learn how content localization can strengthen customer relationships and increase key metrics, including page views, time on site, content engagement—and the ultimate measure, company revenues.
A Growing Market
Localizing website content can help your company connect with customers in a way that drives engagement and sales. This has certainly been the case for Rio Tinto’s U.S. Borax division, a global leader in the production of refined borates.
In agriculture, Boron is a vital micronutrient, essential for healthy crops. It’s an important component of fertilizers throughout the world. Brazil is just one region in which boron supplementation is crucial. Yet many farmers there are unaware of the benefits of boron supplementation. Others use low-cost unrefined or under-refined sources, which often contain contaminants such as heavy metals.
U.S. Borax knows that its products, which are carefully and thoroughly refined to remove impurities and contaminants and to deliver consistent, reliable fertilization, have multiple advantages, including a high return on investment that more than offsets the cost differences between U.S. Borax and its competitors.
A Global Story
With nearly a century of expertise and decades of scientific research, the company has a wealth of knowledge to share with agronomists and growers—everything from tips on how to recognize boron deficiency to ways to calculate the right rate, timing, and delivery method for borate fertilizers.
To highlight this information, U.S. Borax worked with Refactored to develop a microsite that focuses on its agricultural products and on surfacing its library of knowledge. And to make sure that this message reaches agronomists in Latin America—Brazil in particular—we localized this microsite by:
Translating content into both Portuguese and Spanish
Developing regional pages that discuss boron deficiency and supplementation specific to Latin America
Ensuring that videos and interactive tools (such as an ROI calculator) are also translated and included in the localized pages
Remember: Google Isn’t a Translator
Google’s limitations mean that translated content is often stilted or nonsensical. For example, one of U.S. Borax’s pages talks about determining the right rate of application for borate fertilizers. Google translated “rate” as fee—not dosage. This type of mistake is common with automated translation software, which can’t match the context and industry-specific nuances that B2B organizations require.
Focused Results
Now, site visitors—and potential customers—from Latin America have access to a wealth of information and video specific to their needs and presented in Portuguese and Spanish. Regional contacts are easier to identify and reach out to. U.S. Borax has used the pages in regional outreach, including Brazilian conference events and promotions. And the site has provided the company’s sales division with a powerful tool.
With its benefit-focused message, relevant educational content, interactive tools, and increased visuals, the new site immediately saw a leap in performance:
Page views shot up 255%, with unique views up 223%.
Average time spent on the site increased 9.3%.
Bounce rate decreased 23.49%.
Engagement with resource content increased more than 523%.
Visits to many key product pages increased more than 375%.
But the real testament to the success of the company’s focused localization efforts is its sales in the region: a 207% increase in sales volume in Brazil (driven by demand) and a 311% increase in revenue in Brazil (driven by a combination of website revamp, marketing, promotions, education and web-sales tools, and increased sales focus in certain key markets).
Using the right CMS makes localization a breeze
Kentico is an all-in-one CMS, e-commerce, and online marketing platform. It provides a great foundation for building websites, intranets, online stores, and community sites. It features over 450 out-of-the-box web parts and an open API that helps get websites up and running quickly – including sites that require localized content.
Kentico allows you to manage websites in any number of languages easily, including Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, or Eastern European languages. The platform’s extensive language management tools are part of why it’s the foundation for more than 25,000 websites in 100 countries.
Some of the key features that make Kentico a great option for sites with localized content include:
Flexible Site Structure—With Kentico, every language version can have its own site structure completely independent from other versions.
Highlight Translated Content—Kentico shows you which pages have not been translated yet or are not up to date with the default language version.
Fallback to the Default Language—If a page is not translated into the required language, the website can optionally display the default language version.
Smart Language Selection—When a new visitor comes to the website, the appropriate content culture can be automatically displayed based on the domain name (e.g., a user coming from mycompany.fr would default to the French version) or based on the browser's language settings.
UNICODE and Eastern Languages—All content is stored in UNICODE and displayed in UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoding, ensuring compatibility with any language, including Russian, Chinese, Hebrew, or Spanish.
Date and Time Format—Kentico can be configured for any calendar and numerical format.
UI Localized into Many Languages—The Kentico user interface is available in many languages, and you can easily create your own translation or change the wording to better fit your terminology.
Language-Specific Workflow Process—You can define a workflow process with different languages for different people. So, if you have a German office that manages the German version of your website, they can use a different workflow than your U.S. office does. You can also choose users authorized to edit a particular language version.
Automatic Time Conversion for Global Websites—Kentico allows users to choose their time zone and have the website display the date and time values in their local time zone. For example, if they are in London and the web server is in New York, they will see date and time values in the local London time instead of the U.S. server time. This feature is supported in both the administration interface and on the live site (e.g., in the Forums module).
Regardless of where your headquarters is, your audience may include people with diverse languages and cultures. Deciding how to meet their needs so that they are eager to engage with your business is an important part of your overall digital strategy. When you use the available tools and take the time to implement a sound localization strategy, the payoff can be dramatic.
If you need help deciding where localization fits in your ongoing digital evolution, contact Refactored.