We’ve all heard it before: Content is king. But how are you getting the most out of your content? A big part of what makes content “good” is context – where is the content showing up and who is reading it? Did the audience discover the content on their own, or did the content find them? In other words, localization of content is incredibly important. Sales professionals need to be able to utilize messaging that’s directed toward their audience, not be stuck with a one-size-fits-all approach.
Localization is particularly difficult for organizations that operate on a national level. Developing localized content takes more time and resources than may be available, putting greater strain on the marketing team. In addition, localization presents other challenges to national brands, such as brand control and consistency, and compliance issues from both a corporate and a legal standpoint.
Process optimization
Technology, however, is helping businesses meet these challenges head-on by offering process automation at various levels of the content lifespan, all driven by a need and demand for localization. There are two major processes where automation is having a big impact in improving the efficiency of localization: content creation and approval, and content deployment and approval.
Within the creative content production process, an automated workflow and review process can ensure the sales team (who is actually going to be using the content and knows the audience specifically) has a voice in the messaging, at the very least from an approval standpoint. Even more impactful, automation allows sales professionals at the individual level to customize communications with pre-approved (from the production process) messaging/content that they feel is best suited for their target audience. That communication can then be rerouted for approval by a manager before it is finally sent out.
Top-to-bottom analytics
Through these process automations, technology is helping organizations squeeze more value out of localization. Now not only is the messaging used by sales and marketing teams more on-point, but the processes leading up to the execution of that campaign are more efficient. Equally as important for national brands, automation allows for metrics to be gathered easily from the individual end and analyzed from a corporate perspective.
How so? For one, since everything is being done in the framework of a system (usually web-based), everything can be track, from hours logged on a project to email open rates of the final product. These analytics can drive further adaptation within processes themselves, as well as allow for message refinement and improved targeting. All of this plays into a company’s ability to more accurately predict and calculate ROI. So from a national perspective, an organization can really segment its results regionally down to the smallest of scales.
Just do it
The prospect of whittling down your brand’s overall national message to be viable and resonant on a local level can be intimidating at first. But remember, technology is evolving every day to meet the demands of marketers and sales professionals, so there are options out there to help you in your cause. Localization automation not only helps you deliver meaningful messaging more efficiently, but ensures brand consistency and provides valuable metrics to help you refine and reform your sales and marketing strategies.
Tags: ROI, sales, marketing, technology, localized marketing, local marketing, process optimization, targeting, analytics, local marketing automation
