Depending on who you are, whether a localization department manager on the buyer side or a language services provider (LSP) trying to Jedi-mind-trick your client into spending money on localization for Korean, the arguments used will be different. Nevermind the desired outcome is the same for both categories – spend more on localization in order to reach more consumers and grow your brand or product.
Before venturing into any discussion about how to prove the ROI of localization, let’s talk about metrics – it’s knowing what your company’s (or client’s, if you’re an LSP) key performance metrics are, which helps you build a case around proving how localization affects them.
Here are a few examples of metrics companies track in order to prove localization ROI:
Example of how the insertion of Korean localization one year after launch of other markets propelled sales in Korea for the game developer Charlie Oscar. Source: Sergei Klimov, Gamasutra
Learn to track the data that matters and the magic formula will come to you naturally. Even better, when you’re facing a situation where you don’t have any historical data on localization you can draw conclusions from – see how others have been doing it. While their product and services are specific, you can at least get an approximation of localization ROI.
The present report is the culmination of over 65 interviews with different companies as well as a separate survey Nimdzi conducted among localization and translation managers. It is is aimed at buyers of language services who are interested in benchmarking their own efforts or in learning how other companies tackle similar challenges or who are simply curious about what others in their position are doing.