Source: https://www.pexels.com/ru-ru/photo/iphone-7-887751/
Most businesses might think that English is the primary language spoken by everyone worldwide. Thus doing business in English will be a go-anywhere answer for success. But it’s not quite true.
According to App Annie, 50% of the countries within the top 10 for downloads and revenue in the iOS App Store and 80% of the countries within the top 5 for downloads and revenue in Google Play are non-English speaking countries from Europe and East Asia. Moreover, about 50% of total app revenue comes from APAC Region, while Europe only generates about 20%. After seeing these figures, you might think of revising your localization strategy a bit.
Localizing your app is worth all the resources you spend. So now, you need to go for reliable app localization services and pick an efficient step-by-step localization strategy. In the article, we will guide you through all the essential steps in the app localization process. Let’s go!
1. Market Research
The first step you need to take is market research. It includes analyzing and defining your buying persona, target audience, target markets that you want to enter.
Start with analyzing which international markets to target first. You can do A/B testing to see what regions have more potential to bring you more revenue and app users.
It is also essential to understand what devices are used in various regions. For example, people in India mostly use Android OS, while people in Japan are primarily fans of iOS (more than 60% own iPhones).
2. App Competitor’s Research
Yes, it is a part of market research, but this is a very important and, let’s say independent step. You need to list your competitors and see what they offer their users and why they choose one app over another.
Look at the reviews in the app stores to understand users’ needs and see the pros and cons of every competitor app.
Also, your app users often might give you a hint about what they need. They can ask you to localize the app into their native language — and this is a green light to go.
3. UX/UI Localization
It is crucial to understand that your UI and UX might differ from one language to another. For example, in German, there are longer words than in English. Thus, your designers should create enough big buttons to make the German text fit them.
Your main goal is to adapt an app. Thus your users’ experience will be as if it has been designed in and for their language and culture.
4. Look at Your Logo from a Different Angle
Sometimes, your logo might look different to people in other regions. One of the most famous incidents happened to RJMetrics. The company started to receive messages that their logo happened to look like Y-fronts. Nobody knows what Y-fronts are in the USA compared with the UK audience. RJMetrics did research which showed that 26 out of a thousand respondents saw underpants on the brand logo!
Another example of a ‘bad’ icon happened to Amazon. After the shopping-app logo redesign, the company needed to do it once again as commentators said the recent redesign made the app icon look like Adolf Hitler.
Also, it might be essential to change colors depending on the region, as the same color might have different meanings in various cultures.
Thus, it is essential to test your logo before going live. Experiment with your logo; try different variations for different regions to see which one will perform the best. And make sure to include some Brits in your focus group.
Source: https://www.statista.com/chart/22702/andoid-ios-market-share-selected-countries/
5. App Name
App name is one of the first elements users see when they decide to download it. Thus, you need to make it comprehensible to your target audience.
Professional app localization services help to add more discoverability and usability to your product. The linguists will make sure the target audience understands your message. If the app name has some sense in the foreign language, there are more chances the product will be easier to find in the app stores. Localizing the app title will make the search user-friendly as all the users need to do is type usual words into the search bar.
For instance, if you have an app named ‘Horoscope’, you should translate it into your target language. Thus, users will be able to type in a word they use in their native language and find your app.
However, sometimes the app’s name might not be translated — the case of the Safari app. Apple doesn’t translate Safari into any language. But you should understand that Apple has spent a fortune to make Safari a well-known web browser.
By the way, your app titles can be more than just a word. Many developers use a long app title to include more keywords and, thus, improve app search rankings.
6. Keyword Localization
One of the essential things for an app is the right keywords. Keywords are the words that help users find your app in the hundreds of similar apps in the stores.
First, you can analyze the keywords that your competitors use. There are plenty of tools for this: Mobile Action, AppRadar, or data.ai (former App Annie).
The next step is to localize the most relevant and convert keywords into target languages. For instance, if one of your keywords is ‘car’ in English, it should be ‘coche’ in Spanish. Imagine how your foreign users open their app stores and search for your app. Try to predict the words they will use to describe the app they want. To do so, you can talk to native speakers and do keyword research on your foreign audience.
7. ASO Localization
Short for App Store Optimization, ASO is not just three meaningless letters. ASO plays a significant role in app success.
ASO helps increase product visibility in an app store to boost organic downloads. It includes adapting the app title, description, keywords, screenshots, and videos on your app listing.
When we talk about ASO localization, we adapt ASO to every language we are localizing in. It includes localizing not only keywords, app title, and description but also creating distinct screenshots and videos for different locales. You should design images that will look native to foreign markets, as visuals for Japan and USA differ a lot.
8. App Localization Testing
Testing is a never-miss step in the app development process. App localization testing should also become an integral part of your workflow.
App localization testing covers everything from the layout and UI to untranslated strings and strange translations. Proper testing ensures that you will be the first to see a bug (if there are any), not your users.
Final thought
To make your app one of the Top 10 in the app stores requires you to think properly of the app localization strategy and take every step with accuracy and frequent revisions of your workflow. It will help ensure that you follow the latest trends of app localization services and can compete with the app store powers.
