Before you can scale your business and expand into international markets, you must make sure everything is well defined from start to finish and all bottlenecks have been eliminated. Using visualization diagrams, you can illustrate the multiple processes that help you grow your business to understand the best way to implement change and support global growth for each business area.
These visualization diagrams aren’t necessarily polished documents, being mostly sketches of what needs to happen when you start preparing your business for international audiences. This method is successful when you have gathered enough information so decision-makers have enough data to make educated decisions that ensure the project’s success.
Here are some of the processes you can streamline with visual diagrams.
Mind maps for building an international website
Your English-only website can serve multilingual users but without providing a personalized experience. On the other hand, website versions that best suit local audiences are more likely to support your expansion efforts.
As much as 71% of consumers worldwide believe brands should promote and support products and services in their native languages. Moreover, 68% of them would discard a brand that doesn’t speak their language for a competitor that does. So, how can you meet your customers’ expectations?
Before creating a multilingual website for your global business, you want to draw the process to understand what needs to happen and how the localization process can impact brand awareness, conversions, and revenue in local markets.
Visualization diagrams, like mind maps, will enable you to illustrate elements like:
- Your multilingual website’s structure
- The elements to localize on each version of the website
- Where you might need cultural insights to improve user experience
- The internationalization and localization processes
- Communication channels between your team and the localization team
These simplified visual representations can help you organize your work and identify possible bottlenecks right from the start. This way, you optimize information flows and speed up the localization process.
Moreover, as you begin sketching the multiple elements that make an international website appealing to local audiences, you can build the right localization strategy and implement the techniques that will most likely help you succeed. That’s because mind maps are versatile – you start by putting all your ideas in one place and then organize the information as you begin to identify the core themes.
Flowcharts for localizing marketing and sales funnels
When expanding outside national borders, you need to do more than replicate your existing marketing and sales processes. When putting together your strategy, you must build on top of your current funnels and include cultural elements that generate trust with local prospects and guide them through the buyer’s journey.
In this case, visualization diagrams can help you identify the multiple touchpoints that an international buyer has with your brand and how they’re different from your existing process. You can use flowcharts to see how each local audience moves through your marketing and sales funnels and acknowledge the differences to understand the specific needs of each regional audience.
You want to use at least one visualization diagram for every country or region you target to gain more clarity of message and positioning.
By doing this exercise, you get to identify new opportunities that might not be present in your country and decide on the proper channels and tools necessary to meet your local revenue goals. Ideally, you collaborate with local experts, as they have the cultural insight and an in-depth understanding of the market’s needs to make the most out of this process. Educated decisions based on data and first-hand experience in the market are game-changers when localizing marketing and sales funnels.
Venn diagrams for identifying content opportunities
When creating content for multilingual audiences, you can translate existing content or work with local writers and creators to produce original content for a specific audience. A mix of both is the best way to deliver value to your audiences and still see a good return on your marketing efforts.
But when do you need translation, and what content requires native writers and copywriters? Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to help you decide. Depending on your industry and the countries you expand to, you might have to find your optimal ratio to ensure you’re not overspending and still deliver a top experience to your local audiences.
Venn diagrams are perfect for helping you visualize the content you have, what questions it answers, and what content each local audience expects to read about on your website. With a visual representation of your content marketing needs, you get to make decisions on data, which is essential to a successful global expansion.
The overlapping shapes will help you understand what content needs to be identical in all languages and where you can leverage local talent to connect with each audience.
Project timelines for meeting deadlines
Another helpful visualization diagram that can simplify a localization project is the timeline. You can visually represent each milestone to hold the team accountable and “see” progress or catch delays on time, so they have a minimum impact on the overall project success.
The secret when using project timelines is to be realistic about how much you can accomplish each week or month and leave enough time for translators, localization engineers, and local experts to complete their creative tasks.
Final Thoughts
Visualization diagrams add clarity to a localization project, making it easier for people involved to get on the same page and work together for a common goal. Using different diagrams can also help you understand the differences between the various parts of your project and what level of engagement is expected from every team member in each area.
Be creative and use these sketches to communicate better with your localization team and help them visualize all the project elements and how everything is connected to the overall business goals.
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