How 5 top companies are driving ROI from localization

How 5 top companies are driving ROI from localization
Panagiotis Papachristofilou
January 15, 2019
5 min read

Localization can provide a significant return on investment (ROI) for businesses. According to a study by the Common Sense Advisory, companies that invested in localization saw an average of 300% ROI. Another study by the Localization Research Centre at the University of Limerick found that companies experienced an average of a 52% increase in international sales after localizing their websites.

Here’s a closer look at the specific localization efforts these successful global companies have invested in and the exact ROI and results they saw from it.

1. Insightly

With over 800,000 users across 100 different countries, the CRM system Insightly needed a way to translate content that would improve the overall platform experience for its global user base and attract new customers.

The Investment: To do so, Insightly focused on leveraging technology that would streamline and simplify its team’s workflows to deliver high-quality, localized versions of its digital content across properties. Investing in this type of localization technology enabled the Insightly team to replace manual translation processes with automated localization processes that easily detected new content and translated content as quickly as it was created.

The Result: In just six months, Insightly was able to immediately increase their customer base by 10% after localizing all its digital content across web and mobile apps in five languages. Today, Insightly sees 60% of all revenue from markets outside the U.S., driven by their top translation and localization quality across markets.

2. Eventbrite

Eventbrite, the world’s largest self-service ticketing platform, experienced strong global adoption before the company had a dedicated international team. With ticket sales in over 150 countries, Eventbrite wanted to further this global growth.  

The Investment: To do so, Eventbrite invested in localization to provide a more authentic, localized product for select markets. And when it came to selecting a localization system, Eventbrite prioritized a developer-friendly system and having the ability for all members of the localization process to be able to access and manage translation strings through a single platform.

The Result: In utilizing a localization system that brought together everyone in the localization process – from developers to agency translators — Eventbrite could leverage continuous localization processes to expand its global presence in 17 new languages.  

3. Onshape

Onshape, the next-generation CAD platform company, saw early success from using internal processes to localize its marketing and product content. After prioritizing APAC markets for expansion, Onshape saw the need to invest in localization for more multilingual content.

The Investment: To do so, Onshape retired its manual localization efforts for a cloud-based translation management platform, enabling them to adopt a more agile workflow to publish multilingual content across various global markets simultaneously. Onshape started with its two priority APAC markets, Taiwan and Korea, and moved forward from there to localize all its content — from website and video to emails.  

The Result: After moving to a cloud-based translation management platform, Onshape saw a successful APAC launch — increasing lead generation in Taiwan by 500% in just three months.

4. Prezi

Presentation platform Prezi has fostered a community of over 100 million users. To support these global users, Prezi wanted to deliver high-quality localized content and products.

The Investment: To do so, Prezi knew they needed to invest in a hosted solution. They also knew they did not want to invest in the people or infrastructure needed to build this solution or manage something themselves. With Transifex, Prezi was able to fulfill all of its needs on both the development and translation side, allowing the team to stay focused on quality localization.

The Result: Today, Prezi has launched in thirteen new languages after adopting this continuous localization workflow, enabling them to deliver quality content that will continue to foster and grow its community.

5. Trello

Globally recognized project management platform Trello saw accelerated adoption from global users over the years and were searching for a solution that would help them reach and engage these new customers in their native languages.

The Investment:  To do so, the Trello team looked for a tool that would give them complete control and visibility into the localization process, allowing their translators and developers to work and collaborate quickly and effectively. In doing so, Trello was able to not only leverage vital in-platform features to ensure quality and consistency, but also enable their audience to help translate through crowdsourced translation tools.  

The Result: Today, Trello has successfully launched in 20 different languages, engaging users on a tremendous global scale and seeing growth rates of over 35% from their local marketing efforts.

What do all of these companies have in common? They use Transifex for their localization efforts to deliver the best-localized content to their global audiences quickly and effectively.  To get the full breakdown of how other companies across sectors are driving localization ROI, check out more case studies here.  

To sum up, localization can also lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, as consumers are more likely to purchase products or services in their language and culturally relevant. Overall, localization can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to expand their reach and increase their bottom line.

Gear Up for the New Year with Localization

Now that you’ve learned a little bit more about how top companies are going global, you are well on your way to your own localization success. But localization can become complex, so we’ve put together a guide that breaks down each key step of your software localization process from start to finish. Download the guide for action items and best practices for website and app localization and an overview of the results that effective localization can drive for your business.

Panagiotis Papachristofilou
Panagiotis is a B2B Marketing & GTM Leader obsessed with innovation and customer experience. He's currently leading the Marketing & Demand Generation function at Transifex.
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