In order to have a successful product launch, you need a go-to-market (GTM) strategy. GTM strategies contain all of the information you need to know, such as your target audience, sales strategies, and local competition. And, if you're looking to expand internationally, they also outline your localization strategy.
A localization GTM strategy helps you connect with new international markets. Breaking into new markets is challenging, but by localizing your product launch to reflect individual languages and cultures, you'll increase your chances of success.
In this guide, we’ll cover the following topics in detail:
The short answer is yes. When launching a product or brand in a new country, you need to ensure it’s well-suited to the target market. However, the amount of work you need to do can vary greatly.
For some markets, this may be a case of translating key landing pages. If you share a language, it could be as simple as just changing the available payment options. For others, you may need to implement a complete transcreation strategy - updating and adapting all your content to better suit unique cultural touchstones.
Whatever the scope of the project, localization is key to ensuring the best possible launch.
To what extent you'll need to localize depends on business factors like target audience, competition, and culture.
For instance, if you’re targeting a market that’s very different from your existing ones, the best course of action might be to rebuild your GTM strategy from scratch.
Alternatively, if you’re targeting a market that’s quite similar, you may only need to translate your content and make minor alterations to your sales strategy.
Sometimes it can be even easier than that - for instance, if you’re a US company targeting the UK market, you might only need to find a local banking partner and start accepting orders.
By localizing your product release, you’ll eliminate barriers to a successful launch. These barriers include:
By ensuring you comply with local regulations, licenses, and legal requirements, you can ensure you hit the ground running and can be taking orders from day one. Plus, by speaking the local language, you’ll have a much broader reach and a greater chance of bringing in the customers you want.
Going beyond this and addressing soft barriers is a sign of truly a great localization GTM strategy. This goes beyond language, adapting your brand’s identity and messaging to local sentiment and likely use cases.
If you want to have a successful hard launch, it's best to serve users with the best possible version of your product, and that means localizing it.
While it's best to localize your GTM strategy, you may need to overcome specific localization challenges. These include:
One way to reduce the expenses and time frame associated with localization is to create a localization MVP (minimum viable product). That way, you can test the waters by focusing on a few key pieces of content and measuring the results. If the market reaction is positive, you can invest in a full localization一confident your investment won’t go to waste.
To build your localization MVP, ask yourself questions like:
A localization MVP involves identifying the key pieces of content to localize. You need to research the content your target audience is most interested in and assess your existing content’s popularity.
If your target audience prefers blog posts, localize your popular blog posts first. If they prefer solutions, concentrate on your FAQ pages, how-to guides, and manuals. For instance, Diana Georgieva, Senior Localization Manager at Pleo, says:
“I prioritized an MVP of localization based on what we had produced. So the apps, the website, the most popular landing pages, the most popular help center articles.”
By creating a localization MVP, Pleo was able to conquer 10 new markets in only 10 months! Check out our article on how they did it at Pleo to learn more.
Your localization MVP team is a group of people who'll carry out your localization GTM strategy. There are several options to choose from, each with pros and cons:
To avoid mistakes, you need to use localization testing and quality assurance before going to market. QA ensures your product works as expected and your localized content is up to scratch.
The tests you’ll need to run vary depending on your product and target market. But, at the very least, you need to ensure your product works in terms of:
Automated testing can significantly speed up the testing process, freeing up time and resources for other tasks.
To launch and promote your localized product or service, you need to build a product plan. A product plan for a localization GTM strategy has three main stages: Analysis, Decision, and Execution.
At the ‘Analysis’ stage, your aim is to gather all the information you need to localize. That means you need to:
At the ‘Decision’ stage, use the information you gathered to decide the best course of action. Specifically, you need to decide which markets to target and what resources to use (including what will be done internally, and what will be outsourced). You also need to define your KPIs and determine how to monitor and update your strategy.
Finally, the ‘Execution’ stage is when you establish a clear roadmap and assign roles and responsibilities. Then, you’re ready to take your localized product to market.
Once you’ve launched your localization MVP, you need to measure the results based on the KPIs you’ve set. Common KPIs are sales, email signups, website traffic, and social media engagement.
It can be beneficial to break down your KPIs into quarterly or monthly targets. For example, you could set a target of increasing sales by 5% each month and then measure the results.
You should also conduct localization testing to see how well your product is working in the new market. You can then fix any issues and tweak your strategy before the main launch.
To recap, you use a go-to-market strategy to launch and promote a new product, service, or feature.
Every go-to-market plan is different, but they all involve identifying your target audience's pain points and how your product can solve them. They also detail how you'll market your new offering in the competitive landscape.
You need a go-to-market strategy every time you launch a new product or service in a new (or existing) market.
Having a GTM strategy ensures you’re targeting the right audience on the right channels in the most effective way. It also ensures your potential customers understand the value of your product or service in solving their pain points.
While a GTM strategy doesn’t guarantee a product’s adoption, it reduces risk and gives you the best chance of success.
By localizing your GTM strategy, you’ll answer key questions about your target market, such as:
Answering these questions will help you better target local audiences.
If you localize from the beginning, you can get your product to market faster. You won’t have to make last-minute changes, and each new market will need less work as you’ll have a localization framework in place.
Plus, by localizing, you can attract customers who don’t speak English. You’ll also retain customers for longer, as they’ll feel more connected to you than if you simply run your content through a translator. This will in turn boost your revenue.
You need to create a go-to-market strategy framework based on your business goals and target market. Often, this framework is in the form of a template you can use for each new market.
Your GTM strategy template should contain everything you need to know about your target audience, sales strategies, and launch plan. Key sections to include are:
What is a GTM strategy if not a method of success in a new market? Adding in localization ensures you connect with audiences in a way they can relate to, boosting customer acquisition and retention.
Global App Testing can help localize your GTM strategy, and ensure you enjoy a successful product launch - why not reach out to us today?