If you want to tap into the Swedish business market, you’ll first need to earn their attention.

Breaking into new markets isn’t just about having in-demand products or filling a need. Rather, much of your success will how you adapt your company to their market.

Despite over a third of internet users being non-native English speakers, studies from Forrester Research show that website visitors will stay on a website longer if the content is in their native language.

Localization is the practice of making your website fit within a unique market. The language of the content, the images of the people, pop culture references, or common symbols can all provide the sense that your website was made with an audience in mind.

Take a look at four reasons your business should consider Swedish localization for your content marketing:

1. Localization Increases Sales

User language preferences in Europe have been studied at length. The resulting figures indicate that 90% of users will opt for a website version in their native tongue, regardless of whether or not they speak English.

Even more telling? A whopping 42% of users say they will NEVER do business with a company if the content isn’t in their native language.

2. Localization Offers a Competitive Advantage

Despite the benefits of Swedish localization, your competitors may be failing to capitalize on them. When you employ content localization, it gives you an obvious advantage over businesses trying to compete for your market but have yet to adapt their content.

And if your competitors DO have a localized website, they’re likely the ones to earn the business if you do not. You can upgrade your own content marketing to encroach on their market share.

3. Localization Offers a Native Appeal

Some companies are so thorough and effective at localization that it’s something of a shock to find out they’re not actually based in your home country.

The more you can blend with your target country’s culture, from imagery to linguistics to the arts and more, the better chance you stand of seeming like you belong in their business world.

4. Localization Strengthens Your Global Presence

Even if you’re only doing business in the U.S. and Sweden, localization can put you in a position of global prominence. It’s not easy taking a business across borders, but investing in localization shows that you have the business acumen to adapt to a new market.

And when you can do it once, you can do it again.
What To Do Next
Using professional translation services can help ensure that your content is properly adapted to the Swedish market. Rather than approaching translation word for word, professional Swedish translators take into account the way people talk and integrate language with culture to produce the desired results.

To learn more about localizing your content marketing for your Swedish customers, contact Tess to schedule a free consultation.

Check also:

• 4 Keys Steps For Translating Your Website From English to Swedish
• 6 Fundamental Tips for Website Localization to Reach Global Markets
• Why You Should Localize Your Website to Swedish?
• Things to Avoid When Translating a Website
• Things to Think of When Developing Localization Ready Websites

This is a guest post by Jenny Brown, a freelance writer. She loves photography, travelling and learning new languages.

Translating a website isn’t as simple as putting the information into a translation tool and copying and pasting the result, and doing this without checking the translation thoroughly can have catastrophic results, often losing the meaning of the text or even changing it completely.  The writing on your website is written specifically to give information and sell your goods or services; this is its purpose, so after translating this to another language you need to ensure it is still effective in producing the desired results.  The intelligent thing to do would be to hire professional translation services that will have real life translators that can translate your website and ensure it retains its purpose.

If you do not want to, or cannot afford to, hire professional translation services to translate your website, and instead intend on translating it yourself, then there are some things you should be aware of, some things you should avoid doing at all costs:

• Avoid using a translation program, such as Google translate, to translate your website.  This will translate each word individually, but will not ensure the content as a whole retains its message or serves its purpose.
• Avoid word for word translation, rather than take each word and individually translate it to the desired language take sentences and translate those instead.  This will ensure the content makes much more sense and will keep more of the flow and structure of the writing on your website, as well as ensuring the word order in the sentences are correct as this varies greatly between languages.
• Pay particular attention to keyword research   and analysis, and always bear in mind that the keywords vary from country to country, translating the keywords from the website in its current may not have the desired result.
• When you are translating the website, try not to think using your native language, instead try to think in the language you are translating to, this will help to make the translation seem like it was completed by a native speaker of that language.
• Don’t think that just because you’ve ‘back-translated’ the text it is going to be correct.  Some people believe that if they’ve translated a, and then they translate it back again and it reads perfectly fine, that the translation worked perfectly fine, but this is not the case.
• Consider the layout of your website after you have translated it, ensure all the wording fits and nothing is missing.  Often when websites are created a space is provided specifically for a word, or a phrase, but when this word or phrase is translated it changes in length, and either may not fit well or may not fit at all, leading to some parts being missed out, which is confusing for your audience.
• Always proofread your website text after you have translated it, if possible have it read by someone who speaks the language as their native tongue, make sure it is grammatically correct, the word are spelled correctly, and that the purpose of the website remains intact.

Alternatively, you can always hire a professional translation service  to take care of everything for you, ensuring a high quality translated website for your company and enabling you to become recognised on a global scale.

Check also:

• 4 Keys Steps For Translating Your Website From English to Swedish
• 6 Fundamental Tips for Website Localization to Reach Global Markets
• Swedish Localization and Website Translation: 4 Ways Your Business Can Benefit
• Why You Should Localize Your Website to Swedish?
• Things to Think of When Developing Localization Ready Websites