Going Global Digitally: Localization of Tourist Ads in the Adriatic Region

Life Happens Online

What you used to know about the traditional advertising should be buried ten feet underground, as the new millennium has brought us the new rules. If you’re keeping track with the trends, then I’m sure you spend at least half of your time online or even make a living out of it.

For marketers, this new platform meant changing the game completely and giving themselves into the hands of uncertainty and ever-changing global movements. Which got me thinking about the mainstream definition of insanity which says it’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, then apparently everyone in the digital world is insane, because online advertising and digital marketing are exactly that. Sometimes doing the same thing can lead to different results, and there is no way of knowing what it’s going to be today.

One-way ticket to Localization

Advertising through Google, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms can do wonders if you know how to use them to your advantage. One thing I’m sure of is that businesses and individuals who offer accommodation can really benefit from online advertising, especially if they’re familiar with the words remarketing and localization.

The main advantage is that it gives them the opportunity to reach not wider, but the widest audience. Places that once seemed like never reachable dreams are now just a few clicks away. Of course, in order to get closer to your desired audience, it’s necessary to give them what they already know, so they don’t have to get out of their comfort zone (or the bathtub, for that matter). That means providing them with information in a way that won’t make their heads hurt. One way to do it is to be multilingual-friendly.

Of course, conducting research on the demographics of your audiences is the first step to growing your business. Once you establish where your most frequent guests are coming from, it’s time to adapt and localize your website. For example, if you’ve concluded that your visitors are coming from France or Germany, the logical step would be to localize your content to those languages. Another thing that’s important, and that most booking sites are doing now, is showing the prices in their currencies. As you already know, translation is more than a mere adaptation of textual content these days, so make sure to do your part of the job the right way. Personally, I’m a big fan of this trend, because it saves me the agony of constantly recalculating my money and the budget.

Catch me if you can

Now that you have set up the website, it’s time to take a step further and ping your future customers with appealing online ads. We’ve said this many times before, but it seems like it’s important to say it again – no one will buy and use a product or a service they can’t understand. This means that localization is a business necessity. However, if you think it would be too much for you or out of your depth, you can always seek help from language service providers, who are usually the experts in the field.

Once you’ve completely prepared your digital content, it’s time to enjoy the power of online advertising, which is not only easy to use, but they can be recycled as many times as possible. Now what’s up to you is to track the traffic and the growth of your income.

However, when you’re (re)targeting your audience, try not to be too spammy, since it may result in blocking, reporting or turning customers towards your competitors. You want customers to come back to you, not to throw you into their spam filter. Find the golden mean and be patient – the success can’t come over night.

Bon voyage, my friend!