Emerging markets give companies of all sizes unmatched opportunities to grow their revenue. These markets account for well over half of the world’s population and, by 2025 consumption of $30 trillion annually.

What’s really exciting are the opportunities for companies to grow and serve new markets.

You might face less competition there. You could be the first in your niche to enter one of these countries. As a foreign company, you enter with automatic brand prestigue. Your efforts to do business locally will grow as country’s economy rapidly grows. And most important to your bottom line: by tapping into such fertile territory, you will grow your revenue by capturing market share in these growing economies before your competition.

But here’s the problem: as marketers, we like to build strategy based on data and success stories. Emerging markets, in their infancy, don’t have much of either.

We know it can seem unnerving to localize for emerging markets without a blueprint to inform best practices. This is where Savara can help make the plunge a little less daunting. Our local teams know the markets because it is where we live, work and play. With a strong team dynamic of locals and expats, we can help bridge the cultural analytical divide that plagues most expansion efforts in emerging markets.

Before creating your market strategy, let’s first confront the kinds of challenges we commonly come across.

Barriers to localization in emerging markets

We’ll start by clearing up the confusion around the term emerging markets.

They might be emerging (or transitioning between developing and developed status), but not all of them are standalone markets. Africa, for example, contains dozens of countries—and within those, dozens and dozens of markets. This complexity presents a few roadblocks, including:

  • Language diversity: Each country speaks up to hundreds of languages, each with several variations. Only small numbers of potential customers speak rarer (“long-tail”) languages, which can be challenging to target.
  • Resourcing and infrastructure: Translators with qualifications, experience using localization processes and tools and good access to the internet and transport are difficult to come by.
  • Literacy: Consumers’ ability to read and type in their native languages is often low. You’ll need to get creative with the channels you use to reach them.

Without further ado, let’s look at the three methods you need to employ to overcome these challenges.

1. Deep understanding of the market

The first and most important step is to understand your target market intimately. Only then can you figure out how to adapt your localization approach.

Here’s what you need to know:

  • Demographics: What traits does your market share and how would they influence your content? The young population of Africa, for example—of which more than 50% is under age 25—is driving a mobile-first revolution.
  • Preferences: How do they make buying decisions? How do they use social media, search and devices? Desktop usage in emerging markets tends to be low, while illiteracy drives higher demand for voice-based apps and search.
  • The competitive landscape: Which languages have your competitors localized into and why? This could give you insight into the demand for your product or service.

From there, we can help you make informed decisions about content formats, platforms and which languages to target. For example, don’t just target languages with the greatest numbers of speakers—use data to find out which languages are most viable for your business.

2. Innovative use of technology

Thanks to the rapid spread of mobile devices and internet access in emerging markets, they’re more connected to the rest of the world than ever before. If you use this opportunity to improve communications with these markets, you can unlock trillions of dollars of economy.

When localizing your content, consider:

  • Optimizing for mobile. Mobile is so intimately woven into daily life in emerging markets that it might be the only device you need to plan for. You might focus less on text and more on video, for example. At a minimum, you should make your user interface mobile-responsive.
  • Optimizing for voice search. As you would in English, you can optimize for voice search using longer keyword clusters. But for other languages, you’ll also need to consider the nuances of dialects and search intent.
  • Keeping infrastructure in mind. Since bandwidth is low and relatively expensive in some areas, make sure videos and multimedia are easy to stream.
  • Using social media to build buzz and communities. Social networks have grown exponentially in India, Africa and China. That makes social media an indispensable tool for building your brand and in-market community. Keep in mind, the local platforms as well (especially in China).

Lack of infrastructure might seem like a disadvantage today. In reality, it primes emerging market countries to adapt more quickly to new technologies because they’re not tied to old systems. Since the bulk of these markets rely on widespread mobile use (and some people have never even known a desktop), you have a unique opportunity to experiment with mobile marketing.

3. Great people on the ground

We already mentioned the difficulty of finding and hiring translators in emerging markets. Another challenge is their cultural approach to doing business. This is where having a partnership with Savara can speed up your market entry and help avoid the many potential pitfalls.

In-market linguistic and cultural experts are the only people who can guarantee you don’t overlook business details like these. The same goes for insights on how to reach your customers. Our on-the-ground subject-matter experts (SMEs) can keep cultural mistakes out of your messaging by identifying things like:

  • Societal values and codes: Certain humor, etiquette, beliefs and gestures can either resonate or offend.
  • Imagery: Colors, icons and graphics symbolize different things to different cultures.
  • Word choice: Some words, like “white” and “black,” have racial undertones. You’ll need to choose your words carefully.

Savara Consulting takes care of the struggles of finding and vetting high-quality, trained resources. A freelancer might be able to translate your content, but can’t necessarily translate your brand.

The winning attributes of successful companies in emerging markets

Hopefully by now you have a sense of what to consider before entering emerging markets. Before doing business in emerging markets, you should to have:

  • A passion to grow and innovate.
  • The flexibility needed to adapt to rapid change.
  • Strong brand, to overcome local competition.
  • Offerings tailored to the circumstances of individual markets.

Remember: emerging markets and global companies are critical to each other’s growth. Emerging market countries are home to a rich tapestry of cultures that aren’t yet able to participate in the global conversation. They also have money to spend. Are you ready to meet this demand?