A famous quotation goes, “The customer is always right”. A lot of companies may be aware of this narrative, but very few are able to follow this religiously. And the many that do not prioritize their customer service over company needs, are unable to position their brand in an effective way.

With time, many organizations are realizing that they need to construct customer-driven marketing strategies. This will enable them to support the customer to maximize their user experience. One industry that optimizes its marketing strategies to fit the needs of the customers is professional translation services.

Translation agencies aim to design a customer-driven marketing strategy so that the client is satisfied. Aiming to deliver what the customer expects, and adapting content to fit the cultural preferences of the target market is something that translation firms, especially Russian translation services, are prone to deliver at par.

Let’s expound upon the 4 steps of customer-driven marketing strategies that Translation agencies adapt to deliver customer values.

Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy

Segmentation

In segmentation, the target market is divided into various categories as per the customer’s interests. A translation service has to identify the segment that it is going to target. One may ask how many segments can a firm divide the target market into? So let’s look at some of them;

Geographic segmentation

Translation agencies have to capture the intricacies of the geographic locations of the target market. The translated content has to be appropriate to the region of the market. Marketing translation services need to understand that a KFC chain planning to market in the southern part of India, should know that a majority of people there are vegetarian. Hence, the marketing campaigns should be adapted accordingly.

Religious Segmentation

In the process of translations, firms are very careful about the content that might offend cultures and communities. Hence, they try their best to conduct thorough research on the religious sentiments pertaining to a community.

For instance, the use of alcohol is completely prohibited in Muslim communities. Hence, a lot of translation firms, like Malay translation services, translated marketing copies in a way that excludes anything that might offend a particular religious segment.

Targeting

Once the translation firms have identified their market segment, they must decide which segment it’s going to target. The target has to be very specific, and the organization should have a clear view of whom it wants to offer its services to.

Differentiated Targeting

In differentiated targeting, professional translation services aim to diversify their offerings. Rather than offering simple translations, they offer technical, legal, financial, medical, and marketing translation services. They are able to differentiate their targets and hence can appeal to two or more different target audiences.

Niche Targeting

In niche targeting, only a specialized segment is selected within a segment. This may cater to a specific regional language, for instance, Malay translation services, offer their services to the community speaking that language only.

Moreover, a lot of translation services, offer their services to only the biggest companies in the world like Netflix, or Amazon, when they are trying to localize their content. Their services are not for the public looking to translate a small, 10-page document.

Differentiation

Differentiation can be understood as a process of distinguishing a product or service from other competitors in order to make it more attractive to the target market.

However, in differentiation also there are some steps involved. So lest take a look at them;

• The first thing that translation services should do in the process to differentiate themselves is to look for their competitive advantages. This could be almost be anything. But the important thing is how to capitalize on that differentiation and gain an edge over competitors.
• Once you shortlist your competitive advantages, the next step would be to choose the right one.
  
• Once you choose the right one, the next step would be to select an overall positioning strategy.

If you are operating a translation agency, you can differentiate on the basis of excellent customer delivery, or affordable rates, or quality-oriented translated content. Such differentiation can attract more customers.

Positioning

Positioning is the ability to influence consumer perception regarding a brand or product relative to competitors.

If you want to be a translation agency that only offers services to big brands, hence the level of quality has to be upgraded. Your marketing strategy should portray you as an organization that caters to only high-end organizations.

So whenever a customer hears or reads the name of your company, the perception of quality or class immediately appears in his mind.

But the real question is that how can organizations position themselves. In order to do that there are certain options that one can capitalize and then use that to position themselves in the minds of the consumers

Product or Service Price; You can attract customers by offering affordable prices for your services. So whenever a customer hears your name, he can think of affordability.

Product Quality: An organization can pursue to position itself as a firm that does not compromise on quality.  For instance, Apple products

Product Use and Applications:  An organization can focus upon its unique product use or application that enables it to differentiate itself from its competitors.

Conclusion

A customer-driven marketing strategy aims to put customers before everything else. This strategy is what makes an organization stand out from the rest of the competition.

If you want to succeed in the translation business, you should refrain from market myopia. And never put your needs above the consumers. This may seem like an unrealistic and impractical choice. But statistics show that customer-eccentric firms are more successful in the long run.