How to localize your business to succeed in Italy

It is essential to do your homework and take nothing for granted when exploring international business opportunities. Whether you’re buying a business or starting a new venture, knowledge is power. With that in mind, let’s explore how to successfully connect with Italian consumers when launching a business in Italy.

Italian economic snapshot

Italy’s economy is weathering the current global instability rather better than the economies of many of its European counterparts. The OECD projects that the Italian economy will grow by 2.5% in total in 2022, underpinned by core manufacturing efforts and a push towards becoming a greener, more digital economy.

As is the case in many countries, Italy’s business environment is made up of mainly small and medium sized enterprises. These account for 99.9% of all Italian businesses. It is a country of artisan enterprises with a culture that welcomes those who show their entrepreneurial spirit.

Key business sectors in Italy include telecommunications, transportation, pharmaceuticals and energy. The country is also known around the world for its food, wine, fashion and beauty exports, along with vehicles, furniture, electrical goods, machinery and a range of other products.

That said, Italy is also known for its bureaucracy. So, while the country is encouraging foreign businesses to invest, any company that plans to do so should become familiar with the documentation requirements and timescales involved.

How businesses are using language service providers

Both companies looking to gain a foothold in Italy and Italian companies with international expansion plans rely on language service providers to achieve their goals.

How Italian businesses are using language service providers

Luxury carmaker Ferrari, energy conglomerate Eni, financial banking Giant Intesa Sanpaolo and electricity and gas distributor Enel all rank among the most valuable companies in Italy. To connect with non-Italian speaking audiences, such businesses rely on Italian translation services to deliver word-perfect copy that matches the quality of the documentation produced for their Italian-speaking customers.

Such large-scale brands cannot afford mistakes when it comes to their Italian translation. Whether they are undertaking Italian to English translation or working with any other language pair, mistakes can be costly in terms of reputational damage.

The same is true for smaller enterprises that are pursuing international expansion goals. Mistranslations can be at best embarrassing and at worst hugely damaging. A pertinent question then, is: What is the most accurate Italian translator? Note that the priority here is accuracy, not price. For business documentation, the most accurate Italian translator would be a professional, qualified human translator with extensive experience in the business world.

Machine translation may be cheaper but opting for Italian translation through an agency is likely to result in superior quality. How much does it cost to translate a document from Italian to English? That depends on the length of the document. Translators charge either per word (most common) or per page, so be sure to compare agencies that quote in these different ways to get an idea of the cost of your translation.

How global companies are relying on Italian translation

For companies seeking to enter the Italian marketplace, language service providers can help to localize their business for Italian audiences. Investing in a business venture in Italy can open access to the European Single Market. Italy’s geographic proximity to northern Africa and the Middle East is also a key attraction for many companies. But businesses first need to win over customers in Italy itself. Language plays a fundamental role in doing so.

According to language services provider Tomedes, a one-stop-shop for solving global businesses’ main pain points, supporting a new venture in Italy involves a range of translation disciplines. Selecting an agency based on Italian translation alone won’t cut it. Businesses also need legal expertise, for legal translation relating to securing their product, and technical, SEO and content expertise for their website translation. Website localization skills are also a must for localizing your website to the Italian market.

For WittySparks, an online digital and content marketing platform, developing your local Italian SEO strategy is essential to gain access to 50.85 million users. It makes the business website more visible online, increasing traffic and conversions. To rank in local SERP, you must constantly evolve your tactics and provide relevant information about your business by optimizing your profile.

Once you have created a strategy, you can start developing content that works well with it. Even BlogHandy, a company specializing in blogging integration programs, saw how blogging has become essential for all marketing endeavour. To establish your business as relevant to your Italian users, you will have to tailor content targeting them. Not just translating blog articles from English to Italian. By optimizing it with local SEO, your articles will get the engagement you want.

Nor do the Italian translations stop there. There’s also the need for marketing translation (on an ongoing basis) to target local audiences and digital/SEO translation solutions for increasing brand awareness and supporting sales. Customer service translation is also a must for any business that needs to provide aftersales support. The firm recommends using native Italian translators to achieve the best translation results.

The challenge of translating content for Italian audiences

Businesses that are new to Italian translation will need to factor solutions to a few linguistic challenges into their plans. Italian uses more words than English to convey the same message. This can impact everything from product labels to website display requirements, so needs careful consideration.

Adding to the challenge is that Italian is often less direct than English. It takes more words to express the same concept, sentiment, idea, instruction and so on without losing the meaning. Again, this drives a need for careful thought, particularly if translations are to be used for things like pay-per-click advertising where strict character limits are in place.

None of this is insurmountable with the right Italian translation company on board. Just be sure to put time into finding the perfect agency to support your business to succeed in Italy.