Do you know, there are more than 34 million Arabic internet users worldwide? Most businesses overlook the potential in the middle eastern market. The Middle East is quite a lucrative market with a huge online customer base. However, the language, culture, beliefs, and social values of middle eastern people are very different from Americans. It is also important for companies to first localize their brand before hitting the middle east; it will prevent them from making cultural mistakes.

Arabic is a widely spoken language; translating your content into the Arabic language can prove a game changer for your brand. Similarly, companies have to be really careful about localizing for the middle eastern market because of their cultural and religious sensitivities.

Read this article to understand the key points that you need to consider while localizing for the middle east. 

Why Should Businesses Target Middle Eastern Regions?

The question is why should we target the middle east and what revenue opportunities this market provides to global companies. 

Well, the number of Arabic-speaking audiences is continuously growing on the internet. Regions like Dubai, Bahrain, and Qatar are ideal markets to sell luxury products because of the high tourism and high-income levels of natives. The Middle East is indeed a complex marketplace to target, but with a little understanding of their culture and customer behaviors companies can grow very well in the market.

Localizing your product for the middle eastern market is not very difficult if you know all the factors that you need to consider.

How to Create a Robust Localization Plan for the Middle Eastern Market?

Following are some important points you must keep in mind while localizing your product or services for the Middle east.

Content translations into the local language  

When we talk about brand localization, translating your textual content into the Arabic language is significant. Using a professional translation management system, you can easily manage your Arabic translation projects for different middle eastern regions. However, you have to be careful about the different dialects Arabic people speak around different countries in the Middle East.

One thing you must keep in mind here is, apart from the grammar, and scripting style of the Arabic language, you write it from right to left, unlike English which is from left to right. So make sure that the language translations don’t affect the web design. 

Culturally appropriate brand representation

Western grand have to be really careful while targeting the middle eastern regions because their culture is quite contrary to what Americans are normally familiar with. The cultural diversity between the middle east and west makes it even more challenging to localize a brand for this particular market. So, you need to first have a good understanding of the cultural and social limitations of the Middle east. For instance, if you are a clothing brand, make sure to avoid portraying females in your marketing ads, especially with short clothing. 

People in the Middle East are mostly Muslims who believe in wearing modest clothing that covers their bodies fully. So, if you design an ad that shows a female character wearing typical western clothes, it may cause offense to your target audiences. So, the right representation of your product in the Middle Eastern market is significant to build a strong and lasting brand image. 

Follow the legal boundaries and restrictions 

Middle eastern countries have strict laws and regulations when it comes to running your business in that market. From business trading regulation to marketing campaign design, make sure that you are not violating any legal boundaries. For instance, unlike in western countries, pork and alcohol are strictly banned in the Middle east. Being a business operating in the Middle East, you must obey the law; otherwise, action will be taken against your country and the government may ban you permanently.

In all aspects, your brand should seem like respecting the beliefs, values, and culture of the target customer. Such as serving wine in a formal business event is considered an extremely offensive and unlawful act in most middle eastern regions.

Create an Arabic SEO plan

Performing local SEO for every targeted region will make your brand rank high on search engine pages. Google shows totally different search engine results for different regions. Adopting a local SEO approach is also a good way to enhance your website’s online visibility. By using a cloud-based localization management platform or a project management platform, you can easily manage SEO plans for different localization projects.

For Arabic-speaking users, you have to conduct separate keyword research in the local languages. It allows non-English speakers in the middle east region to search for your brand online. Using the most frequent local search phrases by natives, you can effectively enhance the search engine rankings of your website. This way, your customers can easily approach you online and buy from you.