This post was originally published on TheNextWeb

Autocad WS has over 10M users. For 8.5M of these English is not a first language.

Getting localization right that led to a huge growth in our download rate – from about 1500 per day to almost 5000, in less than 6 months.Translating the app is a significant part of localization, but that’s not what drives downloads. Localizing the marketing does – it’s not about the text on the button, but about the way users discover the app, decide whether to download it and most of all – how they experience it. Localization is not translation – It’s about providing the same marketing and product experience to a user from Mexico, Korea, Italy or the US. Translating the app itself is an important step but there are several other steps you should take whether you actually translate the app, or not.

Start by localizing the product page in the App Store/ Google play.

I have yet to meet an app developer who didn’t see a significant download rate increase after localizing the product page. Really localizing it. Localizing a product page means rethinking every pixel, every term and every detail – the currency in the screenshot, the image of the user, the name of the sample user.

Translating your app’s description is an opportunity to better connect with some of your global users by changing some of the details – names of countries, currency, measurement units. A translated description is also a great organic search traffic source. The real fun, however, begins with the screenshots. Every pixel can be reconsidered and every tweak can push downloads up by a few more percents.

In our app screenshots we changed the following –

• User name – most screenshots include a ‘John Smith’ or similar. That’s not really a typical Spanish, Japanese or Russian name. ‘John’ become Mario, Carlos or 陶. We even scanned our database to find our users’ most common first names, for each language (most common WS user name was Jose )
• Units – We prepared different screenshots with Inches/feet or meters/centimeters. When we displayed the right units potential users immediately connected better to the screenshots. I heard similar results from app owners who changed pounds to kilos, dollars to euros (or any other currency), and so on.
• Text labels – We changed the texts which appeared in the drawings in the screenshots so labels, drawing names and comments appeared in the target language.
• Maps and images – I haven’t tried this one myself but this has been highly recommended by others – If your app has geo-related features make sure the maps or cities you present are local. There’s a much better chance a Japanese user will relate to a pinned location presented on a map of Tokyo, rather to one in San Francisco.

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In this great TED talk – “The art of asking”, Amanda Palmer shares how she built a successful music career, untied herself from a record label, and even managed to enjoy the process by asking – and mastering it. When building a startup asking is your default mode – you need to ask for money, to ask users to try out your half-baked product, or to ask others to share their relevant experiences. Asking might seem like a huge burden but I find it is a powerful tool and try to use it as much as possible. Asking is not about looking for help, it’s a way of interaction. It’s an incredible way to get to know people better, to create a better connection with people and by doing so – to build a better company.

I’ve noticed for quite a while now that my best meetings, those which yield the best results, are the ones that have the most balance of conversation between me and the person I’m meeting with. It doesn’t matter if it’s me trying to ‘sell’ something or if it’s the other way around. It can be an investor meeting, a meeting with customers, interviewing a candidate for a job or trying to help a fellow entrepreneur. If there’s symmetry – things click. Obviously I can choose what to tell about myself, but in order to maintain that symmetry and understand the other side, I need to use a different tool – questions.

Stop asking numeric questions (How many years have you been working for the company? How many employees do you have?)

When trying to create a personal connection and getting to know the person I’m meeting, I try  to avoid questions that can be answered with a number. The obvious reason is that these questions are usually pretty boring, but the real reason is that numbers are the easiest way to ‘measure’ others, and people may feel like they’re being judged. Every time someone asks me how old my startup is I get an insecure feeling – Takipi is only one year old – maybe they think it’s not mature enough to have a solid product, or maybe they’re thinking that after a year we should have had more customers. I always feel uncomfortable when answering this question even though it’s very technical and I’m very proud of the company. Even when you don’t mean to be judgmental (and usually you don’t) there’s a good chance the other side might think you are.

When you ask someone how long he’s been with the company, and it’s only been 3 months he might feel insecure (and if it’s the other way around, that he’s been there for too long).
Or :
How many people are there in your company?
If the company you’re asking has just gone through layoffs, they might feel understaffed or just have a negative reaction.
And the worst one: 
How much money have you raised so far?
A question I personally get asked several times each week. Even though we’ve raised exactly the amount we were looking for, I always feel I am being judged when I answer this.

People don’t always hear what you really asked

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The big day has arrived. Your product is ready to launch, you know exactly which bloggers you need to target, and all you have to do now is well, convince them to write about your product with only a few lines of email. Very few.

In both of my companies I managed the marketing of products which were anything but “sexy” –  not usual blogger material and still – we received coverage. I also guest posted for TechCrunch, LifeHacker, The Next Web and others without much (or any) writing references. Here are the emails which led me there and what stands behind them.

It’s not about your users, it’s about the blog’s readers

The biggest leap I made to get more press coverage was by changing the main question I asked myself when writing the email.  At first, like most people, I simply tried to explain why our product benefits users. Having lots of engaged users is obviously my goal but bloggers have a different one. They’re not interested in your users but rather in their own users = readers. Bloggers want to get as many people to read their posts, and if you can help them meet that goal – you’re in. So I started asking myself “How will writing about my product drive more traffic to blog X?”. That changed everything. Emails were suddenly getting answered and my product started appearing in blogs. When focusing on the bloggers’ goals you might not get to list all your features or discuss the innovative technology in detail, but – you’ll get in.

Following are different techniques for achieving this goal. Important :  don’t use more than one or two at a time. The email should be as short as possible, I try not to exceed 5-6 lines.

Get personal
One of the most basic tips when it comes to blogger outreach is to personalize your email. Not only is  there a better chance you’ll hit what they’re looking for but you’re also communicating that you’re interested in their blog and not sending the same email to 50 different bloggers. Some use custom templates and personalize parts of it, like this :

Hello _______ (fill in blogger name)
I really liked your last article about ________ (fill in the topic of the last article) and I’ve been following the way you cover ________ (select according to blog) for a long time.

Please don’t do this. This is not personalization. If you have the most interesting/ buzzy product ever, and bloggers will write about you no matter what – go ahead. Since you probably don’t – it’s a template and it looks like one. The key to convincing bloggers that writing about you will drive traffic to them is understanding the core values of their blog. TechCrunch is about the startup scene, the faces behind it and news, LifeHacker is about improving your life with small tricks and tips, GigaOm is more about technology and how the tech industry evolves. Once you fit your story into their world you’re halfway there. Personalization is about finding the right angle and knowing which parts of your product and story to highlight.

OK, let’s go into my inbox  -

This is how I pitch Takipi to startup scene/ Business oriented blogs

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