Localization is a relatively new field that people might have never heard of it or only had a vague and superficial understanding of what it means. But the truth is that the field of localization is continuously developing, and with it, there are new terms and ideas that are developing with it. One such term is hyperlocalization.

What is hyperlocalization? Hyperlocalization aims to identify, understand, and target unique micro-segments and to then localize product/service, communications, and business models in order to deliver customized solutions to meet hyper-local needs. In essence, hyperlocalization is a super focused localization process that aims to make sure that they are meeting the needs of a specific demographic by making hyperlocal content. Hyperlocal content is targeted to country-specific or locale-specific and even global-specific micro-segments within specific demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioral, cultural or other segmentation groups. Below are some examples of hyperlocalization.

For hyperlocalization based on geographies, you might see companies changing how they localize content for a specific region or country so that it is specific to what users for that area might expect. On the other hand, hyperlocalization based on demographics focus much more on finding micro segments based on unique demographic combinations or emergent micro-trends related to age, gender, income, or education. So focusing on specific groups like millenial foodies or centennials craving brand authenticity and trying to appeal to them through targeted language and advertisements is how you might get their business.

So why is hyperlocalization so important to understand and know how to implement? Well, when localizing something, even though it is different than translation in the sense that you are tailoring the words you use to reflect the audience you are translating for, still it will be more of a shotgun approach than a targeted approach. It might sound perfectly and linguistically alright in the area you are localizing for, but that will not matter if you are not making sure you reach the group of people that would make up your core audience or consumers. Hyperlocalization achieves this by making sure that you are specifically focusing your efforts on the people who will have most interaction with the product you are localizing.

With hyperlocalization, you are getting the maximum amount of connectivity with the audience that you are trying to target with. Also, just like with localization, what you are localizing sounds natural to the target audience. The only difference is that you are making as much of the content that sound pertinent to them as possible. Hyperlocalization may not be something that you will be expected to do in the localization industry, but it is something that you should know about, so you know what is expected of you when you are asked to do it.