What is email localization (l10n)?

Localization (l10n) is adapting your email content and experience for specific regions, cultures, and languages. While internationalization is technical infrastructure, localization is the content work: translating copy, adapting imagery, adjusting offers for local markets, and ensuring cultural relevance. The goal isn't just that subscribers can read your email-it's that the email feels native to their context.

True localization goes far beyond translation. It includes adapting date and time formats (DD/MM/YYYY vs. MM/DD/YYYY), currency presentation (€50 vs. 50€), measurement units (kilometers vs. miles), and cultural references (American football analogies won't resonate in Germany). Imagery needs consideration too-models, settings, and visual metaphors should feel familiar to the target audience. Even color associations vary by culture.

The \"10\" in l10n represents the 10 letters between 'l' and 'n' in \"localization.\" Effective l10n requires native speakers or cultural consultants, not just translation software. Machine translation has improved dramatically but still misses nuance, idiom, and cultural context. Localization done well makes global subscribers feel like valued local customers; done poorly, it signals that they're an afterthought to your primary market.