Tips for Managing Multilingual Content

Tips for Managing Multilingual Content 1

Are you a multilingual brand that faces challenging content management demands? It can be tricky to maintain your brand voice if your company deals with a diverse set of customers who speak different languages or have recently expanded the business internationally. Multinational companies often find it difficult to become more inclusive to diverse groups without completely altering their content strategy. It becomes even more complicated for companies with multiple business units with several people engaged in developing, editing, and distributing content.

Businesses with a global audience need multilingual sites to ensure that their content communicates their brand’s message in every target language. The company website should allow customers to switch the site to a comfortable language for them to read. This requires an integrated translation and publication system that converts content into new languages and delivers them in the right location. A multilingual website can help your business grow by making your customers feel included in your message. But managing the multilingual content can be a bit tricky. Are you now wondering how do multilingual brands manage multilingual content?

Managing Multilingual Content

Most probably, you have already created great content in English. Now, you need to translate it into another language or create multilingual content from scratch. When it comes to creating and managing multilingual content, you need the right tools for your overall content strategy. In this post, you’ll find some tips for creating & managing multilingual content.

Use Standardized, Translation-Friendly Writing Practices

If multiple authors are developing content for the global market, make sure they all use standardized rules. When writing for multiple markets, you need to maintain consistency by setting some rules and defining writing practices. Each writer should understand the market they are writing for; otherwise, your brand may suffer. For instance, idioms used in one country may miss the mark in other cultures. Also, besides avoiding irrelevant phrases and words, there should be a standardized tone and writing style across the organization.

Multilingual Reference Materials

When you translate content, the meaning remains the same, but the tone and style can easily change. To ensure that translated content aligns with your brand identity, provide your linguists some reference materials, like style guides and glossaries. The writer should also have information about your company and its products/services. To avoid errors, you may provide authors a list of all the terms that shouldn’t be translated, like the product names or industry terms, word choice, tone preferences, etc.

Use the Translation Management System

The best practice for creating multiannual content is using software to streamline your global branding efforts. When you centralize all your content in one Translation Management System, it simplifies your workflow and makes managing translation projects much easier. This system consists of a translation memory that holds all your previously translated material. This feature helps in maintaining consistency in translation. When a writer submits content for translation, this translation memory automatically matches it with previously translated content to ensure it is in the same context. This helps in centralizing data within multiple departments and makes the process easier for your translation team.

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