Taking your content on the road—best practices for global expansion with regard to translation and localization of content. Includes information about Japanese web design and e-commerce giant Rakuten's global content strategy as they move into new markets.

1. Global Content Strategy
Don’t Get Lost in Translation
November 18, 2014
!PRESENTED BY!
Melinda Flores!
Associate Director, Content Strategy!
VSA Partners

2. @melindarox 2
Agenda
• Big in Japan: the Japanese digital experience
• Defining global content strategy
• Taking your content on the road
• Don’t get lost in translation: Best practices
• The case for localization
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

3. @melindarox 3
Big in Japan
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

4. Does this baby make me look fat?
@melindarox 4
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5. @melindarox 5
Shopping online in Japan
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6. “The coordinates are easy at longish length!”
@melindarox 6
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7. Rakuten Global Market site
@melindarox 7
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8. Content overload? Not in Japan.
@melindarox 8
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9. Why is the Japanese experience so different?
• Character comfort
• Need for a high degree of information and assurance
• Mobile, mobile, mobile
• Lack of hierarchical contrast
• Low adoption of new programming languages
http://randomwire.com/why-japanese-web-
design-is-so-different/
@melindarox 9
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10. Product pages are packed with information
@melindarox 10
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11. Simplified English product page
@melindarox 11
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12. Simplified English product page, 6 months ago
@melindarox 12
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13. @melindarox
Go global or go home
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14. What is global content strategy?
The planning, creation and management of content, in terms of:
@melindarox
….around the world
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Workflow
Governance
Structure
Substance
People
Work
Global content strategy is concerned with scaling content for global markets !
in a way that is efficient, consistent, relevant and sustainable.

15. The benefits of a global content strategy
• Tell a consistently compelling story about your offering, !
no matter where audiences find you
• Make sure your content is ready to scale for global markets
• Streamline translation and publication workflows to !
save money and time
• Improve content reach and performance
@melindarox
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16. Taking your content on the road
• Less is more (cheaper and faster to translate!)
• Replace idioms and obscure language with common
expressions
• Adhere strictly to English grammar rules
• Be exceptionally clear, e.g., use nouns with the words !
this, that, these, and those
• Be aware of visual cues that may be irrelevant or even
offensive in other cultures
• Create a corporate glossary (!!!)
@melindarox
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17. Why a corporate glossary?
• Safeguards your product and company branding
• Preserves your company trademarks, service
marks, copyrights, and so on
• Ensures that everyone in your organization uses the
same terminology to describe the same things
• Makes your content easier to read for people of all
reading levels
• Lowers the price and time it takes to translate the
content into multiple languages
• Helps to ensure the quality and consistency of
the translations
http://www.contentrules.com/blog/simple-rule-3-real-editors-dont-do-
it-without-a-terminology-manager/
@melindarox
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18. Translation: Best practices
• Use native-speaking translators who are ideally
based in the target country for translations (at least !
1 person to translate and another for QA)
• Find translators who are subject matter experts
and skilled at marketing translations, whenever
possible, to nail style and tone
• Create separate experiences for each country !
(not language) and don’t forget about differences
among dialects—there are significant differences
between French Canadian and the language spoken !
in France
• Store and track all translations in an owned
terminology database to save time and money
@melindarox
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19. Translation vs. localization vs. transcreation
Translation
Localization
Transcreation
@melindarox
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Content
No change (direct
translation of
existing content)
May be altered to be more
culturally appropriate/
relevant
New content may be
developed to suit local needs
Design
No change (same
images)
May be altered to be more
culturally appropriate/
relevant
Change to suit new content/
local needs
UX
No change (same
layout)
May be altered slightly as
required by content needs
Change to suit new content/
local needs
Adapted from: http://www.slideshare.net/IntelligentContent/
planning-your-globalcontentstrategyswisher

20. Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World,
Szuc/Quesenbery
@melindarox
The case for localization
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21. @melindarox
Lost in translation
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22. Localization means addressing user needs
@melindarox
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23. @melindarox
Localization win or fail?
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24. Global markets require localized,
culturally relevant content
@melindarox
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25. Additional Global Content Strategy resources
• Contentrules.com and anything written by Val Swisher on
Slideshare—she knows her stuff!
• Milengo.com global content strategy blog
• Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World,
Szuc/Quesenbery
@melindarox
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26. @melindarox
Questions?
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27. @melindarox
Thank you!
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