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

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@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

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

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Does this baby make me look fat?
@melindarox 4
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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@melindarox 5
Shopping online in Japan
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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“The coordinates are easy at longish length!”
@melindarox 6
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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Rakuten Global Market site
@melindarox 7
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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Content overload? Not in Japan.
@melindarox 8
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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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
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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Product pages are packed with information
@melindarox 10
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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Simplified English product page
@melindarox 11
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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Simplified English product page, 6 months ago
@melindarox 12
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS

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@melindarox
Go global or go home
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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.

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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
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS 15

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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
GLOBAL CONTENT STRATEGY / NOVEMBER 18 2014 / VSA PARTNERS 16

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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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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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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

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Global UX: Design and Research in a Connected World,
Szuc/Quesenbery
@melindarox
The case for localization
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@melindarox
Lost in translation
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Localization means addressing user needs
@melindarox
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@melindarox
Localization win or fail?
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Global markets require localized,
culturally relevant content
@melindarox
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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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@melindarox
Questions?
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@melindarox
Thank you!
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