Global Content Strategy 1/2 Day Workshop

Taking Your Content
Strategy Global
Val Swisher
Founder & CEO
@contentrulesinc

© 2013. Content Rules, Inc. All rights reserved.

Agenda
9:00 – 9:15
9:15 – 10:00
10:00 – 10:15
10:15 – 11:45
11:45 – 12:15
12:15 – 12:30

Introductions
Seven Components of Global Content Strategy
Break
Global Content Strategy Best Practices
Best Practices Exercise
Wrap up


Who Am I?

 Founder and CEO of Content Rules
 25+ years in content arena
 Specialty areas:
 Global content strategy
 Terminology management
 Content quality
 Single-sourcing / XML / DITA
 Finishing third book, “Global Content Strategy,” due out in
2014

What is Content Rules?
 Professional services firm specializing in:
• Content strategy / Global content strategy
• Content creation
• Content quality / Global readiness






Based in Silicon Valley
Founded in 1994
Acrolinx Authorized Services Provider
Authorized provider of The Rockley Strategic Method™


First…A Definition

A global content strategy is a structure for managing all of
your content that is consumed by people who speak or read
languages other than the source.


Why Do You Care?
1.
2.
3.
4.

Save money localizing and translating content
Improve content quality in all languages
Save time localizing and translating content
Someone told you that you need to figure out this
mess (see 1-3, above)

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.
All rights reserved.

The Seven Components of Global Content Strategy

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Global Content Strategy Components

Understand Goals

Content Lifecycle
Analysis

Content Audit

Gap Analysis

Workflow
Recommendations

Content-Specific
Recommendations

Infrastructure
Recommendations


Understanding Goals
 Identify business goals for global content strategy
 Identify current issues preventing the achievement of the
goals
 Outline criteria for successful global content management


Common Goals Of Global Content Strategy







Increase sales by expanding into additional markets
Lower the cost of translation
Increase the quality of global content in all languages
Lower cost of maintaining global content
Improve time-to-market for global content
Respond to region-specific feedback on global content


Goal Setting

 Talk to stakeholders
• Product management / Brand management
• International managers / Region representatives
• Content creators

• Localization managers
• Others

 Write it down
• Identify common issues
• Look for consensus for success criteria
© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Content Lifecycle Analysis
 Identify issues associated with global content

• Creating source content
• Translating content
• Managing global content
• Delivering global content
 Look at current processes and tools

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Content Lifecycle Common Issues







Lack of communication between and among groups
Lack of common goals
Lack of consensus on audience
Loss of control over content creation
Loss of control over translation process
Outdated or isolated tools
• CMS, TMS, MT, Terminology Management, others

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Content Audit







What do you have?
Who created it?
How is it organized?
Are there missed opportunities for reuse?
Is it properly tagged for multilingual search?
Is it global-ready?

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Content Audit (Continued)







What content is translated? Localized? Transcreated?
Which vendor is translating which content?
How many translation memories do you have?
Where are the TMs?
How are the TMs being used?
Is your pivot language acceptable?

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Gap Analysis
 How far off is the current situation from the goals?
 How does current situation map to industry best
practices?
 Outline each area for improvement

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Recommendations
Usually fall into three areas:
 Tools / infrastructure improvements
 Content global readiness improvements
 Workflow improvements

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Tools / Infrastructure Recommendations






Content management system
Terminology management
Translation management
Authoring environment
Site-specific infrastructure:
• Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)
• Geolocation

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Content Global-Readiness
•
•
•
•
•
•

Reduce word count
Increase use of identical sentences
Decrease word variability
Reduce sentence length and complexity
Eliminate word usage errors (idioms, jargon)
Evaluate and change offensive, meaningless imagery

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Workflow Recommendations
Workflow needs to be an end-to-end process that starts
with content creation and ends with worldwide delivery:





Interaction between people and tasks
Touch points and handoffs between groups
Dependencies
Governance

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Summary Of Seven Components








Understand goals
Analyze current content lifecycle and workflow
Audit existing content
Analyze the gap
Recommendations for tools and infrastructure
Content global-readiness
Workflow that enhances success

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

What You Can Expect To Achieve
Global content that is:
 Easier to manage
 Cheaper to translate
 Easier to find
 Easier to read
 Quicker to market
 Better aligned with sales and product goals

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Global Content Strategy Best Practices

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Best Practice Categories

There are two types of best practices:

 External

 Internal

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

External Best Practices
 Affect the user experience
 Navigation
 Ease of use
 Cultural sensitivities
 Branding
 Excellent resource for best practice information:
“Web Globalization Report Card,” by John Yunker
www.bytelevel.com
© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Where Is The Welcome Mat?

 Splash global gateway
 Button on the homepage
 Button buried deep within the site that no one can find

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Global Access “Sweet Spot”
 If you are not going to have a splash global gateway, the
next best choice is to use a simple button.
 Upper right corner of the screen is the best place for it.
 Keeping it in the same place for each language is a good
idea, too.

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Global Gateway Best Practices
 Use a global gateway splash page, if possible
 Display region or country names in the native language
 Flag

language

 Use the global button sweet spot
 Avoid lengthy drop-downs
 Put the button in the same place
 Be careful when emphasizing certain locations over others
 Don’t hide the button
© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Where Oh Where Are My Global Sites?
 Don’t make navigation harder than you need to

 There are some companies who choose to hide their
global sites
 You need to hunt for them. Carefully.

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Navigating Within A Global Site
 Make it easy for people to find what they need, in the
language they need it in, on the device they want to use.
 Think like a customer when you lay out your global
navigation.

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Don’t Forget The Branding
 Unless your brand is iconic, make sure you feature it on
all of your language sites
 That’s how iconic brands got to be that way

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Cultural Sensitivity
 Eliminate what is offensive

 Include what is specific to the region
 Pay attention to what you do and don’t translate

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Cultural Expectations
 Layout of pages

 Specific items of celebration
• Awards
• Campaigns

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Recap - External Best Practices
 Affect the user experience
 Navigation
 Ease of use
 Cultural sensitivities
 Branding

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Internal Best Practices
 Know when to translate, when to localize, and when to
transcreate
 Reuse content wherever possible
 eep text out of graphics
 Be consistent
 Use multilingual keywords
 Collaborate

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Methods Of Handling Global Content
Translation

Localization

Transcreation

The content stays the
same

The meaning stays the
same

Different content
developed to meet
business objectives

Language

Literal word-for -word
translation of everything

Translate the meaning of
the words in a way that is
culturally appropriate

Developed in local
language; English may be
used as part of the brand
vocabulary

Images

No change

Change to fit local
expectations / product
needs

Change to fit local
expectations / product
needs

Layout

No change

Minimize changes

Change to fit local
expectations

Brand
Vocabulary

No change

No change

Enhance and expand

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Text Within Graphics
 Not picked up by free translation engines such as Google
translate or Microsoft translate
 Not picked up by optimization engines such as Acrolinx
 Separate process to translate
 Not searchable

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Language And Search
 Site must be searchable in native language
 Even if site “returns” to English, maintain native language
search terms
 More on this when we discuss content auditing

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Recap - Internal Best Practices
 Know when to translate, when to localize, and when to
transcreate
 Reuse content wherever possible
 eep text out of graphics
 Be consistent
 Use multilingual keywords
 Collaborate

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Evaluate Walmart for global best practices





Ranked #1 on the Fortune 500 for 2013
Presence in 27 countries
More than 6,000 international stores
Almost 1 million employees outside of the U.S.

So let’s look at their global online presence.
© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Evaluate Walmart’s global gateway using this list of best
practices:
 Access
 Ease of use

 Cultural elements
 Branding
 Reuse
© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

How Long Does It Take You To:
Navigate to the Walmart site for Chile?
Navigate to the Walmart site for India?
Note your observations to share with the class.

© 2013.

Content Rules, Inc.

Val Swisher
CEO & Founder
vals@contentrules.com
@contentrulesinc

Global Content Strategy 1/2 Day Workshop

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (7)

Similar to Global Content Strategy 1/2 Day Workshop

Similar to Global Content Strategy 1/2 Day Workshop (20)

More from Val Swisher

More from Val Swisher (7)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Global Content Strategy 1/2 Day Workshop

Editor's Notes