How to Automate Your Global Content Marketing

Any time you post something on the Internet, it becomes global content instantly. Practically everyone in the world can access it regardless of the language they speak.The contact is immediate, but the language barrier may be counter to your goals of globalization. Of course, you want your content out as soon as possible in English, but it’s also important to consider those customers who don’t have the option to read it in their own language.For effective global content marketing, you want to address all of your markets with minimal lag time, and to do that, you need an integrated localization system.

There are several elements that go into an effective overall strategy. Automation is a tremendous benefit, but it works within a larger system. That’s why it’s crucial to have an experienced localization partner that can lead you in the direction of comprehensive globalization.

Streamline Your Global Content Marketing Processes

Chances are, you are constantly launching new webpages and tweaking existing content. That may be hundreds of pages and hundreds of thousands of words. And you can’t expect the amount of content to wane, especially when we’re talking about widening your international reach.Add email blasts and AdWords campaigns. Complicate things with valuable assets such as banners and videos. It is an enormous undertaking with many parties involved and a whole lot of content to keep track of.The process becomes clearer, however, when we break it up and start from the beginning. This is our approach, built on decades of successful localization experience:

Take Advantage of Localization Automation Tools

A point that should be made immediately is that localization works best when you begin planning for it early. Ideally, you will set up an integration with your CMS during the design phase to ensure seamless flow from creation to deployment of localized content.Your localization partner can help you set up continuous localization services through API integrations or a command line interface (CLI). By automating the translation process, you save an immense amount of time and resources.

Too often, too much time and sanity is wasted on administrative tasks, emails, spreadsheets, file versioning, uploads, downloads. When your translation projects can be automatically routed to the right translators and reviewers, you reserve the careful human attention for tasks where it really counts. This is a particularly significant consideration when you’re managing a team that’s located across distant time zones and there is even more danger of lag time.And even within this refined and robust system, you need to approach content localization judiciously. Not every webpage can be considered equal in terms of its value for target markets.

One of the first things to do is to categorize your content and identify the website’s core pages. These are the ones that define your brand and educate the reader about your product. Prioritize these pages that will carry the greatest weight for the globalization effort. After you’ve localized your core pages, you can rebalance your budget and consider what’s next.Some of your core content may not be just text on a page. It could be videos that need to be subtitled or voiced over. It may be banners that are actually graphic files.

Your localization partner should be capable of accommodating all of these nuanced and technical needs. A well-rounded design and engineering team can handle non-text localization tasks immediately and integrate them into a centralized control mechanism in the same platform that other localization team members are using. Likewise, if you’re choosing the right dedicated partner, quality management can be incorporated into the platform itself, saving you valuable time and effort.

Reinforce Your Global Brand Identity

As you move forward with translation, your brand must remain consistent. You need gatekeepers who can decide the extent to which the brand can be altered and what it will look like in different locales.

You may keep certain brand-identified elements in English while other content may need complete reinterpretation, which we usually refer to as transcreation. These issues are unique to marketing, and it’s common for in-country teammates, like a local PR or marketing firm, to play a part. It’s critical to make decisions as soon as possible about fundamental brand factors and the possibilities for flexibility.An automated platform can play a huge role in fortifying your brand during your localization journey. It also acts as a steady and up-to-date source of truth for your many collaborators and for the wide range of content you have running through it.

Here again, there’s a big advantage to incorporating this component early. Your in-country partners can be involved in creating and approving terminology and style guides to balance brand and local market integrity.

They can weigh in on keyword viability in target markets. And evolving term bases that are integrated into this community content management system become some of the most important insurance for your brand’s truth and consistency.And, of course, this same automated platform can streamline the localization process by providing a quick and easy space for reviewers to approve or reject content—rather than engaging in a laborious spreadsheet shuffle by email.

You’ll need an explicit approval hierarchy and an understanding of who is allowed to change what. It can get complicated in the realm of marketing, but you can look forward to efficiency when communication and collaboration are supported by automation and a centralized platform.

Find a Localization Partner That Offers Comprehensive Services

Global content marketing is a team effort that extends far beyond simply translating your content. A localization partner that provides a platform capable of accommodating all team members will save you time. It may even save you the need to manage localization activities. It’ll guarantee the effective use of your money while maintaining the highest-quality content across diverse markets.