The Benefits of Localization Glossaries and Style Guides
While expanding into overseas markets presents a host of opportunities for your business, it also presents a key challenge – how to maintain a consistent voice across different languages and cultures.
Luckily there is a solution: localization style guides and glossaries. These key tools provide writers and translators with clear guidelines on how to localize your brand copy across different markets.
Here we look at how localization glossaries and style guides can be used to support your multilingual communications and the benefits they bring.
What Are Localization Glossaries and Style Guides?
Simply put, they guide writers and translators on how to localize your brand for their local market – from agreed translations for brand-specific terms and phrases, to the most appropriate linguistic and cultural approaches.
A localization glossary can ensure consistency across:
· brand-specific terminology – the terms, phrases and statements that make up the DNA of your brand, such as products and features, taglines and your mission and vision
· industry terms and abbreviations – industry-related terms and abbreviations that appear frequently across your copy, including agreed translations of technical terms
· non-translatable terms – terms and phrases that should always be left in your native language, no matter the market.
A localization style guide sets out the rules for:
· grammar and punctuation – from sentence structure and capitalization to time, date and number formats
· forms of address – when and where to apply either formal or informal language, to better connect with local audiences
· tone of voice – how your brand’s tone of voice should be interpreted in the local market, which may vary between markets (for example, what may be bold and confident in one market could come across as arrogant in another)
· cultural considerations – advice and guidance on how to treat idiomatic expressions and avoid cultural misunderstandings.
The Benefits of Localization Glossaries and Style Guides
Taking the time to create a localization glossary and style guide for each of your target markets not only supports more consistent translations, but helps to save time – and costs – in the long run.
1. Consistent quality – having an approved set of terms and grammar rules for each of your target markets ensures more consistency and accuracy across copy, platforms and campaigns. And more consistency means higher overall quality.
2. Faster, more efficient workflows – localization glossaries and style guides ensure new team members can quickly get up to speed on key terms and language rules, meaning less briefing time and fewer correction rounds. Integrating a localization glossary into your translation management system will also enable translators to see brand-specific suggestions and inconsistencies as they work, making translation workflows more efficient.
3. Peace of mind – knowing that everyone working on your multilingual communications is working from the same page as everyone else can bring peace of mind that your brand is being properly presented wherever you do business.
How Mother Tongue Can Help
Mother Tongue can support brands across all industries to create tailored, localization glossaries and style guides for any or all of their target overseas markets.
Our team of market-based language specialists and copywriters use their local knowledge and industry experience to effectively localize your terms and provide the most appropriate linguistic and cultural guidelines to best connect with your specific audiences.
Get in touch to find out more about how Mother Tongue can support you with localization glossaries, style guides and other ways to improve your translation workflows.