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How should you organise your international content deployment?
16 MAY 2023
International brands dedicate a lot of time and resources into creating effective content strategies. But when they pass on these strategies to their local subsidiaries, the results are often not up to scratch: the brand's message and identity are distorted, deadlines for bringing products to market are not met, and the subsidiaries complain that they receive information that does not correspond to their specific local situation.
The success of a digital campaign based on the local adaptation of content depends on mastering the entire production chain: creating master content that can be easily localised internationally, deploying it without losing quality or time, and then enhancing the message locally, taking into account the individual sensitivities of each culture. In this article, we provide some practical tips to help you succeed in each of these stages, which encompass 3 essential aspects: resources (photos, videos, banners, etc.), performance (SEO/SEA) and the texts to be written and deployed.
1. Creating a ready-to-use master for cultural adaptation
The aim of this first stage is to prepare the elements of your digital campaign that are relevant to all channels and can be easily localised, for all subsidiaries and in all countries.
Resources: designing a PlayBook
For each campaign, it's important to create a PlayBook, which brings together all the useful assets for each key moment of the conversion journey and in each country. As you manage your international communications campaign, you'll be able to continually enrich this PlayBook with accumulated knowledge and feedback. As a result, the master becomes increasingly coherent and ready for deployment.
SEO performance: Master Keyword Study
SEO is often overlooked when preparing a master. At Datawords, we recommend creating a Master Keyword Study (a glossary of keywords specific to your market), which will make the work easier for your teams. This SEO toolkit helps writers and content managers find the right balance between a brand's original DNA and performance, while also facilitating local content optimisation.
Texts
It's often difficult to design international content for effective written communication. To achieve this, you have several options: first, choose the key topics to focus on, write effectively using precise guidelines, and adapt existing marketing content to all digital channels. Secondly, provide training for your content managers, agencies and copywriters, and then rework the received texts to match your initial requirements.
2. Multicultural content deployment
Now that your content is ready for international adaptation and customers are ready to use it, it's time to move on to the second stage: campaign deployment: how do you deploy your SEO toolbox in each country, respecting local needs and specificities?
Resources
The aim here is to improve the reuse rate of master resources, to avoid the need for costly local shoots or starting from scratch. Use a simple, intuitive digital asset management (DAM) tool, enabling each country to easily communicate and exchange assets, whatever the target format and language. Also consider automating certain tasks via this tool to reduce costs and save precious time.
SEO performance
To optimise local SEO, it's essential to adapt your keyword list to the cultural specificities of different countries; in other words, this is the phase where we move from the "Master Keyword Study" to the "Local Keyword Study". Simply translating keywords isn't enough: you also need to take into account the specific search patterns of each market. We also recommend creating an SEO glossary to be used during the translation phase: this way, all local content is automatically optimised.
Texts
When translating written content, you should opt for high-quality human translation, when budget and deadlines allow. However, if budgets are limited or translation volumes are high, the second most common solution is machine translation with post-editing. In this case, it's important to ensure translation quality by using a premium post-editing service rather than a standard machine translation service. It's also a good idea to clarify with your partner agencies from the outset what type of translation will be used.
3. Local amplification, taking into account cultural specificities
Having prepared a master adapted to each culture and deployed the assets, it's now time to support the various countries in local amplification by adapting the specific assets to their needs, while also avoiding increasing production costs by creating individual campaigns for each country. The aim here is to maximise traffic and impact in each market while preserving the overall coherence of the multicultural deployment strategy.
SEO and SEA performance
In the case of local amplification of your message on search engines, the strategy to adopt is to focus on the purchase of local keywords (SEA). Your main objective is to find and ensure SEO and SEA synergy between central and local, in order to maximise performance while optimising your budget.
Having prepared a master adapted to each culture and deployed the assets, it's now time to support the various countries in local amplification by adapting the specific assets to their needs, while also avoiding increasing production costs by creating individual campaigns for each country. The aim here is to maximise traffic and impact in each market while preserving the overall coherence of the multicultural deployment strategy.
Optimal content monitoring
When it comes to managing the amplification phase, we recommend that you add a cultural overlay to your content monitoring in order to better control the positive or negative impact of each campaign in different countries. Make sure you get a customised report for decision-makers, and don't forget to create a local performance analytics overview to understand local issues and enhance the local reach of your content. This in-depth cultural analysis, combined with detailed reporting by market, will enable you to create a virtuous circle for your international e-performance.
In conclusion, it's essential to bring different worlds and different experiences together under one roof to successfully complete your international deployment with content localisation. To achieve this, make sure you're supported by trusted partners and cultural adaptation experts who can best meet your needs.
Datawords guarantees you access to the services of digital experts in every field: from marketing experts to developers, coders, creative designers, copywriters, managers, translators and much more. Our in-house teams, who have a worldwide presence and a long track record of successful international content adaptation projects, can handle the creation, deployment and localisation of your content throughout the entire value chain, and are ready to support you from A to Z.