Localising content: How to not get lost in translation

If you have ever tried to localise marketing or sales materials – brochures, presentations, whitepapers, etc. – “complexity” might be one word that comes to mind.

Traditionally, pharma companies use a Global to Local approach, where Global creates campaign materials and then they are provided to local countries for adaptation. This process involves many different participants – Global agencies, local agencies, brand managers from both sides, and without proper workflows and suitable technology it can be pretty disruptive.

As the amount of digital content continues to increase pharma companies are searching for ways to optimise content localisation and speed up time to market. Here are a few small tricks on how you can improve digital content adaptation.

Make it work in one system

One of the biggest challenges in localising content is that many of the parties involved in the process work in different systems and use different formats. The multiplatform approach is rarely convenient and adds unnecessary complexity and steps to the process – you can wait weeks until all material has been finalised. A proper digital asset management system allows you to cut through that main challenge:

• All the files and branding stays in one place.
• Local offices have access to all the approved content and can be sure they are using the latest compliant version.
• No need to worry about changing agencies – source files stay in a protected and safe environment.

Keep your agency aware

While working with any agency be sure to communicate your goals from the beginning. Agree on your localisation requirements and work together to create an efficient toolkit, with detailed source files, materials and reference lists. Don’t be shy to re-check - make sure the agency delivers all the content needed for the localisation to make the work of your local brand managers smooth and efficient. By creating a more structured process with the agency you are not only reducing risk but also saving time and money while avoiding duplicating your work in the future.

Create a campaign toolkit and make it visible

Classify the content (text, images, animation, etc.) and make it easy to navigate the catalog. Include all the references that local offices might need. Make the localisation content visible so that your Global office can track which materials are used and where.  This will allow you to significantly reduce the approval time of local materials and have deeper insights of content usage: what are the preferable channels, which key messages are the most efficient, which content pieces are the most popular in which region, and more.

Communicate the vision

While technical implementation plays a huge role, no solution can succeed without communicating the vision and process properly. Make sure that your local offices are aware of the materials that were developed on a Global level. Adapting messages from one language to another while navigating cultural nuances is a big challenge already, so make sure that brand managers have a clear understanding of the campaign’s goals and strategy. Clearly articulate your expectations, the KPIs that will be used to measure success, and the targets you expect to meet at the end of the campaign.

Fill the gap between marketing and sales

It’s not just brand managers that benefit from proper digital asset management workflows and systems. By managing  digital assets all in one place, for example with  Veeva Vault + Anthill Activator you can fill the gap between marketing and sales: arming the reps with the latest digital content to meet customers’ needs, providing marketers with fresh insights from the field, and providing each the access needed to build valuable interactions with your audience. The overall communication speed and coherency of your marketing communications will improve, allowing your people to concentrate on more strategic tasks.

In the era of ‘content overload’ implementation of the proper digital assets management platform that empowers multichannel communication and builds a 360 degrees’ view of the customer is only the first step – to be competitive you need to consider how you can align your DAM platform with tools that supports rapid and compliant multichannel digital content creation.

If you’re interested in more insights on how to become more agile, speed up time to market and localise your content faster and safer than ever, book a demo with our Anthill Activator expert.