Month: May 2022

How to Optimize Your Localization Budget - Portada
18/05/2022

How to Optimize Your Localization Budget

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on How to Optimize Your Localization Budget

You always want to get the most bang for your buck and it’s no different when it comes to your localization budget. Let’s look at a few ways you can optimize your localization process, and as a result your budget, so that your budget is working as hard as possible to get the results you need. 

1. Use Technology to Your Advantage

When it comes to your localization budget, technology is on your side. While technology can’t quite replace a human touch, it can help your localization expert do their job more efficiently and accurately. From translation management systems (TMs), to CAT tools, to quality assurance tools, you can make it easier for your localization team to do their jobs, which can save you money in the long run. 

For example, CAT tools are an asset that can make localization work faster and easier, as they can help your localization partner increase their productivity, catch mistakes, achieve consistency, and eliminate repetitive translations. A CAT (computer assisted translation) tool accomplishes this by segmenting the text that requires translation and then presents the segments in a way that is easier to translate, which saves the localization expert time and potentially saves the client money. 

Similarly quality assurance tools can scan bilingual files to look for linguistic and formatting errors, which is especially helpful when performing a final review on a large project with a lot of text or files to review. A quality assurance tool can also help uncover and remedy inconsistencies among files translated or edited by different teams of vendors.

2. Create and Maintain Valuable Resources

Creating a term base, translation memory, and style guide can save a lot of time and confusion. All brands have their style and terminology preferences. By keeping an up-to-date term base, translation memory, and style guide, your localization partner will have the tools they need to do their job correctly from the get-go. When you have and maintain these resources, you’ll save time and money by not needing to answer unnecessary style and term questions and by not having to clean up easily avoided mistakes later. 

3. Take Time to Understand the Needs of the Project 

Before you dive into a project, and allocate where your budget will go, spend some time really getting to know the needs of the project. Spending time upfront planning project costs can help you avoid expensive surprises down the road. 

Do a deep dive into the project requirements. For example, you need to know if the project requires that your team do additional quality assurance checks or if the document requires that a specialist works on the layout so that the final translated document looks exactly like the original (also known as DTP). If you’re unclear on project requirements from the beginning, the project may be misquoted, and you’ll find that additional costs will be necessary later. 

If you’re unsure of what you need to do to make the project a success, talk to your localization partner, they will know how to establish the right workflow.

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3 Major Benefits of Inclusive Language for Your Business - Portada
11/05/2022

3 Major Benefits of Inclusive Language for Your Business

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on 3 Major Benefits of Inclusive Language for Your Business

Adopting inclusive language can help your business in more ways than one. There are both internal (amongst your employees) and external (amongst customers and clients) benefits that can truly impact your business that is worth keeping in mind. Let’s examine some of the main advantages of inclusive language for your business.

Better Workplace Environment and Employee Engagement

While it’s easy to focus on how your customers and clients would react to the use of inclusive language in your business, you should first look at how this switch will be received internally. 

Using gender inclusive language at work can be a strong step towards diminishing gender inequality both internally and externally. For example, using gender-neutral job titles in your job postings will make it easier for candidates of any gender to view themselves in the role. At the same time, you’ll be helping our society shift away from unconstructive gendered job titles. 

Inclusive language will help attract a diverse pool of job candidates, and will help retain them as well. Both millennials and Gen Z workers tend to seek out companies that prioritize fairness and equality in the workplace. Using inclusive language is a subtle switch you can make to show your employees that you actually adhere to the values your company stands for. 

Improved Customer Perception

Circling back to your customers and clients, you will find that using inclusive language can help you appeal to a more broad customer base and can help you make a good first impression when launching in new markets where gender inclusivity is a priority. Customers want to see that a brand is thinking about them and their needs. Using gender neutral language helps you relate better to those customers and makes them feel more included. 

Of course, your commitment here can’t end with just inclusive language. Your commitment to inclusion and diversity should also be apparent in your hiring practices, product development, and marketing campaigns. On both a public facing and internal front, you need to be practicing what you preach in every area of your business. Using inclusive language is a good method to help further a mission of inclusion, but not the only one. 

Enhanced Social Responsibility

As a business, you should aim to be an authoritative and responsible part of your community, no matter how big or small that community is. Inclusive language is something companies should take on as part of their social responsibility. This effort to be socially responsible may not have visible benefits right away, but it is an important part of running a business. Being socially responsible and living by your values will pay off in the end by helping attract a diverse workforce, making customers feel included, and making your business feel more approachable.

How to Incorporate Inclusive Language 

When it comes time to start incorporating inclusive language into your business, you’ll need to work with your localization provider about how to proceed. The movement for gender inclusive language is rapidly evolving and varies by location, so you need input from in-country specialists to adapt properly. The discussion surrounding inclusive language is not at the same stage in every country and it’s an emotional topic that will elicit different reactions from different customers and employees. It’s important to collaborate with a localization expert who can help you navigate these sensitive waters. 
Adding gender-inclusive language to your style guide is a great first step and these guidelines can provide your company with a road map toward inclusive language.

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Everything you need to know when planning a voice-over project
04/05/2022

Planning a Voice-over Project? Here’s What You Need to Know!

Posted on | by Jacqueline De Marco | Leave a Comment on Planning a Voice-over Project? Here’s What You Need to Know!

If you’re planning a voice-over project, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed at all the work that lies ahead of you. One of the best ways to efficiently tackle a voice-over project is to have a clear plan in place. These are some of the important elements you need to know about, so you can properly manage a voice-over project from start to finish. 

Script

Before you can begin recording a voice-over, you need a solid script. This text document, created for the purpose of a voice-over recording, contains the text that needs to be recorded. A script can also provide additional comments to be taken into account, like special instructions or clarifications for a specific utterance (we’ll dive into this issue further in a minute). 

The script can already be in the language you need it to be or you may need to translate it first. For example, if you have already created an e-learning course in English that you want to translate into Spanish, the script will need to undergo translation first. It’s recommended that the client reviews the final translations and approves of the translated script before the recording step begins. This will prevent future updates to the script and recordings. 

Synchronization 

If your voice-over project corresponds to a video, you’ll need to confirm whether or not the audio needs to be synchronized with the video. This process is referred to as timed vs untimed voice-over and will play a factor in how the script reader paces themselves while speaking. Determining this beforehand can help provide an accurate quote since these two types are quoted differently. Timed-voice is generally a little more expensive because it takes more time to make and to time it perfectly.

Samples

Still, looking for the right voice-over talent for your project? This video shares some helpful tips for finding the right fit!

It’s important that you select the right voice-over talent for your project. Not all voices will necessarily be suitable for your specific type of project, so make sure you align the project purpose with the right voice. Let’s say the target audience of your project are children, then the selected voice should sound appealing to them. In this case, a woman with a soft and soothing voice may be better suited for the job. Requesting samples of the talent’s work will help you gauge whether or not they are the best voice for your project. 

File Names and Formats

If you prefer using a specific naming convention, label, or file format, it’s important to stay consistent. Some projects require several audio files to be recorded, which can be challenging to keep organized. Continuing with the example of the e-learning course, you may have an audio recording for each slide. Having a naming convention will enable easy identification and prevent time spent searching for the right file later on.

Instructions or Clarifications

You want your voice-over project to be as effective as possible, so you should always communicate your expectations to the voice-over talent. What might be a given for you, might not be for them. Your voice talent should know your preferred pronunciation for acronyms and special terms, if numbers on a list should be read or not, and if special emphasis is needed somewhere, among other important details. You can create a document with two columns, where the first one contains the text to be recorded, and the second one states any necessary clarifications the voice-over artist talent should be aware of.

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