How to create a localization style guide: Aligning your global brand across cultures

Translation style guides and glossaries are crucial for businesses that want to reach global audiences with consistent and engaging content. These tools help human linguists and AI translation systems understand the appropriate tone, terminology, and nuances to effectively communicate branded messages in different languages.

Building these resources requires in-depth research and a strong understanding of the target market. Content specialists must regularly revise and update style guides and glossaries for accuracy.

This article will explain how to create a translation style guide and translation glossary that will help your translators – both human linguists and AI engines – deliver content that aligns with your brand voice.

What is a translation style guide?

A translation style guide provides specific recommendations and rules for translating and localizing a business’s content. This type of style guide explains a brand’s tone of voice, approved terminology, and relevant cultural nuances.

Businesses create language style guides to ensure consistency across their messaging. Human translators and AI translation engines rely on linguistic assets to create content that aligns with the brand’s identity and resonates with target audiences.

What to include in a translation style guide

Businesses should customize translation and localization style guides to meet their unique goals. Rules often fall into one of several categories that make up a distinct brand voice: 

• Tone of voice: Clearly define the brand’s tone (e.g., formal, informal, friendly, or authoritative) and note whether the style varies for different languages or markets.
• Target audiences: Include detailed descriptions of target audiences and demographics, including their unique interests, behaviors, and content preferences.
• Cultural sensitivities: Flag cultural nuances translators should note to improve communication and avoid misunderstandings in multicultural marketing content.
• Preferred terminology: Provide a glossary of approved terms for the target language, including industry- and brand-specific vocabulary.
• Grammar and syntax: Set rules for sentence structure and preferred language variants (e.g., British vs. American English) to ensure accurate and consistent translations.
• Formatting preferences: Specify how numbers, abbreviations, date formats, and other text elements should look to maximize familiarity for different audiences.

• Content types: Outline each type of content that requires translation, such as marketing materials or technical documents, and describe their unique requirements.

What is a translation glossary?

A translation glossary is a database of approved words and phrases that professional translators and AI tools reference to ensure consistent, accurate terminology. In addition to promoting a unified brand voice, translation glossaries help businesses save time and money by eliminating repeat work.

A translation management system can host your glossary, providing easy access across teams and locations. For example, the Smartling Glossary allows you to use the same glossary across multiple projects with different source languages.

If you’re building a translation glossary, consider including the following elements:

• Brand-specific terms: These are proprietary names, product titles, or branded phrases unique to your organization. They might require specific translations or remain the same across different languages.
• Industry-specific terms: Technical content might include specific vocabulary or acronyms. Define these in your glossary to maintain clarity and convey expertise.
• Demographic-specific terms: Identify colloquial phrases or slang terms you use to connect with your target audiences. Regional vocabulary and demographic-specific terms strengthen a localized marketing strategy.
• Significant keywords: Boost global search engine optimization (SEO) and visibility by encouraging translators to use high-impact keywords in translated content.
• Terminology to avoid: List words or phrases that should not appear in translations. For example, you might exclude words that have negative connotations or are offensive to global audiences.
• Contextual usage: Provide examples of how to use terms in specific contexts. This clarity is crucial for words with multiple meanings or translations.

Why do businesses need translation style guides and terminology glossaries?

There are many benefits to creating glossaries and style guides for translation. These resources are essential for global business growth, whether you’re using human translators or AI tools.

Here’s a closer look at the benefits of these linguistic assets:

• Improved consistency: Maintain a unified brand message as you scale to different countries and locations.
• Faster translations: Help translators work quickly and accurately by providing ready-made resources and reference documents.
• Reduced costs: Prevent errors, rewrites, and delays by getting translations right the first time and reusing common phrases.
• Increased customer engagement: Reach global audiences with high-quality localized marketing content that’s relevant to their demographic, culture, and preferences. Smartling’s marketing translation services help brands translate website content, email campaigns, and ad creatives for audiences in their target locales.

How to create a translation style guide that enhances brand identity

Whether you’re just beginning to build a multilingual brand voice or optimizing your existing localization strategy, you need a translation style guide that reflects your brand voice. Use these tips and best practices to get started:

Provide background information about your business

Give translators a concise overview of your business’ history and mission. This helps them understand who you are and your content goals, ensuring their translations align with your brand identity.

Understand your target market and audience

Identify your target audience and describe their key characteristics, such as age range, interests, and behaviors. Outline local linguistic norms and cultural preferences so translators can hit the right tone for each market.

Be specific but succinct

A translation style guide should be easy for translators to scan and reference. Exclude unnecessary information that doesn’t contribute to translation clarity or accuracy. Instead, focus on instructions that directly impact quality, like tone, grammar, and cultural considerations.

Include helpful references 

Specify which reference materials translators should use if they have any other questions or need to double-check their work. Examples may include approved dictionaries, technical glossaries, or industry-specific terminology lists.

Keep your style guide updated

Your translation style guide should evolve alongside your business and target audiences. Update this resource whenever your company’s branding or product offerings change so translators always have up-to-date guidelines.

Don’t limit yourself to just one

If significant differences in tone, formality, or other conventions exist between languages, then creating language-specific guides makes sense. However, it’s perfectly fine to rely on a single, general style guide for most languages, using language-specific guides only where needed.

Leverage your translation management system (TMS)

Maintain a translation style guide within your TMS for ease and efficiency. Smartling lets you leverage your style guide for AI translations to localize content quickly and affordably. Smartling also integrates with marketing automation software, like HubSpot and Salesforce, allowing you to send content for translation without leaving the platform.

Improve your localization strategy with Smartling

A comprehensive translation style guide and glossary can strengthen the quality and efficiency of your localization efforts. These valuable resources clarify brand terminology and language preferences, helping translators, AI translation tools, and marketing teams produce accurate, consistent content.

You don’t have to build and maintain these resources alone. Smartling’s cloud-based translation management system provides linguistic asset management to help your company streamline and scale localization workflows while balancing cost, quality, and speed.

Ready to start your translation style guide? Download Smartling’s free localization style guide template to establish a consistent brand voice in every language for every audience.