What is a translation style guide?

Your company has its own look, personality, story, design and nuances.

Most likely, you’ve spent considerable resources creating these factors, along with considerable time supporting them and keeping them consistent across your organization.

This is the rationale for creating a translation style guide, which is a set of standards that translators and editors can quickly reference when working on your localization project.

Consistency, consistency, consistency

Maintaining consistency within your organization is difficult enough.

When you factor in multiple translation projects speaking to multiple audiences among multiple communication pieces, consistency becomes darn near impossible.

Not to mention that the personnel involved in each project could be miles, even oceans, away.

Note: While these may seem like scare tactics, we don’t intend them to be. They’re simply factors that our clients face every project.

Global expansion is exciting for your company, but it needs guide rails to keep its messaging consistent across borders.

Ever been to a bowling alley with a child and bowled with extendable lane-bumpers that narrow the lane? Gutter balls are impossible with those.

Style guides are similar to those bowling alley lane bumpers. (Stay with us here, it’s worth it!) Style guides not only define your company’s preferred formats, phrases, designs and story, they make sure that team members will not veer off the branded path.

A translator will start each project with your style guide. And if you have a launch with multiple touchpoints (say, an app launch with a web launch with a digital campaign launch), you will have a team of translators. Quite often located far away from each other. A proper style guide is their cheat sheet to maintain consistency throughout the translation process.

Yes, it would be ideal to translate each piece of content in order of importance, however in today’s world, global launches have numerous moving parts, thus making timelines extremely short.

Style guides keep everyone on the same page. The time spent upfront in the creation of a translation style guide will save you time, money and headaches in all future initiatives.

Of course, you’ll also need an expert translation team to follow your style guide properly and help your company shine when expanding into new markets and cultures. Acclaro can help. Contact one of our team members today to see how we can help build your brand across borders.