What are the skills and tools needed for content automation and localization?

1 Content automation

Content automation is the use of software or technology to create, update, publish, and distribute content without manual intervention. This process can help you save time, reduce errors, increase consistency, and optimize your content performance. For instance, you can use templates, snippets, or variables to generate content based on predefined rules or data sources. You can also apply metadata, keywords, or tags to your content to make it searchable and reusable. Additionally, you can schedule, trigger, or syndicate your content to different channels or platforms based on predefined criteria or events. Furthermore, you can monitor, analyze, or test your content to measure its effectiveness and make adjustments as needed. To successfully automate your content production process, you need a clear strategy, a well-defined content model, and a robust content management system (CMS). It is also necessary to have the skills to design, implement, and maintain your automation workflows and tools.

2 Content localization

Content localization is the process of adapting content to the specific needs, preferences, and expectations of a target audience in different regions or markets. It is a complex process that goes beyond translation and involves cultural, linguistic, technical, and legal aspects. Examples include translating content into different languages and ensuring accuracy, adapting content to local conventions and regulations, optimizing content for local devices, browsers, formats, and accessibility standards, as well as testing content for functionality, usability, and quality. To localize your content effectively, you need to have a thorough understanding of your audience and their needs and preferences as well as the cultural, linguistic, technical, and legal nuances of your target market. Additionally, you must possess the skills to manage and coordinate with your localization team and partners while using the necessary tools and platforms.

3 Content automation and localization tools

When automating and localizing your content, there are many tools and platforms to consider depending on your needs, budget, and preferences. A CMS is a software that allows you to create, store, manage, and publish your content. It can also support automation and localization goals by providing features such as templates, workflows, metadata, scheduling, analytics, multilingual support, and integrations with other tools and platforms. A content automation platform helps you generate, update, publish, and distribute your content automatically based on predefined rules or data sources. Additionally, a TMS is a software that helps you manage your translation projects, workflows, and resources. It can also help you automate and localize your content by providing features such as translation memory, glossary, terminology management, machine translation, quality assurance, and integrations with other tools and platforms. Finally, a localization platform is a software that helps you adapt your content to the specific needs of your target audience in different regions or markets. It can also help you automate and localize your content by providing features such as localization engineering, content extraction, content analysis, localization testing, and integrations with other tools and platforms.

4 Content automation and localization skills

In order to succeed in content automation and localization, you must possess a combination of technical, creative, and analytical skills. Content strategy is a key skill for defining objectives, scope, and requirements for content creation and adaptation. Content design is essential for creating content that is clear, concise, consistent, and user-friendly. Content engineering applies technical principles and methods to automate and localize content by using tools and platforms. Content analysis measures and evaluates content performance and quality by providing data and insights on effectiveness, relevance, and impact.

5 Content automation and localization best practices

To ensure successful content automation and localization, you need to set goals and audience criteria, establish standards and guidelines, select the right tools and platforms, and test and optimize your content. Defining your goals and audience will help you determine the scope, criteria, and priorities for automation and localization. Establishing standards and guidelines will ensure consistency and quality across processes. Choosing the right tools and platforms should consider features, functionalities, integrations, scalability, security, reliability, and usability. Testing and optimizing content should use feedback, analytics, reports on functionality, usability, quality, and performance - making adjustments as needed.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?