Content Localisation
Don’t just translate, localise.
With a population of over 456 million and a GDP of over 3.7 trillion USD, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a vibrant, diverse, and rich target market for a lot of international brands and businesses. The primary language of the MENA region is Arabic with a wide range of variations and dialects that can often come across as standalone languages, in addition to secondary languages such as English in the GCC, and French in the Maghreb and Levant regions. The ethnicities, cultures, economies, and demographics of the MENA region are equally diverse and complex. Porting your brand’s content to this region requires more than just translation. A deeper understanding of your target market will ensure your content is not only understandable but also relatable.
Localisation vs Translation
When it comes to branded and marketing content, it is critical to deliver the right message. When content is translated to another language there is always a risk of losing momentum, relevance, or the meaning altogether. Localisation is a better solution and approach, and that is especially true with Arabic. Compared to translation, localisation involves a lot of rewriting, addition, and even omission to arrive at content that works the same way as the source and delivers the same impact. In addition, localisation often requires changes to cultural references, idioms, slangs, colloquialisms, measuring units, currencies, and date formats. In Arabic, content has a different length and fluidity to it with different sentence and paragraph structure. It also occupies less space than English for the same font size on standard fonts which are additional elements to consider, especially in cases like brochure or website content.
Our Expertise in Content Localisation
We have been delivering successful localisation projects for local and international brands for over eight years. From sales collateral, to marketing campaigns and websites, we have worked on a wide range of requirements across different industries. In addition, our understanding of branding has led some of the top branding agencies in the region to partner with us on all content localisation requirements. Furthermore, having the web and marketing capabilities also means that we can help with not only the localisation of content but also the implementation.
Our team of top-notch content localisation experts is ready and scalable to handle any type or size of project. We lead such projects with thorough research into the target market and a review and audit of the source content in order to identify the right approach and process. We also use premium AI-powered software tools to power our content localisation projects and ensure consistency across all deliverables even with scope expansions at later stages.
Our Services
Some of the services we offer in content localisation include:
- Strategy
- Research and Audit
- Content Localisation (any direction between English, Arabic, and French)
- Content Strategy (Information Architecture, Content Inventory, Content Audit, Competitive Analysis, User Stories, Personas, Buyer Journey, Key Messaging, Positioning Statements, Content Creation Guides, Taxonomies, Governance Models, Voice and Tone Guides, Style Guides, Content Workflows)
- Content Localisation Software Implementation and Consulting (GatherContent, Kentico Cloud, SDL Trados, Adobe, Qordoba)
