When you craft content for the life sciences industry, it’s more important than ever that you localize the content appropriately and meet the needs of your target market. With localized content, you can meet users where they are,  ensure that they understand the content you are presenting, and increase their trust in your brand. 

Follow these essential recommendations as you craft life sciences content and localize it for audiences worldwide.

1. Choose the Right Person in Your Company to Communicate With Translators and Localization Experts

If you intend to create effective localized life sciences content, start with a clear structure. It’s essential to have a single person or committee within your organization responsible for communicating with translators and localization experts. This strategy minimizes wasted time and unclear expectations.

By narrowing communication complexity, you ensure that your message is communicated more effectively and that crucial details are not lost in translation, which is particularly important when working on large-scale projects, from a website redesign to app creation. After all, you want to be sure that users in every region have the same experience with your brand. Growth in the life sciences industry often relies on going beyond borders. So, streamlining the communication process is critical to crafting compelling content across the board.

2. Find a Translator Who Understands Your Industry

Life sciences content is often highly technical. Whether discussing the potential side effects or interactions of medication or compiling a report on regulatory frameworks, you may use technical terms and language that the average person may not fully understand. Working with a translator who has a solid understanding of the life sciences and your industry is essential. With a translator that understands the industry, you can craft localized content that accurately reflects the message that you’re trying to convey. On the other hand, a translator who does not understand your industry may provide a direct translation that skews the meaning of your content.

Consider the importance of testing your translator to ensure they fully understand your industry and request. The difference between high-quality localized content and content that misses the mark may be your translator. Choosing the right one from the beginning can allow you to achieve your goals better.

3. Consider Unique Cultural Needs

When crafting life sciences content, carefully consider the unique cultural needs of your target audience. Separate audiences by each geographic area or region.

Consider the region’s values as you localize your content, too. What does the culture prioritize? What is valued by its population? You want to ensure your content bridges that gap and considers local culture. This is a vital area that your trusted LSP partner can assist with.

4. Create Clear, Accurate Content

Keep in mind that localized content is not necessarily a line-by-line translation. While direct translation can help create things like white papers, it may be less useful when crafting a website, designing an app, or even writing a blog post or email expected to produce a specific effect on its readers. As part of your localization efforts, ensure the initial document is clear. It should contain the information translators and localization experts need to produce that content. 

Consider options like creating a statement of purpose for each piece of content you want to develop or crafting a summary that will let translators and localization experts know precisely what you want to convey. Laying out what you want the content to accomplish makes it easier for the experts to ensure that their translation meets your needs. 

5. Don’t Forget to Localize Your Images

Images are a significant part of telling your story. They help communicate why potential clients should trust your brand. As you select those images for different audiences, however, they should reflect the details of life in that area: familiar landscapes, people, and props, for example. Your images should focus on content familiar to your viewers. You want them to see their local areas and themselves in those images rather than feeling the disconnect that often comes with unfamiliarity. 

6. Include Well-Designed Video Content

In addition to your other content, make sure that video is an ongoing part of your localization efforts. The number of digital video watchers worldwide is more than 3.5 billion. Users also retain more information in videos: approximately 95% of the information viewed, compared to just 10% of the information they have read. As you craft localized content for your life sciences organization, include your video content in your localization efforts. That may mean using translation services to include captions on your videos. It may also mean crafting localized video content that reflects the needs of each unique target market.

7. Make Sure You Incorporate Local Regulations

Many of today’s regulations are globalized, with a large audience using the same general requirements. On the other hand, some countries may have their own specific regulations. This factor should influence the type of content you create or what you can do with that content. HIPAA, for example, is an American requirement for healthcare privacy. Europe relies on GDPR to provide healthcare privacy and information regulation. As you craft your life sciences content, make sure it complies with those local regulations and how they have the potential to impact clients. 

8. Implement Quality Control Checks

As part of your localized content creation process, incorporate quality control checks. Ignoring the quality control stage for translated or localized content is one of the biggest mistakes made in life sciences localization. You want to ensure the content accurately reflects your organization and message. Consider having individuals from those local regions read over the content and offer suggestions. Hire other translators and content localization experts to go over the content. Make sure it conveys everything you intend for it to. Attention to those key details can make a huge difference in your localization efforts. 

Let Vistatec Take On Your Life Sciences Localization

At Vistatec, we offer translation and localization services designed specifically for the life sciences industry. Our localization experts understand the unique needs of life sciences professionals and how to convey that message to your audience. Contact us today to learn more.