Working at a marketing agency can be demanding — even more so when you’re working with clients on an international scale.

Over the past six months or so, our agency has worked with one of our clients, Premiere Global, in an effort to take the branding and content found on its US corporate site to the company’s many international sites. So far, we’ve launched 16 “internationalized” sites — everything from China to Germany and Norway.  More sites are on the way.

When working on a global account, there are a few things to keep in mind: 

  • Get used to your iPhone buzzing all night. Joking, but consider the time zone difference. If you’re working with a team that gets to the office while you’re fast asleep, make sure that they have everything they need to keep the project moving. Failure to do so may result in the loss of an entire workday. By the time you provide any needed clarification, they’ve already left for the day — and your project will probably be put on hold. On the other hand, when teams communicate clearly and directly upfront, they have the potential to work more efficiently when somebody, somewhere in the world, is constantly keeping the ball rolling.
  • Finnishwordsareincrediblylong. When designing a site, consider the other languages it will be translated into. The average English word consists of 4-7 letters, so when you allot a max of 285 pixels for an English header, keep in mind that it may double or triple when translated into, say, Finnish or German.
  • Adapt. Be culturally aware when speaking to people from other countries. For example, it is polite and professional to address someone in Japan by adding “-san” to the end of their name.   
  • It’s all about process. Don’t be afraid to invest time into defining a process with your translation vendor. Although many vendors have a general process for working with agencies, be sure to adjust it to the unique needs of your project. For example, your client may not want product or company names translated. Therefore, it’s important to include a step in the process to define these instances. Doing so saves time and money across the board.
  • The language barrier. Working closely with regional marketing teams is vital when it comes to making sure that “the message” doesn’t become lost in translation. So when an English idiom like the term to be “green” is translated into another language, quotation marks are usually necessary as “environmentally friendly” may not be the first thing that comes to mind.