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As the landscape of global business continues to evolve, the need for effective translation and localization strategies becomes more crucial than ever. Smartling launched the Back to Basics webinar series, to equip professionals responsible for global growth with foundational localization strategies that will set them up for success throughout 2025.
Below, we’ve rounded up the key recommendations from each session of the series that can help refine your approach for more efficient, cost-effective, and high quality localization this year.
Session 1: How should I translate that? Mastering your translation mix
In the inaugural session of the Back to Basics series, Smartling’s Alex Yanishevsky, Senior Director of AI, and Ryan Soos, Director of Customer Success, explained how you can determine the right translation mix for your projects. By customizing your approach according to factors like content type, you can enhance both the efficiency and quality of your translations. Below are key strategies from this session to help refine your translation mix in 2025.
1. Tailor your translation mix to content type
Customizing your translation approach based on the type of content you're translating—whether it’s technical documentation, marketing materials, or user-generated content—is key to selecting the appropriate translation method. Understanding the content’s nature helps optimize your translation strategy.
Alex and Ryan provided the below visual that designates the various translation methods that are most suitable for each content type.
2. Embrace human-AI collaboration
Rather than viewing AI and human translation as mutually exclusive, Ryan and Alex recommend blending the two for a more efficient workflow. The "human-in-the-loop" approach allows for the speed of AI while maintaining the accuracy and nuance provided by human translators. This strategy is especially important for handling high-volume content without sacrificing quality.
3. Leverage linguistic assets for consistency
Linguistic assets such as translation memories, glossaries, and style guides ensure consistency across translations. Regularly maintaining and updating these assets not only saves time and money but also strengthens your brand voice in multiple languages.
4. Set clear, measurable goals
Setting quantifiable goals for your translation processes is crucial. From turnaround times to cost efficiency and quality scores, tracking these metrics helps assess the effectiveness of your translation strategies and identify areas for improvement.
Watch the full session with Ryan and Alex to learn more about how you can master your translation mix for the most effective localization strategy.
Session 2: Excellence blueprint: Crafting a translation quality assessment program
Session two, with Smartling experts Valérie Dehant, Senior Director of Language Services, Kyle Robb, Product Manager, and Marina Sánchez Torrón, Linguistic Engineer, focused on the critical role of Linguistic Quality Assurance (LQA) programs in maintaining high-quality translations. A well-structured LQA program ensures that translations meet both linguistic quality standards and business objectives. Here are the strategies from this session to help you build and fine-tune your LQA program.
5. Create a robust linguistic quality assurance (LQA) program
Setting up an LQA program with proper evaluation frameworks, sampling strategies, and metrics is essential for ensuring that translations meet both linguistic and business objectives.
6. Monitor long-term trends in LQA scores
LQA isn’t about looking for immediate, isolated improvements. Focus on long-term trends to identify patterns and guide continuous improvement. Tracking LQA results over time helps fine-tune processes and achieve consistently high-quality translations.
7. Understand customer preferences for LQA
Customizing your LQA strategies to align with customer preferences ensures that translations resonate with the target audience, driving engagement and satisfaction. Understanding these preferences is crucial for delivering localized content that meets, and even exceeds, expectations.
8. Track customer satisfaction alongside LQA metrics
While metrics like BLEU and TER are important, tracking customer satisfaction is equally essential. High-quality translations should not only meet business metrics but also foster positive customer experiences, enhancing global brand loyalty.
Catch the full expert panel discussion here.
Session 3: Centralize or decentralize? The great translation debate
In session three, Olga Beregovaya, VP of AI, and Jennifer Wong, Director of AI Product Strategy delved into the debate between centralized and decentralized translation models, offering valuable insights on how to balance the two for maximum effectiveness. A hybrid approach, which blends centralized control with decentralized flexibility, can empower teams while maintaining consistency. Below, we've outlined the key takeaways from this session to help you decide which model best suits your organization's needs.
9. Balance Centralized and Decentralized Translation Models
The optimal approach for many organizations is a hybrid model that blends centralized control with decentralized flexibility. Centralized control ensures consistency and cost-effectiveness, while decentralization provides teams with the autonomy and agility to make faster decisions.
10. Ensure Visibility for Localization Teams
For both centralized and decentralized organizations, ensuring that localization teams have visibility and a voice in strategic decision-making is essential. This visibility helps integrate localization into broader business objectives and ensures alignment across teams.
11. Utilize AI for Hyperlocalization
AI’s role in hyperlocalization is growing, allowing businesses to tailor content to local markets more effectively while ensuring regulatory compliance and cultural relevance. A centralized AI tool can streamline localization efforts, but it's crucial to have diversified AI models to meet the unique needs of different regions.
Watch the full session here to learn more from Smartling’s AI experts.
Session 4: How you can turn asset management into a localization multiplier
In the final session of our Back to Basics series, Andrew Batwash, Director of Language Services, and Marie-Therèse Masterson, Manager, Customer Success, discussed the importance of managing and optimizing your localization assets, such as translation memories and glossaries, to streamline your translation processes. Properly maintaining these assets not only saves time and reduces costs but also ensures consistency in translations across languages. Below are strategies from this session that will help you effectively manage your linguistic assets and scale your translation efforts.
12. Build and maintain your translation memories
By ensuring that your translation memories remain up to date and actively used, you can reuse previously translated content, improving both efficiency and consistency across languages. This practice reduces the need for redundant translations, saving both time and money, while maintaining a unified brand voice.
13. Consistently update your glossaries
A strong glossary strategy is essential for localization. Regularly updating glossaries to reflect the latest terminology ensures accuracy and relevance, especially for global organizations with unique language needs in multiple departments or brands.
14. Create detailed style guides
A well-defined style guide maintains tone, voice, and style consistency across languages. These guides are equally important for human translators and AI systems, ensuring that content resonates with your target audience across different regions.
15. Prepare linguistic assets for AI systems
As AI continues to play a larger role in translation, preparing your linguistic assets (like glossaries and translation memories) for machine learning models is crucial. This ensures that AI-driven translations maintain quality, accuracy, and consistency, enabling businesses to scale effectively.
By applying these strategies, businesses can improve their localization processes, ensure consistency, and meet the evolving demands of global markets. As we progress through 2025, these insights will help streamline translation workflows, enhance quality assurance, and ultimately support more successful global expansions.
Looking to dive deeper into these strategies? Watch the full webinars here:
