Content translation: definition, data-backed benefits, and how-to strategy

Content translation means adapting your brand’s content into different languages to reach a wider audience. That includes blog posts, help documents, and product descriptions — and everything in between.

For enterprise brands expanding globally, catering to local expectations helps you build trust and stay competitive.

Without it, you risk alienating potential buyers who simply can’t engage with your company.

For example, Belgian pet brand Edgard & Cooper offers its website content in six languages:

Whether shopping in Belgium or Italy, you get a version of the site that speaks your language.

You understand product names, but you also get a shopping experience that feels familiar and easy.

Plus, ‘soft and chewy’ doesn’t become ‘weak and mushy.’

However, content translation isn’t just about swapping words from one language to another.

A crucial part is localization — tailoring your content to fit the culture and context of each region.

That means adjusting things like:

• Tone of voice to match local communication styles
• Symbols, colors, and visuals that resonate culturally
• Currency, date formats, and measurement units
• Local expressions or references that make the message relatable

This way, someone reading your English article in Toulouse or Ho Chi Minh City feels it was written just for them.

Content localization helps each market better understand your product and feel more connected to it.

Let’s say you’re a mobile game developer with thousands of Spanish and German players.

If your interface breaks with longer German translations or doesn’t even offer Spanish subtitles, you can say ‘Hasta la vista, baby’ to return business.

But offer a smooth experience with well-localized UI alongside subtitles and culturally relevant in-game messages?

You’ll keep players engaged and grow your global audience.

In short, translation paired with localization helps enterprise brands go global without feeling foreign.

While translating your content helps you reach more people, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll connect with them. What about adding enterprise localization?

Voilà. Now, your message feels familiar and more trustworthy.

Here are three big reasons why doing both is a must.

To earn trust and drive conversions, you must align your content’s language, tone, visuals, and UX with each region’s norms and preferences.

Customer expectations are sky-high these days. And if your content feels foreign or clunky, you’re just a back button away from being forgotten.

According to CSA research, 65% of consumers prefer content in their native language, even if it’s poor quality. Skip translation altogether, and 40% won’t even consider buying.

Take Netflix, for example.

The streaming service localizes its entire customer experience (CX), including thumbnails and imagery:

A horror movie might look totally different on the Japanese user interface (UI) than the Brazilian. And that’s intentional.

Whether someone’s viewing your e-book or onboarding emails, making content accessible in multiple languages says to global customers, ‘Hey, we see you.’

Localizing your content helps potential customers understand what you’re selling, so they trust and buy from you.

If your pitch or product info gets lost in translation, you’ll lose revenue, too.

Comprehensive localization covers all touchpoints, from that first ‘What do you do?’ to ‘How do I reset my password?’

When you localize every piece of content well, you build trust faster.

Forrester research backs this up, with 75% of B2B buyers agreeing they want sales materials in their native language.

That’s three out of four decision-makers giving you a big thumbs up if you translate.

Translating and localizing SEO elements of your content makes it easier for people to find you and, eventually, buy from you.

Jumping into content translation without a plan is like packing for a trip without checking the weather — you’ll overpack and still forget something important.

A structured approach saves you from headaches later, and translating that 2018 blog post no one reads anymore.

It also helps your enterprise align with broader business goals and scale faster.

Let’s dive into your new translation and localization strategy.

Auditing helps you focus on content that actually moves the needle to avoid wasting time and budget.

The goal is to pinpoint high-value content and decide what to do with outdated pages and low-performing assets later.

Translation isn’t free.

Whether you’re using AI localization or hiring human linguists, every word counts.

Prioritizing what to translate means better return on investment (ROI) and less wasted work.

Let’s say you’re an enterprise SaaS company with thousands of product pages, onboarding emails, blog posts, and a glossary written by someone who left years ago.

You’re planning to launch in Germany. Now, where do you even start?

Here’s how to audit like a pro:

• Inventory all your content. Use a spreadsheet or CMS export to list everything  — landing pages, blog posts, PDFs, email flows, you name it.
• Tag by type and region. Label content by format and whether it’s customer-facing or region-specific.
• Check performance metrics. Look at page views, conversions, bounce rates, and other data to spot your most valuable assets.
• Flag high-impact, evergreen content. Prioritize content that drives conversions and stays relevant over time.
• Mark anything outdated or low-priority. Not everything needs to make the cut. Remove anything that doesn’t progress each customer’s journey in some way.

To save your team time and money, translate what matters and skip what doesn’t.

You’ll create a more focused strategy by linking your translation efforts to specific goals. For instance, a new language for market growth or regulatory compliance.

On the other hand, translating without a clear purpose drains budget and team energy fast.

But when your content supports measurable business outcomes, getting stakeholder buy-in and seeing real impact becomes easier.

Take global manufacturing enterprise Pepperl+Fuchs SE. It expanded from Germany to countries like China, India, Indonesia and Singapore to meet rising demand for its automation solutions.

To support this growth even today, the company localizes everything from product manuals to training materials in 22 languages.

That way, international teams and customers can confidently use and sell their tech.

Here’s how to align translation goals with your content:

• Clarify your business objectives. Be specific about what success looks like, whether that’s launching in a new market or reducing support volume.
• Know your audience. Use market research to understand buying behavior and compliance requirements in each region.

• Map goals to content types. Match your objectives to the right assets, such as help docs for support cost reduction or product pages for driving sales.
• Set measurable targets. Tie translations to key performance indicators (KPIs) like revenue per region or customer satisfaction scores.
• Loop in stakeholders. Work with sales, product, legal, and customer success to find out what content they need translated.

Whether aiming to grow revenue or make customers happier, your localization plan should directly support those goals.

Always tie the content you translate back to what your company is trying to achieve.

XTM supports fast, high-quality translation and localization by combining automation and collaboration in one place.

Its suite of tools includes:

1. XTM Cloud. A powerful TMS that automates localization. Cut costs and keep content consistent with built-in style guides, glossaries, and translation memory.

2. Rigi. Real-time, in-context previews of localized content in its actual layout so that translators can fix formatting issues before launch.

3. XTRF. Manage global linguists by tracking project progress and automating payments in simple dashboards.

Our AI Summer Release also includes new features like Language Guard to detect risky language. There’s also Intelligent Score for scoring real-time quality and Intelligent Workflow to streamline file routing.

Conversational agentic AI xaia proactively supports stakeholders by uncovering insights and delegating tasks.

While Xera, which uses Transifex’s Translation Quality Index, runs end-to-end localization autonomously.

According to our internal investigations, teams save 2,000 hours of work with XTM as projects keep moving without constant oversight.

XTM also integrates with 60+ CMS tools and other platforms, allowing you to translate multilingual content directly within your existing systems.

And with real-time editing and comments, translators and project managers stay fully aligned from start to finish.

A repeatable workflow is the backbone of any serious translation effort. To run a global business, you need a system that scales and reduces manual work.

Structured tasks and templates keep your teams aligned and content consistent.

Because nothing kills momentum like 15 email threads asking, ‘Has anyone seen the latest French version?’

This organization also helps you move fast without sacrificing quality, so launches stay on schedule.

For example, smart buildings enterprise Johnson Controls uses XTM Cloud to cut turnaround times by four weeks.

According to the Translation Center of Excellence Program Manager, Caoimhse McGrath:

As automated translation naturally cuts project lead times, Johnson Controls fast-tracked time-to-market for localized content.

A great translation workflow includes:

• Centralized project management so you know who’s doing what and by when
• Translation memory to reuse approved phrases to stay consistent and reduce costs
• Glossaries and style guides to keep tone and branding aligned
• Automated quality checks to catch formatting or language issues early
• Stakeholder reviews so regional teams or legal can sign off before you go live
• Integrations with your favorite content tools for more power in fewer dashboards

Tools like XTM make it easy to scale without chaos, so your teams can focus on strategic tasks that help you grow.