A newsletter can do far more than just spread corporate announcements. It can benefit you in a variety of ways, like fostering workplace community and improving employee confidence and morale. It is also a good way to convey your corporate culture and set the right tone for your company. Done correctly, it will reflect your company’s values and, as a result, your multilingual audience will find it easier to get on board with company policy, procedure, and of course, culture.
Having a multinational, multilingual company culture presents a unique set of issues when it comes to the corporate newsletter. Overcoming the language barriers for clear communication is an absolute must. An obvious barrier is that people speak different languages. But there are more subtle barriers. Your industry may involve a lot of technical language that doesn’t translate well outside of your industry or even outside of your department. You don’t want anything to get lost in the translation. So how do you go about creating a newsletter for a global, multicultural and multilingual audience?
Define the Objective of the Newsletter
Is the goal to disseminate important information? Is it to simply foster employee relations and goodwill? Maybe you want to show how much the business is growing and share the excitement of the company’s successes. Decide on a couple of central goals and keep your objectives clear to help you guide the tone and voice of each edition. Don’t forget to speak in plain, straightforward language. Build the bridge between your language and the others with the simplest building blocks: words. Keep it simple and as jargon-free as possible, so everyone will be able to enjoy the read.
Set a Reasonable Publication Schedule
All writing projects come with the threat of burnout. You might be very enthusiastic starting out but within a few months you find yourself overburdened and struggling to keep up. Take an honest look at your workload and compare it to the rate at which your company generates news. Is a weekly newsletter necessary or would a monthly spread be more suitable? Regardless, if it becomes overwhelming, seek someone to share the burden. A well-produced quarterly newsletter is better than a weekly or monthly one that is thrown together and lacks substance. Even in a global corporation, most companies don’t produce newsworthy topics many times each month. In most industries, things don’t change significantly enough from week to week to support a more frequent publication.
Gather Real News
Brainstorming is all well and good, but until you have some news to report, you’ve got nowhere to go. Gather your raw material by talking to coworkers, getting updates on events they think are important. Individual successes are newsworthy, so have your colleagues submit accomplishments to be featured. And don’t forget your global family. Find out your company news from all offices and include your overseas colleagues’ successes and stories too. Make sure to use a trustworthy translator so that you get the story correct. You might also consider having a section in your newsletter for relevant industry updates. Fill in your big stories, like new product lines and new company-wide software with features, such as spotlighting your top employees, highlighting the charity work your company is doing, and even showcasing how your customers are using your products in the real world. These types of features help put a face on the company, building morale and helping employees feel they are a part of something truly meaningful.
Keep It Fresh
You might consider switching up the format occasionally to keep your readers engaged. Use lots of visuals to engage the reader’s attention and break up the page. Visuals can also be an effective means of communicating with your colleagues of another language. Visual cues can be invaluable for getting everyone on the same page. Change up the design and graphics and keep it fresh and interesting. Just remember that with a global audience comes cultural differences, and what makes for a stunning visual in Europe or the U.S. might be shocking or even offensive in a different region.
Consider Offering Both Digital & Print Newsletters
When distributing a newsletter, some of your employees might be best served with a print edition, especially field workers or those in manufacturing facilities who aren’t sitting at a computer all day. Conversely, a digital format is quick, inexpensive, and easy to distribute to office workers, managers, and others with regular, reliable internet access. By offering both, you make it easier for everyone to stay engaged with your news and information.
Take all of these factors into account and then take a breath. It’s important to enjoy the writing of the newsletter. To that end, allow the business translation experts at TrueLanguage to help you with the translations that your newsletter needs. They offer services to businesses of any size and offer a range of language services from translation and interpretation, to transcription and terminology management. For any and all translation needs, Request a FREE quote today or call us now at 1-888-926-9245
