How to Write an International Marketing Localisation Brief

Start with the market decision, not the word count

State why the material is being localised and what the audience should be able to do after seeing it. The objective may be to qualify an enquiry, understand a regulated offer, compare a product, request a meeting, evaluate a partner or complete a purchase. A supplier cannot make sound adaptation decisions when the only instruction is to translate a page or match the source length.

Name the market, language, audience, channel and commercial stage. French for a corporate buyer in France is a different brief from French for a private client in Monaco or a distributor serving several francophone markets. Record the intended action, decision owner, publication date and the evidence that will show whether the version works.

• target country, region and language variant
• priority audience and buying context
• commercial objective and intended action
• channel, format and publication deadline
• owner of the final market decision

Define the source package and its status

Provide one approved source rather than a mixture of draft pages, slides and email corrections. Mark text that is final, text that may change and text supplied only as background. Include the page hierarchy, product facts, links, image copy, form labels, error messages, metadata, structured data and downloadable documents that belong to the same journey.

A source package should also explain the proposition and proof behind the words. Translators need to know whether a sentence is a legal name, a product descriptor, a tested claim, a brand line, a navigation label or an example that can be replaced. Without that context, a fluent version can preserve the words while weakening the commercial meaning.

Separate fixed elements from adaptable elements

Create a decision table for names, trademarks, product terms, claims, numbers, quotations, client references, certifications, calls to action and visual assets. For each element, state whether it must remain unchanged, may be adapted within a rule, requires local verification or must be excluded until approval. This prevents a local team from guessing where consistency ends and relevance begins.

Do not treat global copy as automatically authoritative. A source claim may be accurate yet irrelevant, unfamiliar or impermissible in the target market. The brief should identify which facts travel, which need local context and which require qualified legal, regulatory or technical review before publication.

Build a terminology and voice system

Supply an approved glossary with the source term, definition, market expression, prohibited alternatives, example and owner. Include category terms, product names, service stages, audience roles, units, abbreviations and words that carry a specific legal or technical meaning. A glossary is most useful when it explains concepts rather than presenting isolated word pairs.

Add a short voice guide with examples of acceptable and unacceptable tone. Specify formality, pronouns, sentence length, treatment of English terms, capitalisation, punctuation and the degree of editorial freedom. Quiet luxury, expert authority or executive clarity must be translated into observable writing choices rather than left as an adjective.

Specify locale and interface requirements

Language is only one part of localisation. Unicode's Common Locale Data Repository documents that locales differ in conventions for dates, times, numbers, currencies, units, names and plural forms. The brief should identify which locale applies and where the product or website must format data rather than embedding a translated string.

For digital work, include character limits, responsive layouts, text expansion, right-to-left or vertical-script needs where relevant, link behaviour, input formats, validation messages, accessibility labels and fallback rules. W3C guidance treats internationalisation as an early design and development concern; a layout that accepts only the source language is not ready for dependable localisation.

• locale for dates, numbers, currency and units
• character and component constraints
• forms, validation and confirmation messages
• metadata, URLs and search-language requirements
• accessibility and assistive-technology labels
• screenshots or staging context for every string

Assign translation, review and approval roles

Define who translates, who revises the target text, who verifies subject matter, who tests the customer journey and who has authority to approve publication. ISO 17100 describes requirements for translation services, including professional competences and revision; the marketing workflow still needs separate commercial, factual, technical and market acceptance where the content requires them.

Avoid one reviewer being asked to perform every function. A local salesperson may understand buyers but not own a legal claim. A lawyer may confirm wording without judging whether the call to action is usable. A linguist may identify ambiguity without knowing which commercial promise leadership intended. The brief should route each issue to the correct owner and set a response deadline.

Write acceptance criteria before production

Define what complete means. Acceptance can cover terminology compliance, preservation of claim scope, correct locale formatting, link and form functionality, metadata, visual fit, accessibility, reviewer sign-off and successful delivery into the publishing system. Add a severity scale so a factual error, broken form and minor stylistic preference are not managed as equivalent defects.

Test the version in context. A spreadsheet review cannot reveal truncated buttons, incorrect line breaks, hidden error messages, an untranslated email response or a canonical tag pointing to the wrong market page. Use representative devices and complete the intended action from entry page to confirmation and handoff.

Control changes after launch

Record the source version, target version, publication date, market owner and next review trigger. Decide how changes to pricing, specifications, claims, policies, forms and campaign messages reach every affected language. A localisation system fails when the launch version is reviewed carefully but subsequent edits bypass the same controls.

Monitor both quality and commercial behaviour. Useful signals include form completion, search queries, on-page questions, sales objections, support requests, reviewer exceptions and repeated corrections. These signals do not prove the cause of performance, but they show where the market version may be unclear, incomplete or disconnected from the buyer journey.

A practical brief structure

A concise brief can be organised in ten sections: objective, market and audience, source package, fixed and adaptable elements, terminology, voice, claims and evidence, technical specifications, workflow and acceptance criteria. Append the glossary, claim register, screenshots, reference links and issue log rather than burying them in email threads.

ICON IMAGE can define the market proposition, source-content architecture, localisation depth, terminology, evidence rules, review roles, website requirements and launch QA. The work connects international marketing strategy to the production system that must deliver it. Formal translation certification, legal opinions and regulated specialist conclusions remain with appropriately qualified providers.

• one approved source package
• one market and audience definition
• one glossary and voice guide
• one claims-and-evidence register
• one responsibility and approval matrix
• one in-context QA and acceptance record
• one post-launch change process