Linguists, Business Owners

Introduction

How do you market your brand? Well, you probably are familiar with the concept of content marketing, which we are going to discuss today. Content creation is one of the most popular approaches to digital marketing in the modern era.

So, what really is content marketing and how does it work?

The Content Marketing Institute defines this concept as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Like any other branding strategy, content marketing aims at fostering growth and generating more sales. Once your audience gets acquainted with your brand, they will not only buy your products but also recommend them to others. And they will not just come once—they will become your local, return customers. But you need to map out your goal to achieve this.  

Follow the following 5 strategic steps:

#1 Keep It Consistent

Consistency is my Number 1 rule of thumb when it comes to success. Once you establish your niche, your customers want to keep enjoying the originality of your product. But that is boring, isn’t it? How do you keep your brand original even though it has been out there for years?

This past summer, I was chatting with one local small business owner who sells food products here in Canada. Their business flourished so much within three years that they honed impeccable reputation in the local community.

He mentioned to me how their customers complain when there is a change in the way they package their products. I was quite intrigued to hear that, but that is just what customers like to do. They like to stick with what they know and love.

How do you achieve consistency? You should give your brand a reputation and stick with it. If any change arises, account for it and keep your customers in the know so that you are on the same page.

#2 Use Clear Language

Creating content comes down to communication and language. Your business language should reflect your culture—your core values, ethics, vision, and mission. This will set the tone for your customer behavior and overall success results. Once people know what to expect from you, they will bond with you and what you have to offer.

Your communication strategy will play a big role when it comes to achieving this goal. Study your markets and audiences and give them what they need to know. Once you know your audience, it would be easier for you to engage them.

If you are struggling to promote your brand through creating curated content despite its central importance to your business success, you should consider hiring a specialist such as a content writer, content marketer, or content manager based on the need.

#3 Keep It Focused

When I started writing content for the web, I had lots of ideas. It felt like I had tons of topics to write about and I was so pumped about them all. I envisioned myself building my brand in literally no time due to the growth curve that I had in mind.

However, when I talked with my mentor, I figured out that I had to narrow down my scope and focus only on the things that I specialize in. This “helps to deliver quality and knowledgeable content for your customers, my mentor said.

Once you focus solely on your own products instead of vaguely describing your ideal niche, it does not take long for you to see the results. It might seem like your scope is limited, which really is the case, but this only works to your advantage because you will then have enough time to focus on what you should be delivering. Plus, high quality content comes from your area of specialization.

#4 Keep It Strategic

Be selective and professional. This is the core of curated content. Nobody knows your brand better than you. Create high quality content that adds value to your audience. What about the strategic aspect? This refers to what you would like to achieve. Are you simply educating your audience, or you would like them to engage with your brand also?

Assuming that you are looking to achieve both—keeping your customers in the know about your products and boosting the way they engage with them, strategy will help you to determine a successful execution plan, timeline, and frequency.

#5 Keep It Streamlined

When it comes to communicating with your audience, the best curated content is that which is simple. If you usually use a grandiloquent style in your content creation, consider using simple, bite-sized, or short paragraphs to help the reader quickly digest your message.

I have always loved the idea of simplifying product description, service delivery, and information exchange between a business and their customers. Why is this so crucial? Because it promotes instant conversions and quick engagement as people find it easy to interact with your brand.

Conclusion

Curated content creation is the art of mastering your audience and creating expert, focused, and strategic content for them. You should bear in mind that content marketing is not a last resort. It is, however, an approach that works for businesses—small, medium, as well as large enterprises. It also works for both individuals and teams.

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ntroduction

The concept of linguistic validation (LV) has become quite popular in the process of clinical trials. Its popularity is linked to the history of epidemics, which necessitated the development of immunizations and vaccines.

Tackling these epidemics is a long, complex process during which medical and language professionals, and patients are involved. This is where linguistic validation comes in.

What is Linguistic Validation?

LV is an active process of testing the translation on target population in their own language. It originates from the medical branch of clinical research and is coupled with the application of linguistic expertise aimed at proving the quality of the medical documents before they are used on patients or on their behalf.

How Does It Work?

This process enables an in-depth investigation of the accuracy and reliability of these translations in the target language by the target population. It begins with the development of patient questionnaires, and carries on to the translation, revision, and proofreading steps. Once these are completed, the validation process starts.

LV puts to test the dichotomy between language and culture. The translation validation process is patient centered. It focuses on data accuracy and on the instrument’s conceptual equivalence in the target population.

This is because real-life concepts that are true and common in a given geographical location are not necessarily so on the other side of the planet. For that reason, LV questions every aspect of the medical language by testing the translated questionnaires to validate conceptual equivalence and content validity against patient-reported outcomes (PROs).

The Cognitive Debriefing Step

The involvement of patients necessitates another process called cognitive debriefing (or cognitive debriefing interview). This is a form of interview process, during which a linguist asks questions to a patient to determine to what extent they understand the translation.

Cognitive debriefing doesn’t conclude the process. However, during the interview, the linguist takes notes, requests alternatives to ununderstood concepts, and implements the suggestions with the translation Project Manager. This back-translation process also involves clients and instrument developers to accommodate shared knowledge by the project team.

Overview of the LV Process

The linguistic validation process involves the following steps from start to finish, in ascending order:

Forward Translation (FT)

This is the initial stage of the translation process whereby a medical translator produces a written translation in the target language. In the linguistic validation process, it is essential that the translator has specializes in and has experience in the medical field. This is because we are validating a medical instrument and the expected results must be as impeccable as possible.

During the forward translation process, two or multiple independent linguists perform the translation of the questionnaires to be validated and pass the documents on to the next step. Sometimes their role doesn’t end there because they can be consulted about their expertise to validate the quality of their work.

Reconciliation

The reconciliation step consists in comparing the two (or multiple) versions of the translation to determine which is more accurate. The linguist who assumes this role applies their discretion and expertise to decide on what aspects to keep, remove, and improve.

Back-Translation (BT)

Once the reconciliation is complete, the instruments are passed on to independent linguists (different than before) for an extra appraisal. This step consists in translating the instruments back to the original language to determine how close they sound to the source texts. To ensure that there is no bias, linguists do not consult one another, and back-translators have no access to the source document.

Translation Review (TR)

After the above preliminary steps are completed, then comes the time for reviewing the translations. This step is performed by independent professional reviewers who launch a multilevel validation process by analyzing and comparing the forward and back-translation results. Once a decision is reached, the Project Manager, who also moderates the process, puts together a pre-final questionnaire for the next step.

Cognitive Debriefing (CD)

Also known as cognitive debriefing interviews, this step is designed for testing the translations on the target population to determine the level of their understandability and accuracy. As a part of the project team, a CD linguist—who must be in the target country and native speaker of the target language—selects the required number of patients who will participate in the clinical research by answering the questions contained in the questionnaire.

Once selected and approved by the project team lead, the patients answer the questions through the guidance and supervision of the linguist who specializes in the medical translation. The linguist collects the answers in the target language, takes note of the discrepancies, requests alternatives, and retranslates the answers back to the source language.

At this stage, discrepancies necessitate additional retranslation and validation steps, as many times as needed. After this step is submitted to the Project Manager, all aspects and discrepancies are analyzed by the head linguist (or validator) to make sure that all inconsistencies are addressed. With the rest of the project team, the Project Manager sorts out the best versions of the translation and launches the final reviews.

Final Check (FC)

Given the multiple translation and validation steps and an in-depth analysis, subsequent reviews and final checks are designed to make sure that the final product is accurate enough. It can be compared to the proofreading of the final translation in normal circumstances.

Any discrepancies, if any, are addressed at this stage. The discrepancies range from grammatical issues such as typographic errors to formatting. The final review step concludes the linguistic validation process.  

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