July 2019 Summaries

International brands require a nuanced approach to language across markets, as simply translating keywords from the source language can lead to poor SEO rankings. Instead, teams should conduct independent keyword research for each target language and consider local preferences such as payment methods and social media usage to ensure consistency and relevance. Localization is not a one-off project, but rather an ongoing process that requires regular updates and refreshes of content to respond to changing customer needs and market trends. By considering digital marketing channels and adopting agile testing approaches, teams can build their business case for deeper localization and create consistent experiences across all digital touchpoints. This can be achieved through partnerships with companies like Contentful and Locaria, which provide governance tools, translation management systems, and performance linguistics to support the localization process.

This post discusses how modern websites are built by decoupling website creation and content population, a method called "Headless CMS". This decouling happens when content is abstracted out into a structured, yet customizable format, known as the Content Model. Once a content model is built, it can be translated into a portable, scalable, and changeable format — i.e.: Javascript Object Notation (JSON) — that provides omnichannel deployment via RESTful APIs, allowing for the seamless creation, reading, updating, and deletion of content. The author argues that Contentful's approach transforms how modern product teams operate with respect to their individual roles, integrating content into the development process, and transforming the way organizations think about content. By treating content as a product, Product Managers can work alongside Engineers to granularly define specific models to meet business needs, while Marketers can repurpose content across multiple channels. The author also highlights how Contentful's integration with CI/CD pipelines enables rapid iteration and deployment of content, ensuring that it is developed, tested, and deployed through the same processes as code. Additionally, the post emphasizes the importance of modularizing content to enable efficient reuse and repurposing across distribution channels or contexts.