What a good localization copywriter should look like
And how to develop all the potential
From the bottom of my heart mind
Fresh stories from a Spanish Copywriter.
I was doing some research about transcreation and localization in the academic world when I found a pretty good definition by Claudia Benetello.
A good transcreator should be a translator, a copywriter, a cultural anthropologist and a marketing expert, all in equal parts.
Don’t panic yet: you don’t need a University degree in each of them. You don’t need years and years of experience in each of them.
But you definitely should have all these profiles in mind and be aware of it when working on a localization project. Let’s break it down a bit.
Translator: Pretty obvious one. Years ago, most of the people working on localization copywriters came from this background. You need to be good at your source language and know the basic about how to translate a text.
Copywriter: I’d say the trend is changing now and more and more copywriters are taking over localization. To be good at this, you need to be great (not just good) at writing in your main language, including persuasive writing.
Cultural anthropologist: I know very few people with a full “cultural anthropologist” profile, since most of them work in a more academic field. Here you should focus in understand in a deeper lever your local market and the last trends.
Marketing expert: If you are a freelancer, this goes without saying. But even if you work in-house, is important to know marketing beyond copywriting to understand what you are writing (to know in which part of the funnel will go your copy, for example).
Extra ball: the soft skills. I know we are tired to hear about it, but (and this is just my opinion), there are some specific skills you need to develop as a localization copywriter, including be up-to-date with the local trends, be curious and have some kind of creativity.
Market-in
Resources to reach your peak level.
💡JoSTrans is a great resource for academic content related with translation (with some interesting articles about transcreation and localization).
Outside the desk
Where the magic really happens.
🏔️ One full week living at the Pyren'Escape coliving and I’m already in love with this area. There were some rainy days, but today the sun is shining (and I’m even planning to swim a bit on the lake).
🏃♂️ With this landscape is difficult to don’t do sports outdoors. A coliver is training for a marathon so I’m getting back at running.
🥰 I’m spending a lot of time meeting new people at the coliving and having great conversations, something I missed a little bit working from home.
Make it global, baby
If you want to work with me, this is the way.
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All the best for the rest of your week,
💙 Ricky from Textonality.com 💙