Implement corporate language easily using software

Corporate language, also known as company or enterprise language, is the specific way in which a company communicates both within the organization and with external parties. Corporate language is part of a company’s corporate identity and refers not only to the unique language style of a company but also to the entirety of the company-specific terminology. The goal is uniform communication, improvement of the corporate image as perceived by the outside world, and better recognizability of the enterprise as a whole.

Why is corporate language important?

A standardized corporate language helps to foster clear and coherent communication within and outside the organization, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings. Using corporate language is crucial for establishing and reinforcing your brand identity – and by using consistent language, you can more effectively convey your company’s culture, values, goals, and vision.

If the language used by the company is clear and professional, this helps to create a positive image of the organization and its employees – inspiring trust among customers and partners while also enhancing the credibility of the enterprise.

However, corporate language can also be essential for legal compliance in certain industries, where adhering to a specific corporate language is necessary to meet legal obligations.

Defining corporate language in a style guide

A style guide includes rules, exceptions, and examples of your company’s corporate language. Here are some key elements of a style guide:

• Language variant: This is a fundamental but crucial specification, particularly for external employees such as editors or translators. This might be English specifically for the United States, the United Kingdom, or Australia, for example. Depending on the size of the company, the communication may need to be tailored to the specific target markets.
• Tone and voice: Determine the tone and voice with which your company communicates. Should the language be formal or informal? Friendly and modern, or businesslike and traditional?
• Target audience: Develop personas or describe your target groups and adjust your corporate language to suit their preferences. For example, you will communicate differently with employees than with (potential) customers or suppliers.
• Grammar and spelling: Standard works such as Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary often allow for several spellings. Identify the ones that are appropriate for use in your company and document them in the style guide. This category also includes topics such as the use of quotation marks, the specification of numbers, currencies, times and dates, and uppercase and lowercase spelling, such as in bulleted lists.
• Inclusive and gender-equitable language: The style guide should incorporate the company’s internal guidelines for using inclusive and gender-equitable language. For example, do salesmen and saleswomen, salespersons, or sales representatives work at the company? Define the spellings and any exceptions in order to ensure more consistent communication.
• Terminology: Some style guides also define company-specific terminology. Since this terminology is of such importance, it is advisable to document it in a dedicated terminology database. Both internal and external employees then have the ability to search for specific words at any time to determine if they can be used or to find out how they should be translated. You can find more information on this topic in our articles “What is terminology work?” and “Save costs by defining terminology in the organization.”

Once your company acknowledges the value of corporate language and invests in a style guide, it is crucial to ensure that all employees implement it. Dedicated language software for corporate language, such as TextLab, is available to ensure that this happens.

TextLab is a software tool designed to allow you and everyone in your organization improve their writing. It provides you with key figures for clarity, grammar, tonality, and implementation of corporate language, as well as for the linguistic climate, which you can then use to improve your texts directly while writing or during subsequent quality control.

One crucial feature of the software is the digital implementation of the style guide. Employees are shown a key figure with values between 0 and 100 in an intuitive interface or directly in Word or Outlook as they write – including target values and suggestions for improvement in a pop-up window.

For example, TextLab gives you the option to store terms and phrases that should be avoided, which helps maintain consistency in your corporate language and minimizes misunderstandings.

All key figures are presented on an innovative dashboard, allowing for the visualization of values over time. You can also compare documents with each other and export the data.

Consistent translations thanks to a translation management system

Germany continues to be an export nation, a circumstance that underscores the importance of international communication. According to the “Language Services in Germany 2020 – a guide for industry professionals” study by QSD (Qualitätssprachendienste Deutschlands e. V.), Germany is the largest translation market in the EU, with an annual turnover of 1.25 billion euros, followed by France (627 million euros) and Italy (607 million euros).

Uniform and clearly formulated texts are an excellent starting point for producing high-quality translations. Freelance translators and translation agencies carry out the majority of translations today. This makes it all the more crucial that they have access to reference materials, style guides, previous translations, and other resources, as this is the only way they can deliver the best possible result.

The use of a translation management system (TMS) therefore plays a key role. In a nutshell, a TMS is a software environment in which the entire translation process is mapped and managed. It is a centralized platform with which translation jobs are created, forwarded, and finished. It is the link between customers, translation service providers, freelance translators, terminologists, reviewers, and correctors.

Its central components are a customer-specific translation memory, a terminology database, and a translation tool. In addition, a TMS offers translation management and quality management features.

The open architecture of a TMS allows for the integration of different systems through interfaces, such as content management, product information management, machine translation, and authoring assistance. This makes it possible to set up a contiguous process chain for seamless data exchange. A translation management system can help a company save time and money on translations while also enhancing the quality of the translated content.

Check out our article “All about translation management systems (TMS)” to learn all about the benefits and features of a TMS and how it can streamline your entire translation process.