Bilingual Content Strategy
LDA Audio Tech 2017-2020
Brand content development across offline and online channels.
Rol: Content Designer & Copywriter.
Starting point
LDA Audio Tech is a Spanish B2B company that manufactures public address and voice evacuation systems for installation in all types of buildings: airports, shopping centres, exhibition halls, hospitals, metro networks, and more.
Their systems are certified to the international EN-54 standard and can be used in emergency situations for controlled, phased evacuations.
The brand’s value proposition rests on two pillars:
- It manufactures made-in-Spain products, with its own factory in Málaga, an in-house design and R&D department, and international quality certifications.
- Its engineering team provides a comprehensive, personalised service throughout the entire sales cycle, which in this sector tends to be a lengthy one.
The challenge
In 2017, with international expansion on the horizon, the company needed to professionalise its online marketing and communications strategy, which up until that point had been managed internally by the sales team.
The goal was to establish the brand as a serious, high-quality player in both the domestic and international markets, with particular focus on the Middle East.
The brand’s international expansion made it essential to move towards a professionally managed marketing and communications strategy.
Working approach
To achieve this goal, the creative team identified two initial workstreams:
- Giving the brand a distinct visual identity suited to the markets it wanted to reach, particularly the Arab world, where innovation and a premium feel are highly valued.
- Generating quality content across all existing channels (and creating new ones where needed) to drive organic traffic and brand visibility through a long-term strategy that would consolidate the company’s position as a reference point in its sector. Systematic paid activity (SEM, SMM) was ruled out beyond one-off campaigns; the focus was on content planning for sustainable, long-term results.
Both the branding work and the content design were tackled simultaneously from the outset, so that the strategy could deliver a fairly immediate return through the most direct channels (primarily social media and email).
The brand needed both a refreshed visual identity and quality content across all its channels.
The branding
The company didn’t want to change its brand identity, it wanted to modernise it. Specifically, it was looking for a fresh image through its corporate materials, particularly its technical documents and sales brochures.
Working in coordination with the art and creative director, we set about redesigning catalogues, brochures, and technical data sheets for the company’s full product range.
The main catalogue became the centrepiece of the new visual style and the template for all subsequent updates.
The company had a clear vision: a premium presentation that conveyed quality, ready to be showcased at international trade fairs. We transformed the existing A4 catalogue (dark colours, standard format) into a double-spine publication that opens from both sides. Rather than a front and back cover, the catalogue has two front covers that open independently when the document is rotated 180 degrees.
The new catalogue is divided into two distinct sections: corporate and product.
This format gives the reader two documents in one: a corporate dossier covering the company’s history, mission, vision, and values; and a product catalogue presenting its main ranges in a clear, modern layout.
The brochure for the company’s flagship product range (NEO) was also redesigned, and later a brochure for the new launch (ONE) was created following the same visual and content style.
For both the catalogue and the two brochures, I wrote all content from scratch in Spanish and English, working from the client’s brief and technical documentation, and submitting each revision for sign-off by the brand’s technical experts.
On the digital side, a new corporate newsletter was designed and guidelines were established for social media: brand voice, typography, colours, and so on.
From that point on, all company communications were designed in line with the new strategy: speaking with a consistent identity rooted in an innovative, approachable technology brand.
The content
To write credibly on behalf of the brand, I carried out both external and internal research. On the external side, I needed to understand the brand’s primary user: what they were looking for, what their needs were, and how we could address them. At the same time, I needed to understand the competitive landscape and the sector: professional AV and audio, fire safety, systems engineers and integrators.
The internal research focused on understanding how content decisions were made within the company. I invested time in getting to know the stakeholders and building a collaborative working relationship with them, essential for developing the specialist content that users needed and the company wanted to publish. As part of this process, I also carried out a brief audit of the website, online channels, and sales materials (data sheets, dossiers, presentations, etc.).
Just as the corporate catalogue had undergone significant design and content changes, I progressively updated the remaining channels in line with the established voice and tone guidelines, always applying the new visual identity.
The content strategy was rolled out gradually across all touchpoints:
- Corporate blog.
- Technical articles blog.
- Technical documentation: data sheets, manuals, tutorials.
- Commercial website.
- Support website.
- Social media.
- Newsletters and other mailings.
- Press releases and press kits.
- Sales literature: catalogues, presentations, brochures, Q&As, whitepapers, etc.
- Graphic materials: banners, digital assets, merchandise, etc.
Localisation
Since the company operates from Spain for a global market, with a significant share in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, all communications needed to be produced in two languages: Spanish and English.
The content had to be technically rigorous and appropriate for a specialist audience, while remaining clear and genuinely useful. It also had to account for the fact that a large proportion of the audience uses English only as a business language.
As standard practice, I created each piece of content in Spanish as the primary language and then translated it into plain, clear, and concise English that, despite using technical terminology, always aimed to avoid unnecessary complexity. The goal was to get as close to plain English as possible and make the information as accessible as it could be.
On occasion, I produced content directly in English, typically when no Spanish version was needed: materials for international partners, articles for the international trade press, and so on.
Localisation of a Christmas card.
Review and iterations
Given the volume of content produced under this strategy, virtually every piece was subject to ongoing review.
For the corporate catalogue and product brochures (printed in large quantities) revision cycles were longer, more involved, and less frequent. In one iteration, for example, a more cost-effective version of the catalogue was produced, split into two separately printed sections on standard rather than premium paper stock.
Constant communication with the company’s technical experts and key stakeholders allowed for continuous improvement across all content, thanks to my role as content designer and central oversight of all the company’s communication channels.
Results
Among the milestones achieved over more than three years of work:
- A bilingual monthly newsletter subscriber base was consolidated, with an average open rate of over 40%.
- Regular publication (at least once a month) of articles in specialist national and international media, increasing brand and product visibility within the sector.
- A steady supply of quality content to partners and distributors, establishing the company as a valuable commercial ally. Partnership agreements increased significantly after the strategy launched.
- An improved corporate image at trade fairs and industry events, reflected in a rise in commercial leads generated at these events.
- Improved internal content production processes, thanks to the introduction of a dedicated content designer role with strategic oversight.
Tools
- Mailchimp, Acumbamail.
- WordPress, Drupal.
- Dreamweaver. FileZilla. Sublime Text.
- Hootsuite, Buffer, Audiense.
- Google Analytics, Google Search Console.
- Sistrix, Ahrefs, Semrush.
- Adobe Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator.
- Google Drive, Trello, Basecamp, Airtable.
- Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel. Libre Office. Google Docs, Spreadsheets.
Lessons learnt
On this project I learnt the importance of being genuinely useful to others. When your job is to make content accessible, straightforward, and high quality, everyone in the company eventually comes on board to help you get there.
I also discovered that people are equally generous in Spanish and in English, everywhere in the world, when they can see you’re always working in the team’s best interests.
