Translation and localization / How are you doing it?

Hi Marketo Community 👋

I’m a Marketing Automation Manager looking to either adopt or evolve a better translation and localization process for email, and I’d really love to learn how others are handling this—especially at scale.

Our current state

• We start with an English source and translate + localize into seven languages
• Translation and localization are handled in-house via cross-charge, with localization (rightfully) costing more
• After translation, my team then builds separate emails in Marketo for each language
• Most of this work supports nurture programs, so each project can involve many translated email builds

Where things get difficult

• Native-language review is non‑negotiable. We strongly believe content must be reviewed by someone fluent in the target language to ensure accuracy, tone, cultural nuance, and brand alignment.
• That said, finding native speakers is a challenge in itself:
  • It adds cost
  • Reviewers are often outside marketing or Marketo
  • If we rely on internal native speakers, it’s typically outside their day‑to‑day role, which makes turnaround slower and harder to prioritize
• Design reviews are tricky because I don’t speak all seven languages. I can review layout and structure, but it’s difficult to confidently edit or QA content without knowing what shouldn’t be changed.
• Speed is a constant issue: by the time translated emails are fully built and reviewed, we’re already optimizing the English versions, which means non‑English audiences are starting with outdated content.

The “ideal world” vision In a perfect scenario, we’d be able to:

• Use a tool like Jasper (or similar) for both translation and localization
• Have emails automatically built or staged in Marketo for review
• Still maintain a native-language reviewer step (this part feels essential)
• Reduce the overall lag so translated content doesn’t trail English by weeks

However, even with AI:

• We’d still need native speakers to review and approve content
• That review would likely sit outside someone’s core job responsibilities
• Which brings us back to the same resourcing and timing challenges, just later in the process

What I’m hoping to learn from this group

• How are you handling translation + localization today?
• How do you source and scale native-language reviewers?
• Are reviewers dedicated, agency-based, or “borrowed” internal resources?
• Has anyone paired AI translation with a sustainable human-review model?
• Any workflows that have helped keep non‑English content closer in sync with English optimization?

Appreciate any examples, lessons learned, or even cautionary tales. This feels like an area where there must be smarter patterns emerging—but balancing quality, cost, speed, and people has been challenging.

Thanks in advance!
— Shane