If you’re looking to globalize, translation services are a must, according to language services provider Tomedes.
CEO Ofer Tirosh advises that, since you’re working across borders, you will need to make sure your marketing messages are coming across clearly in different markets. You may also have to use translation services for internal or legal communication, particularly if you employ staff in multiple countries. Below, we’ll cover how to use translation services to help expand your business internationally.
Focus on Marketing Messages for Professional Translation Services
No matter what size your business is, expanding into another market can be a sound way to grow your customer base. In fact, as of 2016, 58% of small businesses had international customers.
Looking at historical growth rates, we see that the value of global exports grew 40 times larger between 1913 and 2014. Clearly, there is huge potential for businesses that globalize.
What is the importance of translation in business? And what are translation services? They are services that translate written messages from one language into another. Translation ensures that messages work in the new culture, with the language coming across naturally. It is important because it facilitates business growth and enables customer engagement.
One of the most important features of international expansion is marketing. Marketing brings its own challenges when you take it overseas. Marketing messages that work domestically might not work in a new location, since marketing is rooted in the local culture. It might use current slang, reference internet trends, or use local celebrities. It also uses different literary devices, such as metaphors or idioms. All of this might not translate well. However, the language must come across naturally in order for businesses to relate to local audiences and build brand loyalty.
Many translation services also cover localization. Localization involves keeping the core meaning of the message the same while adapting it to fit the new culture. It’s a key component of making marketing messages work in a new region. As it relates to marketing, localization can include:
- Re-shooting ad photos with new models that are the same race as those in the new region
- Redoing ads so that celebrities who are more relevant in the new region represent the product
- Making sure nothing in the message is offensive to the new culture
- Adjusting formats, symbols, measurements, and layouts to comply with the local culture
- Making sure the product complies with local regulations, such as privacy laws or labeling requirements
Expanding into a new market is a process with many moving parts. It can get quite complicated. By finding top professional translation services, you can make it a smoother and potentially more lucrative process.
Plan to Translate Your Internal Communications
As you globalize, you might realize that you’re working more and more with people in another language internally, as well as externally. You might have distributors in the foreign market or have a sales team in that region, for instance.
Look into a translation service that can translate internal communications. Documents professional translation services can handle include:
- Technical instructions
- Internal communications such as emails, newsletters or memos
- Presentations
- Reports
- Meeting minutes
- Financial documents like income statements or payroll reports
Translating internal documents can help avoid issues such as staff misunderstandings as they navigate instructions, which is key to the importance of translation services in globalizing your business. You can also build bridges between different cultural parts of the company.
Assess Translation Specialities
Assess which types of professional translation services you will need. This should be part of your international business expansion strategy.
Translation has a range of specialities. A common question in Google is, “What are the four types of translation?” But there are actually even more than that. Some of the most sought-after types of translation in the business world include:
- Technical translation: instructions, user manuals, industrial texts, patents, etc.
- Legal translation: legal certifications, contracts, licenses, trademarks, copyrights, insurance documents, legal disclaimers, etc.
- Financial translation: annual reports, market research, investment reports, financial statements, contracts, etc.
- Medical translation: if you run a medical company you may need documents like clinical reports, medication labelling, lab analysis, etc.
- Literary translation: for literary businesses, this speciality handles novels, poems and the like
- Marketing translation: brochures, leaflets, market research, surveys, product packages, newsletters, company magazines, websites, etc.
By understanding all the types of professional translation services out there, you can home in on what your business may need as you globalize.
Properly Source and Vet Your Translation Service
It’s important to find the best translation service to cover all of your needs. A subpar translation service could mean documentation errors and business disruption. If your marketing translator doesn’t catch something that offends a local culture, for instance, that could hurt your business’ growth in that region.
You can find the best professional translation services in a couple of ways. Many people ask around their professional network to find who has had a good experience with a translation service.
You can also look online by searching terms like Polish translation services; translation services in London; business translation for the Chinese-speaking market; or What is the best online translation service? This will help you find services that meet your specific needs. While not a fool-proof plan, the companies that pop up at the top of Google usually do so because they take the business seriously. Some, such as Tomedes, offer a range of services and languages so as to meet all of your translation needs at once.
Assess the background of each service by checking past work, references and/or testimonials thoroughly.
