Reaching international and multilingual consumers is today a lot easier than it was even just 10 or 15 years ago. Nowadays, with the help of technology and internet, a vast majority of UK based organisations and companies, at some point, attempt to target overseas audiences in order to grow their sales and revenue.
This is a tried and tested approached, nonetheless, although easier than before, the process of successfully reaching out the overseas clients is still a complex and challenging task, and there are several aspects you must consider before going ahead.
Interestingly, most businesses, regardless of their industry, decide to approach their international customers via the company’s website and other digital channels. With now a globally available internet, this strategy often pays off, however, there are some factors you need to thoroughly consider before going ahead with internationalisation and targeting multilingual clients.
The importance of translation services
A great majority of global consumers prefer to be approached directly in their native language. In fact, studies show, that if your content is accurately translated into the market’s language, consumers are much more likely to make a purchase and engage with your brand. Consequently, working with an established agency that provides translation services in many languages has become a key point for UK businesses that wish to approach their international and multilingual customers and communicate their message efficiently. Professional translations are today, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most sought after services globally.
In order to help you to better understand what’s actually involved in the language translation process and how you can find the best possible supplier, we’ve created this guide of the 5 key and essential factors you must considering when converting your content into another language.
Choosing the best translations agency
Choosing the best translation agency to meet your particular language requirements is the very first, and perhaps most important step during the process. By finding the right provider from the start, you can guarantee the highest possible accuracy and reliability, without wasting time and money.
Whether it’s a registered translation company or a freelance translator, ensuring that they specialize in converting content similar to yours is absolutely key. To check this, ask them for any past clients, translation samples or examples of previous work they have carried out. Make sure to also check their reviews on independent third-party websites.
Additionally, check the agency’s (or freelancer’s) credentials. Organizations such as the ATC (Association of Translation Companies), ATA (American Association of Translators) or CIOL (Chartered institute of Linguists) are some of the main organizations, which associate and verify translation suppliers. If you chosen provider is listed as an officially registered member, you can rest assured that the quality of their translations are high.
Go a step further and localize
When people think about translations, they often only consider the linguistic aspects. The right words, sentences or syntax. However, when it comes to website, creative or digital content translations, other factors often play an equally significant role. When all of these aspects are considered, translation becomes localization.
Factors such as time zone, currency, colours or images used within your website can directly affect how your brand is perceived within the new, international market.
By localizing all content, not only the written text, you can take steps to ensure that the potential visitors to your company’s website receive the best possible experience, and as a result, increase your conversion rates.
Proofread…and then proofread again!
Creating marketing or digital content can be a very lengthy and time-consuming process. It requires exceptional attention to detail. This is because any mistake, a misspelled word or a grammar blunder can negatively reflect on your brand and how your target customer perceive you product or service.
As you can then imagine, ensuring that your content is free from any types or mistakes is even more important within a new market, where you are still trying to establish your position.
As a result, your content needs to be not only professionally translated, but also double checked but another, independent linguist. By doing this, you will be able to eliminate any errors in the copy that might have been missed during the translation process. As they say, two heads is always better than one!
Don’t forget multilingual SEO
In many cases, consumers turn to search engines such as Google to find their desired product or service. Consequently, it’s important to ensure that your multilingual content is accurately optimised to provide them with the best possible information and answer questions they might have.
By translating your website’s content and creating new articles directly in your market’s native language, you’ll be able to approach the potential customers naturally and organically.
It’s important to bear in mind however, that if multilingual SEO is something you wish to implement to your website, the translation agency or translator converting your digital content must be competent in the best SEO practices and understand how quality of content creation can directly affect the SEO efforts. Fortunately, majority of professional translation agencies is able to provide this service across many languages.
Multilingual website maintenance
Maintaining your translated website or other digital content is extremely important. It can directly affect your general marketing efforts, brand image, how your consumers perceive your company and, perhaps most importantly, it can improve or worsen the conversion rate on your website.
A translation agency, in general, should be able to provide website maintenance as an on-going service. As a rule of thumb, this would be done by a linguist who has first-hand experience within digital marketing or website creation.
By continuously creating new content and updating the already excising ones, you’ll ensure that your company’s website remains up to date and offers the visitors the best possible experience.
To wrap things up…
All studies show that people around the world strongly prefer to purchase goods and services if they are able to read the information in their native language. Whether it’s English, French, German, Spanish or any other language, translating your content into the market’s mother tongue will greatly benefit your marketing efforts. Ensuring that you provide your website and other digital content in the market’s native language is absolutely essential in order to approach your potential global clients successfully.
