Why is a Translator Needed For Your Business?

Today’s business is fast, high-tech and conducted on a global level. As businesses everywhere grow more international, the need for language-translation services has spiked. If you do business with customers overseas, or you plan to, it’s vital to speak the language. A quality translator or translation team.

Why Translate Content?

There are many reasons your company may want to translate content, and the most obvious is the desire to engage with an international audience. Are you interested in creating an overseas partnership or reaching new distributors? Do you want to expand your market reach and selling to a global customer base? Do you want to generate interest from investors overseas?

Not every business that sets out to go global is able to do so, but with properly translated content, you’ll be a lot more prepared. The people you are trying to reach as an audience will also learn what to expect from you.

Are You Ready for an International Business?

The first place to start, when you decide to globalize, is your web presence. Translations of your content are an urgent matter because your website is often the first thing your potential audience will see when they look you up online.

Some businesses make the mistake of using free or inexpensive translation software to have content translated. Don’t make this mistake. A cut-and-paste translation from an automated software does nothing to make your business stand out from the crowd. In fact, the search engines may even penalize you for using their poorly worded translations if they don’t read like natural language.

A low-quality translation often makes a bad impression of your business and can affect your branding. It looks sloppy. And if you’re trying to make sales, there is little that is persuasive about poor grammar and word choice.

If you’re selling something to your global audience, then the content should read as persuasive and professional, no matter which language. Many languages also contain important nuance and subtleties that make the language read more like a native speaker. These aspects of language are what separates out a professional translation from an automated software. When the language sounds natural or real, it’s simply more convincing.

What Types of Content Should Be Translated?

Your website will be a starting point for your global outreach because it’s the most readily available to an international audience. However, this doesn’t mean you need to translate the website in its entirety. You should concentrate on the products or services that your business will be selling overseas. If there are laws about website privacy or other disclosures, you will need to make sure that these are clearly stated on your website.

Here are a few things businesses typically translate when they go international:

• Press releases
• Media kits, and other public relations materials
• Clippings from press mentions
• Brochures
• Contracts
• Technical documents
• User manuals
• Proposals
• Product descriptions
• Company profiles
• Investor materials
• Invoices
• Marketing materials

Often, a company will translate the entire website and make that version available through a link that signifies the country by language and flag. It’s worthwhile to have a contract translator available to update these parts of the website regularly in order to make a great impression.

Why Hire a Professional Translator?

Professional translators are native or fluent speakers that, unlike machine translators, can provide their professional knowledge of language to help you create the best translations possible. A professional understands nuance, local sayings, grammar rules, and follow such rules such as when to write with a formal language.

They will also often be familiar with business practices and be able to lend this insight into the language of the website.

A Translator Can Help Overcome Cultural Barriers, Too

If you plan on selling overseas to customers or working with other vendors who don’t speak your native language, you may encounter significant obstacles for any business owner.

In cases like this, it’s important to outsource your promotional materials to a translator, and you may need to do this with your customer support materials as well. Sometimes, you’ll find that foreign clients expect a lot of camaraderie and friendly chat before even a word of discussion concerning business takes place. Some countries are infamous for simply refusing to write business details down, preferring a handshake an a vocal promise. Make sure that you research cultural practices in the countries you plan on doing business in. While a translator cannot give you legal advice, there are often translators who can help translate documents with legal language. The same is also true for technical language – it’s important to have a native speaker read, understand and translate your user manuals and materials, especially if misuse of a product will break it or even cause danger to its user.

Some countries will even have unique marketing needs if you plan on selling a product to customers. This means that you will need to learn more about the cultures, values and psychographics of the markets so you can plan your campaigns accordingly. This is also something that you can outsource.

A Translator is Need for Many Projects

Hiring a professional translator is a solid step towards reaching your goals in new markets. You may find that a translator is needed for a variety of circumstances, and that he or she will help you communicate vital information that will help your business succeed. Not sure where to start with hiring a translator? Please contact us, we’re happy to answer any questions you may have.