Globalisation has enabled businesses to go international and access foreign markets. It allows global companies to offer their products and services to a broader consumer base.
However, marketing trends are swiftly switching from globalisation to localisation, whereby companies adapt their products to fit the demands of one specific culture or locale. While globalisation opens new foreign markets for businesses, localisation is the holistic process of fully integrating a business into a new market and infiltrating its consumer base.
Businesses achieve localisation and appeal to a local consumer base through translation services for the European market. Translating your documents and all your content into the lingua franca of your new consumer base is the bare necessity.
So, how do translation services help you achieve successful international marketing? It turns out they have quite a few roles.
The Importance of Translation Service Agencies
Having your documents and professionally translated by a specialist translation services agency is the safest bet and perhaps the most popular approach taken by clients in the United Kingdom. Unlike the other options, expert translation agencies can help you to seamlessly tailor your content, making sure it looks like it was created directly by someone local. This is because the best language companies are generally taking into account not only the linguistic, but also cultural aspects.
But as we have already seen, performing translations is not the only role of a translation service provider.
Depending on the level of expertise of a translator, their roles may include the following:
- Localising the content to help your company adapt to the local culture and therefore seem more attractive to the new local market.
- Perform multilingual search engine optimisation to increase your discoverability in the new market.
- Translate legal documents such as contracts, terms and conditions, licences and certificates, and all corporate documents
- Help you maintain communications with your new customers by translating your email and social media content.
- Remain up to date about jargon and up to date with the ins and outs of your field.
The Importance of Translation in International Marketing
Multilingual marketing is vital if you want to gain a foothold in the international market and hope to consolidate your presence for new consumer bases. Various research verifies the key role of translations in global marketing. For example, according to CSA research, surveying 8,709 customers across 29 countries, 76% prefer purchasing products with information in their own language.
Therefore, translating your website, product descriptions, blog posts, case studies, and other marketing literature is necessary.
But translation is just the tip of the iceberg.
Not only do you need to translate your content, but you also need to localise it. In other words, the translation should be adapted to the local culture. This is no easy task, as only native speakers or experienced translators can mould the translation according to local cultures.
This is where translation service providers come in.
Modes of Multilingual Marketing Services
There are four ways through which your business can approach multilingual marketing. The choice between them is dependent on your requirements, goals, and budget.
- An Employee Who Knows the Local Language
Recruiting an employee from the target market is the most common way to handle marketing-related translations. Of course, this can only work if you have a local outlet or, less commonly, an employee who is also coincidentally from the target country.
In either case, though, this approach is not as practical. Your employee might not have a background in marketing, and it may be unmanageable for them to take on all your translations.
- An Internal Translation Team
Some companies have internal translation teams, which are the most beneficial but least cost-effective. An internal translation team helps harmonise the tone and style of your translation.
But unless you have a large volume of materials to be translated, maintaining an internal translation team isn’t sensible.
- A Marketing Agency that Deals with Translations
Hiring a marketing agency to handle multilingual marketing is a relatively more effective approach. These agencies might have their own translation teams but typically outsource translation-related works to other translation agencies.
Under this arrangement, the marketing agency handles the creative aspect while the translation agency translates and localises the content. However, there may be little continuity in tone and style.
- A Translation Service Provider
The most reliable approach is to work with a translation agency directly. Translation agencies offer you a combination of language expertise and knowledge of local culture.
Translation services offer holistic multilingual marketing by not only translating but also localising your work. A professional translation agency, for example, will know how to make the appropriate tweaks to attune your content to local cultures.
The Benefits of Translation Service Providers
Effective translations are integral for a promising future in new and foreign markets. Hence, hiring a good translation agency will be beneficial for your company in the following ways:
- Increases your company’s discoverability and search engine visibility by improving multilingual SEO.
- Boosts customer satisfaction and trust since customers will be less hostile towards you if you speak their language.
- Employs cost-saving translation technologies such as term bank or translation memory.
- Forms a long-term collaboration with you, thus ensuring that your translations remain consistent in tone and style.
What Makes a Good Translation Service?
Here are four factors you need to consider for choosing the best translation supplier for the European market:
- Accreditation and certification: The agency/ translation service provider should have at least one of the two accreditations (ISO9001 and ISO17100). Furthermore, they should have memberships in industry bodies such as the ATC.
- Past experience in your niche: Translation agencies that have previous experience in your niche will know the jargon and technical terms needed for effective translations.
- Translation specialist: An agency that specialises in translations will be much better than an agency that outsources its translations.
- Multilingual SEO: The agency you choose should have experience with multilingual SEO to help you identify and use the right keywords.
Conclusion
If you’re contemplating expanding your business into foreign markets, choosing the right translation service is crucial.
Keep in mind that the roles of translation agencies extend beyond just translation. A good translation services provider will help you localise your content, boost consumer trust, and consolidate your presence in the international market.