Anyone who used word-for-word translation or received an email from a company that has been machine translated knows how awkward it can be. While this type of translation is fine when ordering drinks or trying to find your hotel when traveling abroad, you wouldn’t want it lost in translation after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, time and energy in researching, developing, testing and fine-tuning your message or product campaign.  

A proper quality assured translation should strengthen trust between you and the customer, not erode it.

Localization Hits the Target

Localization is the process of adapting to the specific market; taking translation one step further by incorporating the culture, turns of phrases and nuances of the language you’re using.  Properly executed, this should take the message from a second-language speaker and put it into words of a local.  To successfully market your product, you need the trust of your audience, and who do people trust more than someone who sounds like they are from their own community?

Localization also helps you steer clear from cultural errors and missteps that translation can’t avoid. Language is full of nuances and hidden meanings; through quality assurance, you incorporate that knowledge into your messaging.  This gives you unparalleled market penetration and helps your company avoid costly liability and copyright issues.

Internal Versus External Translation

Even though your company may have individuals working for you already who speak different languages and are capable translators, they are not trained in the translation process. The process consists of translation, quality assurance (localization),and editing.  If the individuals you have access to internally are not familiar with the specific area you’re targeting, they don’t know the cultural and linguistic nuances of that particular area.  This can lead to language blunders that at worst, completely turns your audience off, and at best, leave them wondering why a company would output such poorly translated material.  An internal candidate may save you in hard costs now, but can cost you future opportunities, inability to gain trust in your target audience and ultimately damage your company’s reputation.

Planning for Success

Translation services can vary widely by provider both in terms of cost and content. In today’s global marketplace, cutting corners in terms of cost and time can mean lost revenue and trust in foreign markets. When you invest time and money into native, local, expert translation, you gain trust and a good reputation in markets around the globe. Customers know that you get it—that you get them.

A successful translation project takes time and focus. It starts with concise written content, submitted to your translator with enough time to complete a thorough check of the material.  For this process to work like it’s designed to, it takes time to get through all the steps of this process. Make sure to plan for additional time for translation and quality assurance when you know top-quality translation is a must for your project. 

To keep your copy perfect in any language, a three-step quality assurance process is recommended to preserve your message in its purest form. First, translate your material into the target language. Then, designate a professional linguist to edit the material for clarity and accuracy. Finally, precautions should betaken to comply with in-house or industry style guides.  The quality assurance process utilizes experts to examine your messaging to ensure unity.

Choose WritePath’s Premium Translation for Maximum Local Impact

WritePath’s premium translation services rely on the four-eye principle as well as using top language and subject matter experts in a variety of fields.  We keep the translation process separate from the editing process to make sure that each part of the process is as accurate as possible. With our active crowd-sourcing capabilities, we are constantly recruiting and expanding our industry experts, allowing you access to language and subject matter experts from around the globe to complete your project on time and within budget. It’s a level of quality that’s near impossible to achieve in-house or with traditional freelance translators.

Good translation is a handshake in another language. It delivers an unwritten message, “You’re important to us. We understand you.” It’s what every customer wants to hear and what you want to say.