Last updated on June 29th, 2023 at 04:05 pm

How to Strengthen Your Company with Professional Translation in Mind

The World as the New Storefront          

The world is bigger than ever in terms of international trade.  Connections that would have been out of reach a few decades ago now occur every day, and if you’re not leveraging that for your business, you’re missing out on great opportunities.

Consumers can connect with businesses with unprecedented speed and choose favorites out of a huge array of products and services.  It is more important than ever to think both globally and locally, on a scale large and small.  It sounds counter-intuitive but read on to see how it makes sense.

Even if you have a small business or niche product, you should think internationally. A good way to do this is to look at the Internet as a world full of people you can have a connection with by speaking their language.  Limiting your outlook will lead to your company losing relevancy and falling behind in market share.  Realize that the entire point of using technology is to bring us closer together, clearing distance and language barriers.  If you make yourself available, the clients will find you if you meet their needs.

What a Global Mindset Does for Your Business        

To highlight the importance of widening your scope to the entire world, let’s look at what positioning your company as a global player brings to you and your clients.

• International market intelligence. When your business crosses borders and languages, you get a broader base of feedback and sharper marketing insights.  Marketing translation and transcreation for brochures, ads, videos, and websites is a big part of making this happen.
• When serving the needs of international clients, you gain market share by offering better service; you can do that by  using professional translation services, multilingual customer service or extended shipping capabilities.  That mind set can give your company an edge even over domestic competitors.
• You gain more resources for your business across borders and language barriers as you build good will and trust not only with your client base, but with international partners and local authorities. A professional translation company is an essential part of helping your company support your multilingual network.

The First Steps to International Success         

Now that you have that mindset, it’s time to plug it in to your business. What does thinking globally mean as applied to your mission, your product?  How do you lay the foundation to make that mindset real at your company every day?  With a few smart starting moves, the world will begin to open itself up to you.

• Thinking globally pushes you to evaluate your brand at its core. What do you really want to say to everyone, everywhere?  It may seem obvious, but it is good to stop and consider from time to time what your primary message is and how well your company conveys that.
• Acting with a global mindset makes you examine your processes. Consider standardizing procedures where possible to streamline activity across all fronts to save time, money, and minimize mistakes.
• Expanding into the global market requires significant planning. Your company will have to abide by local, national, and international law.  You will need to budget for translation and transcreation of marketing content like website, brochures, commercials, and billboards, as well as translation of legal documents . You will need to partner with a translation company and develop an ongoing relationship with your translation company to ensure the translation services offered are according to your needs, vision, brand, and with consistent workflow and quality in the translation output. You need a translation company with experience, resources, and technology to help in your international journey.
• Thinking internationally involves localizing. How are you going to tailoryour practices and products to your client at the individual level?  How are you going to convey it clearly and meaningfully to them?  This is another area where it is important to work with a professional translation and localization agency.

Translating a Global Mindset from planning to execution and testing

How do you put thinking globally into practice?  It’s never too late to start, and incorporating an  international approach and multilingual capabilities as early in the game as possible is the best route to learn and adapt early. It saves time, money, and effort if you incorporate the Internationalization process from the beginning.

Activities to consider while going global

• Prepare your content repository to handle multilingual versions of your content.
• Think multilingual while designing brochures, manuals, reports, etc. Use shorter sentences, include white space, and create images with editable text to facilitate its translation.
• Create websites and apps planning their multilingual versions from the beginning of the design effort and identify from the design stage areas that will need localization like dates, addresses, delivery options, measuring systems, and other important elements that will require localization.
• Create content with translation and localization in mind.
• Do your SEO homework, select the appropriate keywords to use with the different language version of your content.
• Develop a style guide for your brand and translation efforts.
• Create translation glossaries including acronyms and words or names that you do not want to translate.
• Work with local distributors to receive feedback on your content for the new language, include them early in the workflow to avoid re-work
• Take time to plan and determine the block road of the market expansion.

Ways to effectively localize your message when expanding your market. 

• Diversify, translate, and localize your social media. This does more than to just carry your message to a broader audience, this encourages consumer generated content from local users in their language as they leave reviews and comments.Additionally, translation for social media inspires content sharing, which is free publicity and feedback.
• Embrace multiple platforms and offerings. Vary your approach according to what media your target market prefers to use, such as smartphone apps, video, text posts, and more.  Research the platforms your target market likes to use the most, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
• Use professional, local talent. Professional translators fluent in both the target language and culture can accurately take your message where it needs to go, helping you avoid missteps. Remember that creating familiarity is a powerful marketing tool, and only professionals skilled in localization can fine-tune your content to appeal to your new market.
• Use real market data. Does your company cater to a broad audience with diverse needs, languages, and cultures?  Are you seeking a certain demographic that also crosses cultural, national, or linguistic lines, such as college students or retirees?  Is your target market local to a certain area, or the speakers of a particular language?  Using a professional translation agency will give not only convey your message accurately but give you insight into the preferences and daily lives of your target market to build your marketing skills.

Making International Strides with a Professional Translation Company

After solidifying an international approach to your brand, product, and services, you will need to address the task of communicating in their language. At that point selecting the appropriate language translation services, technology, procedure, and workflow are extremely vital. Working with a professional translation company offers the support and services needed to help you go global and local within your target audience.

While making International strides,  you need to dedicate time to explore your new audience and their behavior, and use your creativity to create campaigns and products that resonate and attract followers and customers in those markets.  Using the right translation company will support your company across all aspects of your business, from training to customer support, while strengthening the infrastructure and integrity of your brand.

Adopting a global mindset is essential for your business to continue developing with the times, expanding your client base, and prospering.