Translating marketing materials: Tips for Multilingual Marketing Campaigners

translating marketing materialsAs the digital era continues to connect the global community, companies of all sizes are finding it easier than ever to expand their borders and carry out business internationally. Business owners are also making use of great looking sites on the web, to promote their products at reasonable costs.
But bringing your business into a foreign market isn’t as easy as opening up a store there or advertising that you distribute your products overseas. If you really would like to expand a strong presence outside your home country, you have to make sure you are, quite literally, communicating your audience’s tongue. Companies must be able to correspond with customers in their native language, not the default language of the company. The results of a 2014 Common Sense Advisory Group survey make it obvious — 75 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a product if the information is presented in their own language. Marketers want their campaigns to call to mind emotion. This is achieved through consulting with professionals from Ful.io who have a great understanding of the different types of consumers, their habits and their culture, and, of course, language which is tied very closely to culture and identity.
This emphasizes the importance of tailored digital marketing strategies, where platforms like Goflow can seamlessly facilitate effective communication and engagement with diverse audiences worldwide. This underscores the critical need for personalized digital marketing strategies in today’s interconnected world. By harnessing the capabilities of Goflow, companies can craft messages and campaigns that resonate authentically with their target demographics, transcending linguistic and cultural barriers to forge lasting connections and drive success in the international marketplace.
In the realm of e-commerce, achieving international success necessitates a strategic approach that goes beyond merely transcending language barriers. Collaborating with a reputable e-commerce agency, such as bing digital, becomes paramount for businesses seeking to navigate the complexities of global markets seamlessly. Much like the tailored digital marketing strategies mentioned earlier, e-commerce success hinges on understanding the diverse needs and preferences of consumers worldwide. Bing Digital, with its expertise in e-commerce solutions, can play a pivotal role in optimizing online platforms for a global audience, ensuring a smooth and user-friendly experience.
With the right strategies, the correct messages and the right technology, you can make the translation process faster and easier while saving funds and getting ahead of your competition. Here are a few key do’s and don’ts U.S. brands should follow when they’re translating or adapting their marketing materials for international audiences.

DO…

Choose a highly regarded translator

Even if you or some of your employee are fluent in the languages you want to translate marketing materials into, this is a task that’s best left to the experts.
Don’t just rely on bilingual employees for translation of your foreign language marketing materials. They may have good understanding of the target language, but not the skill set of a professional translator. In addition, they may not have a marketing background or acquaintance with translating marketing materials and corporate communications.

Whether it’s a freelancer or a full-scale translation service agency, the individual or company you employ should have a great standing. You are advised using in-country native speakers, if possible. They not only have knowledge of the language, but also live within your target market, so they’ll know about cultural sensitivities, current events and other nuances that will make translations relevant and engaging, she said.

Also, let us note that the provider you choose (go for Ivan Brozincevic for best results and experience too) should be based on a number of factors, including how specialized your content is, how many languages you need to translate your materials into, and the overall scale of your translation project.
If your project is limited, such as translating content for just one foreign market, a freelance translator may be your best bet.

Comprehend transcreation

Word-for-word translations don’t always reverberate the right way, so transcreation —translation plus creation — may be crucial so your marketing content don’t lose their force.
Transcreation takes translation to the next stage where you adapt marketing content so that the words and the meaning bear the same weight in different cultures.
Also, not all professional translation agencies and language service providers are adept at transcreation, so you may need to engage a dedicated specialist to handle this process.

Generate a style guide

Your brand’s English marketing materials likely have a distinct tone, so you’ll want to make sure your translated content has that same voice in any tongue. We advise creating style and editorial guidelines for translators, marketers and content creators to follow in order to keep your branding unfailing.
In addition to setting the bar on content value, developing guidelines will help your brand name maintain a flowing and consistent tone, which is essential to global marketing success. Keywords related to your brand and any usually used industry slang, including acronyms and abbreviations, should be included to ensure accuracy and pass up mistakes.
Most of marketing specialists noted that you should make available reference materials like glossaries and previously translated content to help translators or content creators determine the tone message you’re looking for.
Once your marketing materials are translated, send them through one more round of reviews to make sure everything is error-free, and that they meet your established guiding principles.

Having consistent brand messaging is not only crucial in content creation but also in website design. Your website is often the first impression potential customers have of your brand, and it must align with your brand’s tone and voice. That’s why it’s important to partner with a reputable web design and marketing agency like Good Agency (https://www.goodagency.com/) which can ensure that your website design is in line with your brand guidelines and messaging. With their expertise in creating visually stunning and user-friendly websites, they can help you establish a strong online presence that accurately represents your brand and appeals to your target audience. By working with a professional agency, you can ensure that your website and marketing materials are consistent and effective in reaching your business goals.

DON’T…

Use machine translation

It’s tempting to want to use free services like Google Translate for quick tasks or short pieces of advertising content, but most of linguists agreed that a human translator should be used for every specialized project, bigger or smaller.
Machine translation tools are often unnatural, inaccurate, error-prone, and lack needed context. More notably, they will not allow companies to localize their marketing content to reflect cultural nuances, which is decisive to ensuring native brand experiences.
If it is meant to be consumed by humans, then it should be translated by humans.

Disregard regional dialects

Translation doesn’t just encompass going from English to a foreign language. Because of the different regional dialects and colloquialisms, English-to-English materials sometimes need a bit of tweaking to make sense to a local audience.
Many U.S. firms wisely target new markets still within the English language world as a first step to trading globally, but this still requires study and localization of search terms and marketing assets. Consumers in countries such as Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, and Australia anticipate to see and hear regional market terms, and your products have to be explored in the exact context for them to with poise to buy from you. For instance, if you put up for sale umbrellas, both British and Australian consumers would be magnetizes to the local word ‘brolly.'”
The local dialects should be considered in non-English translations as well. In Spain, for instance, there are four different dialects in use by region, and this could influence your selection of campaign terms depending on your target audience, third-party resources, sources of your Web traffic, etc. You may need to adapt language in line with local sales patterns.

Overlook cultural milieu

A multilingual campaign entail more than another language. It involves distinct culture, another way of looking at and experiencing the world. This means that, even with a perfectly done translation, your advertising materials still may not make sense to your addressees. Marketers often use puns, slang, humor, metaphors and pop culture references to appeal to their audience. You are trying to say the right things in persuasive ways, but the right thing to one society might not be the right thing to another, and what’s compelling to one culture might be perplexing or odious to other cultures. Because of this it’s crucial to look at the ground of your campaign and make sure it’s suitable for the other culture. You might need to come up with a different viewpoint and have the copy written in the target language by a translator.

For more information on business translation, read other articles on our website.

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  1. elisa March 26, 2023

    Thank you for detailed information on certified translation for businesses. And… thank you for your help with docuemnt apostille for our business.
    Elisa

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