We have been a global market for a very long time now, and we’re always talking about connecting with our customers. There is no better way to connect with your international customers than by writing for them in their own language. Translation services have often been out of reach for small business, but this new service now makes reaching out to your customers in their language is even easier now. This guest post by Ofer Tirosh will give you a quick education on translation services for the new economy.
Translating marketing materials into the language of the target users can be a highly cost-effective way of marketing products and services among non-English speaking users and countries. But there are certain potential pitfalls that can defeat the whole purpose.
Marketing materials generally contain creative content that has been conceptualized keeping a specific target audience in mind. Translation of such content needs to take into account the requirements/culture/sensibilities of the target customers. What appeals or works in one language might not have similar results in the other.
The following measures are advised for ensuring effective marketing translation.
- Opt for a reputed translation service with successful experience in providing marketing translation. The translator working on your project should have a functioning knowledge about the field of marketing in general, and especially the ground rules of the target country. For example, if you have an American product that is going to be marketed in the Middle East, the translator should be competent enough to understand the difference between content that works for American and Middle-Eastern customers. American humor for instance might not go down well with the natives of Middle-East countries.
- 2. It helps to have a native translator, because such a translator would have a firsthand awareness of the target language as it is used in its native country. He or she would be able to figure out a lot of subtle aspects of given marketing content and suggests changes to tailor it according to the culture and requirements of the target customer group.
- 3. Provide the marketing translator with adequate references, this would allow him or her to understand how you would like to project your product or service in the targeted market. It also helps to work closely with the translators and discuss various solutions. Marketing history is filled translation gaffes in which big and well known companies have been involved. There have instances where an informed and literal translation of a company’s tagline has turned out to be unintentionally ridiculous or worse, offensive to the target population. Working closely with the translator helps avoid such fiascos.
- 4. Stay away from machine translation, however sophisticated they might have become, machines are still not able to think for themselves! Marketing content by their very nature contains many subtle references that only an experienced human translator can understand and translate for effective results.
About the Author: Ofer Tirosh is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tomedes.com a one-of-a-kind language translation services company with a global team of professional translators. It provide high quality translations between almost every language combination.
Author: Ivana Taylor
Email: ivana@thirdforce.net
Site: http://diymarketers.com
About: Ivana Taylor is the publisher of DIYMarketers.com and the President of Third Force a firm that specializes in helping companies find their best customers and be the one they choose – regardless of price. She's an expert and book editor for Small Business Trends and a contributor to AMEX Open Forum.See Authors Posts (256)
