United Kingdom has always been considered one of the world’s most multilingual and multicultural markets. Immigration has been one of the key elements within the business environment as migrants from other countries strongly contributed to the market as both – the workforce as well as the consumers. Today, due to Brexit, that number might be somewhat smaller, even so, the United Kingdom still remains a large market with people and contributors from every corner of the world. There are, in fact, more than 300 different languages and dialects spoken in London alone! This nonetheless creates somewhat of a challenge for the UK based companies, as attracting such varied consumer base can be extremely challenging. As a result, professional translation agencies have recently become key business partners for a number of companies. Such agencies are able to not only accurately translate your content or documents, but can also provide an expert advice regarding any cultural and ethnic differences within your target audience groups.
Can translating content help my company?
There are several factors, specific for each organisation, which can impact whether translating your materials and documents can in fact benefit your business. Nonetheless, in a vast majority of circumstances, professional translations can prove to be an extremely valuable service which can positively and directly influence your company’s revenue – both in your home market as well as abroad.
A recent study found, that more than 80% European customers prefer to purchase products and services if they are able to learn about them in their native language. Giving that there are more than 650 million of non-native English speakers in Europe alone, this gives your company an enormous margin for creating a strong, competitive advantage by simply translating documents.
Quality is everything
When converting your business materials into a foreign language, it is extremely important to bear in mind, that the highest quality and accuracy of your translation is nothing short of essential.
Any corporate, marketing or legal documents you decide to translate with a foreign audience in mind will represent your company, and so any mistranslation can negatively affect your company image in the long run. Consequently, ensuring that your materials are translated professionally can be the difference between a great international success and a spectacular failure.
Remarkably, majority of people assume automatically, that the quality of a translation is linked solely to its linguistic aspects. And they couldn’t be more wrong. A professional translation, especially of content and documents intended for business use, takes into consideration several aspects, and language is only one of them.
An expert linguist converting your documents will ensure that not only the language used is appropriate for the target audience, but also that any external factors are also taken into account. This can involve, for example, any cultural, socio-economic, political or even religious factors.
A great example of this could be translating content for the Asian market. In China, for instance, colours and superstitions play an extremely important part in society. A high-quality translation, in such cases often also known as localisation, would make sure, that these aspects are fully adjusted so that the target audience can associate with your message comfortably.
What should I translate?
The specific documents and materials you should translate can be defined by a number of individual factors. The total budget and size of your organisation being perhaps one of the most important one of them. Professional translation services can be quite a costly and lengthy process, and so if your budget is very limited, you must consider which documents to translate very thoroughly and carefully.
The particular way in which your business intends to operate and approach the foreign speaking audiences also plays an extremely important role. For example, if you decide to have a physical presence within the target market – e.g. a shop on the high street, you may need to translate quite a lot more documents compared to if you only traded online.
Opening a shop would naturally require you to translate majority of marketing and legal materials – from product descriptions, leaflets, business cards or brochures to contracts, terms & conditions and warranties. Converting these, again, depending on the size of your business, can incur costs which must be incorporated into your annual budget.
Translating content when trading solely digitally, on the other hand, is not only somewhat easier, but can also be significantly less expensive.
In such scenario, translating your business website is absolutely key. In most cases, a new customer will approach you directly through the website and so having it accurately and reliably converted into their native language can substantially increase the conversion rate. Additionally, in order to cut costs and save time, it’s important to remember that in some cases the entire website doesn’t need to be necessarily translated.
For example, if you indent to only offer certain products or services to the target market, it only makes sense to convert and translate pages corresponding directly to those services.
Finding the right provider
Being able to successfully identify the content you need to translate is unfortunately only the beginning of a challenging project. Finding a reliable translations provider is the next, difficult, mission you must undertake. There are, generally speaking, two ways in which you can approach this venture.
First involves working with a freelance linguist. Although cheaper of the two options (and so arguably more suitable for small companies with very limited budget), it works best for short documents needed in one target language, without a particular deadline in mind. A freelance linguist would usually be able to cover a single target language and would most likely have a limited capacity. Additionally, finding a freelancer who specialises not only in your target language, but also has an in-depth understanding of your busines sector can be a truly challenging task.
As a result, majority of UK based business owners decide to partner directly with an expert translation agency. Although this solution can be slightly more expensive, it allows to overcome all of the challenges associated with freelance linguists. In order to fully understand the benefits a translation company can bring to the table, we have spoken to a representative of Translation Services 24, one of the fastest growing translation agencies based in London, which specialises in providing language services to some of the UK’s largest brands and businesses.
“One of the key benefits of working with a translation agency is the peace of mind we are able to give businesses.” He said, and added: “From the moment we receive documents from our clients, our company is able to take care of everything – from covering a number of languages at the same time to meeting tight deadlines. Working with some of the most successful organisations, both UK and international, allowed us to streamline our processes for highest possible accuracy and most competitive prices.”
A quick summary
As you can see, translation services are an integral part in today’s globalised business environment and so a rapidly growing number of companies and organisations decide to partner with a reliable language provider. Whether you decide to work with a freelance linguist or an expert translation agency, ensuring that the provider specialises in your particular business sector and is able to deliver accurate translations on time is essential.
Having your materials converted into the native language of your target audience will not only positively affect your revenue in the short term, but will additionally allow you to create a strong, trustworthy and customer-focused brand image for the years to come – something that can be an extremely beneficial competitive advantage within a foreign market.
It is, nonetheless, essential to remember that your translated materials, files and documents represent your brand directly in the eyes of a potential customer and business partner, and so taking your time to choose the translations provider wisely can prove to be one of your most important business choices.
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