Three Tips to Better Marketing Translations — at a Better Price

Are you a marketing manager or director in charge of translation and localization? Do you have a vested interest in improving your company’s marketing translation process? Try these three tips to streamline your communications — both internally and with your translation agency — and enjoy the benefits of cost-savings and better translations in the process.

1. Make introductions.

   Do you or your staff ever wonder who does what and when? That can get expensive when collaborating across departments and with agencies on a marketing translation project. For example, if your public relations team has no visibility into the translation process and turnaround times, they may develop the habit of sending press releases for translation the night before international distribution. Rush translation jobs such as these can cost your company up to 50% more — and result in poorer-quality translations that adversely affect your brand’s budding international image.

   One remedy is to get your stakeholders familiar with the “going global” process. Implement these ideas for improving cross-departmental collaboration around your marketing translations:

   • Organize a monthly “localization lunch” meeting where your translation agency point-of-contact, marketing, PR teams and executives can interface. Engage in an open conversation about how to make communication and workflow between your departments smoother.
   • Ask your translation agency to give a one-hour seminar to the heads of each department on marketing translation processes. Make sure they present tips for saving money (discussing lead-time and optimizing file formats, for example) and an explanation of key players involved in each step.
   • Invite your translation agency contacts to work with you in-house one day each week. Instant messaging and phone calls may be fast but it still can’t rival face-to-face communications in speed and efficiency.
2. Train your writers and designers for global eyes and ears.

   Writing for a global audience is not an innate skill or even one that’s typically taught in college. Most writers know how to address a certain target audience, usually one close to home, but struggle to extend the scope of their writing to diverse readers around the world. Similarly, your graphic artists and creative directors know how images are interpreted in the U.S. but can easily misunderstand their cross-cultural impact.

   It’s in your company’s interest to give your in-house writers and designers a crash course in becoming globally-minded — it will save you time, money and even increase market share in the long run.

   To help them produce content that’s more universally-relevant, consider the following:

   For your copywriters:

   • Compile tips for using translation-friendly idioms — idiomatic expressions that tend to have clear equivalents in each language. Provide recommendations so that the concepts underlying all their copy play well in each market. Give examples of what to avoid (i.e., anything racially or culturally degrading such as “Let’s go Dutch!”).
   • Create a glossary of key branded terms and carefully select and test local language equivalents for each. Make sure to place your glossary in a shared location on a company network and keep it continually updated with new terms, product names and branding conventions.
   • Bring in a writing coach who specializes in creating content for global audiences.

    For your designers:

   • Work with your translation agency to create a Localization 101 kit for creative professionals — a short report on how designers influence the localization process. Include best practices and tips such as choosing photos over illustrations with text (which would require translation and quality assurance), working in layers, and externalizing all text in XML files.
   • Create a global image guidebook highlighting differences in icons and symbols across cultures, taboo imagery, examples of Americanisms and other important elements to pay attention to.
3. Teach your translators about your brand.

   In marketing translation, the translator’s writing skills and creativity impact your brand messaging in new language markets. But good prose isn’t enough. Firsthand knowledge of your products and an understanding of your company values allow a translator to truly “transcreate” your brand content for their markets. Without the right context for what they’re translating and creative collaboration, even the best translators can offer only a pale rendition of your brand messaging in their language.

   Rally your translators around your brand at the beginning of your project by:

   • Providing a starter kit or goody bag. If you sell on-line video streaming services, for example, send them your brand story and offer them a few months free to experience the service. If you market cosmetics, give them samples with some collateral.
   • Emailing them a style guide or hosting a web meeting to train them on your brand, as you might explain it to new employees.

   In short, sell your translators on your products and provide context so they, in turn, can express your brand’s virtues with conviction in their language.

Armed with these three tips and your creative thinking cap, you’ll get internal and external teams on board with your global creative initiatives, which will help you stay on budget, with translation, build your brand and boost your revenues internationally.

Contact us today to receive more information on our comprehensive marketing translation services or to request a free consultation and quote.