Preparing for marketing translation: 5 top tips

When expanding into other regions, accurate marketing translation is essential in ensuring your brand voice is consistent. Market perception of your brand has the potential to create growth, so it’s vital that your messages resonate with your intended audiences, wherever they are in the world. 

If done correctly, marketing translation guarantees your words are understood exactly as you intend them to be, so if you’re looking to reach more potential customers then translation should form part of your marketing strategy. Here are five top tips to make effective marketing translation possible.

1. Give yourself a healthy lead-time

Marketing translation is a unique form of translation. Marketing messaging can be more open to cultural interpretation than other types of text, so it can take longer to translate. Translators need time to grasp a brand’s tone of voice and the nuances of a target market so it’s important to allow for weeks rather than days when it comes to delivery. Factoring in more time will also allow time to discuss any cultural elements that may need to be adjusted.

2. Gain cultural insight into your target market

When entering a new market, businesses need to think beyond demographics. What images, colours or experiences resonate with your local audience? Every detail you can gather will make your translated materials more accurate and likely to appeal to your audience, generating more engagement. Doing your research will make you more aware of local cultural nuances, helping you to develop culturally-appropriate messaging and show you understand your potential customers.

3. Proofread your content

This one might seem obvious but it’s very important. Take the time up front to proofread your content before sending it to a translator. Why? This will save time and money in the long run. A simple mistake in the original text could cause misinterpretation in the translation, but this can be easily avoided. Reviewing your content prior to starting the translation process will ensure accuracy and efficiency.

4. Create a brief

Writing a translation brief is the best way to ensure that you and your localisation or translation provider are on the same page. This brief should be thorough and include the basic project information, tone of voice, key objectives, target market, core messages, budget, times frames and reference materials. The more cohesive your brief, the easier it will be for the translator to grasp what you want to achieve and it will help them to organise a prompt lead-time estimate for you.

5. Use a specialist mother-tongue linguist

As every language is unique, you will require a translator working into their native language who is an expert in the nuances of not only the target language but also the source language. In addition, having an in-depth knowledge of the culture of a country provides a superior understanding when it comes to the translation of your content. That’s why we recommend you choose a translation agency that uses mother-tongue linguists.

When looking for a translation company, find one that works with linguists who specialise in the marketing sector who will have the experience to:

• Provide you with local colloquialisms and references to give your content added impact

• Produce engaging and accurate translations to help you reach and influence a wider audience

• Identify efficiencies to support you in reaching your end goals

We can help

If you want support with your translation project, please get in touch with us. 

With nearly three decades of experience in marketing translation, we pride ourselves on delivering grammatically-accurate, technically-precise and culturally-authentic translations. By combining our global network of hand-picked specialist translators, market-leading technology and expert Project Managers, we ensure you receive flawless translations and a seamless end-to-end service.