With the development of technology and the relatively small cost and high impact of digital marketing, many new doors are opened for businesses who want to expand their client base. Creating a strong international presence is a great way to develop revenue, even if your business is small, you can still give it a boost by investing time and effort into your global market.
One of the most important ways of building a strong international presence is through translation – after all, if you can’t communicate you can’t sell!
Translating your message to suit your audience is fundamental in making potential customers feel valued – the more you’re trusted, the more likely you are to sell.
Failure to translate documents properly can easily lead to the loss of sales, damage to your brand via misunderstanding; it can sometimes even lead to legal action!
You can expand your professional services business by enlisting the expertise of translators – as long as they are the right choice for your business!
This guide should help you find translation services to help expand your professional services business overseas.
Specific Service Sector Experience
As a rule – it’s always good to choose a translation professional or agency with a deep experience in your sector. Like your professional service, translation has the same concept. Sector experience helps by ensuring that the translator understands the real meaning of what they’re translating and can choose the right linguistic nuances to suit the document.
It also helps the “acclimatisation” and could save time.
It is important to choose translations services from professionals who will be able to optimise your copy – not just replicate it into another language word for word.
Complex technical documents are great for really adding value to your client and showing your deep expertise in their field. A consideration for these documents is that they are often a more specialist translation task, sometimes taking a little longer and you can’t simply “get a quote online” to benchmark your translation service cost.
One of our pharmaceutical clients fell into this pitfall having planned to use a local Chinese translation agency, their chosen supplier advised that they would be unable to meet the deadline due to the material’s complex and varied subject matter! (We helped them out and hit the deadline!)
Most of our clients believe that their material is highly specialist, whether it’s marketing or technical. With over 3,800 translators however, we just apply the right translator for the job and it’s not necessarily harder!
Specific Task Experience
It’s incredibly important that your translation agency understands the sector (as above) and the actual task and the purpose of that task at hand such as website translation or keyword research. Translating marketing literature may be seen as simpler than technical documents – but a great translation agency has marketing graduates who really understand the discipline and can provide the necessary context for the translation.
The vocabulary is completely different dependent on the task. Language fluency is not finite – technical translation requires fact, marketing translation requires flair!
It’s also worth bearing in mind that marketing translations are more open to stylistic preferences, and more subjective than technical translations. As such, ensure any quote you get is for the entirety of the job and until you’re happy – this is something that new clients have had poor experiences with in the past, when dealing with freelancers.
Specific Language Experience
Another checkpoint on your translation service list should be specific language conversion experience.
It’s good to know that the translation agency has a great team of staff that has done your specific translation language-to-language before. There are words which simply don’t translate at all and being experienced in the field and language can help get the right result.
If you don’t believe us, try using Google Translate to go from one language to another and then back again!
Look for great processes, accreditations, testimonials & insurance
Great translation agencies can give you testimonials, preferably in your sector or task as previously mentioned. They can also explain their processes, and can offer translation memory to give even better value for money (through not replicating the translation twice for recurring terminologies and phrases.)
Accreditations like the ATC and EUATC also reassure you when looking for a translation agency. For the record, we’re members of both!
Professional translation agencies also have professional indemnity insurance in the unlikely event of the translation service causing legal issues.
Assess Value not Cost
Practice what you preach when selling your own professional service!
Don’t just look for cheapest option but weigh up all of the above factors to truly ensure you get value. Translation is a professional service too and you often get what you pay for. The true cost is in the fact that the translation may not actually help you develop business or may annoy your customers post-sale with poorly translated contracts, leaving everyone in the dark and unable to meet expectation.
Think of the cost your business, reputation and brand and not just your wallet!
How we work…
At Bubble Translation Services, we have over 3,800 translators speaking over 280 languages. We can take on demanding, challenging projects – in fact, we thrive on it!
We work with the biggest and most discerning brands in the world to deliver translation services that compel consumers into action.
Our ability to understand and interpret complex documents allows us to relate to your audience – no matter where in the world they are. We have a wealth of experience in translating technical documents and can offer this service for your professional service business.
