Your business is doing very well, but you know that English won’t help you reach customers worldwide. But which languages should you choose to translate your website into?
If you are still debating whether it is worth investing your money in a multilingual website, here some facts you might want to consider.
75% of people using the Internet don’t speak English. To create a real connection with your audience and your brand, you need to speak to them in their language and understand their culture.
Remember: even if your product is of great quality and provides value to customers, it will not sell itself.
According to Harvard Business Review and the EU Commission:
72% of consumers spend most of their time on websites in their own language than they do in English.
72.4% of consumers are more likely to buy products in their native language
for 56% of consumers, the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price.
42% said they NEVER purchase products and services in other languages.
‘Smart companies know that putting all your eggs in one basket is bad for business. So is putting all of your marketing content in just one language.’ – Harvard Business Review
What is the difference between translation, localization and transcreation?
Which translation service do you want for the translation of your website? How do you know which one is the best for your project?
Translation: is the process of transferring the faithful meaning of a word from the source language into the target language, without taking into considerations any cultural differences. Translation can be suitable for documents like: internal emails, technical documents or manual for a product for a new market that do not have to take into account cultural differences.
Localization: is the adaptation of a product or service to meet the needs of a particular language, culture or desired populations’ “look-and-feel”. The goal with localized content is for the reader not to realize it was conceived for a different market in the first place.
Transcreation: is the process of adapting a message from one language to another, while maintain its intent, style, tone and context.
If you are ready to embark on reaching out to a new demographics with your website translation, here 5 tips for targeting your non-English speaking customers base.
1. Identify your target market and select the content to translate in advance
Before rushing headlong into translation, you need to find out who you want to target.
Are you trying to attract professionals from Belgium or young people from France or customers in Canada? Both target consumer groups speak French, yet they don’t use the same type of language. They also have different expectations in terms of selling, content and user experience.
Identifying your target market and relevant content is going to save you time and money on useless translations.
2. Choose qualified and specialist translators
Now that you have a detailed plan of the demographics you want to attract and the content you want to offer, you should carefully select specialist native professionals to guarantee the success of your project. The better qualified the translators are for your project, the less likely you’ll need to keep going back and forth, wasting your time.
3. Create a briefing and a full glossary to avoid questions back and forth from the translators.
Speaking of going back and forth, another piece of advice: Since talented and specialized translators are still humans, they have their own style and preferences for choosing specific terminology, when it comes to deciding on the tone of the wording and the style of the language used.
Before kicking-off the project, have ready a detailed briefing where you can explain who your target market is, your company and its core values: it’s the best way to let your translator understand what you are expecting!
Another way to support your translator and save time looking for the right word for complex term would be to create multilingual glossaries. Glossaries help you compiling a list of specific terms of the sector or language of your brand yet maintaining consistency, coherence, and tone of voice throughout all languages.
4. Automate the sending and receiving of your content
Don’t waste any more time exporting the content of your website to a text document and then send it to the translator, only to receive the translation and then upload the content again.
Integrate your content management or product information management system with an online translation platform API. Send your content to be translated directly from the system, and all you need to do to is validate the translation and it will be automatically uploaded to your site.
Do you have questions? Tell me in the comments or simply drop me a line.
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