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The Role of Translation in International Marketing

As the owner of a global business, you’re always looking for ways to increase your ROI and expand your reach. A lot of the time, this means adjusting your operations. But what if I told you expanding your language offerings could have an even more drastic impact on your success in overseas markets?

Would you be interested in learning more if you knew digital marketing expert Neil Patel increased his traffic by 47% through website translation? Here are few statistics that drive home the importance of professional translation and a brief discussion of what a GOOD translation means for international marketing.

You Can’t Afford Not to Hire a Translator

We’ve all heard the translation horror stories. Pepsi marketing itself as a necromancer in Taiwan. Perdue chicken’s Spanish translations are implying that its founder was a little TOO passionate about his produce. What you’ll notice, however—even though they got stung—is that these companies persevered in their translation attempts. None of them left the market or gave up on globalization because of that. Below are some figures that explain why translation is worth it even after a snafu:

Only 13% of the world’s population speak English
According to data collected by the Common Sense Advisory, 40% of consumers won’t make a purchase in another language
73% of people surveyed prefer to read reviews in their native language
For 56% of people, having information available in their native tongue is a more significant purchase indicator than price
72% of consumers spend most of their time on the web in their native language

As the above figures show, making a real connection with your audience means hiring a professional translator.

While international marketing has its risks, the potential benefits outweigh the problems. If you put in the work upfront, you’ll avoid making similar mistakes in market adaptation.

What Does a Good Translation Look Like?

To make sure your reputation in your new market stays unsoured, you need to understand what makes a translation good. While accuracy is essential, it’s not THE most important thing.

A good international marketing effort resonates emotionally with a target group. It captures the spirit of the original advertisement or promotional campaign and contextualizes it for your new target market. In a translation, you aim to convey the original message in unaltered form. This means going as close to verbatim as possible. Marketing translation is much more nuanced than this, however. It requires tweaking and a deep understanding of your target market’s culture.

In truth, it’s very rarely a “good translation” that you’re looking for when it comes to marketing material. What you need is transcreation—an adaptation of content that maintains the tone, intent, and style of your source material without relying on a verbatim translation.

What Can You Do to Ensure Your Translation Is High Quality?

So, now you know what a good “translation” is. But what can you as a business owner do to ensure your international marketing efforts are successful? I suggest following the below tips:

Hire a Professional Translator: The importance of translation to international marketing cannot be overstated. That’s why I suggest you hire a certified language professional who possesses both marketing experience and in-depth knowledge of your industry. Sure, your intern might know Swedish, but is the money you’ll save on a professional’s rates worth staking your company’s reputation over? No, it’s not. Because marketing is a highly contextual field, you also will want to verify that your chosen provider is adept at transcreation and adaption.
Track Your Results: If you don’t know there’s a problem with your international marketing efforts, you can’t make adjustments later. Connect your marketing to a well-defined goal to allow you to evaluate its effectiveness.
Don’t Dumb It Down: When looking to expand internationally, many marketers write things with translation in mind. This often means stripping out idioms and colorful words in favor of bland, boring text. While this seems like a good idea on the surface, the goal of “easily translatable English” leads to forgettable content. So, keep your firm’s personality front and center. Just make sure you hire someone with the marketing chops to do the adaptation justice.
Test Your Translation Before Going Public: It’s a lot easier to fix a mistake in a prototype than it is once your product hits the market. Use things like focus groups to test the reception of your international marketing materials and copy. If your budget allows, hire a second agency or freelance translator to evaluate the original piece.
Provide a Good Brief: The more information you give your translator, the easier it will be to fi your text to your target market. Compose a document that outlines your firm’s brand voice, logo, history, product specifications, and marketing goals. This will allow your translator to craft content that better reflects your company’s culture.

The Best Move for Swedish Translations? Hiring a Transcreator Who Understands International Marketing

Your company’s approach to international marketing will vary depending on its size and business goals. Whether or not a specific method is the right one will be determined by the specifics of the situation. But, professional translation services are a must-have for ANY company looking to do well on the global stage. Just make sure to hire a marketing specialist with knowledge of your target market, not someone who merely speaks your target language. If your company needs content that motivates people in the Swedish market, reach out to me for a no-obligation quote.

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What Cheap English to Swedish Translation Really Costs You!

High quality and accurate Swedish translation of your site may be amongst the most vital measures to take in the overall improvement of conversion rates if you are aiming for customers in Sweden.

Some companies just cannot afford cheap translation. The long-term costs of lackluster translations often exceed the peanuts saved in the short term. It is just too risky. This is especially true in industries where lives are at stake. Let’s go through the real costs of bad English to Swedish translation!

Common Translation Failures

A handful of the largest organizations compromised their quality and learned a good deal about why they tried saving money on translations and received cheap translation services, and ended up getting what they paid for—poor quality.

Especially with documents like legal or medical texts or how-to manuals, having professional translation services which take language, as well as culture and dialect into consideration is imperative.

Creative translation can also be tricky, as direct translations aren’t as logical as they seem, especially when it comes to marketing. Some big-name translation failures include:

The Chevrolet Nova didn’t appeal to Hispanic markets because “No va” means “It Doesn’t Go.”
Coors failed to attract Spanish-speaking audiences with their direct translation of the “Turn It Loose” tagline, which roughly means “Suffer from Diarrhea” in Spanish.
Pepsi’s iconic “brings you back to life” slogan didn’t go over well with Chinese audiences, who took the phrase to mean “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.”

The Incalculable Costs of Cheap Translation

There’s no telling what kind of profit losses these translations caused their companies, but one thing is certain:

Cheap translation is bad for business. Translation errors have killed people, crippled patients, and destroyed multi-million-dollar pieces of machinery.

Here are some negative consequences of getting it wrong:

Getting Slapped with a Lawsuit is Not Fun.

It is inconvenient and not something on the top of a company’s Christmas list. But, they’re usually preferable to customer death or destroying priceless equipment. Here are four tragedies that resulted from erroneous translations:

The Destruction of The Mars Orbiter.

Not all translations are linguistic. There is sometimes some math involved. A translator’s failure to properly convert English measurements to the metric system resulted in a catastrophic failure that sent the 125-million-dollar satellite careening off course. The planet’s harsh atmosphere tore the brand-new satellite to pieces. Not really a “cheap translation.”

Radiation Poisoning at a French Hospital.

In what was likely an attempt to save money, a US manufacturer of radiation machines did not offer dosage information in French. Administrative staff at the French hospital relied on bilingual coworkers to translate the English information. This lead to four deaths and dozens of cases of severe radiation poisoning.

Serial Knee Implant Failures at a German Hospital.

A US maker of knee prosthesis made two different models for their German customers. Though the company offered instructions in German, the product’s outer packaging was only available in English. After asking a coworker to translate the packaging, these prosthetics were incorrectly marked as non-cemented. This labeling error led to 47 failed surgeries and millions in compensation claims.

The Dropping of the Hiroshima Bomb.

Japanese is a complex language. Many words have multiple meanings and the correct one often depends upon surrounding content. After the US and allies demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan, they made it clear that any “any negative answer from Japan would invite “prompt and utter destruction.” When journalists pressed Japan’s Prime Minister for comment, he said that he was currently withholding comment. The government had yet to reach a final decision and he was unable to relay anything substantial. But, international news agencies mistakenly quoted him as saying that the ultimatum was ‘not worthy of comment.’

How Much Should English to Swedish Translation Cost?

No company is immune from translation failures. But investing in proper English to Swedish translation services can give you the best chance of attracting your target market and avoid becoming an example of the cost of poor translation.

Though the definition of translation is straightforward, businesses are often surprised to find that not all translation services and options are created equal. Cheap services like those offered by freelance translators can offer lower price points on English to Swedish translation, but again, quality issues are called into play. The translations may be linguistically accurate, but they may fail to incorporate other elements that can add impact to your message.

Why Choose a Professional Translator

As you can see, translation errors are so much more than something to snicker at on your lunchbreak. Cheap translations are sometimes the quickest way to sign someone’s death warrant. These cautionary tales should remind you of the dangers of subpar and machine-based translation. If your product can change someone’s life, it is vital to hire a reliable translator.

Utilizing a professional translator with expertise in your business may result in more than an improved document and a more complete understanding, it may result in bigger return on your investment. Utilizing something less may result in mistakes, errors, and misunderstandings which might cost you lost business or a client.

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Translation

Tess

Swedish Localization and Website Translation: 4 Ways Your Business Can Benefit

If you want to tap into the Swedish business market, you’ll first need to earn their attention.

Breaking into new markets isn’t just about having in-demand products or filling a need. Rather, much of your success will how you adapt your company to their market.

Despite over a third of internet users being non-native English speakers, studies from Forrester Research show that website visitors will stay on a website longer if the content is in their native language.

Localization is the practice of making your website fit within a unique market. The language of the content, the images of the people, pop culture references, or common symbols can all provide the sense that your website was made with an audience in mind.

Take a look at four reasons your business should consider Swedish localization for your content marketing:

1. Localization Increases Sales

User language preferences in Europe have been studied at length. The resulting figures indicate that 90% of users will opt for a website version in their native tongue, regardless of whether or not they speak English.

Even more telling? A whopping 42% of users say they will NEVER do business with a company if the content isn’t in their native language.

2. Localization Offers a Competitive Advantage

Despite the benefits of Swedish localization, your competitors may be failing to capitalize on them. When you employ content localization, it gives you an obvious advantage over businesses trying to compete for your market but have yet to adapt their content.

And if your competitors DO have a localized website, they’re likely the ones to earn the business if you do not. You can upgrade your own content marketing to encroach on their market share.

3. Localization Offers a Native Appeal

Some companies are so thorough and effective at localization that it’s something of a shock to find out they’re not actually based in your home country.

The more you can blend with your target country’s culture, from imagery to linguistics to the arts and more, the better chance you stand of seeming like you belong in their business world.

4. Localization Strengthens Your Global Presence

Even if you’re only doing business in the U.S. and Sweden, localization can put you in a position of global prominence. It’s not easy taking a business across borders, but investing in localization shows that you have the business acumen to adapt to a new market.

And when you can do it once, you can do it again.
What To Do Next
Using professional translation services can help ensure that your content is properly adapted to the Swedish market. Rather than approaching translation word for word, professional Swedish translators take into account the way people talk and integrate language with culture to produce the desired results.

To learn more about localizing your content marketing for your Swedish customers, contact Tess to schedule a free consultation.

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Translation

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What Benefits Does a Professional Swedish Translator Provide?

Long before the invention of AI and the internet, businesses relied on human translators to intermediate conversations in two different languages. The human element ensured that syntax, grammar, and context were properly transferred and that ideas were well-received.

Fast forward to today, where automated services like Google Translate are trying to pick apart textual data and transcribe them into other languages.

It’s a great concept on the surface. Finding a professional Swedish translator often took time and effort, so having a free translation service at your fingertips provide time- and money-saving benefits.

But let’s be realistic: what online translation services offer in terms of convenience doesn’t make up for their lack of accuracy.

Why Online Translation Tools Get a Failing Grade

If you’ve never used Google Translate before, this round-up of brand-killing translation fails should be proof enough that automated programs aren’t foolproof. Changing harmless vocabulary into words you wouldn’t say in front of your grandma can be damaging to a brand’s image.

What’s more, it makes it clear to your target market that you have no idea on how to speak their language, which also indicates you’re not tailoring your product or business to their needs.

Granted, Google isn’t the only online translation program out there, but others experience the same challenges. English to Swedish translation isn’t word for word, yet that’s how the majority of non-human services treat it.

As a result, you end up with an Americanized version of Swedish content that’s more suited to American culture.

Where the Professional Translator Can Fill the Gaps

There’s no substitute when it comes to using human English to Swedish translators. Professional Swedish translators pour time and energy into learning the linguistics of specific languages, as well as develop intel on subject matter like culture, branding, and lifestyles.

If you want to win over your international target market, you must be able to speak their language. This includes general linguistics, but it also means knowing the language they use on a daily basis, much like how we use slang in our society.

There’s a higher essence of quality and accuracy that most computer programs will never be able to compete with. When you create your content based around how they’re used to speaking, you’ve taken the first critical step in building international trust.

Yes, the Professional Swedish Translator Is Still Relevant!

Though many jobs and skills have gone the way of the buffalo in the digital era, the role of the professional translator is still largely relevant. An online translation service may be sufficient for locating a single word or phrase in another language, but it’s hardly reliable enough to provide large-scale translation services for business purposes.

And since businesses often have profits and a reputation to protect, there’s no reason to risk turning your translation needs into a potential PR disaster just to save a little time and money.

If you’re ready to meet the needs of your target market, contact Tess today to schedule a free consultation!

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Don’t Let Cultural Ignorance Ruin Your Perfectly Good Translation

You can see that cultural adaptation is critical when expanding your company internationally or even targeting audiences from a different culture within your country. Don’t limit your reach by limiting yourself to a strict, word-for-word, translation. Hire a professional translator to help.