They say the world is getting smaller and that is certainly the case in business, where working across borders is becoming much more common. Of course, reaching new audiences around the world is a fantastic opportunity for your business and to make it a success you need to speak the language of your new target audience. And relying on an employee who happens to speak the language or a neighbour who spent a summer abroad isn’t going to cut it when it comes to translating your content.
Writing eloquently in another language is an art and needs a native speaker. In fact, often it goes beyond simple translation and you need professional transcreation services. This makes your content more creative, injecting a writer’s cultural knowledge into the copy to offer words that resonate with an audience.
With an expertly written website and marketing materials in your target language, you open up a new market for you to grow your business and build trust and an affinity with consumers in new markets. Here is a look at how much professional translators can bring to your business.
You can say goodbye to mistranslations
At Contese, we are a bilingual content agency, with native copywriters in English and Spanish. We’ve seen the difference when companies don’t use professionals to translate. Often, when you ask someone inexperienced to translate Spanish to English, or someone who isn’t a native speaker, you may notice some interesting errors.
Newbies often make a lot of mistakes in 'False friends', that is, English words that sound the same or very similar to words in another language. However, the meaning has nothing to do with it. One example is 'embarazada', which due to the way it sounds is often mistranslated as 'embarrassed' in English. However, if you tell someone you’re ‘embarazada’, you might want to be careful, as you’re actually saying that you’re pregnant!
Although these mistranslations can be humorous at times, it’s vital to avoid them in business documents. They can sometimes completely change the meaning of an entire sentence or paragraph, leading to potential customers or partners losing credibility in your brand. However, when you hire a professional translator, you can remain confident that all information, no matter how complex, will be translated to perfection.
Just imagine how these brands were received when they made simple translation errors:
When KFC entered the Chinese market in the late 1980’s they decided to translate their signature ‘finger-lickin’ good’ slogan. However, with some error, it managed to state ‘eat your fingers off’ instead.
Coors released a popular ‘Turn it Loose’ campaign in the United States, however, when they wanted to introduce it to the Mexican market, things took a turn for the worst. Their new tagline was ‘Suéltalo con Coors’, meaning ‘let it loose with Coors’.
Translations are localised
If you’ve ever visited different regions of Spain, you may have noticed that there are different dialects across the country. Not only do different parts of the country have different languages such as Catalan and Basque, which you need local expertise to know, but the Spanish language itself also changes with different dialects in different regions.
A word with one meaning in the north may mean something completely different in the south. Then if you take into account all the Spanish speaking countries in the world, you have an even bigger challenge ahead. For example, in Guatemala, ‘chucho’ means dog, but in Chile, it means ‘jail. Similarly, the word ‘fresa’ refers to strawberries in many Spanish-speaking countries, but in Mexico, it can also refer to someone who’s fancy.
Professional translators are trained and experienced in understanding the differences between dialects. If you want to stand out from the competition and show your customers that you really care, it’s a good idea to hire some help and specialise the translation to their region.
You can globalise your brand
As a business, growth is usually at the top of mind. You want to have access to wider markets and audiences. Hiring a professional Spanish translation company is a great way to expand your client base and attract new people to your brand. Not only does translated content allow more people to understand your values and what you can offer them, but it offers them an opportunity to have more confidence in your brand too.
When you make your content more specific to other cultures and languages, you are more likely to increase your revenue and make a larger profit. In fact, the Common Sense Advisory has found that businesses who translated their content or created a multilingual website were 2.67 more times likely to see an increase in revenue. It’s a great way to achieve your goals in a shorter amount of time and add credibility to your brand in the long term.
Translations double down as a marketing tool
As mentioned above, content translation services offer more professionalism and the chance for globalisation for your brand. But it doesn’t stop there. Working with a translation company can also double down as a marketing tool. This is because the experts will have specific knowledge of the region you’re looking to expand into.
Using a combination of their translation skills and understanding of the culture, you won’t only be offering a new language for customers to read, but you’ll have a head start in marketing your new content.
Professional translators are cost-efficient
While it’s tempting not to pay for professional translation services and instead use your friend’s daughter who is studying abroad, going professional can avoid costly mistakes and corrections further down the line and it also means you’re more likely to gain more business.
Expand your business with professional translations
Language is in constant evolution, and professionals are always up to date on the recent language changes and cultural references, ensuring you get the same quality and zeitgeisty copy in Spanish as you have in English.
If you want to reach wider audiences that speak either English or Spanish, the professional Spanish translation team at Contese Agency will be able to help. Simply get in touch with us, and we will put together a transcreation plan that you will benefit from.