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Translation company or communications company?

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:02:52 +0000

Translation company or Communications company?

Translation company may sound a tad old-fashioned… and the term “translation company” itself is a little associated, in many minds, with a dusty office where a solitary professor-type person sits among dusty piles of paper, struggling with strange expressions in an even stranger language. I think it’s true to say that translation has evolved as a tool and profession since that image was first imprinted on our minds.

Translation companies have a new role to play

Nowadays translation companies are more like communication firms, or at least they should be. This is a change that is only natural when working with customers who want to reach out to foreign markets. We have to adjust our services to their needs. We can’t just work with true translations anymore. We should think more about target groups, target culture, values, type of product/service and type of business model (if one exists) and adjust each translation accordingly. Some other aspects you might not think about when you hear the word translation, are e.g. the layout, the design and the choice of pictures.

Hey, can’t I just send you a document!

Sometimes you can do just that, send a simple document and get it back, just translated. It worked that way in the old days (in our world that’s about 30 years ago) when documents were sent only by regular mail, or in rare cases by fax. And when the job was done, you sent it back the same way. But even then you sometimes needed to discuss the text or adjust it to the target group.

Our job as a translation company has become that of converting information into communication so that the target group understands and listens to the message, and our customers become satisfied with the result.

To do this we need knowledge about technology, design, languages, communication, and business. But you can still call us a translation company, or a communications company if you like, cos we actually miss those stacks of dusty paper a bit.

Your translation company MUST drive sales or attention

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:31:04 +0000

Your translation company MUST drive sales or attention

Translating a website is quite different from a document, presentation, report or agreement. When translating these your primary concern is often accuracy and fluency. So a “normal” translation company will ensure that these two concerns are met. However, when you are on the web you most often also need to drive traffic, leads, online or offline sales or even lead the debate on whatever issue is most important to you or your organisation. You basically need a business-generating partner, not just a normal translation agency.

The multi-language keywords challenge

For one thing keywords used to drive traffic and visibility are already different in one language, so you can imagine the complications when you start targeting a foreign market. Which keywords will drive the right traffic and how will I achieve top rankings? You need to do decent keyword research here in terms of correct ones and their competition as well as understand what the business drivers are for your website. If your translation company cannot do this then this will be a problem.

From keywords to conversions

Then once you have started to drive traffic, you need to convert the visitors. Here you need to have considered what calls to action you need on your site and then written powerful and persuasive texts which lead your visitor to take the desired action. And remember that different local markets need a different text. The Nordic countries tend to prefer direct and shorter communication, and the farther south you go in Europe from the Nordic area the more people like to be communicated with.

So before you start translating your website or even writing content ask yourself; What is the purpose of our website and what do we want visitors to do there? Have we thought about keywords in each language and our ranking for each local market? And, how will we measure our progress and success?

Good luck with your efforts and feel free to ask us if you have any queries at all.