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.

Following the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war, the city of Paris was in a state of mob-ruled anarchy known as the Panic of 1871. It is told that one morning a panic-stricken investor turned up at offices of the then Baron Rothschild, British Nobleman and heir apparent to the fortunes of the eponymous banking dynasty. This young man, heir to a large fortune himself was advised by Rothschild to buy French government securities, a suggestion to which his exasperated reply was:

“You advise me to buy securities now. You are my enemy. The streets of Paris run with blood.”

Rothschild, with a glint in his eye replied thus;

“My dear friend, if the streets of Paris were not running with blood do you think you would be able to buy at the present prices?”

This colorful anecdote, using, perhaps, some fairly disquieting language illustrates that one man’s recession is another man’s opportunity. You might ponder, what has this to do with the field of business translation? Well, we currently find ourselves in the midst of an unprecedented global financial crisis where, according to IMF predictions, the UK economy is expected to shrink by 2.8% next year, the Eurozone’s by 2.0% and the US by 1.6%. In contrast, emerging and developing economies by their very nature have to a certain extent ‘decoupled’ from their more mature counterparts. So far, these economies have been able to avoid most of the effects of the financial crisis and, although their growth momentum has eased off as industrial countries are taking in less of their exports, they are still growing rapidly. They have not been subject to the housing bust that has infected western equity and trade between the Cono Sur nations (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay) and between the emerging giants of India and China remain strong. Moreover, with the plummeting value of sterling and other western currencies precipitating the inevitable sharp fall in export prices, it’s time to sieze these still ‘bullish’ markets by the horns and do business there.

Business translation makes you local

Business translation holds the key to these foreign markets; research shows that customers are ten times more likely to purchase goods or services from a website which is not only written in their own language but also nuanced and suitably localized by a deep awareness of cultural sensitivities. It is clear that effective business translation will assist embattled first-world companies in re-igniting revenue streams by enabling them to tap into these emerging markets. The inevitable consequence will be the revitalization of both their own profits and that of the global economy as a whole. The additional positive externalities associated with encouraging investment in emerging economies will also inevitably lead us to a fairer and more equitable world.

If you peer out of your window you will notice that the metaphorical Parisien mob is still on the loose. It will inevitably take some time for the rains to come and wash away the evidence of the carnage that has passed. Don’t wait for that day – there has never been a better opportunity for your company to thrive!

The easiest way to identify a simple web metric is ask yourself what you want visitors to your website to do.

More than likely if you are selling a product your ultimate goal is that they should buy one of these products. If you are selling a consulting service you would like them to make contact with you. If it’s a community then perhaps you would like them to make contact with others, start a discussion or invite some friends to your community. And if you are a non-profit or government agency you may want to ensure a certain amount of awareness is raised on an issue and therefore want visitors to read certain texts or consume certain media on your site.

All of these different types of websites have different desired actions for their users so the measuring point will be different. And it will also have a different value depending on the margin on your product, your cost to get users to that page and so on.

A business metrics exercise

So, take a minute and make a list of all of the actions you want users to carry out on your site. When you’ve made the list start to filter it and put the most important user actions for your business at the top. Now you have a list of metrics which should help you start to plan your marketing and business.

Funnily enough it’s still not commonplace that corporate websites use analytics tools.

This is probably because most of the time you need to be able to easily paste a code into your html or on the server side and this is beyond the capabilities of some site owners. Even in larger companies we have seen a clear lack of tracking visitors.

Now a lack of tracking suggests a lack of analysis. But for the companies who do have tracking installed, some of them must be analysing their stats and visitor behaviour so that they actually know what’s going on.

Who does the full Monty?

Aanndd.. here’s the killer question: of the few who are using technology to track user behaviour, how many do you think are doing something about what they have found out. In other words, making changes on their site based on hard data and their new assumptions to try to increase their ROI?

The answer is rather hard to pin down. But the divide between what is spent on technology to analyse data, and then using some grey matter to either draw assumptions or act on the results of the data is 45/55 as indicated by this report. So if 45% of web analysis budgets are spent on tracking data, and only 55% on implementing changes based on info gathered when many tools do not cost an awful lot, what does that suggest to you?

For us it suggests an opportunity.

Just imagine if you were to reverse the equation and be one of the few players acting on the data you gather and your subsequent insights.

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.