Translation services are one industry that due to a surge in interest has grown rapidly. This means there is a competition between these businesses for clients so translations are far cheaper than if there was no competition at all. There is a greater emphasis today by businesses to move into international markets. Hand in hand with this is maintaining good communication between the client and the translation provider. Countries use their own languages to communicate about anything to do with business but once these move into the international market in order to stay connected it’s important to translate key information into the languages prevalent in the international market.
Affordable translation services
One thing you should never do is to fall into the trap and choose a cheap translation service. It’s so easy to pick a translator which is cheaper thinking that you have got a good deal. The same goes for online translators and some of these are even free.
10 Tips to use to choose an affordable translation service
Tip 1
Assess the amount of money you have to spend on translations. This will of course depend on how much you expect to gain from translating marketing material into other languages. If you expect to increase your revenue significantly then it’s worthwhile spending more on translations. If it’s just so you can make an online presence in other languages but you don’t expect to gain so much in revenue then you may not wish to spend quite so much money.
Tip 2
Find a translation service that knows your industry well so that you will get your money’s worth for the translations provided. You can start with contacting a number of translation services and ask them to provide evidence that they have translators available who understand your industry. Most businesses provide unique products so they need unique translators to do any translations.
Tip 3
Remember you are getting translations for your business because you want to use this as a method for communicating with potential customers from throughout the world. You can’t break down the communication barrier on your own you have to seek out affordable translators to do that for you. This means you should go for the best translators for the money you can afford.
Tip 4
When we talk about affordable this doesn’t mean the cheapest. To ensure you get the best quality for your money you should always check the credentials of the translation service you choose. This means asking for testimonials from satisfied customers who have gained from translating their business websites with that translation provider. The translator must be prepared to submit all the translations on time and agree to provide a high quality translation. If you have chosen several affordable translation companies you can choose the best one that is prepared to match up to your criteria. This means at least you will be getting the best value for money.
Tip 5
All good translations require a little more than the translators ability to speak more than one language. It’s a skill that develops after many years of practice so don’t think that someone who is offering you cheap rates necessarily has the skills you are seeking. Some translators say they can race through several thousands of words per day and the end product s as god quality as a few hundred. In practice no translator can do a good job if their output exceeds more than 2,500 words.
Tip 6
If you think a translation service is offering you a bargain quote for your business’s translations do remember that the translations hired by the company will be paid a fraction of the rate quoted to you. This means you may not get a good translation even if the rate seems quite affordable.
Tip 7
Deciding to hire a cheap translation service rather than an affordable one could do more damage to your business and your reputation. The fact of the matter is you get what you pay for.
Tip 8
A poor translation whether affordable or not will not engage your customers as the message won’t be effective enough. For any marketing campaign to be considered to be a success it has to be engaging to those who are exposed to it. This ultimately means you will need a translator who knows your brand and can talk about it freely in another language. You need to be able to get potential customers to pick your brand out from any others so that means providing a high quality translation which is affordable.
Tip 9
If you don’t choose your affordable translation carefully and you end up with a bad translation readers won’t believe you really care about your business so they will ignore it. Even if your website is packed with eye catching appropriate images the most important thing to a customer is a well thought out eye catching translation in their language.
Tip 10
You can’t forget culture in your translations because language is linked with culture. The translator you choose should be able to interpret the culture of the group using the language so it doesn’t get ignored in the translation. A translation which avoids culture isn’t a complete translation and may not be fully understood by the expected audience.
Conclusion
There is nothing wrong with choosing an affordable translator but just remember there is more to a translation than a word for word translation, so you need a human translator with business and cultural knowledge to do an effective translation.