How I work, or why SMEs need more than ‘translation’

My localisation business is based on a simple and obvious belief:

When a marketer gets their copy translated, it should be as effective as the original English version

It’s so obvious that it should go without saying. When you pay for a new roof, you don’t need to explain to the roofer that you don’t want it to let any rain in – the spec is inherent to the request. In the same way, marketers assume that when they pay for marketing translations, the result will be persuasive and natural-sounding copy for the target market. 

Sadly not, unless you get lucky. In the localisation industry, a text that ‘meets spec’ is one that ‘accurately conveys the original message in its entirety’. This works fine for police reports, medical notes, or a speech by a politician. We’d rather the translator didn’t omit anything that’s superfluous, add their own imagery, or tweak the tone to make it sound more appealing, and we don’t mind if it sounds a little ‘translated’ here and there. The key thing we want is the information.  

Translation agencies generally assume that this, i.e. ‘providing correct information to an interested audience’, is the purpose of all translations. As we know, this is very much not how marketing works – if only! Without wanting to downplaying the expertise that goes into the ‘information-providing’ types of translation, the subtleties of cross-cultural persuasion require a special skillset.

Over many years, I’ve learned that the solution is fairly simple, but not easy to achieve: the only way to ensure effective translations is to work with bilingual copywriters with a grounding in marketing. And the only way to do this efficiently is by using localisation industry tools and processes – such as AI and integrations between platforms. 

This is the short answer to the ‘how I work’ question – for more detailed insights into translation tools, technology and people, check out my guide to marketing translation for SMEs, or feel free to get in touch.