Make sure your global marketing isn’t lost in translation

Translations of product descriptions, publications for social media and promotional campaigns, among other tactics, have to sell, charm and win over your target market. This can only be achieved by a native translator.

If your business is making strides in advertising your products or services, you should not underestimate the importance of marketing translation. It is vital that you translate and adapt all your marketing material correctly.

This idea may seem obvious, but many companies end up turning to a professional marketing translation service after having had a bad experience. But, what was the cause of this dissatisfaction? Quite simply that the translation of their marketing materials was not localised, or adapted, to the target culture, meaning that a text that worked perfectly where it was first launched failed miserably in a different market.

So, are you serious about winning over clients in new markets? Then don’t give it a second thought: say goodbye to literal translations and get ready for your business to thrive in a language that actually speaks to people.

What is so special about marketing texts?

Every translation undoubtedly presents a new challenge, but in the case of marketing and advertising, this process is even more complex, being one of the trickiest types of translation that a business can face.

Marketing texts have a range of objectives, from publicising a brand or selling a service to fostering engagement with an audience. If you want to internationalise your business, just a few marketing tactics that really need to be handled skilfully include the translation of social media content, everything related to SEO (tags, URLs, keywords, etc) marketing campaigns, catalogues and posts, as well as descriptions of products and/or services.

If we take into account all these components, marketing is one of the most innovative and creative forms of business, as it is entirely based on persuasion and description. One of the great complications of texts of this type is that they offer a product or service within a competitive market and are targeted at a potential market, so they need to be adapted to the customer on the receiving end.

In this context, marketing translations also have to be adapted to the target culture and cannot rely on literal rendering. It is essential to have good knowledge of the product or service and of the market, but above all, it is vital to have the common sense to be able to recognise when a phrase needs to be adapted. This is the deciding factor between a successful and an unsuccessful campaign.

Common mistakes in digital marketing translation

In the business world, many aspects are easily taken care of in terms of digital marketing by spending huge amounts of money on campaigns, but not so much care is taken over the translation of this content. When this happens, errors occur that can end up costing the reputation of an ecommerce business, or at the very least, creating a drop in sales:

• Overlooking social media: A simple mistake in this area can entirely change the meaning of a campaign and, sometimes, end up damaging your image.
• Not localising the translation: In these cases, not all possible meanings of a word have been considered in the target language, creating unfortunate misunderstandings.
• Underestimating SEO: Mistakes in descriptions, names or links can penalise your business.
• Neglecting email marketing: If you do not pay attention to the content of your emails, they may end up in the spam tray, so be careful.

Trust a translation agency for your marketing texts. As you may have noticed, an incorrect translation in the marketing content of your ecommerce business can undo all the hard work you have done.

For all your professional marketing translation needs, opt for a translation agency like BigTranslation, made up of native translators, to help you make a difference. Ensure that your content and campaigns are performing to the max by putting faith in those who know the target culture inside out.