When an operation outgrows its domestic sphere, it will spread into other territories where customs, culture, and, crucially, language can differ. What does this mean for any content you produce? Well, you might need to prepare your content for translation.
There are several best practices you can adopt to ensure faithful translation. There are of course a number of automated tools that will do the translating for you, but you must be aware of their limitations, together with a bank of behaviors you can use to compensate for them. You can also use these techniques to assist a translation expert in their task, should you go down this route. In this essential guide, we’ll go through some of the best approaches you can use.
Adopt from the Get Go
When you’re creating content to hit a localized market, use the techniques we’re going to go through straight away. This way, you’ll get into the habit of preparing content for seamless translation. This is a key requirement.
Sure, you may be thinking, but will all the content produced need to be translated? Well, when you’re putting content together, you can’t be sure of where on the internet your content will end up. So, it’s best to think about how easy it will be to translate in any case.
Writing content with the following principles in mind is a lot easier than it is to have to go back and change the content you’ve already produced. It’s more efficient, too.
Know Your Audience
To start with, whatever you’re selling, from a performance car to a CRM for recruitment, you should be confident that it stands a good chance of gaining traction in a foreign market. Once you’re sure of this, you can start thinking about how your content might best sit with them.
Including branded content ads can be particularly effective here, as these are designed to blend seamlessly into the platform’s native content, ensuring better engagement by respecting local nuances and cultural contexts.
Certain images, in particular, will not have the universal significance they may have for a domestic audience. Subtle references to a niche aspect of US culture may not signify much for a foreign audience. So, we need to apply care with imagery.
With text, it can be the case that a phrase can be translated but will still fail to resonate with the intended audience because it lacks linguistic or cultural relevance. It means little or nothing to them. Even worse, it can be confusing or offensive.
A well-known example in marketing is that of the German automotive manufacturer Mercedes, which launched in China under the name 奔死, which, to a Chinese reader, means ‘to rush to die’. Not an ideal association in the mind of the consumer! A quick U-turnu-turn ensued.
Be Simple
Successful translation can depend a great deal on keeping things uncomplicated. This can include but is not limited to, formatting and image use.
Incorporating a whiteboard animation can be particularly effective, as its visual simplicity allows for easier translation and adaptation across different cultural contexts. The clear, visual storytelling helps bridge language barriers, ensuring that the core messages are understood globally, even when text or voiceovers are translated into different languages. This makes whiteboard animations an effective tool in multilingual content strategies, particularly in educational, marketing, or explanatory videos aimed at an international audience.
When you’re preparing a piece of content for translation, a key consideration is to try to be restrained with your wordage. This is because, when a sentence is translated, it can change its physical length. Words can be longer, and phrases can take up more space. An already crammed layout will become unwieldy in this scenario.
Mind you, the opposite can happen too, when a lengthy English phrase becomes compacted in translation. So, what’s the answer? Apply a fluid design that works with varying lengths of text.
Beyond this, you need to think about the nitty-gritty of your content creation. For instance, does the font you want to use offer all the features you need? Will transliterated characters be available?
Give Guidance
Not all translators will be entirely familiar with your business activities, so do provide information on products and services, as well as explanations of technical terms. Getting back to recruiting, let’s say you want to supply tech recruitment tools to a foreign territory. In this instance, you should lay out a glossary of terms and product names, so that the translator doesn’t need to ask what is ATS software, for instance.
In addition, there should be a clear indication of where the original text should remain untranslated. Sometimes it’s best to stick to what’s there, even if a translated option exists.
Finally, be sure to provide your translation service with a style guide. It’s important to maintain a tone of voice that chimes with your business profile in a particular country.
Collaborate
If you use a translator, work closely with them so you can iron out any difficulties as they arise. By keeping your communications open, you can address snags and keep the final product under close observation. This prevents any nasty surprises from popping up at the last minute and is essential when you prepare your content for translation.
It’s also crucial to ensure that your company logo and other key branding elements are accurately represented in all translated materials to maintain a consistent brand identity across all markets.
This is especially important if you’re engaging in content translation for the first time. It’s imperative that you stay connected with your partners in order that delivery goes as anticipated. How you do this is largely a matter of individual preference, but most decent pbx solutions will give you a range of options, no matter where you and your translator happen to be.
Test and Review as the Final Step to Prepare Your Content for Translation
If feasible, try out your translation with a small group of native speakers. You may be lucky enough to have some on your staff. If so, that’s ideal. If not, see about recruiting a group via your online presence in that country. Pay special attention to what your group feeds back to you in terms of clarity of message and, as ever, the effectiveness of CTAs in particular.
Incorporate an assessment phase to evaluate the translation quality and cultural fit before rolling out the content widely.
Once you have your feedback, apply its lessons as soon as possible. Cultural developments tend to take place pretty quickly these days, so you need to act fast in order to stay relevant. And don’t be afraid to excise material that’s not working in a particular territory.
Finally, remember to ensure that adequate proofreading and editing gets done before you go live.
Never Get Lost When You Prepare Your Content for Translation
Using the steps we’ve outlined, you should be in a great position to effect seamless translations. The most important factor to bear in mind is that it’s unlikely that you’ll be entirely proficient in the language and culture of the country you’re looking to expand into. You can’t be an expert at everything.
With this in mind, don’t be afraid of taking on as much advice as you can before you make the leap. You’ve read this, which is a good start.