So you’ve decided you need to translate your materials into other languages. Congratulations on making this excellent decision. This is going to be a big first step that will set the tone for your global success.
Customers today don’t like to trust or hand over their hard-earned money to businesses speaking a different language. Therefore, you must speak to them in their native language.
However, before you start, it’s important to figure out what you should translate for your business. It’s also equally important to discover where you should actually start.
Keep reading to find answers to these questions.
Deciding which content to prioritize for translation
Some argue that everything you post over the web has the potential to be converted into another language. However, I recommend you don’t need to adapt every piece of published content, especially if you’re just starting out.
I’ve seen many businesses getting started with their corporate website. Again, you may or may not need to transform your complete website to cater to all target languages. It’s highly likely that you might have other materials that hold more significance than all pages on your site.
Also, note that the importance of various content types depends on each target market. For instance, it’s possible that videos are highly influential in one market while blog posts are in another.
Similarly, one specific market may place more value on emails and newsletters, however, these are merely nice-to-haves when you go to other markets. Hence, it’s vital to understand these variations like what content type will make the most impact in what specific market.
For this, comprehensive market research could be your best option. Or you may need to consult with a translator or cultural expert to know the preferences of each market.
3 things you should prioritize for translation
We’ve already discussed which things you translate first will depend on your target market. Your business type might play a vital role in deciding this.
However, there are a few things I always recommend my clients translate first if they wish to succeed worldwide.
Blogs
Blog posts are one of the great ways to build your audience as well as authority. You build an audience by sharing helpful information with your users. By sharing this information, you demonstrate your knowledge and expertise in the field, which helps in building authority.
For instance, you might be running a skincare website in China. You can create a blog on how to pick the right face wash for your skin and share it with your visitors. If you want to attract and engage a new audience like American people, you can opt for Chinese to English translation services for your blog post.
In the same way, you can write blogs related to your services and market them around the world in the native language of your intended users. You can translate all your existing posts or implement this strategy for newly written posts.
You will enjoy two major perks by translating your blogs. First, they will help you develop credibility and brand reputation in the desired market. Second, the translated blog posts will uplift your global SEO efforts.
Video content
Internet users all over the world consume video content a lot. As a result, video content plays a great role in marketing one’s products and services to the world. Reports share, more than 85% of global marketers have used videos in the past for marketing and are planning to continue investing in videos as a marketing tool.
Video marketing, however, can be expensive. If you’ve invested the time, effort, and money into creating videos for your local consumers, why not translate them into other languages? You will be surprised to see how they can boost your reach.
Take the following example to get an idea of this. Suppose your videos are available in English. Do you know that you can attract almost 548 million Spanish speakers if you translate your videos with professional spanish translation services? Similarly, if you want to target Asian markets, you can include the Chinese language (1.118 billion speakers) and Hindi (602 million speakers) in your translations.
While translating your videos, it’s essential to note whether dubbing or subtitling would be the best option for your business. Market expectations can play a deciding role in this situation.
Testimonials
If you run an online business, you can’t ignore translating your client testimonials. Because genuine testimonials have the ability to convince customers to buy from you more than any other technique. This is because people want to hear from their friends, family, and peers they already know and trust.
Since you’re online, your customers could be anywhere. They might speak an indigenous language such as Maori. So, if you look to translate your testimonials into more popular languages such as Russian, German, Japanese, and Portuguese, you can’t ignore Maori translation.
It shows your commitment to honor and respect even the indigenous languages and cultures. Once you’ve translated your testimonials into all target languages, it’s time to use them on the website, in emails, or wherever you think they will help you win over potential clients.
Concluding remarks
The list doesn’t end here. There are various other content types that may work well for any brand such as advertising copy. Just make sure to factor in the specific preferences of your target markets and work with a professional agency to translate your desired content into other languages.
