|
|
Are You Marketing to Your Potential?
Many small business owners struggle to grow their businesses only to find themselves stuck in a morass of marketing, management and delivery tasks. As your business becomes more complex and time consuming, the original vision of the business...
Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, It's Not Who You Know But What You Know
Almost every day, I hear the same question, over and over, from motivated, well-meaning financial planners who want to use publicity in their marketing mix. It goes something like this: “Who do you know in the media? (Or, sometimes they frame it...
Marketing Wizard Shares Her 2004 Marketing Forecast
With next year just around the corner, Internet Marketing Wizard, Catherine Franz, is sharing some tips on what to expect in 2004 that could possibly affect your business. * Interrupt marketing is still fading in 2004, actually decreasing...
Mobile Marketing a new age strategy
More and more companies seem to be looking for new and innovative ways to market their products. Overlooking most of the traditional marketing techniques, more companies are pioneering the relatively new mobile marketing campaign. Mobile event...
Test Your Marketing Strategies & Systems Or Fail...
----------------------------------------------------------------- Test Your Marketing Strategies & Systems Or Fail... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Duncan Carver Copyright 2003 http://www.marketing-strategy.org ...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lost in Translation? How to get your marketing message to an international audience
Did you know that only 28% of the entire European population can read English? This percentage is even lower in South America and Asia. Even the growing Hispanic community in the U.S. still prefers to read in Spanish for the most part. This means that if you want to sell your products and services to these markets, you will need to be able to communicate effectively in their languages.
Naturally, if you choose to expand into international markets, language will be only one of many challenges. You’ll be busy with market research, finding distribution channels and dealing with legal and banking issues. Despite all these challenges, don’t make translation an afterthought – the consequences could be disastrous.
The U. S. State Department says that U. S. companies stand to lose $50 billion in potential sales from poor translations. Companies get themselves into trouble with translations that are inaccurate or culturally inappropriate. Professional translations on the other hand will convey a high quality image of your products or services, leverage your marketing message and help you keep your company clear of legal difficulties.
How do you get good translations? First of all, computer-generated translations won’t do. Don’t take my word for it. Go online, look up a free translation website and then have a few sentences translated into a foreign language. Then, take the translation that was generated, and have it translated back into English with the free service. Read it, and you’ll see why it’s not a good idea to use computer-generated translations for your marketing messages. Your texts will look unprofessional and less than competent to native speakers.
So if a computer won’t do the job, you’ll need a person - but who can you trust? There are literally thousands of translation businesses out there, which vary greatly in size, price and professionalism. The translation industry is a highly unregulated market, and common quality standards are hard to find. What makes the problem worse is that, even after you receive a translation, you will probably not be able to judge its quality, unless of course you speak the language yourself.
So how can you find a trustworthy and reliable translation service? In the age of electronic communications, you need not limit yourself to a local search. Translations can be easily delivered by e-mail, and under most circumstances, you can discuss all project details over the phone. For legal reasons and also for ease of payment processing you might find it more convenient to work with a provider in your country. Most every translation company will provide you a free consultation and a free price proposal for your project. Besides the cost, here’s a checklist of things to inquire about:
1) Native
Speakers: Does the provider work with translators who are native speakers of the languages? There are plenty of fluent, non-native speakers of second languages, but only native speakers have a perfect feel for their language. Working with native speakers will ensure that your translations sound natural to your audiences, and not like a translation from a foreigner.
2) Specialist Knowledge: It’s not enough to speak the language. The people who translate your material must know your industry. Translating for a technology firm requires different expertise than translating for a pharmaceutical company.
3) Location: The best translators are those who work from their native countries. They are up-to-date with current developments and changes in the languages. If you choose a translation firm that has translators in exactly the countries you are targeting, you can be sure that your translations will be linguistically and culturally appropriate.
4) File Formats: To avoid extra work and costs, make sure you choose a translation firm that can work with exactly the same file formats you use and require.
5) Technology: Find out what kind of technology the translation firm uses. For example, state-of-the-art translation memory tools allow the re-use of previously translated material. For example, if you make changes or update your material over time, you’ll only want those changes translated, and not the complete documents.
6) Quality Assurance: Ask the company for their quality assurance procedures. Find out if all translated material gets reviewed before it is sent out to you.
7) Check references: Find out which clients the translation company has worked for in the past. Call those references and find out how satisfied they are with customer service and translation quality.
Once you have selected a translation provider make sure you work together with them closely in order to maximize the quality of your translations. One rule is to allow sufficient time. Rushing a job always risks compromising its quality. Also, make sure the source material is well written. You can never generate a great translation from a mediocre source text. Provide as much background material as possible to help the translators understand your product-specific context and learn your organization’s jargon.
Finally, it’s a good idea to remain available for questions and feedback during the translation project. Good translators are like good students – they will always ask you questions.
About the Author
Martin Heimann is the project manager for the US Office of OCE Translations Network, an international language services company (www.foreign-language-translation.com). He can be reached at +1-336-272-3557 or martin@oce-translations.com.
|
|
|
|
|
KnowThis: For Marketing, Market Research, Internet Marketing ... |
KnowThis.com offers a wealth of information, forums, and resources for professionals, academics and students in traditional and internet marketing, ... |
www.knowthis.com |
  |
Marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Marketers depend on marketing research, both formal and informal, ... The next big thing is a concept in marketing that refers to a product or idea that ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Marketing - Marketing Strategy - Marketing Plan - Marketing ... |
Learn about marketing careers, the stages of developing a marketing plan, how to begin marketing research, create a marketing strategy, and how to market ... |
marketing.about.com |
  |
Marketing.org - Home of the Business Marketing Association |
Serves the professional, educational and career development needs of business-to-business marketers. |
www.marketing.org |
  |
Welcome - American Marketing Association - www.marketingpower.com |
Dedicated to serving the educational and professional needs of marketing executives. |
www.marketingpower.com |
  |
Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR News - Brand Republic |
Find the latest Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR news from Brand Republic, the online resource for up to the minute advertising and marketing news and ... |
www.brandrepublic.com |
  |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic |
Marketing Magazine - Marketing News - Brand Republic. |
www.brandrepublic.com |
  |
Marketing (Canada) |
Offers a Canadian source of news and articles on marketing, advertising and media. |
www.marketingmag.ca |
  |
BidVertiser - Pay Per Click Advertising On Sites Of Your Choice. |
Pay per click advertising - online advertising directly on sites of your choice, internet marketing solution for online advertisers. |
www.bidvertiser.com |
  |
Online Behavioral Contextual Advertising and Marketing. |
Promote your business with today's most effective online advertising technology, contextual advertising at a cost effective metric of CPC, PPC, CPM or CPV. |
www.clicksor.com |
  |
Sales Jobs / Marketing Jobs / Advertising Jobs - MarketingJobs.com |
Employment site for marketing and sales professionals. |
www.marketingjobs.com |
  |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing |
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the world's largest international marketing professional body and helps with career support and information ... |
www.cim.co.uk |
  |
Marketing: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
See all blog posts tagged with marketing on Technorati. |
www.technorati.com |
  |
Marketing Profs - Marketing Concepts and Strategies: Expert ... |
Marketing knowhow from professionals. Newsletter, articles and how-to's. |
www.marketingprofs.com |
  |
Guerrilla Marketing Online - The Official Site |
Guerrilla Marketing Online is anonline magazine for small business, entrepreneurs, sales people and marketers of all kinds. |
www.gmarketing.com |
  |
Business Marketing - Small Business Marketing |
Business marketing - Read everything your need to know about small business marketing. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
  |
All About Marketing |
Adapted from Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation ... Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out: ... |
www.managementhelp.org |
  |
Pages tagged with "marketing" on del.icio.us |
USA Network Announces a NASHVILLE STAR Marketing Partnership With ... - Yahoo! ... Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing ... |
del.icio.us |
  |
ClickZ Internet Marketing Solutions for Marketers |
Includes columns with commentary and analysis on a wide variety of internet marketing subjects ranging from B2B marketing to search engine marketing. |
www.clickz.com |
  |
Direct Marketing Association: Telephone, Mail & Internet Marketing |
Trade association for users and suppliers in the direct, database and interactive marketing fields, offering seminars and resources, and lobbying for ... |
www.the-dma.org |
  |
|