Running a business is arguably one of the hardest things many of us that choose to do it, will do, and it really does take a particular type of person to run a successful business and grow it, which is why there will always be a split of those that can, and those that cannot when it comes to business ownership and growing something from a one man operation into a high profit yielding enterprise.
To grow, most businesses need to expand, and whilst this may not be the case for all successful small businesses, if you want to make more money and start to enjoy your work life balance, expansion is the only real way to make substantial growth. As businesses grow, so do the markets they often want to penetrate, as a local business may decide to expand to new areas across the country, just like a manufacturing company may decide to start producing a new range of products.
But, if you want to take your one person operation to new heights, then for most businesses, physical and market expansion really is the only choice.
If your company is looking to expand further afield than the UK, trying to do this without the aid of a professional translation firm or agency could be a fundamental mistake, as if you do not take the time to get everything translated professionally, you could end up with a whole marketing campaign that is just going to fail and look very unprofessional. Moving into a whole new market, where your customers speak and read different languages means you need to adapt everything to suit that market, rather than hoping that your new area of targeting will be happy to speak your language.
Going for automated translation services when you are planning a massive push into a new country will only lead to a sloppy and mixed result, as automated tools are OK to a point, but when it comes to making sure all of your marketing materials, website and documents are in the correct language and read correctly is so important. From a customer’s point of view, if they think that you have just gone for a quick and cheap conversion attempt they will consider this to reflect on your company, meaning that if your marketing material is badly translated and poorly done, they will think this is how your service or products are provided as well.
Imagine reading something from a well-known company, and it was full of spelling mistakes, grammar errors and the tone of the language was just wrong, you are hardly going to want to get more information or use their products, as you would think they might be as badly provided or produced as what you have just read. There are no quick fixes when it comes to pushing your business into a new country, which is why employing a professional translation company is vital, as they can make sure that every single word is perfectly written and translated correctly.
The things that you may wish to get translated are:
- Marketing Brochures
- Country Specific Website
- Video And Audio Marketing Clips
- Product / Service Documents
- Terms And Conditions
- Policy Documents
And of course, anything that will be needed by your new markets going forward. Going into a new country where English is not the main language takes a lot of planning and thought, as you cannot simply start an Adwords campaign and target the new area, you need to make sure all of your processes and customer service flows are in place to deal with the countries. If you fail to cover just one of these elements in your planning stage, you could lose the customer, which is why the more time and planning you do now, will come to pay dividends in the future.
Approach your new marketing with respect, and you can pay respect by putting the same effort and time into your full marketing and service material as you would in your home country, as no new customer wants to feel like a second thought or a quick win win, which is where making sure you are professional and accurate with your translation is so very important.
Thanks to Brightlines Translation for this article, a UK based professional translation agency offering document, website, content, audio and video translation services for a wide range of languages, with native speakers and qualified professional translation experts working for a wide range of brands businesses across the world.
