In the era of globalisation, technology and internet developments, expanding a company abroad is the next natural step for many business owners. When the local market becomes too small or too saturated, approaching international customers and overseas countries allows organisations to increase their revenue streams in a relatively organic way. Often, companies decide to enter a new market without actually ‘being’ there physically, e.g. a high street shop, as nowadays everything can be done fairly easily online.
However, even with the technology developments, culture and language still play an extremely significant role when it comes to global business. In fact, a vast majority of people asked declared that they would be much more likely to purchase goods and services if the information about them were provided accurately in their native language.
As you can image, this consequently creates the urge for businesses to work with translation service suppliers and linguistic agencies in order to accurately render their content intended for the target audience into their native language.
What are translation services and why are they so important?
Generally, a translation service refers to the linguistic conversion of documents and other materials, for example – websites, software, reports or legal papers. The translation must be completed by an accredited company.
Due to globalisation in business today, translation services play an extremely important part within customer acquisition channels in the international space.
Many businesses decide to translate their websites, documents or marketing projects directly into their target market’s native language. This then helps the companies to successfully approach multilingual audience, and as mentioned previously, growing their revenue.
Most popular translation services
Many people believe that professional language translations involve a simple word for word conversion. Although this may be true in a small number of cases, the extent of translation services is much wider than that, particularly in a corporate environment.
In most cases, especially within the corporate and business setting, translation services go far beyond the language aspects and also incorporate cultural and social factors.
In order to better understand the importance of translation services in today’s world, we have spoken with TS24. TS24 is a leading specialist translation agency in London, UK, and currently works with some of the most successful global businesses and supplies translation services across a variety of industries and languages. They have kindly offered to share their expert insight into the translations industry with us today.
According to TS24, written translations are only a small portion of the language services required within the business environment. Although very popular amongst individual clients, for translating certificates and personal documents, corporations and business clients often require a more specialist service, also known as localisation.
This type of translation takes into the account not only the linguistic aspects, but also takes a careful look at socio-cultural aspects that may affect the efficiency of the translated materials.
For example, when rendering a marketing campaign, the translator must fully understand not only the market’s native language, but also habits, purchasing stimuli as well as cultural views that may positively or negatively affect how your brand is perceived abroad.
According to TS24, localisation is today one of the most popular translation services amongst the UK based businesses and as more and more companies approach international markets, they expect the demand to grow significantly in the coming years.
What documents should your business translate?
The types of documents and materials your business should translate during an internationalisation process is a very complex issue. The variety of content you should translate depends on a number of factors, for example, whether you intend to approach your customers solely online, or you also plan a physical store located in the target country. The country’s legal system as we as cultural factors can also play a part.
Regardless of this, however, there are some typical materials that any business needs to translate when approaching overseas clients.
For example, translating your company’s website is a must. In majority of cases, a customer will initially find your business online – whether through organic search or paid ads.
By allowing them to read information about you and your products directly in their native language, you can significantly increase the conversion rate online.
Additionally, legal documents such as contracts, terms and conditions or even warranties should also be carefully and accurately translated by an accredited supplier. By doing this, you can save a lot of time and money down the line, should things get complicated with some clients.
Also, consider translating your social media campaigns and channels. As social media such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter play such an important role in everyday business, approaching your potential customers via these channels in a language they are able to fully understand can be truly beneficial.
Where you can find a professional provider
Finding an established and trustworthy translations provider can be a challenging task, although the number of agencies specialising in linguistic services is constantly growing.
When looking for a new supplier, there are a few aspects that you should pay a very close attention to and make sure they meet professional standards.
For example, the translation agency you choose to work with should be a member of an official association. In the United Kingdom, the ATC (Association of Translation Companies) is a leading union which gathers professional translation companies. In order to become a member of the ATC, the linguistic agency must meet several rigorous standards.
Also, websites such as Proz.com or CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists) are fantastic resources when looking for accredited freelance translators. These databases associate professional translators who are able to cover practically any language and specialise in majority of business industries.
What are the best UK translation agencies in 2022?
If you’re looking for a professional translation agency in the UK in 2022, it is widely recognised amongst business owners and individual clients alike that the following companies are among the very top translation suppliers in the United Kingdom:
- Translation Services 24
- Translation London
- The UK Translation Company
- Express Translations Ltd.
A final word…
The importance of professional translation services cannot be underestimated. With a globalising world, companies today can approach and grow within international markets with much more ease than ever before. Nonetheless, the process must be thoroughly planned and carefully completed.
By translating your company’s documents, website and other materials, you automatically give yourself a head-start within the overseas market. Your conversion rate online will be much higher as your potential customers will be able to fully understand the content and read in detail about your services and/or products. This will automatically also increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, two factors which can make or break a business within a new, foreign country.
