As a result of our current economic state, many companies are looking for avenues to cut costs and achieve the maximum ROI. The following tips will assist you in reducing your translation costs when planning your next international marketing strategy.
First, identify the specific content that needs to be translated for your intended international market. You may find that promoting all of your services or products is not necessary, therefore your entire website, software program, or documents may not need to be translated for your target markets. Identifying content that is rarely viewed by your current consumer base and eliminating it from the translation project will further reduce unnecessary cost.
Translation cost is typically calculated on the number of words. Being concise and straight to the point by avoiding unneeded text to be translated will reduce word count and therefore substantially reduce translation costs. Also, content that is concise is easier to understand in any language.
For example, rather than “You will see a confirmation screen asking if you really wish to delete the contact, to which you should click Yes in order to confirm the deletion,†write “Confirm the deletion by clicking Yes.†The direction is easier to understand and your translation cost is reduced by 75%!
Ensure that any sentences intending the same message are all written the same way. Because the sentence is translated once and then saved, it is automatically recognized as repetition in all subsequent occurrences thereby reducing your costs. Consistency also helps with the user- understanding in documents such as product manuals.
For example, if you have a direction that says “Click the Enter button.†make sure that it is written the same way throughout the document and not written as “Press the Enter key†elsewhere.
When needed, provide information on how terms will be used if no other context is available. For instance, if you have a spreadsheet of terms to be translated, also include information on how each term will be applied because many times the same words mean different things in different situations.
For example, without context, the word ‘combine’ can mean ‘to put together’ or ‘threshing machine’, two very different things, and that difference can be critical. There can be great costs associated with a wording mistake.
If a product or service has not changed, revision of the description or information is not needed. Take into consideration that this content may be used in multiple locations and each document, or web page, must be translated. If the changes are indeed necessary, at a minimum, reduce the number of files to be changed and in turn this will reduce the amount to be translated.
For additional tips on reducing costs or to receive specific assistance on your translation project, contact Foreign Translations, Inc., your experts in Going Global with Confidence, ® at translations@foreigntranslations.com or 800-774-5986. For information on entering specific markets please visit our languages page for Foreign Translations, Inc.'s directory of languages with cultural and business etiquette information pertaining to each major language.