How Translation Can Help Small Businesses
Small businesses often don’t prioritize translation and localization until later in their operations. This is unfortunate because professional translation services can be of great help to companies of all sizes, not just the biggest players on the market.
Translation Can Help Small Businesses
In fact, small businesses often stand to gain even more from the proper adoption of translation services into their workflow. There are many opportunities on the market that only become available once a company manages to get its content translated in a reliable manner.
Grow Faster
Translating business content can allow a company to grow faster and acquire customers more reliably than its competition. This doesn’t just apply to foreign markets – it’s just as valid for local presence. There is never a shortage of customers who would gladly adopt a product if it came with more adequate localization. Good results can often be seen even for relatively low-scale translation work that only covers the basic essentials and doesn’t dig into details.
And once companies start focusing on those details more closely, things can really pick up. Something seemingly small like ensuring that the terms of service and support pages are properly translated can go a long way towards building a better impression of the company in the eyes of its potential customers.
Expand into New Markets with Confidence
Another obvious benefit to translation for small businesses is that it allows them to set foot into new markets without worrying that they might not be able to adapt to local requirements.
While releasing products in English can work for certain markets, it’s a move that can doom a product in certain parts of the world if no alternatives are available. Some customer groups insist heavily on using their own languages, and companies can get a lot from meeting their expectations.
Strengthen Your Social Media Presence
Social media continues to play a major role in the growth of small businesses. Connecting to your customers has never been easier – but it also requires a careful approach if you want to reap the full benefits that social media provides. Most importantly, you have to ensure that your content is accessible to everyone. And that starts with translation.
Small companies can take this one step further and even set up some rudimentary communication channels in several languages other than English. The exact range of languages that need to be covered depends on the operations of each individual company and its current position on the market. That’s another problem that can be addressed by working with a competent translation services provider.
Improve Your SEO
SEO for international companies only works well when content is properly adapted to individual languages. You can’t just run your existing English content through an automated translator and use it for SEO purposes. There are lots of fine details that have to be observed. And only a reliable translation services provider can help you navigate those issues with confidence.
This makes it important to work with a translation company from as early as possible in the company’s existence. This can ensure that the initial impact of any SEO campaigns will produce good results and will hit exactly as intended. SEO can take a while to work, and putting off localization until a later stage can result in significant delays in drawing new users.
In addition, certain combinations of words and sentences simply don’t work in another language like they do in English. This is another good reason to work with someone who understands your target languages on a deeper level.
Overcome Cultural Barriers
Sometimes it’s not just about the language, it’s also about the cultural implications behind the messages a company communicates to its customers. Even with a relatively good mastery of a certain language, it’s possible to make subtle mistakes that result in very inappropriate translations which can be taken the wrong way by customers.
If things are bad enough, the company might even find itself the subject of mass ridicule by internet communities. It’s not rare to see screenshots of poorly translated promotional messages circulating around message boards. And once that’s out in the open, it can be very difficult to restore people’s trust in the company. Even fixing the messaging might not be enough if the initial impact was strong enough.
Improve Customer Support
Customer support is another area that can benefit greatly from professional translation services. This doesn’t just concern live chats and other forms of communication. It can also apply to pre-written content, like help pages and documentation.
Going through the extra effort to translate this type of content can improve a company’s reputation with its customers. Both current and potential ones. When someone is looking for a new product to use for a specific purpose. They are more likely to gravitate towards something that’s fully available in their native language, including on the support side.
Translating messages can be trickier and usually requires the assistance of dedicated professionals familiar with the language on an ongoing basis. But it’s still possible with the help of the right translation services provider. It can work out even more easily for situations involving delayed communication, for example e-mails and general support tickets.
Things can get trickier when live chats are involved. But it’s still not infeasible to provide at least a partially localized service to people in these scenarios. It can cost significantly more than regular translation services. However, and is therefore usually only recommended for bigger companies that can afford it.
Develop New Partnerships
Another factor which is usually crucial for the initial growth of small businesses is their ability to develop new partnerships and stabilize them quickly. This is often impossible beyond the confines of the local market when relying only on a single language. Opportunities tend to quickly grow in scope once translation is on the table.
Small businesses usually have more opportunities than their leadership assumes with regards to building partnerships. However, it’s important to leverage the tools that make those opportunities possible and utilize them to their full potential. This is where professional translation services come in.
Closing Thoughts
Translation is one of the points that often get ignored during the early stages of a new company’s growth. That can be a big problem for many smaller companies that are still struggling to establish a position on the market. By working with a good translation agency, companies can significantly increase their reach and take advantage of opportunities that would normally not be available to them. The average cost of working with a professional translation agency is usually not that high either. Making this an important factor for every business, regardless of its resources.
