Translating Marketing Materials

I know, I know... Translators are always going on about the risks of using machine translation - but with good reason! 😏 I was recently approached by a French skincare brand that was unhappy with the English translation plugin on their website. They had some important business meetings coming up with potential distributors in English-speaking markets and wanted to make sure their marketing materials were up to scratch. They asked me to edit and proofread three web pages so that they read fluently and naturally while accurately reflecting the brand's tone of voice. Challenge accepted! 😃 At first, the machine translations didn’t seem so bad – the sentence structures were a little too close to the French, perhaps, but perfectly understandable. But the more I scratched the surface, the more I realised that the translation tool had misinterpreted several French terms, resulting in inaccuracies in the English text. 🕵️♀️ And we all know what harm or embarrassment mistranslations can cause… 🫣 Here are two examples I caught just in time before the client's big meeting: 👉 French original: « …avec une préférence pour les circuits courts et les sources d'approvisionnement locales en Europe. » ❌ Machine-translated English text: “… with a preference for short circuits and local sources of supply in Europe.” ✅ Revised English text: “…and we prioritize short supply chains and local suppliers in Europe.” See the problem here? In English, a "short circuit" is an electrical fault and has nothing to do with production and distribution. 🤦♀️ And then there was “acide asiatique” which the machine translated as “Asian acid” instead of “Asiatic acid”. Here’s the thing: “Asian acid” doesn’t exist in skincare… 🤦♀️🤦♀️ False friends continuously catch out machines, unlike human translators, who like to use a little thing called context. Moral of the story: relying solely on machine translation in a professional context is risky. If you want your website and marketing materials to hit the right note in a language other than your own, do yourself/your company/brand a favour and get a professional translator or proofreader to check over it first. Preferably one who knows their short circuits from their short supply chains 🤷♀️ #LITranslators #Translation #MachineTranslation

One of the most over-looked areas for companies expanding to a new jurisdiction is making their materials fit-for-purpose for their new location. In the approx. 1 million tasks on a company’s pre-launch checklist, document localisation easily gets pushed to the bottom of the pile.   When we talk about “localisation”, we’re talking about adapting your documents to meet the legal, cultural and linguistic requirements of your new market.   The following are some of the types of documents that you need to localise and the steps that you need to take:   📃 Internal company documents: These include your employee handbook, policies and other guidelines that you use to run your business. Legally speaking, you need to localise these documents to comply with local laws and regulations (such as labour, tax, privacy and data protection laws) and reflect market practice in your target market. You also need to convert to the local currency and units of measurement, use the local formatting for dates, addresses and phone numbers, and translate them to the local language (if necessary).   ✒ Agreements: These include your terms and conditions, partner and supplier agreements and other contracts that you use to interact with your customers, suppliers and partners. You need to localise these documents by following the same steps as above, but also by ensuring that they are clear, accurate and enforceable in the new jurisdiction. You may need to modify some of the clauses or add new ones to reflect the local legal environment and protect your interests.   📱 Marketing material: These include your website, brochures, social media posts and other promotional materials that you use to showcase your products and services. You need to localise these materials by adapting them to the local culture, preferences and expectations, using appropriate images, colours and slogans, and translating them to the local language (if necessary). You also need to comply with any local regulations or standards that apply to advertising or marketing communications.   Law Squared generally recommends growing companies start planning their localisation process pre-launch by developing a list of materials that need to be localised. You should prioritise the documents by risk and usage, and aim to complete the localisation before you use the relevant documents in the new market. For example, you should localise your employee handbook before you hire your first local employee, and you should localise your terms and conditions before you onboard your first local customer.   And if you have any questions about localising your documents, our UK team are here to help. Reach out via: london@lawsquared.com.

Translation is the best way to gain new market But it’s the quickest way to undermine your image Why ❓   Everyone looks for products or services they can relate to. Something close to their hearts, culture and customs So when Polish people see an ad saying…. “We go together like peanut butter and jelly” …. They don’t quite get it. You see… we don’t have anything near a PB&jelly sandwich. In fact, it sounds just weird to us. If anything, we eat PB and jelly (or jam) separately on toast. In other words, the ad falls on deaf ears, or it’s even laughed at. In Poland, it doesn’t hit the right spot. It misses the local sensitivity big time.   If you’re looking for Polish “food twins”, here are 3 suggestions: 🍞 Braided bread (chałka/challah) and honey 🐖 Pork chops and stewed cabbage 🥣 Red borscht with dumplings  This is called localization. You tailor not just the product but also the message to the customs and sensitivities of your specific clients. Otherwise, the reaction is quite opposite to what you hoped for. The campaign might cost millions, and what? Nothing. It will go down the drain. Instead of working for you. 🔴 Don’t assume that a product well-known and liked in America will be known and liked in other countries. 🔴 Do some research, hire persons who know the local market and reality, and are sensitive to language nuances.   Btw, what’s your favourite “twin food” ❓ #translation #polish #business

Many #translation agencies brag on their websites and in their sales pitches that they also offer #transcreation (aka "marketing translation") and are perfectly equipped to handle it brilliantly. The reality is that few of these agencies have the project management skills and resources to handle transcreation to client satisfaction. Some do, but they are few and far between. Why else do I get inquiries by companies telling me that they are normally happy with their translation providers but when it comes to #marketing material, their marketing department is really #unhappy? That's because marketing texts may look easy but are in fact tricky. As any marketer will tell you, crafting such texts is not fun and play, there is a lot of strategic thinking behind each one, and they are hardly ever "easy" to "translate" for another target market. What works in your market may not work in the same way in another market. Potential customers there may have other pain points, the competitive landscape may be different, cultural sensitivities will differ. (And don't get me started on clever puns: They generally need to be completely reinvented.) So, just like you have to adapt your #messaging when addressing different target groups in your own market, so you have to adapt your messaging when aiming to reach target groups in other markets. That means that, as a client, you will get the best results if you sit down with your #transcreation #expert and discuss what strategies you are pursuing and want to achieve with each piece of copy in the respective target market. Because that's how the #magic happens. Based on that #briefing and the transcreator's training in addition to translation as such, that #transcreator understands ✔ when to translate, ✔ when to adapt, ✔ when to write completely from scratch, ✔ and how to do that. Most agencies don't allow that direct communication (although exceptions apply!) between the client's marketer and the transcreator, and the agency's project management has likely not been trained in dealing with such complex processes. As a rule, in my experience, the bigger the agency, the higher the likelihood that transcreation is just a sales argument. In most cases, you'll be better off working with trained transcreators directly. Still, exceptions apply 😀, so if you know of an agency that handles transcreation well, please name it below! I'd love to hear all about them 😍 #transcreationexpert #marketingtranslation #translationagencies