Top 10 tips for marketing translation

Launching a marketing campaign in a new language market requires a thoughtful approach.

What colors, images or phrases will resonate with the local audience? Which could be offensive? Without a keen cultural eye, even the best-planned campaign can falter.

Why accurate, nuanced translation is important for marketing content

The success of your products and services in global markets depends on effective marketing campaigns, from collateral to landing pages to email copy. How do you ensure that translated marketing assets maintain the impact of the original?

Customers are more likely to buy from brands that provide information in their native language. Translated content reinforces the feeling that your product or service is developed specifically for them.

When translating marketing content, it’s important to take linguistic and cultural meaning into account. If not, a slogan in one language might have an unintended and offensive meaning in the target language. Marketing assets for global markets require translations that resonate and that factor in the nuances of local markets.

How is marketing translation different from other types of translation?

Because marketing content is brand specific and needs to resonate and ultimately convert audiences, it’s different from other types of translation.

Linguists need to take into account how to maintain your brand voice and engage audiences, while maintaining consistency across locales.

Planning and executing global marketing campaigns that resonate is challenging. You invest resources and you want your campaign to connect with each new market that you target.

As a result, marketing translation is different from other types of translation. When translating marketing content, you need to ensure that you build brand awareness, drive engagement and increase revenue globally.

Linguists who perform marketing translation are a combination of writer, artist and problem solver. Using their expert skills to preserve the integrity and nuance of the marketing content’s brand voice and messaging.

Marketing translation challenges

Translating marketing content brings its own set of unique challenges and difficulties. There are many well-known examples of mistakes from major companies, when translations of marketing content had an unintended connotation in the target language.

The need for in-depth market research and cultural understanding

Entering a new market, and devising effective marketing for audiences in that market, can require substantial research and groundwork. Perform in-depth market research in order to better understand your target audience.

Adapting marketing copy to different cultures

Different cultures can have very different norms, preferences, and expectations. As a result, marketing copy may require transcreation  to adapt it cross-culturally

10 expert marketing translation tips and best practices

Here are our top-10 tips for taking a corporate website, product packaging, social media or ad campaign across cultures.

1. Analyze the original content

An in-market expert should review your source text for images, phrases or concepts that might not resonate globally, such as some sports pictures, metaphors and idiomatic expressions.

Having this feedback before translation begins can help you decide whether to change aspects of your original campaign to more global-friendly content, or target areas to localize so you can maintain consistency across various markets.

This extra preparation gives your translation provider the license to consult on the images and metaphors that will be most effective in the target language and culture. In an ideal scenario, the writer of the source text will also be trained in writing global-ready content.

2. Allow enough time and budget

Marketing translation takes time. Don’t expect the same timeline or costs as when translating technical or general business document translation. Marketing copy tends to be more nuanced and its meaning more open to cultural interpretation.

Headlines, tag lines and creative copy will require extra attention and usually involve transcreation. You’ll also want to count on linguists who know your brand voice, since style consistency is especially important for global marketing content.

3. Determine target audience

Before you send your text to the linguist, determine if the project is global or regional. This, along with your budget, will determine your target languages. If your audience is global, then you may consider “global” Spanish. If you’re targeting only certain Latin American audiences, you may want to choose specific regional Spanish translations (i.e. Peruvian Spanish, Colombian Spanish, etc.).

To be effective, marketing content needs to reflect the habits, tastes and lifestyle of your target audience. If you choose a “global” version of a language like Spanish, it’s important to weigh out the pros and cons. Using “global” language may save you money, but it also may be too neutral to have the impact you’re looking for. You’ll want to consider the risks and benefits with each scenario.

4. Define the desired style and tone

Are your communications formal or informal? Is there a different audience for different types of communications? Should the translated content mirror the source content’s style or be more localized? Establish this ahead of time to maintain consistency.

5. Share the knowledge

To produce copy that consistently meets your expectations, your translation partner needs to understand the purpose of the text, the goal, the target audience and your brand’s voice and style. A thorough translation glossary and style guide are important to getting the message right.

6. Review an early sample

Set up a review team in advance — ideally including one reviewer for each language who will be involved from the start. Make sure your translation partner is on the right track by reviewing a sample of the translation piece early in the process. At this stage, you’ll want to check for style and tone. Reworking style is very time consuming, so it’s better to correct it right away.

7. Expect a lot of feedback

Language is subjective and reactions can be strong when it comes to marketing or stylistic texts. When scheduling, allow enough time for a final refinement step where the feedback is analyzed, synthesized (if you have more than one reviewer) and implemented.

8. Use universal symbols

Many countries (especially in Europe) have standard and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved symbols to convey key concepts. For example, recycling, shelf life, and ironing symbols can be used throughout the European Union (EU), which saves a lot of space and also complying with local regulations.

9. Know that slogans are tricky

Slogans and tag lines are extremely challenging and time consuming to localize and may need to change slightly or significantly in the target language. It’s hard to land on a slogan that works across all markets, which is why a global slogan is rare. McDonald’s didn’t create their first global slogan “I’m Lovin’ It” until 2003, and it was kept in English for most countries.

10. Be aware of space limitations

Realize that most spacing requirements can be very different across various languages. For instance, if English is the source language, most other languages will take up more space. So packaging and its respective instruction sheets with limited space may need to be revised once localization is complete. You’ll want to allow extra time for this, or even better, consider localization during the initial design and leave adequate room for the target languages.

Effective marketing translation starts with the right partner

With the right team, brand awareness and cultural insights, your marketing campaign can create a buzz and build your business in your target language market. Get started today.