Comments on: Recession-Busting MarCom Tip #7 — Save Money on Translations

By: Harry Heard

Harry Heard — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:45:00 +0000

Some great tips, Dianna. I’ve worked extensively with and in translation in journalism, although not in marketing or business writing which I now do. #5 actually has an obverse — it tells the original language writers to keep their stuff consistent, not to keep messing with it. They should be using memory tools themselves. Once you are on to some good words, stick to them!

I’m not enthusiastic about the company vs single person translator. I’m a single person writer; I have no qualms about using a single person translator. I just want to know that they are good.

Certainly save money if you can, but not by going el cheapo. The translator actually is a writer doing a rewrite in another language and another culture. It is very skilled work. Pay for it or suffer.

On the web, keep pointing out that your translated site is available at the click of a button. You want to keep people away from the free web translations.

The notion of relying on free web translations is ludicrous. Would you rely on some automated writing thing to produce your finished piece from notes in the first place? No you would not. So don’t rely on free web translators to transmit your customer appeal and call to action.

By: Dianna Huff

Dianna Huff — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:19:02 +0000

Angela, John, and Sher,

I’m glad you enjoyed these tips — Gaelle was very nice to share them.

By: Sher Matsen

Sher Matsen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:52:21 +0000

What an informative post. I’m going to share this with my clients. Thanks again!

By: John Gillett

John Gillett — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:57:02 +0000

Very useful advice–particularly for those of us new to the translation game. There are a lot of services out there, with many based in native-speaking countries. Armed with the suggestions offered in your blog, I now know how to begin the conversation.

Thanks!

By: Angela Ephstein

Angela Ephstein — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:10:17 +0000

As a heavy web user, I appreciate the value of accurate and competitive priced translation services. Your interview with Gaëlle Callnin, Marketing Director at Virtual Words Translations was informative and gave me some food for thought. Namely, if companies opt to translate key information on their web sites, it suggests a level of sophistication and appreciation for the global market. This added value could translate into the edge an online marketing company needs to convert clicks to customers. That value, though, could be undercut by end users who assume that the product, service, or information that they’re interested in finding on the web will be presented to them in English, and the onus is on the consumer to translate into their preferred language. For example, a would be customer googles a product they’re interested in, and drops the content of their search results into a basic free translation service like http://www.freetranslation.com/.

In some cases the free translation could be good enough to get the job done, and in other cases, the end product could be ambiguous if not inaccurate. Of course, many of the free services offer premium translation services that one can pay for as needed, but how often does this type of up selling occur on the web? My food for thought raises another question: When is it valuable to introduce professional translation services into web and print marketing copy?

By: Foreign Trades

Foreign Trades — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:05:45 +0000

Dianna, tip #8 is “Use translate.google.com”.

By: Dianna Huff

Dianna Huff — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:52:50 +0000

Eric — Wow, thank you!

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:05:20 +0000

These are some smart hints – I can’t helping thinking most of them work for just about every kind of marketing and PR efforts, from collateral development to online outreach. Nice job!