Ever wondered why companies spent millions of dollars every year on translation services? Here’s why:

For you to enter a new market, the easiest, fastest and cheapest way is via translation.

Not convinced?

Well, Fortune 500 Companies are investing in translation services because they are gaining at least five benefits such as

1. Improve customer service. Nearly four out of five (79.59%) of respondents highlighted translation as a way to meet local expectations for customer service.
2. Increase brand value. The majority of respondents (71.43%) stated that they translate information to maintain or increase the value of their brand.
3. Comply with laws and regulations. Nearly seven out of 10 companies (69.39%) said they translate websites and printed materials to meet legal and regulatory requirements.
4. Expand market share. Reaching more customers in the markets where they already have a presence drove more than half of respondents (57.14%) to translate content.
5. Grow revenue. More than half of the respondents (57.14%) said that they translate information to increase turnover in global markets.

Translation is never an expense but an investment. It’s a powerful drive to help you succeed. Moreover, taking the next step is critical.

Clients are classified into two main leagues, choosing translation services differently: the other side prefers budget over quality and another, they treat quality work as the soul of their life and branding.

There is nothing wrong if you’re on either side.

We fully respect that people are making optimal choices based on their priorities.

When the document is not very important, for instance, only for internal references, why translate it with your best translators that come with a high price tag?

When the document is critical for your success, why hire junior translators or even machine translation over experienced human translators merely because they are halfway cheaper?

Everything has its application fields. It runs true for machine translation (MT), for cheap translations and high-quality human translations as well.

MT (machine translation) and application

I’m not going to bad-mouth machine translation; as a matter of fact, MT has been improving dramatically over the recent years, especially in some main languages, Chinese included. Moreover, we human translators have been expected to be replaced by them for faster translation and cheaper costs in the very near future.

We don’t fight that.

However, MT has its restricted application fields. It works quite accurately with technical contents that are not customer-centric.

The downside of it, it tends to produce more garbage output for short sentences other than long ones that have contexts around it.

Moreover, everything you put in the translate box will be recorded. If you are handling some patent, intellectual property related or private contents, that needs the protection of non-discloser, stay away from MT.

In short, machine translation is fast and cheap (free!) and performs ok to good on technical contents to fit the purpose of internal reference. For commercial use, think again!

Cheap translations and applications

When you have many documents to translate and have a tight schedule. The quality is less significant over the deadline or budget. Then cheap translations or post editing on machine translation (MTPE) could be of help.

However, watch out: Since many translators will translate the documents at the same time, consistency on terminology and style are hard to maintain.

More typos and human errors would occur more frequently, given the tight deadline or limited budget usually cannot allow extra proofreading.

In short, you get what you paid for.

High-quality human translation and applications

When you have something important, which if not dealt professionally, will cause you trouble, definitely consider high-quality human translation for it.

It will worth every penny.

You will soon be rewarded much more than you put into translation because high-quality translation would make you establish your credibility and brand much faster and easier than poor ones.

You will be familiar with this.

When sending out your presentation for translation quotes, you always see prices from the roof for the floor.

How could you choose the right one, especially when you do not understand the language or have minimal help from your internal team?

It’s pretty time-consuming and laborious to pick the ones that might look promising in providing the translation service you need.

Those look promising with impressive resumes might end up not performing well for you at all.

Do not dishearten by the thought of it.

Once you found the one / ones that match your needs, you will reap the rewards of high-quality work:

• Connect better and faster with your target audience in China,
• Increase productivity for your team, for you saved more time on your job other than wasted in always finding a perfect match.
• Not to mention a long-term loyal business relationship usually brings a premium service and more competitive pricing package.

Want to know more about how to pick the right one for you?

Read more on: How to Choose the Right Chinese Translation Service Provider in China.

One rule of thumb would be beneficial: when it comes to any service, translation service included; usually you get what you pay for — good chances that you won’t get good translation service with floor prices.

In short: hire good people, pay them well.

It’s rare to find your perfect match if you’re looking for high-quality translation service.

While some may offer you attractive low rates, you might end up regretting working with them because of uncompromised deliverables and lousy quality. Resulting damaged brand that you fought so hard to establish. Alternatively, ridiculed by your target audience or even worse resulted in a lawsuit and economic losses due to low-quality translation.

When it comes to translation services, usually you get what you pay for. However, don’t be discouraged. Once you finally found the one that matches your needs, you will reap the rewards of high-quality work, easy and fast to connect with your target audience in China, increased productivity for your team, for you saved more time on your job other than wasted in always finding a perfect match. Not to mention a long-term business relationship would bring more savings in the long run, for instance, great pricing packages.

So, what happens if you work with a high-quality translation service provider? You will:

#1 Establish your brand in the target region

Observe how the global brands introduce their products or services in the mainland. They do spend quite a lot on language solutions to establish themselves. McDonald’s, Starbucks, Nike, Louis Vuitton, and among others wouldn’t be where they are right now in China if they didn’t invest in high-quality translation services as they work with local vendors who know their customers well.

Action plan: If you have an English website, you can start working on website translation in Chinese and work with local suppliers to help you build your brand in the cities. Chinese customers are always connected, and most of them use their mobile phones in searching for the latest products or services. Whether you are a B2B or B2C, what’s important is you take a step forward in your online strategy.

#2 Level up your professionalism and communication with customers

If you’re working with local suppliers, you need someone to check and translate those materials and correspondence. Bad translation reflects your brand. Moreover, if you’re always communicating with your Chinese counterparts or trying to win over a massive deal for a partnership or business venture, high-quality translation of legal documents such as contracts, proposals, presentations matter.

Action plan: If you are in the B2B sector and you’re working with Chinese counterparts or pitching your business to investors or partners, make sure that your materials are consistent regarding translation. Hire a professional translator who is an expert in your field because he understands the terminologies better and the choices of words to use in the written form. If you’re into events and meetings, a business interpreter is a great asset.

#3 Get the results you wanted and generate more leads

Did you know customers are likely to buy on a website if it features their native language? According to Common Sense Advisory, when you speak to your customers’ language, it affects their purchasing behavior. As a global company, the last thing that you would want to do is skip the translation process. As Harvard Business Review put it, “There is an undeniably strong link between in-language content and a consumer’s likelihood of making a purchase.”

Action plan: If you plan to use your website as your way of selling products and services, whether directly or indirectly, you need to focus on high-quality content to win the hearts of your customers. Language connects you to the very heart of every visitor, every phrase, word, or sentence, must always touch their desires on why they should buy.

#4 Save more time

Why make assumptions or do it your way when you can consult language specialists? Save more time and allow the professionals to do their work on your projects. Depending on the type of projects you want to accomplish and get done in Chinese, the professional translators maximize their expertise and also use the right tools to expedite the process, save you more money on repetitive words and phrases, and most of all, shorten the turn-over time.

Action plan: Before working with translators, you have a right to ask for a test translation to check the quality of work they offer. You may also choose the translator you want, check the profile and the skills to make sure it matches your requirements. You must even agree on the timeline of the project or deadline especially if you’re working with multiple translators.

#5 Save money

Did you know you can save money in translation especially on repetitive words and phrases using CAT Tool? It makes the work of the translators easier because it stores the previously use words or even names, saving more time on their side, and when it comes to quoting system, you will save more money if there are 100% match in the order, which does not require translation at all.

Action plan: Look for translators or a team who can provide you a good quote for your bulk project especially if you’re translating thousands of pages in advanced sectors like healthcare, legal, pharmaceutical, and technology. You may want to read this helpful post on how our clients saved thousands of dollars from rush translation on legal contracts.

#6 Minimize misunderstandings and stress level

Focus more on the crucial matters in your business and work with a dedicated project manager to handle all your translation needs. You need a high-quality translation service who can provide extra mile service and also a bilingual project manager to make sure you don’t experience misunderstandings throughout the project flow.

Action plan: Outsourcing these things will help you become more productive, resulting in minimizing stress-level. Plus, lousy translation in your documents will create misunderstanding to your local suppliers and vendors if you don’t have a go-to source translator who can check, proofread and validate the work, ensuring you’re on the right track.

If you’re not yet convinced, here’s the data from Common Sense Advisory, which might help.

Among the 2,430 web consumers in eight countries:

• 72.1% of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language.
• 72.4% of consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product with information in their own language.
• 56.2% of consumers said that the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price.

Your takeaway points

1. Translation is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to expand your business in a new region/country.
2. Whenever you have important documents, use high-quality human translations.
3. High-quality translation is an investment that will bring an immediate high return on investment.

So, what’s your next step?