A great product deserves worthy marketing! If you want to hit a local market then you need to speak their language. What sounds good in the ears of a non-native may jar in the ears of a native. Therefore, the marketing of technical and technological products requires taking several linguistic and cultural aspects into account. Read below to find out how to approach technical marketing in multilingual communication.
Knowing the terminology in English is not enough for marketing
Technical experts know their products like the back of their hand and may also be well versed in the English equivalents of key terms. However, marketing text rarely works with just phrases and the English picked up at school. To break into new markets credibly, you need to ensure your text is linguistically polished, convincing and especially of a native quality – that is, one that will convince native speakers of the target language. It is also good to keep in mind that if you are going international for real, you need to translate the materials into the languages of the target market. In other words, English as a general language is not always enough.
Language expertise + native status = a winning combination
Even if a company is used to using a foreign language in their internal communication, English, for example, it is worth remembering that the ear and linguistic repertoire of a non-native speaker is helplessly inadequate compared to a native speaker specialised in written communication. Spoken communication may be an arena where a non-native can be convincing more easily, but texts are much more ruthless, and any deviation stands out in a negative way. For this reason, professional translators also use a native editor/proofreader in the translation process when translating texts into a foreign language.
A native speaker is also intimately familiar with nuances of language and culture, whereas a non-native speaker may be somewhat blind to such subtle details and curiosities. When a company wants to translate its marketing material into other languages or needs multilingual content production – or copywriting, which is about creating texts that sell – collaboration with a language service business is a good idea. A good language service business will ensure that the native-level criterion is met in its process.
Marketing text translations or copywriting?
A translated text always aims to – or it should aim to – create the same effect in the target market as the source text creates in its own culture. In other words, a good translation of a marketing text is seldom a word-for-word translation. Even at the semantic level, radical localising changes may need to be made, such as deletions, additions and various creative tricks.
Typical creative details may include metaphors, idioms, brand names or other pieces of content that need to be punchy and elegant. They are often small in size but big in effect! The facts and terms have to be correct, of course, but there is often a lot of flexibility in between. This considered, there is a fine line between translation and copywriting, i.e. content creation focused on writing texts that sell, when approaching marketing texts.
At TellWell Translations, marketing texts, like other genres of texts, are approached with the client’s objectives in mind. Thus, the translation of marketing text is always a creative translation to the extent that it needs to be.
Sometimes it’s good to brainstorm with the client more, which is why we also offer a transcreation service, where several different translation options are created from the same source text. The client is also consulted on the differences in meaning and effects between the various options. Transcreation is ideal for translations of brand names or slogans, and gives the client a holistic view of different ideas and approaches to localising brand-sensitive and important content. Slogans cannot be changed lightly. We aim to help the client make decisions on long-lasting linguistic choices in the most informed way possible.
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