When you don’t pay much attention to translate marketing, you’ve made a big mistake in your marketing pursuit.
It’s not unfixable, but you can’t ignore marketing translation. Poor or awkward translation means you lose clients or interest. It makes your marketing copy look messy and unapproachable.
The fact of the matter is that marketing translation is trickier to master. You can’t translate word-for-word. You need to take several things into account.
Here’re five tips to help you before you even begin to translate marketing.
- Cultural Context
When you think about how to translate marketing, you need to take into account the linguistic and cultural context of the audience you’re marketing for. Your target audience is embedded in a different language and culture. What you think works in your native language doesn’t mean it does in another.
If you want a more global reach, you need to do your research in marketing translation in the target audience’s language. When you do the research and put in the effort, you can play on another language’s humor and metaphors to help you market more effectively.
- Rethink Your Slogan
In addition to thinking about your target audience’s language and cultural context, you also need to put in extra work with your slogan. Slogans are often infamously translated.
For example, when Coors was marketing for Spain, their slogan “Turn it loose!” turned to “You will suffer from diarrhea” in Spanish. You definitely want to avoid an embarrassing translation mistake like this.
- Take Your Time to Translate Marketing
Even beyond the slogan, you need to take your time when you translate marketing. Quick marketing translation work equals sloppiness and inaccuracy.
Every piece of marketing has its own details and nuances to work out. Keeping an open line of communication between the translator and the client whose copy is being translated is key to avoiding typical errors.
Don’t be afraid to take your time! This technology might help you out as you begin to translate your marketing.
- Think About Color and Imagery Too
Like words having different meanings in different languages and cultures, images work the same way. You don’t want to be culturally insensitive. You also need to identify your brand in a way that doesn’t get wrapped up in cultural confusion.
Perhaps the most infamous case of marketing imagery in marketing translation gone wrong was when Gerber included their usual picture of a baby on their baby food products in Africa. Little did they know that including pictures on a product meant that what was in the picture was usually in the product itself.
- Keep Your Voice
Even when you are translating, you want to keep your brand voice consistent with what it was in the original language. It should maintain closeness with the original marketing copy without sacrificing the quality of translation.
Pick your words carefully, and make sure the original intent of the brand’s voice still shines through even in translation.
Marketing Translation Done Well
Follow these five pro tips, and you’ll translate marketing well every time.
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