Does your startup need translation services?

The short answer is – yes, it absolutely does. Efficient communication between service providers and their clients (including potential ones) is vital in any industry. Translating your content to other languages opens up practically limitless growth potential, especially if you aim for unsaturated international markets. There’s one catch, though – translations must be accurate and free of ambiguities. That’s why you’ll need the services of professional translators. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of translating your content and how to choose the right language service provider.

How does language accessibility affect sales?

There’s a simple rule at play here – can’t read, won’t buy. Here are some numbers to back it up:

• A survey done by Common Sense Advisory circa 2012 showed that over 72% consumers prefer to spend their time on websites in their native language and would rather buy products with descriptions in their own languages. Furthermore, over 56% of them admitted that the language is more important than the price.
• Another CSA survey done in 2014 showed that more than 90% of non-English-speaking respondents were more likely to make purchases when provided with information in their mother tongue. It also pointed out that over 80% of online purchasers would buy again if they receive a follow-up in their native language.
• And last but not least – the use of English on the internet has been steadily declining over the past 20+ years. A report published by UNESCO in 2009 showed that the percentage of webpages in English dropped to 45% in 2005 and stayed there till the end of the year-to-year study. That’s a solid 30% drop since 1998. A more recent estimation done in March 2021 by W3Techs shows that 60.6% of the top 10 million websites use English for their content.

As you can clearly see, by sticking just to English, you’re locking yourself out from a considerable amount of potential clients.

What can startups gain by translating their content?

Thanks to professional business translation services, your startup company can gain various benefits that’ll help it grow faster. The main ones are as follows:

Access to more markets

Beside the obvious non-English-speaking giants like China and Russia, there are some often omitted solid bases of potential customers in countries with very promising business opportunities. For example, Turkey, Japan, Brazil, or Indonesia can all be solid targets for business growth. Plus, perfectly translated marketing materials are great stepping stones for setting up physical company branches in other countries.

Easy leverage

Translated content is a great scaleable tool for setting up the so-called hockey stick growth. With relatively small investment of time and money, you can get all of your content translated into the target language. Or several. Or even 20+ if you want to start with a bang and enlist the services of a reputable translation agency.

Higher brand trust

There’s no doubt that you need trust to establish business relationships with foreign partners or reach potential clients abroad. Speaking the same language will give you a considerable advantage when entering new markets – building trust is way easier if you can clearly understand each other. As evidenced above, customers will more likely choose your services if you provide them with high-quality translations of your content.

Better visibility in search results

Higher position in web browsers’ search results is one of the most important parts of today’s marketing. This is especially true for small business owners that are taking their first steps on the market. By translating your content, you can, e.g., take advantage of the so-called long-tail keywords. Although they don’t provide as much traffic as let’s say top 500 keywords, they have higher conversion rate, as a person who types them in looks for a specific item and will most likely buy it. For example, if you have a small business with a web page relevant to “redwood garden bench with cushion”, you’ll most probably be placed way higher than with the highly competitive “garden bench” key phrase.

What needs to be translated?

Ideally, you should eventually get professional translation services for all of your content. This can be very demanding on a startup company, so at first, you should focus on the crucial areas. They can vary depending on the type of business you’re operating in. Here are some popular examples (bullet points are in random order):

On-demand

Recent years brought us a high rise of on-demand services, as they offer very convenient ways for ordering food, rides, accommodation etc. As an on-demand service startup, you should focus on translating:

• Mobile apps and online ordering content
• Reminders and alerts (e.g., for upcoming appointments)
• Quality surveys
• Automatically generated messages (e.g., post-service emails or simple “Thank you for choosing our services” prompts).

E-commerce

Due to quite a low entry threshold, e-commerce is one of the most popular options in today’s business. It also gives a lot of business model options – you can provide services to other companies (B2B), individual clients (B2C), or be a middleman/seller in client to client transactions (C2C). Each model has its slight differences in the translation priority:

B2B:

• Marketing email and business correspondence
• Proposals
• Product descriptions
• Consulting recommendations
• Drip campaigns.

B2C:

• Mobile apps
• Product descriptions
• Warranties
• Drip campaigns
• Automatically generated messages
• Packaging.

C2C:

• Product descriptions and titles (including meta descriptions)
• Shipping info and updates
• Post-transaction follow-up messages
• Customer reviews.

SaaS

Software as a Service startups have great potential for going international, especially when their products are aimed at wide audiences. To start your multinational business journey, have a translation company prepare foreign versions of:

• Product descriptions
• Tutorials/directions/FAQs
• Copyright information
• Software requirements
• Drip campaigns
• Customer reviews.

FinTech

Financial industry gives you great opportunities to launch multinational innovative solutions. When lending your technology to other countries, make sure to prepare translated versions of:

• Terms of use
• Service descriptions
• Regulatory disclosures
• Instructions for integrating local banks
• Online fillable forms
• Reviews.

How to choose the best translator?

Translation industry is a vast network of translation agencies and freelance translators. Therefore, choosing the right service provider can be troublesome. To make sure you’re picking up the best suited translation service available, always check the info on:

• Accreditation – for best results, make sure your pick is officially recognized as a reputable company/professional translator. For example, people working in the UK accredited by the ITI (Institute of Translation and Interpreting) are a solid option.
• Translation software – practically all translators use CAT tools in their work – they speed up the translation process and lower its cost. It’s good to check what software will be used and if it’s approved by the industry.
• Team members – for maximal accuracy, make sure that the translators are native-speaking experts in the given field.

When you’re looking for professional translation services, be sure to check out TEXTOLOGY. It’s a reputable translation agency employing native-speaking professionals providing translations to e.g., Spanish, Russian, Italian, and German. They can also provide you with technical, medical, and legal translations to Polish and other European languages.