Top Ways to Find Value in Your Translation Provider
At Anglia Translations Ltd, we’re often asked how businesses can reduce the costs associated with translation services, while still obtaining a quality finished product.
We should firstly start out by saying that no translation company worth their salt will offer ‘cheap’ translation services. Quality translation services take time, so you should expect to pay good money for a good service.
Opting for cheap services, or even trying to undertake it yourself with machine translation software like Google Translate may seem like the ideal way to cut costs, but the fact is you may end up paying more in the long run for poor quality translation.
In this blog, we’re going to cover our top tips for creating a great relationship with your translation company to find real value together.
Create a Strong Brief
One of the major reasons why a translation project can become overstretched and start to cost more is when the project starts to go back and forth. With the increase in queries, you’ll often find an increase in misunderstandings and mistakes, this is when deadlines get missed and costs increase for both parties.
One of the ways we avoid such delays is by working with our clients to create a strong brief from the outset. Before we so much as translate a single word, we sit down with the client to ensure we know about their business, what they are seeking from a translation service and how we’ll go about achieving these goals.
This means that we, you and our professional translators are fully aware of how the project will unfold and what you need from our services.
Ask About Specialisms
In order to achieve an accurate translation in any sector, it’s important that you’re working alongside the right partner to achieve your goals.
For example, we’re expert translators in the direct selling industry, which means we’re well versed in working with distribution networks, creating brand identity and expanding brands overseas, which means it’s important that we’re able to translate your message to the right audiences in the right way.
Without this experience and in-depth industry knowledge, we wouldn’t be able to be as effective as we are in helping to drive sales overseas for our clients with creative translation.
If you’re operating in a specialist sector, it’s worth researching different translation businesses to understand who is able to help your business the most.
Ensure Your Source Material is Ready for Translation
Before submitting your source materials to your translator, it’s important to ensure that you’ve proofed it and all relevant parties within your organisation agree that these are the pieces you’d like translated.
If you don’t do this, and someone within your business decides that they aren’t happy with the materials that you’ve presented, it halts the process and essentially everyone moves back to square one again.
Also, more than simply ensuring that your source material is proofed and ready to go, have you considered whether it is optimised for translation?
You need to ask yourself, is it simple to understand in its original language? Although there might be many words meaning the same thing in its source language, certain words, phrases and cultural references may not translate well into foreign languages, which is why it’s important that your materials are very clear, concise and easy to understand.
Only Use Accredited Translators
As the old saying goes, ‘buy cheap; buy twice’, and translation services are certainly no exception: an experienced accredited translator will always be the best option.
The biggest benefit of doing this is the high-quality, accurate translation you receive, and because the translator has taken the time to get to know you and your business, this translation will be completely aligned with the goals you set out with in the first place.
At Anglia Translations Ltd, we were founded by a passionate linguist, so our love for languages and worldwide communities permeates everything we do. We’ve been operating for three decades, and we’re fully qualified as a member of the Association of Translation Companies and we’re also ISO 9001: 2015 accredited too.
As a business we:
- Have three-decades of experience.
- Specialise in the DSA sector.
- Work with sector specific linguists.
- Cover all major languages and many specialist ones too.
- Work with some truly global brands.
These are just some of the qualities you need to be on the lookout for when choosing your ideal translation partner.
Takeaways
The cost of poorly translated materials is not just simply a few misplaced words or terminology errors, it could spell damage to your reputation and potentially put the brakes on your latest overseas projects.
If you’re looking at several potential partners, then it’s important to almost take cost out of the equation – what you’re looking for here is almost an extension of your business, which means you’re looking for ways that this business can add increased value to yours with the very best level of service.
If you have any further questions on what we’ve covered in this blog, or you’re interested in hearing more about any of our other services, get in touch today.
