Building Business Success

I am looking forward to attending this event on 24 April, hosted by Anglia Ruskin University Chelmsford. As a Chelmsford based business this is a great opportunity to meet other business owners, professionals and the university staff.

Building Business Success

Chelmsford Showcase for Business 2012

Use Your Website To Grow Your Business Overseas

The internet provides a big opportunity for businesses of all sizes. About one third of the world population has internet access and can be reached easily. So, if you have an existing website promoting or selling your products, you can tap into to this huge global market.

You may want to ask why trading overseas? Statistics from the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) show that companies trading globally improve their productivity by 34%. They are also 12% more likely to survive than those who don't export. The UKTI statistics also show that businesses believe that exporting leads to innovation.

The main point to consider is which country and language to start with? Only 27% of the internet users speak English, and 85% of online customers prefer to make purchases in their own languages. Therefore, in order to attract these non-English speaking users for your products, you need to communicate with them in their respective languages.

How do we market our products to other countries we don’t know? Contrary to the common belief, the initial market research can be done on a small budget.

It would make sense to target one of the fastest growing top 9 languages used on the internet. These languages cover over 55% of the entire internet users’ population. In order of growth rate, these languages include Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Korean and Japanese.

Then how do you find out if there is a requirement for your products in countries where these languages are spoken?

The first method is using your Google Analytics data. This is a free product and will give you plenty of information. Here you can see your visitors’ languages and countries of residence. If you find any users data from any country other than the UK, then this could mean that your product or service has already attracted online users there. This can be a great starting point.

If you have no available data, then you may use the criteria below to decide which country may be suitable for your business:

   

- The number of internet users

- Their growth rate in the home market

- Openness to new products

- Number of existing products similar to yours

Then what about the market research without spending a fortune?

Start translating your keywords for your services or products. Then setup a small Google AdWords campaign to test the target country and monitor the traffic it generates thereafter to see if it’s worth pursuing further.

You can do all of these by yourself or choose an accredited translation company experienced in multilingual SEO to manage it for you, such as TTC Language Services.

Next month’s article: 7 Reasons why you should grow your business overseas

if you are interested in finding out more about multilingual SEO or considering business overseas contact Levent for free, no-obligation consultation by calling +44 (0)1245 216933 or email levent@wetranslate.co.uk.

Follow Levent on Twitter @yildizgoren

Blog: www.yildizgoren.wordpress.com

Tell your translator the purpose of your translation

When choosing to translate any form of communication, informing the translator of the purpose of the text is paramount.

Specifying the purpose of the translation will not only ensure that it is fit for purpose, but will also save you time and money. Is the translation required for a short business email, to be published on a website or just to understand the gist of the information?

Literal translations express text word for word and are devoid of any undertone or nuances. They are usually intended to understand the content of the source text, for instance back translations. With literal translation any internal inconsistency or error in the source text will be transferred into the final translation. A publication standard translation; stylistic and professional, is far from the literal example.

For the majority of translations, successfully conveying the meaning of the text is more important than remaining faithful to the original lexis. There are varying degrees of freedom in translation. The translator has to make difficult decisions with regards to grammatical and sentential issues, cultural transposition, tone and social register. To classify a text can be tricky, but the key is to provide as much relevant information as possible. Generally it is clear whether a text is fictional or non-fictional. However, the purpose or context is often a point for clarification. Most non fictional texts can be categorised as below:

Informative (commercial) – magazine article, advertisement,

Informative (persuasive) – political tract, business pitch, marketing communication,

Informative (empirical) – technical manuals

Is the article to convince, inform, inspire, console? The list is endless.

In order to ensure that the translator can classify the material correctly it is important not only to supply the purpose of the text, but also the context in which it will be used. The sentence structure and vocabulary used in the translation will vary according to the information that you provide. For example, the level of language used for a user manual would not be suitable for a magazine article. The purpose of a text will also affect the manner in which cultural references and idiomatic phrases are conveyed.

With regards to context, if the translation is an addition to previous work (in a brochure perhaps), providing any reference material or supplying a glossary of terminology will ensure that the translation is consistent and functional.

Who is the translation aimed at? The target audience plays a vital role in deciding the style and register of the translation. Tone has a great impact on the way the text is received and in turn how successful the translation is.

The amount of information that the translator has will determine the extent to which they can compensate for translation loss in the finished article. Professional translators are trained to recognise the requirements of a text, to make decisions that will effectively communicate the style and meaning and of a text with minimal distortion of the original copy.

A translator’s choice of vocabulary throughout the translation process will directly affect the success of the translation. Providing the purpose and context of the translation will ensure that these decisions are informed decisions.

STARTING WORK AS A TRANSLATOR OR INTERPRETER

An event arranged jointly by the University of Westminster and ITI, with support from the National Networks for Translation and for Interpreting within the Routes into Languages initiative. Saturday 9th June 2012, 09.30-16.30 Are you interested in working as a translator or interpreter, but unsure how to start? This one-day seminar should answer questions for new translators / interpreters on: • Training • Generalist or specialist translating & different types of interpreting • Building a portfolio of clients • Working for translation companies • Marketing • Pricing Fees: • Undergraduate students - free of charge • Postgraduate students - £20 including VAT • ITI/ FIT organisation members - £35 including VAT • Nonmembers - £45 including VAT To register please complete the booking form below.

Full address University of Westminster London United Kingdom

Additional informationBooking Form - SWATI Westminster

What is customer care in the translation industry?

A friend of mine recently started a new job, and was asked by his employer to call existing customers for testimonials for the company website, only to find that they had many unhappy customers. He had recorded the complaints and passed them on to the orders department following his manager's advice. His manager also told him to copy messages to number of others so that he could prove he had passed them on. As the unhappy customers would not give him any testimonials, he had to continue calling his other customers in hope of a positive testimonial.

I asked my friend whether he would follow up the complaints he received. He said he wouldn't because it was "not his job". I then asked if he was going to check with the department in question if they have dealt with the complaints: the answer was "no" as he did not want to make his colleagues uncomfortable. This made me wonder if the complaint would ever be resolved.

Wikipedia describes customer care as "the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase": any responsible company would of course agree with this statement, but as we can clearly see from my friend's example, some companies are not very keen on the after sales phase of customer service process.

If we accept Wikipedia's description, then what is the implication of this in terms of the translation services we provide to our customers? The translation industry is not any different to any other service industry and customer satisfaction is the key to any company's success.

The key to preventing customers becoming unhappy with our services is focusing on delivering benefits to our customers at all times: all employees need to see this as their responsibility. Delivering benefits to our customers however is not as easy as it sounds, it requires total commitment to customer care, which needs to be incorporated into the translation company's culture and organisation structure. Only this will provide total customer satisfaction.

Translation company managers/owners need to find ways to measure the progress and make 'delivering benefits' their top priority. 

Levent Yildizgoren

How to protect your online reputation

Our online reputation is becoming more and more important every day. What is said and posted online stays online, having effects on how other people see and perceive us. People and businesses often make their choices following online searches. Another aspect of this is of course protecting our online reputation making sure that what is out there is actually belongs to us and we are not a victim of any identity fraud or malicious activity.

There are commercial products out there such as Garlik.com for identity protection. We can also take simple precautions that will not cost anything. It goes without saying that being cautious and sensible online is very important for not becoming a victim of a phishing attack, or ghost sites etc.

Probably the best tool to use is Google's 'Me on the Web' tool which was introduced last year.

'Me on the Web,” is now included on the Google dashboard. This is easy to setup and can used for managing online identity and  removing unwanted content. You can also setup Google Alerts that inform you should your name appear in any blogs or news without your consent. The links contain plenty of useful information and tips for good practices.  

Managing our online identity should be part of a good online practice and Google's tool seems to be providing a good and effective solution.