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How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

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Page 1: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business
Page 2: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

What we’ll cover

• Benefits and risks of each type of

translation resource

• Which types of translation resources are

used for each type of content

• When to use translation technology and

when to avoid it

Page 3: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

About Smartling

• Translation software platform

• Removes inefficiencies of manually managing translation processes, tools, and vendors

• Agnostic re: vendors and resource types

• We help our customers select translation resources all the time!

Page 4: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Human Translation

• Common Uses:

– Customer-facing content

– All technical and specialized content

– Best for the vast majority of content

Page 5: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Human Translation

• Benefits:

– Highest possible quality

– Predictable cost (price per word)

Page 6: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Human Translation

• Risks:

– Takes time to do it right

– Quality depends on vendor selection

and expertise

– You often get what you pay for

Page 7: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Human Translation

• Advice:

– For most content, this is the best choice with the lowest risk.

– Quality levels vary: triple-pass process with translator, editor, reviewer is best

– Don’t choose vendors based on price alone

– Use technology that incorporates a style guide and glossary

Page 8: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Transcreation

• Common Uses:

– Taglines and slogans

– Headers

– SEO keywords

– Creative, marketing-focused copy

Page 9: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Transcreation

• How is it different from regular translation?

– Provided by in-language copywriters

– Starts with a creative brief

– Billed differently

– Results in a new message

– Advisory on look and feel

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Transcreation

• Benefits:

– Highest possible cultural relevance

– Costs are fairly predictable

Page 15: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Transcreation

• Risks:

– Highest cost

– Cannot be done at scale

– Limitations on speed

– Quality depends on the vendor

Page 16: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Transcreation

• Advice:

– Use this option only where really

necessary

– Only work with specialists

– Make sure to get the English version

delivered with the transcreated

messages

Page 17: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

And… Localization?

• More about function, less about form

• Currencies, units of measure, and more

• Display the appropriate content and

products for each market

Page 18: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business
Page 19: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business
Page 20: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business
Page 21: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Bilingual Employees

• Common Uses:

– Your employees know your brand voice,

tone, and style

– But… not they are not translators

– Have them participate in the creation of

a style guide and glossary

– You can also have them involved in the

review process early on

Page 22: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Bilingual Employees

• Benefits:

– They know your brand voice, tone, and

style guide

– They can help with quick-turn tasks and

“sanity checks”

Page 23: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Bilingual Employees

• Risks:

– They are not professional translators

– You will divert them from their real job

– They lack professional tools and processes

– No scalability

– High cost

– Limited control over speed of delivery

Page 24: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Bilingual Employees

• Advice:

– Have them help build a glossary and

style guide

– Use them early in the process until

vendors are up to speed

– Think of them as “brand coaches,” not

translation specialists

– Give your translators access to them!

Page 25: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Non-Pro Human Translation

• Also known as “bulk translation”

• Uses:

– Large volumes of content for which quality is not essential (not customer-facing)

– Basic, non-specialized content

– Content for which speed is critical (10 million words into 5 languages in 3 days)

– Content that would otherwise be translated by machine

Page 26: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Non-Pro Human Translation

• Benefits:

– Can be used for a very limited type of

content that is very basic (non-technical)

with a low reading level and low risk

– Less costly than professional human

translation

Page 27: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Non-Pro Human Translation

• Risks:

– Very high overall risk factor

– Cannot be used for specialized content

– Cannot be used for high-risk content

– Quality is inferior to professional human

translation (but sometimes better than

machine translation)

Page 28: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Non-Pro Human Translation

• Advice:

– Professional human translation offers

superior quality and is nearly always the

best option

– Consider changing your timeline instead

of rushing forward with this option

– If cost is a factor, consider tiering your

content differently

Page 29: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Volunteer Translation

• Also known as “community translation”

• Uses:

– Non-profits and “cause-based” projects

– Highly engaged and eager community of

multilingual volunteers

– “Fanlation” – translation by enthusiastic

fans or users

Page 30: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Volunteer Translation

• Benefits:

– Obtain feedback from “fans” early on in

the process instead of later (a more

hands-on “focus group”)

– Way to enable users to participate in

developing your product

– Eliminates or reduces the need for “in-

country review”

Page 31: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Volunteer Translation

• Risks:

– Quality is unpredictable

– Cost – infrastructure, engagement,

motivation, quality control

– High chance of missing deadlines

– Cannot be used for many content types

(example: legal disclaimers)

Page 32: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Volunteer Translation

• Advice:

– Think carefully before implementing this

option – there’s a lot that goes into it

– Don’t expect this to be a less expensive

alternative, especially not at first

– Make sure that professional human

translation is part of the QA process

Page 33: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Computer-Generated Translation

• Uses:

– High-volume projects where lower

quality levels are acceptable

– Summarization or “gisting”

– User-generated content, long-tail

content for which either the cost of

human translation cannot be justified, or

immediate turnaround is required

Page 34: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Computer-Generated Translation

• Two Types: free online vs. custom-built

• Benefits of free online type:

– Helpful for getting a quick summary

– No cost with lower volume levels

• Benefits of custom-built type:

– Volume

– Speed

– Quality can improve with enough investment of time and money

Page 35: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Computer-Generated Translation

• Two Types: free online vs. custom-built

• Risks of free online type:

– Quality is notoriously poor

• Risks of custom-built type:

– Can be quite expensive

– Quality takes time and “training”

– Not useful unless you have high volumes

Page 36: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Translation Software Platform

Uses:

Websites, web apps, mobile apps,

documents

Primarily used to manage professional

human translation

Can be used with other translation resource

types

Page 37: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Translation Software Platform

Benefits:

Eliminates the need to manage translations

in spreadsheets and emails

Brokers the quality review processes and

removes you as the “go-between”

Speeds up the process

Makes translation efficient and scalable

Page 38: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Translation Software Platform

Risks:

Will replace most or all third-party translation

tools currently in use (if any)

Will replace most or all tools and methods

that were created internally (usually

management of translations in spreadsheets

and emails)

Page 39: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Translation Software Platform

Switch to a platform if…

You are spending too much time manually

managing translations in spreadsheets and

emails

You are having problems with translation

quality

You need to scale your company’s translated

content quickly

Page 40: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

• Very aggressive schedule – Had to launch 6

languages in just three weeks – in time for

holiday shopping

• Keep all sites in sync

• Support e-commerce

CHALLENGES

Page 41: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

• Launched fully functional e-commerce site in 6

languages in less than 3 weeks

• Automatic detection and flagging of all new

content - all sites in sync

• Integration with GoPro’s shopping cart delivers

seamless experience

RESULTS

Page 42: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

• Internationalizing their website and web

application would have taken 12-18 months

• They needed to launch 10 multilingual sites in

just 6 months

• Major concerns about the drain on internal

resources: a distraction

CHALLENGES

Page 43: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

• Scalability: 10 languages fully launched in 6

months

• Speed: Changes made daily; new content

flagged and sent out for human translation

automatically

• Global growth: Big jumps in web traffic and

subscriber sign-ups

RESULTS

Page 44: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

Contact us to get your free guide!

[email protected]

Or call 1.866.70.SMART

Page 45: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

How else can we help?

Questions? Contact us!

[email protected]

Or call 1.866.70.SMART

Page 46: How To Select The Best Translation Resources For Your Business

CONTACT US:

+1 866.70.SMART

[email protected]

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE?

WWW.SMARTLING.COM