In today’s age, even the smallest companies are potentially serving a global client base. The need to communicate across cultures and languages is growing rapidly, as many things are lost due to translation errors or different interpretations. Let’s take a deep look on how to handle translation clients.
Often the cost of a translation failure is more than financial. Miscommunications generally lead to a loss of reputation, legal cases, or in worse cases… a business disaster. That’s why having an accurate, clear, and effective communication method that can break cultures, languages, and industry barriers are becoming more in demand.
Digital Translation in 2020
Industry Growth
Globalization has helped companies conn
Digital Translation in 2020: Global Translation Clients
ect with larger and diverse audiences worldwide. As more companies continue to expand to new countries, learning and understanding the culture and business practices of the country is crucial in being successful as a translator.
Most translation agencies and freelance translators will be able to acquire more clients by delivering excellent quality results at a fast turnaround time without inflating their costs.
This can be done by using emerging technologies to help assist and increase the effectiveness of their translation services.
With the language services and technology, a market predicted to increase to 56.18 billion by 2021, being able to blend both the human touch without overusing CAT tools will separate normal translators and professional translators. [1]
Transcreation
Translation often doesn’t make sense due to not paying proper attention to context and culture, resulting in the intended meaning being lost in the text. That’s why transcreation is crucial.
Transcreation is blending translation and creation, where it preserves the context, intent, emotion, and tone of the original sentences. The goal is to duplicate the original message thoughtfully and seamlessly without realizing there was a translation, giving the audience an identical emotional experience as the original source message.
Transcreation provides an effective way for businesses and brands to authentically reach new markets in a meaningful and cultural way that achieves a greater brand recognition and engagement.
Video Translation
Every second, a million minutes (17,000 hours) of video content will be created and cross global IP networks.
In a few years, it will take an individual more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video being crossed through the global IP networks. [2]
As videos connect every individual across the world, more and more people are wanting to watch videos from all kinds of cultures, personalities, and channels. This video content includes short YouTube videos, a TV show from another country to a full movie on Netflix.
As more individuals watch videos, video ads have become more popular. Video marketing generates 66% more qualified leads per year and a 54% increase in brand awareness, meaning there is more demand for video translation services online such as dubbing, subtitling, and voice over. [3][4]
The world is becoming more globalized, meaning there is an increase in opportunity in the translation industry.
Being able to improve your skill sets and learn more language pairs means that you’ll be able to find clients for your translation services.
Your Main Types of Translation Clients
Image of Targeting Your Main Translation Clients
Due to the volatile nature of the translation industry, a client may need thousands of words translated within a few days then disappear for months, that’s why you should always be looking for new clients and expanding your network.
Here are different translation clients you’ll most likely work with.
Translation Agencies
Translation agency clients are easier to find and approach as you can find them easily online or through translation portals such as TranslatorCafe
As they deal with translators every single day, they have a good understanding of the industry and what is expected.
The downside is the lower rates and tighter deadlines. You have less bargaining power because they have already negotiated the rates and deadlines with the current client.
Terms and Conditions are also imposed, so make sure you understand all the details before working for these agencies.
Agencies are the best way for translators to gain experience and get real-time feedback from customers. You understand what works and doesn’t, and you’ll soon develop your own process in translating.
This will be crucial when you start accepting hundreds of clients where efficiency and quality are important.
Direct Clients
Direct clients are harder to find and approach if you have minimal experiences. Developing a portfolio is crucial to show the value you can provide to these clients.
That’s why networking is crucial in meeting more new clients. Although it takes more time to find, it is more rewarding because you can ask for higher rates and better deadlines.
You have more bargaining power and margins, so you can work according to the value you provide.
Tips For Getting More Translation Clients
Essential Tips to get More Translation Clients
Being Certified
To become a certified online translator in Singapore, you’ll need to obtain a certification with a respected association.
Having more credentials will give you an edge over your competitors to choose your services than other translation freelancers.
Most choose an authorized association such as the American Translator Association and take a certification exam.
The American Translator Association is the largest professional association of translators in the United States, with over 10,000 members in more than 100 countries.
ATA’s primary goal is to support and foster the professional development of translators and help them excel in their professions. Helping these individuals with a variety of programs and services including one-day workshops, webinars, and yearly annual conferences that features translation education in diverse languages and specialties
Currently, they hold translator certification programs in the following language pairs [5]:
Into English from Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.
From English into Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.
After you’ve passed the American Translator Association’s exams, translators are required to complete a certain amount of “continuing education” points to keep their certifications.
Work on your communication skills
Finding and keeping your clients involves having excellent communication skills. Being able to extract the necessary information, sell your services, and provide excellent customer service is crucial for having long-term customers.
You can cultivate these skills by working with more clients and finding what works and what doesn’t. That’s why working with large agencies is recommended when you are first starting out.
It allows you to build your portfolio and build your network. Often these clients you work for also know more businesses that need the same services.
By providing excellent translation and transcreation services, your clients can quickly expand, and this can only happen if you work on your communication skills.
Understand the requirements
Often translation projects take longer than expected due to not fully understanding the client’s requirements and needs. Translators have to guess, and this generally leads to multiple revisions.
First, establish the format of the document you’re getting and the format the client wants for the completed translation.
Often clients provide the original documents in non-editable documents such as image-based PDFs that cause more hassle to translate. Make sure all the words are readable and legible, so you don’t have to guess the wording.
Ask for reference materials or a glossary to understand how the client wants to have their words and terms translated. Often they have abbreviations or in-house terminology that are used.
These little things become second nature once you’ve gotten more good and bad experiences.
Cultivate a micro-niche
As there are millions of different translators in the world, finding a way to separate yourself from your competitors is crucial in having continued business. Become an authority figure in a particular industry.
For example, Helping German universities expand their international programs with marketing advertisements and materials in English.
By targeting a specific niche, you know your target audience better and have less analysis paralysis in writing. Less research will be needed, as you’ve already written in that industry before.
As you’ve written more translations in that specific niche, you’ll be able to market yourself easier from the portfolio you’ve cultivated.
By being the leading translator in your specific niche, you have more power and command your bargaining price.
Why Choose TranslateRight For Technical Document Translation Services
Translated Right is a certified professional technical translation agency that provides technical translations online in 50+ languages. Our translation services languages include English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Japanese, French, and more. Providing fast, accurate, and reliable, professional translation services for all types of documents, formats, and lengths.
With over 5000+ professional and experienced translators, we’ve filtered out the best translator using our stringent and detailed interviewing process, ensuring that you can hire only the best-qualified person for your specific translation document.
This has allowed us to simplify the whole entire technical translation process, resulting in a smooth application process.
This is seen by our 1000+ of satisfied customers from our competitive prices, friendly and efficient translation services.
If you’re looking for a translation service near me that can translate from a source language to the desired target language that conforms to the requirements of the technical side of your industry, Translated Right can help you today.
Providing a streamlined and hassle-free process, get your document translated by a professional service today.
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