Marketing translation services have become significant in this digital age where consumers have new mediums and easy access to the media, whether it is about downloading or streaming on desktops, computers, laptops, or smartphones. It has become a lot easier than ever to connect with audiences on an international scale.
Professional marketing translation services are imminent to grow in the digital world. Media is available globally and in the access of the people regardless of the location and place. Everything is available online and can be assessed by anyone at any time. Global linguists are also translating various types of media, starting from subtitles to voiceovers.
Types of documents that require marketing translation
A lot of media text requires translation these days. A few to name are
- Voiceover, subtitling, dubbing
- Copy adaption
- Multilingual layout
- Transcription
- Voiceover subtitling, dubbing
- Website copy localization
- Document translation
- Brochures and marketing materials
- Letters
- Digital marketing materials
- Digital content
- Press releases
- Presentation
Challenges of marketing content translation
Length restrictions
This is one of the biggest challenges of medical translation where the source language comes with a precise length and translating it into the target language requires more space which is often not available when it comes to brochures and leaflets. In such cases, translators should be intimated prior to the length restrictions so that they can look for more precise and concise media translation. Many times the posts and content don’t make sense if the content is removed just randomly. Hence, if translators know about this issue in advance they can take care of the things and content to present it in the best way possible. There are some social media sites where character counts are important such as Twitter. Hence, people have to write precisely to release a statement via their Twitter handle.
Translating media content from English to Chinese, for instance, you‘ll see how conveying the idea in Japanese is more compact and precise in the count. However, if you need to translate from English to Spanish or German, you surely are going to need more space.
Jargon juggling
Media Translation services have their own vocabulary and words. There is a different jargon that is always juggling on social media and other media platforms. The vocabulary and acronyms are different and people have to master them to get fluent in the media posts. Different populations in different regions have different jargon and acronyms. ‘LOL’ is one such word that stands for “Laugh out loud” and people use it frequently on social media. Translators can easily relate to how social networks translate their lexicons but providing a natural reference rather than making it literal makes it more sensitive. So, this is yet again a challenging thing to accomplish.
Geo diction
Professional media translation services are a lot more than a plain translation. It often gets challenging to translate media content that too across multiple channels and geographic locations. The posts have to be simple and effective to engage the target audience. In order to cope with this challenge, the translators have to put their resources in one place. Emerging all social media handles and media content in one place let the consumers and users find out all the contacts of a company. This is tough to accomplish. This is where the translation is needed to address the masses who don’t understand your language. It is always suggested to use one user-friendly interface to convey on all mediums.
Language structure
Professional translation services are incomplete without taking care of the language structure. This is another challenge that translators come across while translating the media content. Every language has a structure that is different from others. The structure of language is somehow linked to the level of accuracy and simplicity in a translation. Easy and sorted content is easier to translate from one language to another.
A simple English language sentence has subject, verb, and object in order. However, in other languages it is different. The order is changed. In a language such as Arabic subject pronoun is part of the verb.
Idioms and expressions
There is no such translation which is without having idioms and expressions. Idiomatic expressions explain particular figures of speech. The challenging part of idioms and expressions is that Google translate or any other online translator can never get it. Idioms are the tough ones to translate. A lot of them are misleading and translators often fail to replace these with a proper word that too complements the media and professional marketing translation services. It is important to mention here that understanding the culture and familiarity might help with the translation of the idioms.
Compound words
A combination of two or more words makes compound words and their meaning could be entirely different and not according to the basic words. There are roughly three groups of compound words.
The first group refers to the exact meaning such as
- Afternoon
- Anytime
- Seashore
- Underground etc
The second group of compound words comes with compound words that mean half of the total word in a literal sense just like “Bellboy” which implies referring to a ‘boy’ but not a ‘bell’. A “bookworm” is a person who is into books and not a worm.
Compounds of the third group are the ones that don’t literally mean in the same way just like a ‘deadline’. The deadline refers to time and is not translated according to the main basic words. Similarly ‘butterfly’ is neither a ‘butter’ nor ‘fly’.
Missing names
Marketing translation has a lot of words that are not in use commonly. It has its own terms and it gets quite challenging for the translators to translate the certain words which don’t have any meaning in the target language. For instance, different countries have a room called a ‘guest room’ where they allow their guests to stay. Now, this is not a proper name but a name with a description. However, in other languages such as Greek, it is ‘ksnona’. As for Italian, it goes like ‘camera per gliospiti’. Now it is quite confusing how it’s a single word in Greek, 2 words in the English language, and 3 words in Italian. So, getting an exact name could either b long or short in character length.
Multiple meanings
Marketing translation is not easy. It has a lot of factors involved. There are often single words that have different meanings and their use depends on the sentence and context. Moreover, these could have a totally different meaning in the target language. Therefore, the translators have to take care of such words and use these cautiously so that there are no irrelevant details and text.
Cultural aspects
Media and marketing campaigns are not launched overnight and involve a lot of research and creative work. These campaigns have to be according to the choices of the target audiences. For that purpose, translators have to be well aware of the cultural aspects. Marketing campaigns should be effective and culturally appropriate. Adding something bluntly can go wrong with the audience and offend them. Therefore, it is important that the translators are well aware of the culture of the target audience. This part is also quite challenging as cultural issues get sensitive and minor negligence can ruin the whole campaign. If you work for any translation services company, make sure there is no offensive content in the translated product.
Final words
Marketing translation is a basic step of getting the business launched overseas. An effective marketing and media campaign allow the business to build brand recognition and awareness quickly. However, invading a foreign market is quite challenging and requires a lot. Marketing translation should be good enough to strike the right chord with the target audience and for that purpose, it is important to consider the challenges of the marketing content properly.
