The 8 Most Common Mistakes in Translation: Don’t Fall Into Them!

secretary writing down most common translation mistakes

Globalisation has completely changed the way a product is sold and opening up to the international market is a challenge for the marketing industry. Nowadays, it’s necessary to consider not only if the product is suitable for a specific country, but also whether it’s necessary to know how to sell it so that it’s attractive to the consumer. We’re certain that if we were to ask again some of the large international companies that have failed to translate their campaigns because of translation mistakes, they wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to hire the services of a professional translation agency.

A mistake in translation can wreck millions of dollars in marketing investment. For this reason, having an external translation agency or a team of translators to support the Marketing Department is essential.

#OptimationalTip: If you have a company, and you want to enter international marke ts, don’t forget what’s important and repeat with us this mantra: ‘a poorly translated project, is a failed project.’

The Most Common Translation Mistakes Companies Make (And Their Solutions)

Speaking the language of your target audience is important when expanding to international markets. Today, organisations need to generate content targeted to their customers wherever they are. In this sense, translation plays a vital role in global business initiatives and a content strategy is crucial for their success.

But when organisations translate their content, they often face obstacles that lead to costly misunderstandings. The following are some of the most common translation mistakes organisations make when localising their content and the ways you can correct them.

1. Assign Translation Jobs to Your Bilingual Administration Staff

Oral fluency doesn’t imply the existence of translation skills. A cheap and acceptable translation—although not of good quality—is much more expensive than investing in a job well done from the start. Improvisation can be the beginning of a failed translation.

Solution: Make sure that the person translating your content has the necessary skills to do the job; that is, that they are professional translators. At the same time, their services may not be as costly as you would imagine. In case you wonder, learn about the pricing of translation services.

2. Generate Poor Quality Content

If your original content has errors, has been collected arbitrarily, and has no sense of order, the resulting translation will likely convey a different message than the one you want to communicate.

Solution: Check once, twice, and three times. Also, if you want to keep a local touch on your content, check if this is feasible according to the standards of the target audience.

3. Use Machine Translation

For the result that you get from the machine translation to be acceptable, it must go through editing by real people. Why leave the content translation in the hands of algorithms incapable of interpreting meaning or intention? If the information that you offer to your audience doesn’t answer questions or isn’t perceived as created by human beings, it’s more likely that people aren’t interested in it or don’t share it.

Solution: Use machine translation sparingly, and only to understand the essence of content that doesn’t aim to reach your clients and prospects. Certainly, machine translation can save you at the last minute, but we must use robots cautiously to communicate with people.

4. Hire Translation Services Without Considering the Security of Your Information

When third parties gain access to your information without proper controls, you lose a competitive advantage, which can result in revenue loss. Also, consider the legal implications of someone misusing your data.

#OptimationalTip: Protect your information. Ask your translation service provider to offer you security guarantees. Take care of your data through non-disclosure or confidentiality agreements. You decide with whom you share your information!

5. Translate Different Versions of the Same Document

Sending drafts and partial versions of your content for translation will be an expensive and frustrating task since you could end up paying for the translation of content that you might then have to edit or even eliminate in the final version.

Solution: Submit final versions of your documents for translation. Dedicate specific times for translation as an integral part of the schedule of your projects and business initiatives.

6. Leave the Translation Work for the Last Minute

Oftentimes, companies place translation outside the documentation process of their business initiatives. Rushed translations tend to have quality issues and rush costs.

#OptimationalTip: Include translation efforts within your communication and marketing initiatives to reduce costs and streamline deliveries.

7. Submit Irrelevant Information for Translation

Your linguistic project manager quotes translation jobs according to the amount of text in your original content. So, translating unnecessary content will cost your organisation money and time.

Solution: Minimise the amount of text in your documents by reviewing and eliminating redundant terms or unnecessary padding. Take an inventory of your content and assess the business needs to translate it. They may have been previously translated.

8. Different People Translating the Same Materials

When different people participate in your content translation, it becomes difficult to keep track of linguistic standards. The proliferation of documents and the terminological discrepancies caused by this practice can be a real problem.

Solution: Develop glossaries and style guides. This will give uniformity to your corporate communications. These important resources keep the image of your organisation consistent in all the content that you share with your clients and prospects. Additionally, it will increase the quality of the message that your organisation communicates.

Last Thoughts

Translating texts goes beyond moving information between languages. Professional translation services offer uniformity of format and a good lexicological level to your content. Also, keeping in mind whom they’re targeting helps you avoid using untranslatable ambiguities that may not have the desired impact on the language of your customers. Well-translated content will be perceived as local and will help you reach your audience successfully.