Marketing Translation Services
Creating compelling marketing collateral is a highly sophisticated process in one language – so you need an equally competent partner to translate it for a foreign market.
I have almost a decade of experience getting people’s messages across in German, and I’d be happy to help you succeed as well.
Feel free to contact me or read what other people say about my work.
Selling a product is rarely easy, and businesses invest a lot of resources in producing excellent marketing collateral.
Translating such content into another language entails certain issues unique to marketing translations:
- The tone, intent and subtext of the original have to be conveyed in an accurate yet original manner.
- Whatever is written “between the lines” has to be transported over into the translation.
- The text has to appeal to the customer and incite his or her interest.
German marketing translation often requires a certain inter-cultural competence since the effectiveness of a marketing message hinges on how your audience perceives the text. A particular approach to advertising your product might work very well in one country and be fairly ineffective in another.
This is where it’s crucial to have an experienced and reliable partner for German marketing translation who will consult with you on what you’re trying to do and who you’re trying to reach in the German-speaking market, and what would be the best way to do that.
Words: 16,000
Category: Network services (managed SD-WAN)
Source: English
Target: German
Translation of marketing collateral
Words: 13,000
Category: Hardware-encrypted storage systems
Source: English
Target: German
Translation of a tourism destination website and brochures
Words: 11,273
Category: Tourism and vacation homes
Source: English
Target: German
Translation of an E-mail marketing campaign
Words: 3,200
Category: Sports equipment
Source: English
Target: German
- Brochures & booklets
- Product descriptions
- Websites
- Blog articles
- Infographics
- E-mails & letters
- Case studies
- Sales / product sheets
- Testimonials
- Flyers & Postcards
- Posters
- Catalogs
- Tourism
- Consumer Electronics
- E-commerce
- Automobile marketing
- Legal Services
- Real estate
- Finance
- Consulting
- Fashion & clothing
- Software & apps
- Agriculture
- Gaming
- Universities, colleges & schools
- TV / movies / music
Of All Consumers¹…
¹According to Nataly Kelly at Harvard Business Review, 2012, based on a survey by Common Sense Advisory.
What Does That Mean For You?
- Almost half of your potential customers will not buy your product unless they can do it in their own language
- More than half of them will pay more if they can read about your product in their own language
- Over two-thirds would rather buy something they can read about than something sold in English
The Challenges of Marketing Translation
Translating marketing material generally requires a very flexible approach.
Take, for instance, a product ad for the US market: it might describe the product in bold and cheerful terms, which sounds confident and compelling to an American audience when done right.
To Germans, the same wording will likely sound overbearing and slightly dubious. The German public prefers a much more sober and matter-of-fact tone when speaking about, well, pretty much anything.
A customer testimony saying “I absolutely love CoffeeMaster2000, it’s just a great addition to my kitchen” will need some serious tweaking to appeal to German customers.
Producing a good German marketing translation requires knowing both cultures well and having a good feel for how a text is perceived in a certain context. This is where experience is key, and where I can help you get ahead and localize your content in a way that will truly engage German customers.
My Translation Process
My procedures, developed through many years of experience, are designed to ensure that my translations satisfy stringent requirements regarding accuracy and correctness.
1. Confirmation
You send me your document and receive a quote stating the price and the delivery deadline. Once you confirm the order, I can start working on your translation.
2. Translation Draft
I read the document and research any terminology that needs clarifying. Then I write a first translation draft, following any specific instructions given and using specialized translation tools to ensure consistency.
3. Editing
Unless your project is urgent, I let the text rest so I can edit it with a fresh mind the next morning, checking it for accuracy, consistency and fluidity. Grammar and orthography are also reviewed in this step.
4. Quality Assurance
In this step I run my final translation draft through a set of specialized tools in order to find any inconsistencies, syntax errors, missing numbers and punctuation, formatting issues etc.
5. Delivery
Finally, you receive the translation by the agreed deadline, along with a report detailing certain aspects. Thus it is easy for you to reconstruct every step of my translation process.