3 Ways Business Translation Services Help Your Brand Go Global

How Business Translation Services Propel Global Expansion

Taking your brand global is an exciting yet daunting business opportunity. If you’re worried about how successful you’ll be after making the leap, choosing the right talent to help you make this move will streamline the whole experience. 

While you may be packing your roster with the best lawyers, strategists, and marketing experts you can find, don’t overlook translators. Translators make sure you’re understood by corporate authorities and customers in your new market. 

English may be a popular language across the world, but it’s not always the right choice for your expansion. You may need to file paperwork in the local language or customise an ad campaign that speaks to the people in their mother tongue. 

A professional translator can assist you with these language hurdles, so you can focus on other pressing areas of your expansion. Here are three ways business translation services can help. 

1. Legal Translation Services

Much of your global expansion will come down to the law. Are you legally allowed to set up shop in another country and conduct business? Will you need to enter a license agreement before you can provide services elsewhere? 

You’ll have to file the paperwork to make sure everything is above-board. And although English may be the lingua franca of many business agreements, you may not always have that luxury. Sometimes, you’ll have to file legal documents in the official language of the other country. 

A legal translator joins your team to ensure you submit accurate paperwork without errors, so you won’t get rejected on the grounds of a simple mistake. They’re also an excellent resource to help you spot any special clauses or obligations you need to know before signing along the dotted line.

Here are some of the documents a legal translator can help you file:

• NDAs
• Contracts
• Patents
• Acquisitions
• Certificates
• Licensing Agreements
• Trademarks

In some cases, partnering with a legal translator isn’t just a good idea. It could be a requirement of your expansion. Some legal systems require certified translations, which can only be provided by certified legal translation services with experienced legal translators. 

2. Financial Translation Services

After the legal stuff, financial paperwork is soon to follow. Once you start earning money in another country, you’ll have to pay taxes in that country. 

Depending on the nature of your business, you may also have other financial obligations. Take an IPO and public corporation as examples. These organizations have to file their finances with the appropriate financial authority. 

While there’s a rising demand for a world financial authority, there isn’t one yet. That means, an IPO must file with the local financial authority using the appropriate language. 

Global translation services have financial translators located all over the world so that they can assign a translator from the country where you’re expanding. 

This means you’re working with a translator who has financial experience in their country. They’re familiar with the unique standards of their financial systems, so they can make the best choices for your needs. 

Here are some of the financial documents that may require prompt and accurate translation:

• Bill of Exchange
• Annual and Quarterly Reports
• Bill of Landing
• Auditor Reports
• Letter of Credit
• ESG Reports
• Regulatory Documents

3. Marketing Translation Services

If you want a foreign language ad campaign to make a splash for the right reasons, you need help from a global translation agency’s marketing experts. These translators can help adapt an existing strategy for a global audience, or you can enlist them to create a brand-new approach, fresh for foreign eyes. 

In either scenario, these translators look beyond word-for-word translations. They create a new message that strikes the perfect balance between your brand’s goals and your new market’s cultural perspective. 

This nuanced approach to marketing materials can save you from making cultural faux-pas, like unintentionally using offensive imagery or references that hold no meaning for your new audience.

Nuance is especially useful for English-based companies looking to expand in other parts of the world. As the BBC reports, native English-speakers are some of the worst communicators in the world. They earn the title because they often use opaque abbreviations or expressions that are hard to understand for non-native speakers.

Beyond language, marketing translators take into account the following before they offer a translation:

• Religion
• Symbolism
• Numerology
• Superstitions
• Mannerisms
• Colour Theory

A marketing team can flag issues and offer more appropriate alternatives in the right language. This way, your ads and other marketing materials will come across clearly to your new audience, so you won’t wind up on any top 20 list of the biggest marketing fails.

The Takeaway: 

Filing paperwork and launching an effective marketing campaign can be challenging enough when it’s in your own language. Adding another language into the mix may bring your expansion efforts to an abrupt halt. 

But don’t worry — business translation services can give your expansion the green light. With the right translator on the job, you can feel confident you’re meeting all your legal and financial obligations while making an impactful introduction to foreign customers.

Produced in association with Craig Lebrau