Preparing to enter a foreign market is exciting. The foray around planning product launches, researching target audiences, and discovering how your brand is received internationally can be exhilarating, but getting caught up in this buzz can overshadow an essential part of the entire process - translation.
High-quality translations are imperative for any business to make a lasting impression when entering a global marketplace. The need to communicate information is extremely important, but it can be hard for business owners to figure out how to accurately promote their brand in multiple languages. This is where a professional translation service provider can be extremely helpful, as they are experienced in communicating across multiple cultures and locales.
It goes without saying that you want to find the best language service provider (LSP) to meet your needs, but not all are created equally. To ensure the best quality translations possible, here are some things to look for when choosing an LSP and starting your translation journey.
1. Experience With Both Translation and Language Localization is Key
Most people are familiar with the concept of translation, but may not know much about localization. Where translation is the literal rendering of a word from one language to another word for word, language localization is the adaptation of content to the target language’s culture and region.
Localization reads in between the lines of the content to extract meaning that makes sense to the reader. When localizing translated text, a linguist will take the unique cultural considerations of a specific locale in mind - they’ll cater to multiple cultural differences, including a locale’s history, customs, and societal preferences. Their goal is to make the content feel natural and familiar to the reader as if it was written just for them. Because of this, it is extremely important to invest in localization as you’ll want consumers in your global markets to accurately understand who you are as a brand.
Language localization is important to us at Language Intelligence, and we have spent years perfecting our end-to-end localization process. Our translation and localization workflow includes a two-step translation and editing process, multilingual desktop publishing services, and in-country review to ensure your content is of the highest quality and is ready for global distribution.
2. An Established Quality Control System Should Be of the Highest Priority
If you don’t speak the language of the foreign market you are entering, you may wonder how exactly you’ll go about ensuring quality control. After all, how can you really know if a translated text is translated accurately?
To mitigate this risk, you’ll want to find a translation services provider who has detailed and specific quality control measures in place. That’s where we come in.
Language Intelligence has been following a documented Quality Management Certification since our inception in 1988 and has been ISO-certified since 2009. We use this standard as proof to our customers how serious quality assurance is to us as a company while providing you with the peace of mind that we are dedicated to the accuracy and success of your translation and localization project.
Some components of our ISO certification include:
Always have at least two separate linguists work on your project, one to complete the first translation and localization and the other to edit once finished.
Only employing linguists who are in-country, native speakers of the target language.
Requiring all of our linguists to have specific industry experience in any one of our specializations.
Learn more about our quality management system, here.
3. Look for an In-House Single Point of Contact
It’s important to look for a translation services provider that focuses on creating a personalized experience for you. You don’t want to feel like your project is just a blip on their radar, instead, we recommend looking for LSPs that provide an in-house, single point of contact in the form of a project manager.
Our localization project managers are easily accessible and are willing to help with anything you may need, big or small. When you start a project with Language Intelligence, you can expect an open line of communication between one dedicated project manager in our Rochester, NY office. We encourage a two-way street of communication between our project managers and clients, so please feel free to reach out with any requests, questions, or updates that you may have. They’ll be your main point of contact from start to finish.
A Translation Service Provider That Works for You
At Language Intelligence, we know how important words can be. We have over 30 years of experience understanding, communicating, and collaborating across the world. Our team is comprised of more than 400 in-country, native-speaking professional linguists, localization project managers and engineers, as well as an entire tech team, whose goal is to help you cross cultural divides when entering international markets.
Let’s chat translation and localization, and get in touch today.