Diversify Your Translation Methods and Cut Costs

There are multiple translation methods to choose from, and it is not always easy to know which one is the right choice for your project. This blog article will guide you through the different approaches that exist, so you can create a balanced mix of translation methods that will fit your resources and each of your specific types of content.

In some cases it is of great importance to create content that is localised all around, such as a hero product you might be promoting on your front page. But if you started a new business with your products already in stock and you are just waiting to go live on your webshop, it might be smarter to choose a faster and more affordable translation method. Instead of losing money with your products sitting in the warehouse, you can start making sales right away.

In the following, I will explain the different types of content and matching recommendations for translation and localisation methods, as well as the pros and cons they come with.

Content Type Matters

The one-size-fits-all approach to translating and localising content doesn’t exist, it all depends on the type of content you want to produce and the resources you are willing to bring up. The criteria that need to be considered are speed, cost, the preservation of content style and intention, brand consistency, as well as the impact on conversion rates.

Supporting content

Supporting content encompasses text that supports your actual content regarding services and products, such as user reviews and knowledge base articles. If you are selling smartphones and matching equipment for example, you would want a high-end phone to be your premium content that you prioritise. Accessories, such as phone cords, do not require the same kind of attention. This would be a great place to save some money and speed up time-to-market for those items.

For this type of content it can be appropriate to choose machine translation which uses AI to directly translate text. It is an almost instantaneous process which is easy and affordable to scale. Advanced software provides Machine Translation tools that can be used to offer a first draft for internal people or professional translators to edit and revise. Thus, combining the speed of AI technologies with a human editing process. This includes light edits, such as removing offensive terms, adjusting currency, date formats, and local holidays. The range of usable scenarios for Machine Translation grows wider every day, so it is not a question of 'if', but rather 'how' you use this tool in your workflows.

General content

General content covers a wide array of things, such as your product catalogue and general text on your website. As suggested before, you can utilise the possibility for quick Machine Translation and a convenient revision system where you can make changes section by section. The best thing is that you can train a custom machine translation engine and this tool will learn from your edits and therefore further improve over time.

Compared to supporting content, we suggest spending a little more of your resources on this. By paying a slightly higher price per word, linguists will have more time to translate and localise your content, making it resonate with your customers in all of your target markets.

Premium content

Premium content includes your halo content and content with high visibility. The process for handling this type of content could involve a second person revising the text. The second linguist will read the already translated content as their source text and not just the target one. This four-eyes principle ensures high readability for your customers which will in turn increase trust among them and revenue for you.

A Success Story

Our customers have had great success by diversifying their translation methods as part of their localisation strategy. For example, one e-commerce business had three main content types to work with: SEO, product text, and user reviews.

SEO was established as premium content since it was of great importance for attracting new customers, further strengthening trust and lastly, impacting purchase decisions. A second linguist ensured high readability and their SEO resonated with their customers making it a great success for this e-commerce business.

We worked out a strategy with our customer where the product text was classified as general content. This type of output does not always require a second set of eyes. However, they chose to spend a little more of their budget on this than on the translation of their user reviews.

Their user reviews were viewed as supporting content. Even though this content is relevant, it does not make sense to spend the biggest chunk of budget on it. Instead, they opted for Machine Translation and an additional person making edits to the AI-created content. By having linguists spend less time on each segment, our customer was able to save a tremendous amount of money while still putting out adequate quality for this type of content.

Conclusion

To sum it up, you need to assess what type of content you are looking to publish. Next, you have to get a clear overview of your budget and how important the accuracy, cultural understanding and overall human feel is to your specific project.
Consider using the right digital solution that enables you to easily choose a mix of the different approaches, so that they fit the needs of each of your translation and localisation tasks.