Find the Best Translation Agency for Your Business
Finding a professional and experienced translation agency that can accurately translate and localise your particular materials and documents into the required languages can be essential for your company’s success on the international scene.
In a highly globalised and competitive marketplace, businesses must thoroughly plan their expansion to increase their chance of success in a foreign market.
If a business wishes to benefit from lucrative markets, it must establish stronger business relations – with clients and international partners. But how can you actually increase your chances for success in a foreign country? The answer is simple – approach the new market and audience in their native language.
Translation services are integral to successful businesses as they significantly improve work relations through effective and accurate communication. Therefore, consulting certified translation service providers can help you form a business footprint in international markets.
When searching for the best translation agency for your business to work with, it’s crucial to focus on these 8 aspects:
- They can localise
- They have industry expertise
- They have quality assurances
- They can provide contextual information
- They are easy to communicate with
- They have good reviews & feedback
- They use a style guide
- They work with certified translators
The importance of making the right choice
According to language industry research, the translation industry grew to 24.2bn (USD) in 2019 due to the globalisation of the world economy. Due to differences in global markets, international markets have a broad range of clientele.
A business must convert its documents and communication to the highest possible quality of accuracy to increase its chances of global success. Generally speaking, this is only possible by working directly with a translation or interpreting agency. This is why choosing the best translation company for highly accurate translations is vital. But how do you find and choose the best translation services in the UK which will be able to meet your specific needs?
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1. Ensure the Translation Agency Can Localise
A translation service agency should be able to translate content and localise it for a foreign market. Accordingly, cultural awareness of native translators is of utmost importance in the translation industry.
Native translators understand the core task and how to translate and convey your message as accurately as possible without it looking like a simple word-for-word translation. Instead, it will flow due to their local knowledge.
It’s important to remember that a more complex translated piece of content, such as marketing copy, will not be accurate without localisation. This is because the audience across the world uses different phrases for different expressions.
For example, Brazilian Portuguese does not use the same speech expressions as European Portuguese. Therefore, your best bet is to work with a translation service provider that can understand this and localise your content for a more accurate translation.
2. Translation Companies Should Have Industry Experts
Some translators may lack knowledge about specific fields. However, a reputable translation agency will have translators who specialise in certain industries, whether medical, legal, marketing, website, etc.
Such translators can better provide more accurate translations at a native level by utilising proper terminology and their expertise and background knowledge.
Besides this, they have cultural awareness, which helps them produce a professional translation in the target language. Consequently, you are better off consulting a translation service with a team of expert translators who are degree qualified and can tackle a variety of subject matters.
3. Ensure the Translation Service Provider Has a Quality Assurance Process
While humans are prone to making mistakes, a good translation agency also utilises quality assurance to detect errors in translation. This can come in the form of second proofreading and sometimes even via a third proofreader.
The best translation service providers inform their clients upfront of the benefits of having an additional proofreader so they can review the translation to ensure quality and accuracy.
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4. Provide Contextual Information
While a translating company’s job is to provide officially certified translations, you must also help the team of translators to create high-quality translations.
As a client, you should provide complete contextual information. For example, let your Account Manager know about your target audience, content type, style, and tone of the translation you are going for. These will all assist the team in getting a translation to you that suits your company best.
Providing contextual information to your translator will help them produce more localised content with better accuracy.
5. Actively Communicate with Translators and Account Managers
You can have the most accurate translations through active communication with your translation service provider. Make yourself available to answer the questions that will come up, especially in a more complex project that is being translated into multiple languages.
Such collaboration will help your translator produce accurate translations according to your business requirements.
6. Look Into the Reviews & References
Reviewing client feedback and asking for testimonials is wise if you have trouble choosing the right translation service provider.
Check if the translation service provider you are interested in working with has provided translations in your niche. It will help you better understand their work quality and accuracy.
Looking into reviews and testimonials will also help you understand if the agency delivers its work on time, so you do not miss important deadlines as well as many important factors like quality. Customer testimonials provide an accurate review of a service’s professionalism.
These tips will ensure that the company you plan on working with is legitimate and has a good reputation in the translation industry.
7. Use a Style Guide
Style guides carry the necessary information for translators. It includes the language usage, orthography, and composition required by your business.
A style guide will provide the translation team with an insight into your vocabulary choice, punctuation, grammar, and reading level.
Moreover, some people require a casual tone while others need to communicate formally. Therefore, you must add specifications to your style guide.
For example, if you want a formal tone, you can tweak the style guide to help the team of translators manage your project as you have intended. Style guides will also help in ensuring that the translations are consistent.
8. Ensure the Translators Are Certified
For your documents to be officially recognised, they must be translated by professionally certified translators.
When looking for a translation company to partner with, ensure that the translators translating your content are officially accredited by legalised institutions, such as the Association of Translation Companies (ATC), Institute of Translators and Interpreters (ITI), or CIOL (Chartered Institute of Linguists).
EXPERT’S TIP: Want to learn more about certified translation services? Make sure to read our expert’s in-depth article here!
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About TS24
Translation Services 24 (TS24) is an expert translation agency in London with expert translators in over 200 languages. We work with clients in all corporate and public industries and specialise in sector-specific linguistic solutions. With over a decade of experience in the industry, 15+ million words converted every year and 100,000+ projects completed, TS24 is a leading provider of expert translations and interpretation services and an officially certified member of the ATC. Contact TS24 here. You can also read all of our recent articles here.
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