When translating marketing materials for a new audience or market, you must be mindful that marketing translations come with the task of adapting the content in the new language. It’s important to understand that marketing translation involves not only using local idioms, vocabulary, and language; but also restoring the original oomph factor that your campaign conveys. A well-translated marketing material will evoke the right emotions without hampering the visual identity of your brand and will support the global journey to the target market. Website copy, social media campaigns, brochures, product catalogs, press releases, blogs, emails, and newsletters are some of the essential types of content where marketing translation services are required. In this translation blog post, we are going to focus on the translation of brochures, in what industries multilingual brochures are beneficial, and tips to keep in mind when creating a brochure that will require translation.
Brochure Translations
Brochures serve as a powerful sales tool. Translating brochures is a helpful way to convey your message to other customers and potential customers in their language of preference. Brochure translation must be done right to be effective. With businesses operating globally and multilingual clients at your fingertips, you need to deliver your brochures with perfection at the right time. Both brochures printed ready for consumption and electronic brochures on websites will give quick access to your products and services.
Industries That Benefit from the Use of Brochure Translations
If you cater to a multilingual clientele, you have to select the documents that will need to be translated. Chances are you will need your brochures in several languages. Translation services support many industries, in different functions of their business cycle. Below we present sectors that can benefit from the use of brochure translation services.
1. The Healthcare Industry
In bilingual or multilingual settings, medical translation is a crucial medical tool for the client and the healthcare service providers. Patients, regardless of the language they speak, have the right to access accurate information from their healthcare providers. Brochures are a great way to communicate information from services to hours of operation.
2. Travel & Tourism Industry
As more people travel abroad, translation has become a critical component of the tourism and hospitality sector. To pass information and attract attention, hotels, restaurants, and attractions need outstanding language services to persuade international visitors to come to visit and return in the future. Thanks to professional brochure translation services, tourism businesses can now provide an exceptional experience to their foreign clients with multilingual documents by explaining services, perks, fees, and features in a clear and structured way.
3. Global Service Providers like- Education, Finance & IT
Education & training lays a strong foundation for the progress of people and nations. Because knowledge should not be limited to a single language, translation services have become essential to the global education movement. Brochures for education are an excellent introductory tool to provide information about universities and online courses. The finance and banking industry is heavily reliant on translation services to reach world coverage. To serve a multilingual clientele, banks and other financial institutions must provide localized services. From ATMs in multiple languages to translated brochures about services and financial instruments, translation services are used daily in the financial sector. The bulk of tech companies work on worldwide projects and rely on translation services to achieve their objectives. Translation services assist businesses in reaching new audiences and providing a vast number of individuals with access to new technologies. As the global economy becomes more sophisticated, more information technology companies use multilingual communication and incorporate language services to stand out. From apps to new software and hardware, electronic versions and PDFs brochures are downloaded to obtain information about IT products.
Types of Files for your Brochure Translation Services
To work on the translation of your brochures, we can work with several document types like .doc (MS Word), .ppt (MS PowerPoint), .xlsx (MS Excel), .indd & .idml (InDesign), .ai (Adobe Illustrator). We can also work from a PDF, but to make your translated brochure as close to the original design, it is better to receive the source files that produce the PDF. While translating a PDF is possible, it is more efficient to work with the source document formats such as Adobe Illustrator or InDesign and avoid the work that comes with converting the PDF to an editable file. Our translation company employs CAT tools for translation work (the term CAT stands for Computer-Assisted Translation Tool) that allow us, among other functions, to work with different types of files and use an efficient and budget-friendly workflow. Work with a translation company with experience in Multilingual typesetting to ensure the final product of your brochure translation is flawless.
Tips to Translate Brochures
When you know, you are going to translate your brochures, you should create them with translation in mind. Below you will find a few tips to facilitate your brochure translations:
- Leave room for expansion: When translating brochures from one language to another, make sure your original text has room for expansion. Text expansion is a regular consequence of the translation process. Ex: If you are translating your brochure from English to Spanish, there is a chance of a 20-30% increase in the text. The same happens when you are going into French and German, while contraction of the space taken by the content could happen if your final language is Chinese Simplified.
- Create content with translation in mind: While creating your brochures and marketing materials, make sure that your message is clear, avoid double meaning, and do not play on words since clever or funny meanings could be challenging to translate into other languages and cultures. Use simple sentences and write for simplified the translation process.
- Localize the message and content of your brochure: Localize time and date formats, measurements, and weight measurements. Adapt expressions, examples, and taglines. Remember your translated brochure must read as it was written in the final language.
- Indicate your target audience: Your translation company needs to know your target audience so they can select the appropriate team of translators for your project. In a Spanish Translation, is your brochure going to be used in Mexico or Spain? If you are looking for a Chinese translation, are you looking for Traditional or Simplified Chinese? If it is Simplified Chinese, in which country is it going to be used? Find the exact information for your target audience, so your translated brochure is appropriate and done right from the beginning.
- Send source files for translations: Instead of a PDF, share the original source of your brochure, like InDesign or Adobe Illustrator files, as it makes the process easier, faster, and cost-effective.
- Make all the text editable. Avoid images or tables that are not editable since the content will need to be extracted for a complete brochure translation. Sometimes, recreating those images from scratch will take more time, and the results will not be identical to those in the English brochure.
- Avoid Idioms in your translations: Not everyone understands idioms; hence it’s safer to avoid using them while translating your brochures. Idioms are from a culture and sometimes are difficult to translate. It’s a piece of cake! Let the cat out of the bag!
- Review your Translated brochure Proofreading is often overlooked. But the final review of your translated documents after the language versions are created is an essential final activity to guarantee flawless content.
Spanish Translation for Brochures
Translating your brochure into Spanish will help you reach a broader audience in the United States and around the world. Spanish is of the six official languages of the UN, the second language in the US, and its ranking fluctuates between second and third as the most spoken language worldwide. While translating your brochure in Spanish, consider whether you are writing for a specific audience or neutral Spanish will work. Consider the design while translating brochures, as while translating from English to Spanish, the text expands and might need a change in the design layout, images, and graphics.
Brochure translation takes planning
Translating your marketing materials and brochures into multiple languages opens a floodgate of growth opportunities. Businesses need to create localized content that is easily adaptable to reach a wider audience, but planning and working with the right Language Translation Services partners is crucial for a successful translation of brochures in multiple languages.
