The internet has made it easier than ever for businesses to connect with new customers around the world. But the question of language is just as important as any other aspect of international expansion. In this blog, we’ll explain why language is at the core of global growth.

When it comes to expanding internationally, there are many pressing and often complex issues that need to be addressed before the topic of language even comes up. However, language plays a vital role in all aspects of business operations, whether domestically or internationally. From legal and compliance, to HR and contracts, content, digital marketing and beyond, language is at the heart of all business operations.

Whether it’s your brand identity, corporate vision, service offerings, or contractual terms, the way you interact with your customers, employees, vendors, partners, and others is the foundation of your company’s performance in any industry. The challenge for any organization is to bring the approach that worked so well in the local market, language, and culture to a broader audience—and do so in a language and culture that your core team doesn’t speak or understand.

Translation, Localization, and Transcreation: What is the Difference?

While design also plays an important role in brand equity, it’s the language that you use to reach, engage and educate your target audience that sets the tone for customer retention and business growth. Of course, the language you’re using to market your brand or products and services in English isn’t going to “work automatically” in your target markets. That’s when localization and transcreation come into play. Generally speaking, translation replaces one language with another by substituting words or text in the target language for the same phrasing or terminology. Localization takes this a step further by converting the content and messaging in one language to another. For example, you could convert U.S English to British English, or Spanish between Spain and Mexico or other Spanish-speaking countries or regions. Transcreation, on the other hand, takes the whole concept of the content and makes it culturally sensitive and commercially viable in your target market.

In short, translation delivers a localized language version of the words as they were written; localization ensures the content aligns with the local audience’s expectations; and transcreation makes sure the messages behind each word resonate with customers from different cultures in their local languages.

How to Create a Language Plan for Your Company

Ideally, any company thinking about becoming global should take language into account right away. Fortunately, even if foreign activities have already started, it is never too late to get started.

Step 1: Prioritize Your Work: Not every market or language will be the same. You will be able to deliver the most economical language strategy for each target location and local audience by evaluating opportunities and scaling appropriately. This is applicable to all industries, regardless of whether you operate in non-regulated fields like media, retail, travel, and entertainment or regulated fields like healthcare, insurance, or education.

Step 2: Identify Content: Take into account every kind of content your company uses, ranging from materials intended for customers to records and information utilized by the legal, HR, and compliance departments. Obtaining source materials of all content kinds and formats in advance can help you make more informed decisions about what content to translate, localize, or transcreation, as well as create a production schedule that works.

Step 3— Find the right partner: Your first instinct may be to work with your local teams to deliver translated and localized materials, or maybe you don’t even know that there’s a whole industry of LSPs that provide services to companies like yours! By outsource your language tasks to a specialized LSP, such as BIG Language Solutions, you’ll be able to provide high-quality, timely translations of your content marketing, your websites, your legal/compliance, your intellectual property, your eLearning materials and more. Choose an LSP that can support you through every step of your language journey, whether it’s design, formatting or multimedia capabilities, not just language skills.

Language enables businesses to enter international markets with greater effectiveness, but it’s also important to make sure
 that content is properly localized if you want to realize the full growth potential of your company.

Working with a specialized LSP will help you make sure your brand resonates with your target consumers, comply with 
all applicable rules and regulations, and match your language strategy with your overall company 
objectives. Get in touch with us now to learn more.