{"id":6564,"date":"2012-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2012\/10\/01\/translation-tips-for-direct-marketers\/"},"modified":"2018-10-01T19:07:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-01T19:07:25","slug":"translation-tips-for-direct-marketers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2012\/10\/01\/translation-tips-for-direct-marketers\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation Tips for Direct Marketers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>&#8220;The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning bug and lightning bolt.&#8221;<\/em> Mark Twain &#8211; US humorist, novelist, short story author, &amp; wit (1835 &#8211; 1910)<\/p>\n<p>Although you might not think of Mark Twain as a polyglot or linguist, supposedly he spoke French and German. If he owned a translation company today I am sure it would have a reputation for providing quality translation services, and would have a distinguished client list among direct marketing and interactive agencies. His quote about &#8220;the right word versus the almost right word&#8221; shows great insight into the primary challenge with translation, whether he intended to or not.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s honor Twain with a list of translation tips for those seeking to use the &#8220;right word&#8221;, and not &#8220;the almost right word&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h4>Translation Tips<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>It takes more than just translation &#8211; Copywriting + Translation = Transcreation<\/li>\n<li>Do not only translate but also &#8220;localize&#8221; (adapt) for international audiences<\/li>\n<li>Review content for, and learn about the cultural differences of your audience<\/li>\n<li>Translations should contain no grammar, typing or spelling mistakes<\/li>\n<li>Proofread, proofread, proofread<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t forget to include keywords in your copy (SEO). You need to be found to be read<\/li>\n<li>Develop a glossary of key terms before you start transcreating to ensure accuracy and consistency<\/li>\n<li>Decide how you will handle brand names in all global markets<\/li>\n<li>BEFORE launching a campaign, use trusted content reviewers in the target country to check translations<\/li>\n<li>When developing your headline, slogan or tagline, remember that alliteration, puns, double entendre and humor should be avoided as they may not work in the target languages<\/li>\n<li>Review the images\/graphics for cultural appropriateness. Some images may be offensive in certain markets<\/li>\n<li>Avoid complex sentence structure and vocabulary as this may not translate well or be received well<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that metric or currency conversions are consistent and correct<\/li>\n<li>Colors have different meanings in different countries (e.g. white means holy in the US and mourning in China)<\/li>\n<li>Check that terminology and style are consistent and appropriate throughout the translated documentation<\/li>\n<li>Standard\/Recurring phrases (e.g. Warning, Click on,) should be consistently translated throughout a document<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that capitalization and punctuation, particularly in numbered and bulleted lists, are applied consistently<\/li>\n<li>Check that all special characters, such as registered trademark \u00ae and copyright \u00a9 symbols, display and print properly<\/li>\n<li>Quotation marks are formatted according to the target language standards (for example &#8220;&#8221; or \u00ab\u00bb)<\/li>\n<li>Phone numbers and office addresses are correct for the target audience<\/li>\n<li>Date\/Time format and use of different calendars are appropriate for the target audience<\/li>\n<li>Leave plenty of white space. Non-English languages can, on average, take up 30% more space than English<\/li>\n<li>Use standard fonts that can handle all the characters of your possible target languages<\/li>\n<li>Bidirectional languages like Arabic and Hebrew need special layout consideration: they should be oriented in a right-to-left direction, including text, graphics, logos, special marks, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning bug and lightning bolt.&#8221; Mark Twain &#8211; US humorist, novelist, short story author, &amp; wit (1835 &#8211; 1910) Although you might not think of Mark Twain as a polyglot or linguist, supposedly he spoke French and German. If he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1366,53],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6564"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11765,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6564\/revisions\/11765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}