A translation budget is crucial these days. Many companies are expanding into new territories across their national borders. This means that translation of marketing materials, websites, blog posts, product guides, how-to’s, and other documents are essential. But in order to have an accurate Asian language translation, you need to set resources aside for your undertaking in order to ensure quality output. And the services of a professional are essential. Oftentimes, you’ll opt for a couple of quotes from different translation service providers and although it’s tempting to go with the cheapest option, you need to consider the quality aspects of your translation needs. In this blog post, we explore the importance of a translation budget as well as some tips and tricks on how you can optimize it. Let’s take a closer look.
Why is a translation budget important?
When you set out on a translation service for your company expansion goals or any other aspirations you may have, having a well-defined translation budget is essential. Why? There are several reasons. Firstly, you’ll need to know which department will be responsible for covering the translation costs. Secondly, you’ll need to be aware of whether the translation costs will form a part of the overall technical project budget. Next, there is the consideration of whether multiple departments will be sharing costs. And finally, you’ll need to determine how costs will be divided.
While these are more of a technical consideration, they are still essential questions whose answers you’ll need to clarify in order to get the most value for your money. In addition, once all of these questions have been dealt with and you have a budget, you’ll also want to choose an Asian language translation provider who will guarantee quality output. In some cases, this may cost more than the cheapest quote. But think about all the benefits of doing this. On the one hand, you’ll have better quality translations, which can result in better engagement with your customers. On the other, you’ll be able to penetrate new markets more seamlessly because of the localization that has taken place that takes cultural nuances into account.
Top tips and ideas for your Asian language translation project
So, with all this in mind, it’s crucial to optimize your translation budget. We all live in a world with limited resources and organizations are no different. Therefore, to ensure that your translation budget is used optimally, here are a few things you can do:
1. Use a professional translator
As a starting point, you’ll want to use the services of a professional company with an established industry reputation. Although it might be tempting to use a bilingual employee to carry out your translations, this can have negative consequences on your business. For example, they will not have adequate knowledge and know-how in terms of how to address certain more complex translation projects. Human error can easily creep in resulting in mistranslations or language faux pas, which can affect your brand. Furthermore, this employee may not have the technical vocabulary to carry out the translation work to its highest potential. And lastly, being employed in a specific department, the translation project will be a side gig that they are involved in and not a full-time endeavor. So, using employees is not ideal whereas using professional translation services is your best bet.
2. Plan ahead
Once you’ve decided that you’ll use the services of a professional translation company, you should consider planning your translation project well ahead of time to ensure that it will not be rushed and that you’ll get a high-quality output. In addition to this, also consider the fact that rushed jobs or those with tighter deadlines generally cost a lot more and you can really optimize your translation budget by simply having a clear outline of the time frame during which the translation is required and ensuring that you give the translating company sufficient time to carry out the project.
3. Use a project management system
Because of the large volume of work that companies will need to have translated into Asian languages, it’s crucial to use a project management (PM) system to keep track of each document and file and know exactly who is working on it, when, how long is left to the project’s completion, etc. If you don’t have a project management system, then utilizing a PM checklist can work just as well. This can help both you as the client and the entire translation team involved in your project keep solid track of the project’s development.
4. Make use of translation memory
If you plan on making use of the same language services provider for your translation project, one way to optimize your translation budget is to use translation memory. The consistency and efficiency of translation memory can help you not only significantly reduce costs but also ensure that you have high-quality Asian language translations every time.
5. Develop style guides and glossaries
Next up, and as you begin working with a translation services provider, it’s important to share your style guides and glossaries with them. This is going to lead to much more consistency across the various translations and will ensure that the potential back-and-forth between you and the translation services provider is kept to a minimum.
6. Bundle files together
Bundling files is another way to help optimize your translation budget. This is because you’ll be quoted on a larger chunk of documents as opposed to only one or two, and this can significantly reduce your overall costs. In addition to doing this, you should send final and not work-in-progress files, while also ensuring that you send the translation services provider editable files with which they can work.
7. Different strategies for different languages
All Asian language translation projects are not the same. This is because different languages will have different specificities and requirements as well as different cultural nuances that will need to be factored into the equation. Therefore, you need to have clarity about which languages you’ll need the source document to be translated into and what strategies you might employ for these languages.
A high-quality budget translation doesn’t have to be impossible
Your translation budget will dictate the quantity and quality of translation work that you need to achieve to help your organization grow and expand into new territories. However, with Asian language translation, it’s crucial to keep in mind that different strategies will be required for different Asian languages. In addition to all this, there are small but significant ways in which you can optimize your translation budget and we’ve covered some of these here. Overall, your starting point should be choosing the right translation services provider to offer you a professional and high-quality final product that you can implement in your marketing, sales, legal, business development, and other business areas.