Five ways to use translation to connect with your customers

When you run a small business, the way that you connect with your customers is everything. Provide outstanding, memorable service and you have the potential to build a loyal-long-term customer base. Mess up and you can quickly find your reputation trashed on social media. When you bring multiple languages into play, you have the potential to connect with new audiences, with the same focus on quality as you prioritize in your native tongue – and that’s where professional translation services come in.

In this article, we’ll run through five ways that your small business can use translation to connect with customers – and why doing so is so important.

Advertising and professional translation services

Delivering your services in another language can mean more customers and more profits. 41 million people speak Spanish natively in the US. So, if you translate your company website from English to Spanish, you can suddenly reach out to 41 million additional customers. And what small business wouldn’t want that?

Advertising is one of the most traditional ways to connect with customers in a way that truly encapsulates your brand and products. When you want to advertise in a different language, you’ll need professional translation services with experience in this area. Ofer Tirosh, CEO of language services provider Tomedes, explains:

“Advertising is a very subtle and nuanced art, so small businesses need to work with language specialists who understand that and who can both translate and localize their adverts. That localized focus is essential – without it, adverts can easily miss the mark when translated for new audiences.”

Social media in translation

Social media sites are key to the success of many small businesses. Do you advertise on Facebook and sell through its social commerce functionality? Or perhaps showcase your Insta-worthy products to try and connect with customers? However you tackle it, social media has huge potential when it comes to spreading awareness of your brand.

If you want to connect with speakers of foreign languages on social media, you might be forgiven for thinking you can just use the platform’s inbuilt translator. While this is technically an option, the quality of machine translation falls below the standard of human translation. If you’re trying to connect with customers, use professional translation services to work on your message if you want to create the right impression. Remember to keep the agency on hand to help translate the responses to your social media engagement campaign as well!

Localized competitions

Competitions and giveaways can be an excellent way to attract people to your brand. A few well thought out prizes (they don’t have to be overly expensive) can lead to a frenzy of liking and sharing on social media.

A huge range of options exists when it comes to engaging customers through competitions and, to a certain extent, the nature of your small business and your products will determine your approach.

If you want to run your competition in multiple languages, it shouldn’t take long to set up. You can simply ask your translation company to deliver the materials you’re going to use in your native tongue in whichever other languages you need. Then you’re ready to start building up customer engagement in multiple languages at once. Just be sure that you translate the competition rules as well, to ensure that everything is fair and above board!

Multilingual customer support

Did you know that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more if it means they’ll get a better customer experience? This highlights the value of putting good customer service at the core of your small business, whether for potential customers or existing ones. It’s a simple concept really: give your customers a service that delights them and they’ll keep coming back for more.

Delighting your customers in other languages is just as important. You can do so in various ways. Any routine emails that you send can easily be translated, as can your website. You can also buy in a range of customer support services, from live chat support in multiple languages to a fully outsourced service that includes telephone support in the languages you need. You can, of course, also use professional translation services to support your customers in other languages on an ad hoc basis. Again, your individual company’s circumstances and the nature of your products or services (as well as your budget) will determine your direction of travel in this area.

Using professional translation services to engage with influencers

Social media influencers can do much to promote a brand. If you’re looking to enter a new marketplace and don’t speak the language, then engaging successfully with influencers can be a great way to get your product in front of their audiences. Simply write out your approach in your native language, then use a translation company to convert it into the language you need.

We’ve rattled through quite a few ways to connect with your customers in different languages here. You’ll need to think about how far your budget for professional translation services will stretch before you start commissioning work. How much is translation per hour? That will depend on the language(s) you plan to use and, to a degree, any specialized jargon that you need to be translated.

With the right professional translation services on board, you can connect with customers in multiple ways, building up a solid customer base and boosting the income of your small business substantially.