You are finally ready to enter the Italian market: you found your distributor partner for the logistics part, took care of the legal aspects and set up a marketing strategy. What about your online and offline content? It’s essential to adapt it to your target audience’s language and culture, otherwise, all your marketing efforts could not work. Hence, you should find your ideal translation partner.
The Language Industry
The translation industry is dedicated to facilitating multilingual communication through activities such as translation, localization, interpretation, subtitling, dubbing, teaching and consulting.
The main characters are LSPs (Language Service Providers) and freelance translators. There are very big agencies, boutique ones and solopreneurs which offer similar or different types of services.
Start here: Where to find your translation partner
Where should you look for your future translation partner?
1) Referrals
Ask your colleagues or friends if they can recommend to you someone they trust.
2) Google
You’ll find a few agencies on page 1 but remember: the ones that can afford bigger investments aren’t automatically the best on the market.
3) LinkedIn or other social media
Lots of agencies and translators have professional accounts where you can see their experience, visit their website, read their posts and see how they interact with customers or potential clients.
4) Professional associations
Language associations (such as ITI, CIOL, ATA, AITI, and APTRAD just to name a few) offer a directory where you can find your perfect match. Members must adhere to a code of conduct and show certifications and/or experience.
Who is the best translation partner: an LSP or a solopreneur?
When it comes to choosing between a freelance translator or a translation agency, there are pros and cons to consider and you need to think about your needs and goals.
Do you need:
To translate your content into several languages?
If you want to translate your content into one or just a few languages, you can rely on a solopreneur. Freelance translators usually translate into their mother tongue(s) and collaborate with colleagues that can cover other language combinations.
Otherwise, if you need to translate your content into all the EU languages, you should choose an LSP that can provide lots of language combinations.
A specialist in a specific topic or niche?
Most translators specialize in a specific niche or topic, so they can be matter experts and truly understand your product or service and target market.
If your needs embrace many different topics, you should work with a translation agency that can cover lots of different industries at the same time.
A desktop publishing specialist, subtitling, voice-over or other services as well?
Maybe you should consider working with a translation agency which can also provide this kind of service apart from linguistic ones. However, you can also ask a freelance translator if they offer the type of service you need.
To communicate directly with your translator?
There are no intermediaries between you and a freelance translator; the communication is more straightforward and more immediate with less chance of misunderstanding. You can also create a long-term, personal relationship with someone who can learn all the ins and outs of your target audience and your product or service, ensuring consistency in your content.
If you rely on a translation agency, you are usually in contact with a project manager or an account manager who takes care of your needs. Different translators can work on your content and this can affect the consistency of the style of your texts.
To translate tons of words with a very tight deadline and quality results?
You can’t have both!
Translation requires time and precision. A freelance translator will try to meet your deadline but, if that impacts the quality of their work, they will offer you other solutions. An LSP can rely on a bigger pool of linguists so they can translate a greater amount of material in a shorter amount of time.
However, watch out for providers who offer you “quality” services for peanuts within a very short deadline: it’s too good to be true!
If you need any help reaching out to your Italian target audience, just send me a message. Let your brand shine!