Seeing Your Competitors Grow in Global Markets And Want to Know their Secret? It’s Probably Online Translation
Founding a startup is a tough challenge and every hurdle you overcome in the process seems that much taller than it would be for an established company. Global growth is no exception.
What Drives Global Growth for Businesses?
Global growth is often thought to be driven by creating offices and teams in new locations across the world. While this can be a viable option for enterprise-level companies, for startups this can sometimes seem out of reach. Online translation provides the opportunity for startups to reach their designated foreign markets with the resources they have available, without compromising on the level of services they offer.
What Challenges do Startups Face When Expanding into Foreign Markets?
A shoestring budget, limited resources, and a faced-paced environment are three elements you will find in almost every startup, and they present unique challenges to global growth.
With the vast majority of startup funds, 82 percent coming from founders themselves, it’s vital to know that every penny is being well spent and there is no room to blow huge budgets on global campaigns.
Startups often don’t have the internal structure that established companies do. As a founder, you probably wear many hats, taking on roles varying from product development to marketing and sales.
With no expert or defined department for things such as human resources or marketing—which many businesses consider essential to their day-to-day running—how can you be expected to have a dedicated localization team in-house?
Startups are often founded on groundbreaking and disruptive ideas—sometimes to very niche audiences—and, to survive, they therefore need global expansion. Without an internal localization team and an established HQ in the countries you are trying to bring your product to, how can you connect with these audiences? Through translated content.
Online content translation and localization are a driver for growth that can see massive returns in startups while also coming in on budget and meeting deadlines. You can connect with new customers in a personal way, with tailored content that will resonate and build trust with foreign audiences that might have different behaviors or expectations than your home base.
Using a Translation Agency to Ensure Quality Translations
A translation agency can cut out a lot of the stress startups have over translating their content. You get access to a team of specialized linguists without the hassle of having to interview and hire in-house. Many agencies will have previous clients as references and example portfolios on their site, giving you an extra reassurance that they can meet the deliverables you need and provide high-quality content every time.
The network of specialists you are immediately linked into means you get options for multiple languages without having the problem of creating consistent content by using multiple sources through freelancers or hired in-house staff.
Thinking About Hiring a Translation Agency? Here are 40 Questions to Expect.
How Online Translation Will Drive Your Startup’s Global Growth
Working at a startup means you always have a million and one things on your mind. So how can online translation work for you in a way that feels efficient and meets your needs?
Scalable Solutions to Your Global Growth
Startups grow at a rapid scale. Your content needs aren’t going to be the same six months from now that they are today. Online translation, through an agency, means that as your workload grows, translation services can be scaled to match.
A network of international native speakers and localization experts allows you to create content in the languages you need without having to put your expansion into that market on hold while you try to find the right translator for the job. As soon as you need your content in new languages, an agency will be able to accommodate because they will have a trusted translator already on their team.
Using Automated Translation Processes That Integrate into Your Content Creation
With the limited resources you might have, maximizing your efficiency is one of the keys to your success and survival. You need to know that if you trust a translation company with your content, they will be able to work seamlessly within your already defined processes, rather than create obstacles and slow your work down.
Seamless integrations can often be created by translation companies either through your CMS or their own API to increase efficiency and allow for easy workflow and communication. No one wants to be waiting around for emails to get responded to, hoping they haven’t ended up in someone’s junk mail, slowing down a project. With API integrations, you can select the pages, posts, or fields you’d like to translate and send them to your translation company from your back office.