We’ve decided to ask our clients how translations help their business. Here are the results.
Laura, our new support chief is doing a round of interviews with ICanLocalize clients. We’re into the third week of interviews now. After talking with about half of the clients, we have interesting results to share.
Some of these case studies also make it into our blog.
Each interview starts with the usual questions:
- Everything OK?
- Need help with something?
Then, she gets down to business. Laura asks how translations are helping their sales, bringing real and immediate results.
We’re doing this to identify where people profit most from translation. This is important for us to know, so that we can focus our marketing on these sectors.
#1 – Software Developers
Software developers normally invest a lot into creating their products. It takes design, development, QA and testing to have a sellable product.
Marketing is often done purely via the web, so a website and blog play a crucial role.
For software developers, the cost of translation, compare to the cost of developing everything is marginal. As soon as they translate, their sales jump.
As reported, the most profitable languages are German, French, Spanish, Japanese and Russian.
For free apps, where profits are made indirectly, Chinese is also reported as a good candidate for translation.
#2 – Manufacturing
Some of our largest clients, in terms of translation-volume, are equipment manufacturers.
When you sell a machine for millions, even one sales justifies translating everything. And, in this market, everything means everything.
To get that sale, you have to translate website, the texts on the machine itself and all support documentation.
ICanLocalize is a great match for equipment manufacturers because we have both the technology to handle documents in many formats, and the QA process to guarantee flawless translations.
#3 – Tourism
Of course, if you’re running a hotel, you would expect guests from different places. Translating your site and other marketing material is absolutely required for getting that foreign business.
Doing your own translation and promoting your own multilingual site helps you avoid relying on third-party marketing. It’s great to have a network of foreign-language resellers, but you want to be the center – not them.
The Bottom Line – Will Translations Help Your Business?
In order to evaluate the return of investment from translation work, you should evaluate the breakdown of your expenses.
| Less Contents than Development – Good ROI from translation | Lots of Contents – Low ROI from translation |
|---|---|
 |
 |
In all the cases where we heard that translation is helping the bottom line, translation was a small cost relative to other expenses.
This means that investing in translation increased the overall expenses by a little, while driving new sales.
When the business revolves around contents, it’s more difficult to get good ROI. If you’re a professional blogger, or running a service-oriented business, translation may not be the best investment.
Thinking About Translation?
If you’re just thinking about it, you’re welcome to contact us. We can help you figure out if translation is the right thing for your business.