How deep should your translation strategy go?

In the past, key decision-makers in a business would often view translating content for new international markets as a frustrating, additional expense. Today, however, more and more enterprises are recognizing localization as an excellent opportunity for brand growth – with a strong translation strategy enabling them to reach more customers than ever before.

That being said, the cost of localization should not be ignored, and businesses should always strive to ensure that translation is delivering a good return on investment. This raises an important question: how much translated material do you actually need? Or in other words, what level of translation will deliver the optimal ROI?

Companies often segment international markets according to their potential size and profitability. For instance, if 50% of all products are shipped to China while only 5% are shipped to Norway, then China would constitute a larger market than Norway.

This can be a handy guide for determining how much translated material you need for any given region. The bigger the market, the more value you are likely to receive for high-quality translated content. To use our previous example, a large market like China might qualify for translated brochures, product descriptions, website, and videos, while a smaller market like Norway might only justify translated brochures.

Naturally, some content is more useful to consumers and will generate more value through translation than others. We recommend prioritizing content that falls into the following categories:

In our experience, the best way to determine which content is the most valuable is to perform a detailed analysis of your data so that you can make informed decisions to optimize your global content strategy.

Whereas depth refers to the quantity of content that you localize for a particular market, breadth is the number of languages that you are targeting. When it comes to allocating budget for your translation strategy, you might have to choose between going deeper on an existing language or adding a new region. CSA Research has found that translating core content for an additional market will typically deliver greater value than localizing low-traffic content for an existing language.[1]

[1] CSA Research, How Deeply Should you Localize?, p.6.

In our book Global Content Quest you will learn about the 3 major problems in the translation services industry that you can overcome by implementing a good global content strategy.