Yes, you read that correctly. Now, allow us to show you why and develop more on the subject.
It is clear as day that with globalization taking the world by storm, the need for high-quality translations becomes mandatory for effective communication with the target audience.
Translators are becoming – slowly but surely, content owners and end-to-end content creators.
These language experts are the epitome of professionals, who interact with machines to transform their output into something not only useful, but also usable. They are the ones that have the extensive knowledge of multiple languages and cultures, they are the ones that bridge the gap between what technology can do with language and what we need language to do for us.
The visible shift towards translators becoming content owners is driven by the changing needs of business. From international negotiations to global marketing campaigns, to localization of content for different cultural contexts – translators are the ones in-the-know.
Now let’s take into consideration a business that intends to expand globally – a more than frequent situation nowadays. Beyond migrating the products and the business mission into another language, you’ll need marketing campaigns that are as convincing for the new market as a local business, if not, even more than the local one.
So how do you make sure that your messages are culturally appropriate and accurately understood? That’s right – you go to a translation company and ask for help. With their understanding of local customs and cultural nuances, they can help you craft the messages that resonate best with your newest audience and drive sales.
The translators will take the copy and seek to convey the same message in a different language, but more than that – they will make sure you get the same emotional impact translated as well. Machine translation is not particularly helpful when it comes to emotional impact, truth be told. They do not have the capacity to understand that a message is not just a message, it is more complex than that.
Marketers will understand this better than anyone: copy is not just for the sake of copy, it needs to be persuasive and at times challenging. Creating content that is tailored to the specific needs of a target audience in a new region is not an easy task. Yet, translators have the adaptability needed for this exact purpose.
They play an essential role in mission-critical scenarios where language barriers can make or break a deal.
They are more than just linguistic experts, they are heavily immersed in the culture and understand the business needs and the market needs in a simultaneous way, they have both the copywriting abilities and the cultural knowledge, on top of multiple languages mastery.
With translators turning into content owners, the payment model shifts as well. Traditionally, translators have been paid per word, which incentivizes speed and volume over quality. In today’s environments, transcreation – a freer, more creative approach becomes more important than volume and more relevant in this economic environment.
Businesses will require translators who can turn a copy into an impactful message while keeping the complexity of the need to drive sales.
The implications are profound, the older payment model becoming ineffective and frustrating for the creative translator. The solution that arises is payment by the hour, allowing for creativity and satisfaction of a job well done.
However, this shift is not without its challenges. Translators will need to be proficient in target language as well as have a creative copywriting style and immerse in the cultural nuances, they will need to be comfortable with the latest technology and approach the businesses in a collaborative manner to ensure the content is up to their needs.
Yes, translation is undergoing a major change and translators are coming more to the forefront of content creation. As it is evolving rapidly to a new and upscaled version, translators turn out to be the experts-in-the-loop that pretty much every business needs. In order to remain relevant, there is also a challenge for the translators to keep up with the pace and develop into content creators.