Telling customers to “eat your fingers off” was not what KFC had in mind when expanding into China with their “finger-lickin’ good” slogan. Language differences and cultural context seem to work hand in hand and never fail to embarrass some of the biggest and most notable companies.

While translation blunders are often funny, they don’t improve sales and may often hurt your marketing efforts. When expanding into new international markets, it’s best to avoid these translation problems in the first place.

Read on to learn what to do to make a first impression that will last. In a good way.

Avoid Using Machine Translations

While machine or bot translation is becoming better and better every day, relying fully on machine translation can hurt your marketing efforts. The result produced by machine translations are not always accurate and sometimes they are downright wrong or inappropriate.

The last thing you want when reaching out to a new demographic is to embarrass yourself with an inappropriate translation.

Become Culturally Aware

When it comes to marketing, being a native speaker of your target language is not enough. Find a translator who lives in the area where you will launch your marketing campaign.

A translator who lives amongst your target audience will have an immeasurable grasp on the local culture and social context to understand how your message will be received.

Understand Regional Dialects

Within all spoken languages, the dialect changes from region to region. There are 8 different dialects of Chinese spoken in mainland China alone. That’s not to mention the large population of Chinese speakers in neighboring countries like Singapore and Taiwan.

Potential customers can feel alienated if you attempt to market to them in a dialect that is not their own. They will get the feeling that the product or service is not intended for them, but for someone else in a different region of their country.

Never Skip Editing

This may seem like a no-brainer, but with all of the translation fails out there you’d have to imagine some of them could have been prevented with adequate editing and proofreading.

This is a simple step that should be included in your translation services. It may be beneficial to have another party edit your written marketing material as well, to catch anything that the translator may be unaware of.

Be Careful When Using Figures of Speech

When translating to a different language, avoid using figures of speech and other colloquialisms. The reason for this is that they are often backed by cultural context, which varies greatly around the world.

For instance, “break a leg” in English means good luck. Whereas telling someone to “break a leg” in another language may seem offensive and hurtful. Without cultural context, figures of speech are often lost and misunderstood when translated into foreign languages.

The difference can be detrimental to your marketing efforts.

Avoid Translation Problems

Investing in high-quality translation services will surely save you embarrassment and lead to the highest return. When reaching out to new foreign markets, it’s important to sound like those in your target market sound. Translation problems can be avoided with the tips in this article, so don’t take them lightly!

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