ROI for Translation ServicesWhen you first decide to offer your product or service in another language or in another country, the cost of the translation services can seem prohibitive. While a small brochure-type website can be translated for a few hundred dollars, the cost of localizing software into another language, including help files, user manual, website, FAQs, etc., can reach thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
How do I get over 10,000 visitors a month to this site and earn a nice supplemental income? Read the story here... To save time and money, try my free Translation Quote Request Service. You can fill out your project description once, and receive quotes from five quality translation agencies that I pre-selected for their excellent servic and high quality. Of course, you’re asking yourself if that money would be wisely spent. As you probably expected, there is no easy answer to this. However, your company may fit into one of the following scenarios:
You are a manufacturer and sell hard goods through retailTo enter a foreign market, you have to find distributors, get legal advice, tax advice, and finally market your product. Among all these, the cost of translation services is probably relatively small. Due to the other investments you have to make in this venture, it is even more important for you to get high-quality translation services because a poor translation of your marketing material and user manuals may ruin all your other investments. Also, the cost of the translation services is probably relatively small compared to your development cost.
If you are looking for a translation agency for your translation services, read this article first (includes a list of recommended agencies): Translation Services: Choosing a translation agency to do the job right You sell goods through an online store and deliver internationallyIn this case, the translation services you need depend on whether you manufacture your own goods or have a resale site. If you manufacture your own goods, you need to translate the user instructions, packaging, etc. first. If you resell goods, the work may have already been done for you (the manufacturer provides multi-lingual instructions) or be unnecessary (you sell music CDs online). In this case, all you’re concerned with is translating your website and market it in the target language. The cost can be reasonable for a small website selling few products or enormous if you sell thousands of products.Still, the potential for profit is great: You suddenly reach a target audience that never knew about you because they don’t speak English or, if they do, simply surf the web in their own language. (You may already have an idea about which language would be most profitable for you by international orders you receive through your English website.) Since there are far fewer Spanish, German, French, etc. sites than English sites, you also stand a much better chance of being placed highly in search engines and directories. You have to take into consideration the international shipping cost that may deter some customers from ordering. However, if you sell a product that’s not readily available in the target country, this might not be a problem. And if you do get a significant number of orders through your site, you may later opt for using a local fulfillment house to safe on shipping costs. Even though it may cost you a few thousand dollars to translate your website into another language, this cost can probably be recovered quickly.
You sell software available for downloadThe cost of localizing the software with help files and translating your website may range anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. The good news is that the translation services are the only real cost and will open large new markets that you wouldn’t reach otherwise. You are probably already selling your software internationally and know from your orders which language has the greatest potential. Expect international sales to increase greatly for any language that you make your website and software available in.You may want to think about if you’d be able to offer technical support in other languages. If support is only available in English, this may deter some customers. However, you will still reach a much larger audience than if your website and software were only available in English. This is especially true because most Internet users, even if they speak English reasonably well, will search the web in their mother tongue first, and your English site will not show up in their search results. For information on how to choose a translation agency and a list of recommended agencies, read the following article:
Translation Services: Choosing a translation agency to do the job right
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