It’s understandable that businesses have budgets they have to keep top of mind. However, asking for a rate sheet and comparing your localization options by just analyzing their rate sheet may not be the best route to take when you start out on a localization journey. Why? Keep reading to find out.

What is a Rate Sheet?

A rate sheet is a document where a vendor lists how much a client would pay for a given service. In the localization industry, rates are usually expressed per word and per language pair.

Rate sheets can also include what the discount matrix for repetitions and fuzzy matches will be if the content can be worked on using a CAT Tool.

Reasons Not to Ask for A Rate Sheet

Now that you know what a rate sheet is, let’s look at some reasons why it’s not beneficial to ask for one.

Not All Projects are Created Equal

The truth is that each client brings a unique project to the table. In order to determine a fair rate for the work that needs to be done, it’s essential to dive deep into the project and for the localization partner to understand its specific needs before they can determine a rate.

A localization partner should analyze elements like type of content, volume, specialization, number of languages, rounds of edits and quality assurance, project management, format of the files, and deadlines in order to determine a rate. They would also take the need for a dedicated lead linguist and formatting and design requirements into consideration.

Rate cards don’t take the specific needs of a project into consideration. Some projects might require more steps than just translation. For example, creative projects that need transcreation or files with specific designs that need to be reformatted and adapted to suit the target market or the target audience.

The subject matter of the project is another important factor that may influence cost. It’s not the same to translate a legal contract that will require the use of specialized legal translators or an e-learning course that might need an experienced project management team that will know how to handle the different types of file format, the extraction of the content, and the localization of the content included in the course. Another example of this is when a video may require subtitling by a specialized audiovisual translator that knows about temporization and other specific rules that apply to that medium.

Rate Sheets are Vague

When you ask for a rate sheet, it won’t likely specify what is included within that rate. Numbers can be very misleading and while it may seem logical to choose the most affordable vendor in order to free up room in your budget, you need to make sure you don’t accidentally cut corners by doing this. You always want to work with professional and specialized translators.

Be very wary if the vendor you are choosing has low per-word rates, because that means they might not be working with native professional translators who are experts in the target market and industry, which is absolutely essential to get a good quality final product.

A serious partner would learn all about your project, ask about all key details, and then would create a customized proposal.

The Takeaway

There’s no formula for pricing a localization project. A project rate should always be calculated on a case-by-case basis. However, once a client becomes an established partner and they get thoroughly familiar with the type of content they work with, a customized rate sheet could be established for ongoing projects to facilitate budgeting and provide transparency to both sides.

The post 2 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Ask for a Localization Rate Sheet appeared first on Terra Translations.

Companies in need of localization services are always balancing these three important factors:

Quality

Quality is understandably a very sought-after quality in localization. The content that requires localization usually ends up in front of an end customer or user and it has the potential to generate more revenue for the company.

Presenting your audience with a high-quality product is more often than not the key to success within a market. In order to achieve quality, several steps need to be taken—from making sure you’re working with seasoned professionals, to working with the technology that reduces the chance for human error, to performing additional quality assurance steps.

In your pursuit of quality, you’ll quickly notice how quality impacts the two other factors you need to balance—speed and cost. When it comes to a quick desired turnaround, some things can’t be rushed and each step requires spending the appropriate amount of time on it to ensure quality. Achieving quality also involves choosing the right vendors, technology, and additional services, all of which can impact cost.

Speed

When it comes to turnaround times, your specific needs may vary. If you have an upcoming launch, you may have no choice but to meet a tight deadline. In this case, there are a few ways you could save time:

• You can skip the editing and quality assurance steps, but quality may be impacted
• You can hire multiple linguists, so that the work is finished sooner, but this leads to increased costs
• You can turn to machine translation, but if you also want to achieve quality, you will still need to have a human linguist perform post-editing

If, however, you’re not in a rush and have started analyzing your options with plenty of time, this won’t be a factor for you.

Cost

It’s very likely that you have a budget for your global growth strategy. Because of this, when contracting services, cost becomes a very important element.

If your budget is on the smaller side, omitting quality assurance steps will also allow you to cut down costs. The fewer people involved, the less expensive a localization project is. Who does the work also may affect your budget, as highly skilled professionals often have more expensive rates. If you’re looking for high-quality translations, we advise against employing a bilingual friend and skipping quality assurance steps.

Another cost-effective solution could be to use machine translation. Quality will most definitely be impacted by making this choice, but you can improve the quality of machine translated content with the help of post-editors who can make the necessary corrections to achieve a human-made translation level of quality.

The Takeaway

As we always say, localization shouldn’t be an afterthought. If global growth is in your business plans, think in advance what your priorities are so that these factors don’t weigh you down on your path to success.

The post How to Juggle Quality, Speed & Cost in Your Next Localization Project appeared first on Terra Translations.

Keep reading for insight into seven factors that can influence translation and localization rates.

Source Word Count

One of the main factors that influences pricing for translation or localization projects is the word count of the source document or the page count when the word count is not available (for example, in a scanned PDF). But in general, rates are always calculated per word and per language.

Languages and Specialties

Translating into some languages can be more expensive than others. This is because in some language combinations, professional translators are scarce. For example, translating English into Japanese may be less expensive than translating Vietnamese into Japanese. When English is involved, there’s a high chance the rate will be lower as there will be more availability of trained linguists.

Another aspect to consider here is the subject matter of the content. Highly specialized content will be more expensive to translate than something more general. For example, in the case of simulation video games, you may have farming simulators, fishing simulators, flight simulators, etc. So not only do you have to think about finding a qualified translator in a given language, you also need to consider the fact that they are trained in a specific field. Some specialties (particularly in a rare language combination) cost much more than others due to their technical nature or the scarcity of professional translators that have that unique expertise.

Timeline

How quickly the project needs to be completed also affects the rate. If there is a short timeline, the translator will likely have to work long hours in order to meet the deadline—which can increase costs. In the case of a very big project, the work will likely have to be managed by several linguists, and then reviewed by an editor or proofreader to make sure everything is consistent. There’s also the challenge of finding linguists that have the availability to work with a tight deadline.

Volume

Your project may consist of thousands of words or just a few lines. When the content that needs translation amounts to a few thousand words, the cost may be calculated using the final word count or the content may be run through a CAT tool in order to analyze how many matches or repetitions it has. Using CAT tools is a great way of optimizing a localization budget, as you will pay less for content that is repeated.

Typically, a CAT tool analysis report will divide matches into:

• 0 – 74 % Match
• 75 – 94 % Match
• 95 – 99 % Match
• 100 % Match and Repetitions

It’s worth noting that when you have a loose string of only a few words, a minimum flat rate may apply.

Desktop Publishing Needs

Your content may be a simple Word document with plain text or a highly formatted PDF with tables and graphics. If the intention is that the final document looks exactly the same, then a Desktop Publishing Specialist will need to work on all the non-editable images and adjust formatting so that everything looks polished. You need to be aware of the fact that some languages expand significantly. This means the exact original design will very likely not work for the translated version. A formatting fee may also apply depending on the characteristics of each project.

Quality Assurance Process

In the translation industry, the TEP (translating, editing, and proofreading) process is most often the standard approach to a translation or localization project. A translation plus an editing and proofreading step can guarantee a high-quality deliverable, but in some cases these three steps won’t be necessary and in others more QA steps are recommended.

For example, once the translation has undergone DTP, a Post Layout Review is recommended to make sure no typos or other issues (such as segmentation) were introduced during the design step. If you’re working with highly creative content, then doing a back translation to make sure the message intention is kept may be a good idea. Or in the case of a website a testing step where a linguist actually navigates the website like a user would and flags any instance where something is off can provide a lot of value.

Project Management

As you can see, translation projects are not as simple as they may seem at first glance. There are multiple aspects to be considered and a lot of coordination and management is required to execute a localization or translation project successfully. In projects that are big in volume, involve a number of languages, and have complex workflows, a project management fee may apply. This fee provides the translation team with the resources they need to bring a project manager on board to oversee the project and to ensure that the workflow runs smoothly.

The Takeaway

Translation prices and schedules are always project-specific. Discussing the characteristics of your project with your localization partner will guarantee that the rates you’re offered are in line with your project’s needs and provide a customized service.

The post How are Translation and Localization Project Rates Calculated? appeared first on Terra Translations.

What is culturalization and when is it needed?

Let’s start from the beginning. What is culturalization and when is it needed? Culturalization takes translation a step further to make linguistic and non-linguistic changes that can make an impact. This may include changing imagery, colors, jokes, music, or cultural references to better suit a target audience.

Some real-life examples of culturalization can be seen in the video game Age of Empires and the movie Inside Out. In 1997 Age of Empires was released and featured a historical event in which Japanese forces from the Yamato dynasty invaded the Korean peninsula and took over the Joseon Empire during the Middle Ages. The problem? While the majority of historians believe this event occurred, the Korean Ministry of Information claims it never happened. In order to launch this game successfully in Korea, Microsoft had to decide if they would change history in order to make their game appeal to this new target audience or maintain historical accuracy. In the end, Microsoft’s solution was to release a Korea-only patch that changed that specific scenario to having the Joseon Empire invade Japan (which never happened).

In the film Inside Out, a father tries to feed his toddler broccoli but the child dislikes it. This is a relatable and funny scene in the US where many kids don’t like broccoli. However, in Japan, children don’t have the same dislike of broccoli, but they do dislike bell peppers. In the Japanese version of the movie, the broccoli was swapped with bell peppers to make the scene as impactful in Japan as it was in the US. Including broccoli in the Japanese version of the film wouldn’t have caused offense, but it also wouldn’t have had as much of an impact. These two examples show the different solutions culturalization can bring to the table.

How culturalization improves ROI

If we want to discuss culturalization ROI, what we really need to consider is whether building relationships with customers and strengthening a bond with them really impacts your ROI in the long run (this is known as “relationship marketing”). Understanding the culture and values of an audience, as well as what drives potential clients in a certain market becomes crucial if you want to create a bond with them and nurture those relationships.

If your product does not take into account the particularities of a target audience, no matter how good the product is, it has very little chance of being successful. This is because two things can occur. It can fall flat or it can cause offense unintentionally—either way it fails.

Why Culturalization and Not Just Translation

When you incorporate culturalization into your global expansion strategy, you’re making sure that your product will be well-received and you won’t be getting yourself in trouble. Essentially, culturalization sets your product up for success.

The whole point of culturalization is adapting content to appeal to specific markets and cultures. If you stop at the translation or localization step, you may discover that your content or product is not attractive to a given audience and therefore your efforts have been in vain. Yes, they will be able to understand it, but they won’t be motivated to engage with it in a meaningful manner. Especially not to an extent that will make them want to continuously consume your content or buy your product.

The Takeaway

If your content is good and is culturally appropriate, chances are you’ll get more clicks, more conversions, and ultimately a good ROI. Additionally, you will have strengthened your brand, as well as gained loyal customers that can become your local advocates everywhere. All of which can help you find global success.

The post Does Culturalization Impact ROI? appeared first on Terra Translations.

Keep reading for insight into how to find a potential target audience. 

Embrace Analytics

One major perk of living in a digital world is that researching your target audience is easier than ever before. Thanks to technology we now have access to valuable analytics that can provide us with insight into our target audience. 

To start, take a look at your website and social media channels analytics to see who is spending time on your website or looking at your content. You might find that people in your region or country make up the majority of the traffic, but you may also find people in foreign countries are visiting your site and that there might be an opportunity to expand to a new target market.

For websites, Google Analytics offers a free and very powerful suite of data analytic tools you can utilize. You can see where your website visitors are coming from, where they live, which pages they visit most frequently, how long they’re spending on your site, and what their demographics are—amongst other important data. When it comes to social media, most platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all offer free analytic tools that give you insight into who your followers are and how they’re interacting with your social media profiles. 

Tapping into the data surrounding where your audience is coming from can help you find what regions your business appeals to. Then you can create a localization strategy that allows you to better service that specific audience. For example, if your website is getting a ton of traffic from a region or country that speaks a different language than your website is displayed in, you may want to invest in localization and international SEO to attract even more visitors from that region. 

Do Market Research

Once you have an idea of where a target audience is located, you can do market research to determine if these markets are truly viable and a good fit for your product or service. You can do this by researching how a new target market differs from one you’re currently serving successfully. 

When researching a new target audience, try to dig up the following data points about that specific audience:

• Market conditions
• In-demand products or services
• Average purchasing power and income
• Barriers to entry
• Local laws and regulations
• Cultural norms
• How your business stands out from competitors servicing that audience

Determine Whether Translation, Localization, or Transcreation is Needed

If a new target market you want to tap into speaks a different language, you need to determine whether you need to pursue translation, localization, or transcreation to ensure that your products and customer communications better resonate with this new audience. Even if the new audience is in the same region as another one of your existing audiences, you’ll need to confirm whether or not the new audience speaks a different variant of the language your existing audience speaks and adjust your communications accordingly.

The post How to Find a Potential Target Audience appeared first on Terra Translations.

1. Use Technology to Your Advantage

When it comes to your localization budget, technology is on your side. While technology can’t quite replace a human touch, it can help your localization expert do their job more efficiently and accurately. From translation management systems (TMs), to CAT tools, to quality assurance tools, you can make it easier for your localization team to do their jobs, which can save you money in the long run. 

For example, CAT tools are an asset that can make localization work faster and easier, as they can help your localization partner increase their productivity, catch mistakes, achieve consistency, and eliminate repetitive translations. A CAT (computer assisted translation) tool accomplishes this by segmenting the text that requires translation and then presents the segments in a way that is easier to translate, which saves the localization expert time and potentially saves the client money. 

Similarly quality assurance tools can scan bilingual files to look for linguistic and formatting errors, which is especially helpful when performing a final review on a large project with a lot of text or files to review. A quality assurance tool can also help uncover and remedy inconsistencies among files translated or edited by different teams of vendors.

2. Create and Maintain Valuable Resources

Creating a term base, translation memory, and style guide can save a lot of time and confusion. All brands have their style and terminology preferences. By keeping an up-to-date term base, translation memory, and style guide, your localization partner will have the tools they need to do their job correctly from the get-go. When you have and maintain these resources, you’ll save time and money by not needing to answer unnecessary style and term questions and by not having to clean up easily avoided mistakes later. 

3. Take Time to Understand the Needs of the Project 

Before you dive into a project, and allocate where your budget will go, spend some time really getting to know the needs of the project. Spending time upfront planning project costs can help you avoid expensive surprises down the road. 

Do a deep dive into the project requirements. For example, you need to know if the project requires that your team do additional quality assurance checks or if the document requires that a specialist works on the layout so that the final translated document looks exactly like the original (also known as DTP). If you’re unclear on project requirements from the beginning, the project may be misquoted, and you’ll find that additional costs will be necessary later. 

If you’re unsure of what you need to do to make the project a success, talk to your localization partner, they will know how to establish the right workflow.

The post How to Optimize Your Localization Budget appeared first on Terra Translations.

Sometimes, risk management is an overlooked subject, but it’s crucial in any workflow. Project Managers, Account Managers and Quality Assurance Managers, instinctively or not, all acknowledge that some situations may pose more risks than others (e.g. a very tight deadline), and they take actions to mitigate them. Risk management is the process of managing intentionally and systematically the uncertainties that may occur during the course of a project.

Definitions and Types

Risk management implies dealing proactively with uncertainties before they happen. Technically, reacting to a risk after it occurred is not risk management. Identifying and foreseeing possible setbacks allow leaders and managers to come up with the best strategies and solutions to increase the likelihood of project success.

But what is a risk? According to the Project Management Institute, risks are uncertain events that can have a positive or negative effect on at least one project objective. There are different types of risks:

• Technical Risks, which are related to the technical aspects of a project, like requirements, software or quality.
• External Risks, which depend on agents that are not under the scope of the organization, like vendors, suppliers, market fluctuations or natural disasters.
• Organizational Risks, which are related to the way a team organizes its workflows and operations.
• Project Management Risks, those related to the potential setbacks regarding estimating, planning, communicating and/or controlling the course of a project.

A Proactive Framework

A systematic understanding of the processes managers are involved in nurtures the framework that strongly supports the daily operations within an organization. Part of this background are the actions that can mitigate and reduce projects’ risks. It’s important to point out that risk management is an integral approach that not only involves Project Managers, but rather the entire organization.

Typically, risk management implies three main actions. First, managers identify risks and assess the likelihood and potential damage of each, which helps them prioritize and address the most relevant ones. Once these steps are done, the team puts together a plan to respond to the identified risks.

Being aware of the types of risks and the possible scenarios where they emerge, and having a proactive approach to them, is an integral part of the job of any translation team. The more systematic and organized the commitment to risk management is, the more successful and experience-driven any localization workflow will be.

The post Risk Management in Localization: Managing Resources, Budget and Uncertainties appeared first on Terra Translations.