How has your business fared during the pandemic? The London business community has been hit hard by the economic fallout, so if you’re searching for solutions to boost and stabilise your income, take heart in the knowledge that you are far from alone. On this topic, we’re going to take a look at what translation services can do for you when it comes to connecting your business with an international clientele.
The case for using translation services in London
People like to shop in their native languages. As such, finding a provider of translation services in London engages local multilingual communities and international consumers alike through language. Mayfair is home to a wealthy and well-established international community, so why not reach out to your potential customers in the area in their native tongues?
At the time of the last census, only 64% of households in the City of Westminster spoke English at home and 53% of the borough’s residents were born outside of the UK. Of the top five languages (other than English) spoken at home, 14,100 people spoke another European language, 11,900 spoke Arabic, 6,700 spoke an East Asian language, 6,300 spoke French and 5,100 spoke a West or Central Asian language.
By using a suitable translator London businesses can reach out to these local communities and connect with them in their native language. Doing so means courting plenty of new potential customers.
Using translation to build your brand internationally
Nor is it just customers from the local area who could be won over by translation services London businesses use. Mayfair shops are known for the high-end goods. For those visiting London from overseas, a spot of shopping in Mayfair can be the ideal retail therapy while in the capital. If you’ve advertised your business in their home country, shoppers can arrive in London already familiar with your brand and keen to seek you out – something from which every business can benefit.
Small business owners in London were found to have been hit harder than those almost anywhere else in the UK by Simply Business’ Covid impact report. The report estimated that the total cost of Covid to the average London business would be £38,127. Clearly, anything that a business can do to help mitigate that loss has got to be worth considering.
Building your brand overseas doesn’t commit you to selling anything there. A few mentions in luxury magazines can be achieved with the right approach to public relations and may even not require much expenditure, if you send the right samples to the right editors. Any London business can reach out overseas in this way; with a translation service London need not be the only place your brand can build a reputation.
Take your London business overseas
London businesses that are serious about courting international trade can take this work one step further and launch their products overseas. With 24/7 language services available online, you can order translations any time of day or night. From your website to your packaging to your press releases, there are translators on hand to help you with every element of launching your brand to new foreign markets.
If this is your goal, then there are a number of specialist translators that you might like to get involved in the process. By using a huge agency London businesses can connect with marketing experts, legal linguists, translators with financial skills and more. This breadth of skills means that working with a major agency puts you in a strong position to do everything from carrying out market research to producing your product health and safety information in the languages you need.
Launching an international venture may seem like a daunting prospect at first, but with the right support behind you, it can be broken down into a series of achievable steps. On the language front, one of those steps is to map out your translation needs.
In your translation strategy, you will need to be clear on which languages you need and which documents and other items you will need the agency to translate. You’ll need to let the agency know your timescales, brief them on any specialist terminology used by your business or industry sector and discuss with them the best way to adapt your materials to suit your target international audiences’ cultural norms.
Using the right translation service can make a major difference in how smooth the process of launching overseas can be for your London business. As such, put plenty of time into comparing companies before you commit to one. Look out for services that have a long, proven track record, that have superb recent reviews and that rank well on Trustpilot. Focus on customer service, as well – if you don’t receive outstanding customer support from the outset, that’s a serious red flag. On the plus side, find the right agency and you’ll feel like you have a partner supporting your overseas venture. It could be just what your Mayfair business needs for moving past the pandemic and emerging stronger than ever.
