Lost in Translation

Walmart Employee: "Hello 'dis Walmarts, how can I help you?"
Suzanne: " I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week."
Walmart Employee: "What you want on the cake?"
Suzanne: "Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that "We will miss you".

(Source: email from a friend)

I could not stop laughing when I read that dialog and saw the picture! :)

Have you heard about the phrase "Lost in Translation"? Well, if this "lost in translation" occurs between people who are communicating with each other using the same language (in this case English), just pause for a second and imagine all that may get "lost in translation" in a message when there's an actual translation from one language to another (for instance, from English to Spanish or vice versa)!

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How many times or cases have we seen or heard when the translation does not properly address the target market? To remedy this situation, when translating your English website to Spanish, choose a partner that has expertise on that business. Otherwise, the added sales and profits from a Spanish language website could be lost.

Having your English website translated to Spanish requires the consideration of colloquial phrases and grammatical interpretation that is unique to an area. Many machine translation services will produce a generic result that gives the basic idea but misses the finer points. By using a language translation website that provides personalized service with individuals who look at each word and phrase, the smaller details are considered and the translation is focused on the targeted market. Spanish idiomatic expressions are not consistent across Latin America. Sometimes a small misinterpreted phrase or message can cause a potential customer to reconsider completing a business transaction.

So remember, as a small business owner who gains sales through the Internet, a good question to ask is whether translating your English website to Spanish will increase your sales potential. Most likely the answer will be yes particularly if the services offered by a reliable language translation website are employed.

For more information: Identifying your audience and delivering localized web content

Online Language Preferences for US Hispanic Community

The online business community has grown expediently, over the past few years, bringing more and more consumers from all over the world online including the US Hispanic community. Recent studies from market research firms indicate the US Hispanic speaking community is one of the largest search groups online. This market is not only searching the web using the English language, but also using their native language (e.g. Spanish) to search.

While many consumers today write and speak in English even though it is not their native tongue, they often will choose to search the web using their language preference. Up until a few years ago, it was common for US businesses online to offer the online community the ability to search, read, and communicate in the English language only. However, time has changed and consumers shopping and buying habits are constantly changing as well. Such behaviors demand that online companies optimize their search availabilities as well as, translating their landing pages to offer convenience and a customer-centric approach in languages other than English.

Customer-Centric Approach as a Win-Win Solution

A customer-centric approach is a tool businesses can use to enhance the way their customers feel about them. Customers, of course, are human beings with purchase power and word-of-mouth marketing control. We all want to feel included, listened to, important, and valued as a customer and as a business. Many companies today are leaning more toward its direction and drawing a bigger crowd of perspective customers who feel good about shopping on their site.

Today, many companies have had their website programmers translate their existing site into Spanish as well as optimizing their url to capture the consumer looking for their services in Spanish. Some of these companies have also implemented other translations and optimization techniques to amplify their broad spectrum of offerings to the world. These implementations broaden a company’s horizons by expanding their target audience thus, bringing more customers and clients to them as well as helping to secure profitability.

Since the web is available for just about anyone to access, provided they have an internet connection, businesses are rethinking their marketing strategies in order to attract and engage consumers and businesses worldwide. By offering simple marketing techniques such as website translations and optimizing their urls to trigger searches in Spanish, it is a win-win solution for all involved. Businesses gain a larger customer base, which in turn can increase profitability, and consumers feel important, appreciated, and acknowledged as a Spanish-speaking consumer.

All consumers interested in conducting web searches to easily locate, buy, communicate, and learn about a business services have plenty of businesses to choose from estimated well into the billions. So, if all online businesses want to attract and retain more customers worldwide then, they will need to optimize their sites to bring in the masses worldwide and stay competitive among their fellow competition.

There are three strategies you can employ when partnering with Hispanic Market Advisors

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Marketing to Generation Y In Latin America

We are living in an increasingly global economy. Small business owners can no longer look at marketing their products exclusively to a local community. Immediate profits can be reaped by taking advantage of mobile marketing and online promotion to the Hispanic online market. As emerging markets gain greater access to online communication technology, marketing professionals are investing more effort into reaching generation Y (20 to 28s) in Latin America.

Online marketing to generation Y in Latin America represents a huge untapped opportunity. With low-cost options at just a click of a button, consumers can be empowered to learn about your product, and, with the use of social networking technology, they can even assist you with grassroots promotion of their own. Consumers love to use their social networking accounts to endorse products and deals that they have found online. Often the mobile marketing strategy you employ can even include tools that make the free, grassroots spread of information easier. Marketing professionals are creating more and better ideas for empowering small business owners with fast, attractive ways to spread their product information online each day.

Consumers in generation Y in Latin America are interested in a wide array of products. Whether its buying the best new technology, finding great deals on bulk food items, or purchasing an insurance plan, tech savvy young people are purchasing all kinds of products online from small business owners. The price competition benefits them, while the increase in volume benefits you.

Mobile marketing is one of the most viable channels for quick and powerful spread of consumer choice information. Marketing professionals love how easy and instant the transactions are. It is very easy for a consumer to quickly make a purchase based on information they received through trusted social networking channels on their cell phones. They are also empowered to instantly tell their friends about this great bargain, who can also purchase it quickly in the same way. This is vastly different than the old system of using only complex media that requires traveling across town, or, in some cases, the world, to complete the point of sale.

Generation Y in Latin America has growing purchasing power. Emerging markets have greater access to technology as time passes. As these consumers age, they also gain access to more and more wealth. In this way, an early and active promotion to these consumers is a great long term plan. The earlier you gain access to a critical market, the more consumers will trust you as a quality name. As time passes, these particular markets and consumers will yield more and more business.

Marketing professionals are taking the Hispanic online market very seriously. Small business owners will benefit greatly from targeting generation Y in Latin America. Be sure to stay on the cutting edge of mobile marketing.

For more information, please complete this Hispanic Market Advisors contact form

Related articles you might like:
*The Importance of Hispanics in the Social Media Age
*The Untapped Side Of Hispanic Mobile Marketing
*Capitalizing on the Latin America's Internet Boom