5 translation mistakes that affect your digital marketing strategy

To understand the importance of translation in successful digital marketing actions, we must first understand what digital marketing actually is.

Digital marketing consists of a set of strategies aimed at highlighting the added value of a product or service for its promotion and sale. For example, it is widely used in the world of e-commerce,.

Specifically, inbound marketing strategies are responsible for attracting potential new customers and retaining their loyalty. How? By generating dynamic, useful and attractive content for our target audience.

This content must add value to the product or service we offer and also to our potential customers. We must analyse which keywords best respond to our target audience’s needs.

Understanding how internet users–and more specifically our potential customers–use search engines is essential to make the most of the available sales opportunities.

Our content strategy–whether on social media, email marketing or online advertising–must always address at least one need of our potential customers.

When we talk about crossing national borders and extending our strategy internationally, translation comes into play.

1. 5 translation mistakes that affect your digital marketing strategy

The day when machine translation surpasses professional translators is still far off. Language is not an exact science. Language is alive, full of irregularities, exceptions, and, at times, inaccuracies.

Despite all the technological advances, there is currently no machine translation system capable of replacing the work of a professional translator. These breakthroughs are revolutionising the translation world and can be a great tool for professionals when used correctly.

To prevent avoidable mistakes from ruining your digital marketing strategy, we’ll tell you 5 things to consider for ensuring success.

1. Ignoring false friends

False friends are words from different languages that are similar in form, but have completely different meanings. They are treacherous, as they are easy to overlook, especially in languages that are very similar to each other, such as Italian or Spanish.

Next, we’ll tell you the story of Parker Pen, a company that produces fountain pens.

Parker Pen's creative team decided to launch a campaign to promote their products and attract potential customers. The campaign’s slogan is as follows:

"It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you"

At first glance, the original slogan seems suitable for the market in question. The problem arises when presenting these products in the Spanish-speaking market.

The word embarrassed, despite its similarity in form to the Spanish embarazada, has nothing to do with shame. It actually means “pregnant”. The slogan was presented in the Spanish-speaking world as

"No goteará en tu bolsillo ni te dejará embarazada” (It won’t leak in your pocket and get you pregnant).

Unfortunately, all the efforts made to carry out a successful international marketing strategy were overshadowed by this silly, yet very important translation mistake. The campaign went viral worldwide and its famous blunder is still remembered to this day.

2. Not preforming a cultural screening

Not knowing the cultural peculiarities of your potential customers can have disastrous consequences for your international promotion strategy.

To illustrate this statement, we will talk about Chilly, a brand specialising in female intimate hygiene products. Chilly is a perfect example of why overlooking the existence of homophones in the target language is a big mistake.

Chilly means “fresh” in English, which more or less accurately describes the product in question. However, in the Spanish-speaking world, the term chili refers to a spicy sauce made from chillies.

The slogan they decided to present to the Spanish-speaking market was "En lo más íntimo, quiero Chilly" (For the most intimate, I want Chilly). Understandably, their target audience found it, to put it mildly, a bit strange.

3. Ignoring phonetic peculiarities

Phonetics plays an essential role in translation, especially when it comes to choosing the brand name. Not taking this factor into account can be very costly and throw all our promotional efforts overboard.

A good example of this is what happened to Coca-Cola in China. Shops began to create signs to promote the product, popularising the phonetic adaptation /Kekoukela/.

At first glance, there seems to be no problem. However, this phonetic transcription means "bite a wax tadpole." Doesn't sound very appetising, does it?

Finally, Coca-Cola took control of the situation. After thorough research, they ended up with the phonetic adaptation /Kekoukele/, which means "happiness in the mouth."

Now that sounds more appetising!

4. Making literal translations

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, double meanings are something that machine translation engines generally struggle with. This is one of the main examples that demonstrate the need for at least a review carried out by a professional translator.

Unless you want to repeat the experience of the American airline Braniff International. This airline launched the slogan "Fly in leather" to highlight the comfort of its planes.

So far, so good. The problem began when they decided to expand their advertising campaign to the Spanish-speaking market as "Vuela en cueros." Here, they clearly did not take into account the double meaning that the word cuero has in many Spanish-speaking countries.

And for some, it is more an invitation to nudism than a highlight of their seats’ comfort.

5. Choosing a brand name for the international market

As we have seen throughout the article, phonetics and culture can be decisive factors in the quality of a translation. While these aspects should always be kept in mind, they become even more critical when it comes to choosing your brand name.

Remember that your brand name is not changeable. Depending on the target audience, it will sometimes be necessary to adapt it to avoid problems.

Don’t understand what we mean? Here are some examples:

Mazda Laputa

Mazda decided to launch this car model in the United States without taking into account the high percentage of the Spanish speakers in the country.

The name unfortunately means “prostitute”. Perhaps a little adaptation wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Mitsubishi Pajero

The Japanese car brand Mitsubishi presented this car model in much of the world with the name Pajero (meaning “wanker” in Spanish). As a result, it was marketed under the name Mitsubishi Montero in Spain.

Good call!

2. Consequences of a poor translation in your digital marketing strategy

As we have seen throughout this post, great care must be taken when translating marketing materials. There are numerous factors that can influence our strategy, and that can mean either great success or a resounding failure. So we must not lose sight of them.

Therefore, it is essential to have a professional translator, specialised in digital marketing translation and knowledgeable about the target culture.

This way, you will reduce the chances of turning your campaign into a viral meme instead of a great global success.