Who is your audience? Are you targeting children or adults, office staff or professionals? Should you use respectful language or address them as equals? Put yourself in the shoes of the readers and ask yourself, "What kind of words do I expect to read?" As a reader, do you think the translation makes sense and appeals to you? You should have a clear grasp of all this when reading the document to be translated.

How will the document be used? Will it be used as an introduction or for advertising? Should you use simple words or creative language? How visible is the document? How complex is the document? Is it written with common and easily understood source language or does it contain word play, puns, esoteric references and metaphors? All these factors determine what kind of approach we need to deliver a better translation and attain the intended goal.

As every client has a different industry background and writing style, we have detailed discussions with the client before the start of the localization project. We ascertain the client's basic information and business, including their target market, main products and users. We also find out what special requirements and expectations the client has for translation. Arming ourselves with this information in advance is invaluable for meeting clients' needs.

Marketing localization requires higher language proficiency, especially proficiency in the target language. It's also better if the linguists have a certain professional background or experience. As a professional localization company, we have many translators, reviewers and proofreaders with a range of skills and specializations. This means we can assign tasks to the right personnel according to the specific requirements of the job to guarantee the overall translation quality.

The purpose of marketing articles is often to introduce and promote something. Examples include company profiles and advertising copy to promote products or services. For a good translation, we need to understand the context and any background information for the products or services. We can often refer to the reference materials provided by clients, visit their websites (if applicable) and search for relevant information via search engines. We also ask clients directly when there are unanswered questions.

As mentioned above, the commercial nature of marketing material is very important for distinguishing it from other material, such as legal or IT text. Translators must keep that in mind and prioritize how the text will appeal to the target audience. Other factors like structure, syntax and trivial information can often be secondary to maximizing engagement. Many clients want to prioritize a smooth, fluent and engaging translation that freely diverges from the original source text, a process often called transcreation. Taking advertising slogans as an example, translators are usually required to diverge from the original text and use creativity to appeal to the target market. The key is to strike the right balance of engaging the local market while remaining true to the brand.

With marketing text, although staying faithful to the source text is very important, the target text's effectiveness ultimately depends on the reader's cultural experience. Some cultural words and messages in the source language often puzzle foreign readers if the text is translated literally. Therefore, we always approach translation from the perspective of readers and break away from the source text when necessary to ensure it doesn't read like a translation, but instead appears as if it's been written especially for the reader.

Different markets may have different advertising laws and regulations. For example, China's new advertising law has detailed regulations on prohibited words used in advertising. As a localization service provider, we keep abreast of relevant advertising regulations in various markets to ensure that legal requirements are followed and our clients are free of compliance risks.