Marketing Translation
that still sells in another language
A campaign that persuades in English can go flat the moment it changes language, and closing that gap is the job of marketing translation services: copy rewritten with judgement so your tone, message and commercial intent still carry weight in every market you sell into.
Accurate translation and persuasive translation are not the same thing.
Marketing copy has one purpose: to move a reader towards a decision. Change the language without keeping that in view and you get sentences that parse cleanly and persuade nobody. The cost surfaces later, in a launch that underperforms abroad, a headline that reads as pompous in French, a product page that ranks yet converts at a fraction of the home-market rate. By then the media budget is spent.
Most marketing content needs translation that keeps intent, tone and commercial pull intact: brochures, web copy, product descriptions, email and social that read as though a local marketer wrote them. This page covers that. Slogans, taglines and campaign lines are different: they have to be rebuilt from scratch rather than translated. This is transcreation, which we cover on a separate page. Getting the distinction right saves money, because paying for a rewrite when a translation would do, or the reverse, wastes budget.
Persuasion survives the language change, so conversion holds instead of dropping after launch
Calls to action carry the force they had in the source
One brand voice across languages, with terminology and product names aligned across campaigns
Right first time, on schedule
Tone checked before launch, so campaigns ship once
Fewer local corrections arriving weeks after sign-off
Native-language craft and marketing skill behind every line
Project management that keeps multi-language runs on schedule
Who is this for
Signing off marketing copy you cannot read?
In-house marketing teams
You own the brand and answer for it in every market, yet you cannot read the German or the Japanese to know whether it holds up. That is the real worry: signing off copy you have to take on trust. We translate with specialist marketing linguists, then edit for tone and consistency before anything reaches you, so what you approve reads the way you meant it.
We already have a brand voice. Will translation wreck it?
No. We work from your existing tone and glossary, and our linguists check it against both, so the voice carries across instead of resetting when the language changes.
Can you match terminology we have already signed off?
Yes. Approved terms and product names go into a glossary every linguist works from, so wording stays aligned across campaigns and updates.
How do we know the tone is right if we cannot read the language?
With in-country reviewers, they comment before you sign off. Without, our native-speaker linguists are the check and we explain the choices.
What happens if a market flags a change after launch?
We fold the feedback into the glossary and the next run, so the correction sticks instead of recurring on the following campaign.
4.9
Overall Rating
More markets. Same brand voice.
Your content, everywhere it needs to be.
Marketing agencies
Marketing translation works when the reader forgets it was translated. That means copy that reads as though a local wrote it, formats and references that match the market, and a tone that fits how people there buy. Get it right and the reader trusts you enough to act. Get it wrong and they move on, however good the offer. We translate and localise your marketing content so it reads as native and does its selling in each market.
Your site is the first thing an overseas buyer judges you on. Translate it word for word and you get pages that read as foreign and convert like it. We adapt web and digital marketing copy so it reads as native, keeps its search value and moves visitors towards enquiry the way the English version does.
Landing pages, campaign pages and paid-ad copy
Search intent kept in view, not just literal wording
Calls to action rewritten to persuade locally
Meta titles and descriptions translated for click-through
A catalogue that reads well in one language and awkwardly in the next costs you sales you never see. We translate product descriptions and catalogues so specifications stay exact and the selling language stays persuasive, across ranges large enough to need real consistency.
Subject lines and calls to action carry an email's results, and both break in translation faster than the body copy does. We adapt email marketing so it reads naturally and drives the click, whatever the language. For more on getting multilingual email right across markets, see The Global Inbox.
Subject lines adapted for open rates, not translated flat
Preheaders and calls to action rewritten to convert
Social copy that works in English can miss entirely once tone, length and reference change. We translate social content so posts read as native to each market and platform, keeping the wit and the brevity that make them work.
Sales collateral only works if it still persuades in the new language. We translate brochures and sales documents so the argument holds and the tone matches your buyer.
A press release that reads like a translation will get ignored. We translate releases so they read like native news copy that keeps its journalistic tone.
What buyers ask before briefing marketing translation.
These cover what comes up most before a first marketing translation project: what the work is, where it differs from localisation and how specific content types are handled.
Marketing translation adapts persuasive content, web copy, product descriptions, email, social and print, so it keeps its tone, intent and selling power in another language. The aim is copy that reads as though a local marketer wrote it, not a word-for-word copy of the source. Where a slogan or tagline needs rebuilding from scratch, that is transcreation, a separate service.
What is the difference between marketing translation and localisation?
Marketing translation adapts the words so they persuade in another language. Localisation goes wider, adjusting formats, currencies, imagery, dates and cultural references so the whole experience fits the market. Most marketing projects need both: persuasive copy inside a properly localised page or campaign. We handle the copy and flag where broader localisation will affect how it performs.
Can you translate our email marketing campaigns?
Yes. We adapt subject lines, preheaders, body copy and calls to action so the email reads naturally and drives the click in each market. Our guide The Global Inbox covers how to make multilingual email marketing perform across markets.
Do you handle German, French and Spanish marketing translation?
Yes, alongside a wide range of other languages. Each project uses native linguists in the target market with marketing experience, so German, French, Spanish and the rest read as local rather than translated. See the languages section for the full list.
How do you stop translated marketing copy reading like a machine wrote it?
Because humans write it, not software. Persuasion is a human skill, so marketing copy is translated and edited by linguists who work in marketing, and the tone and intent come from their judgement rather than a machine guess.
What goes wrong when marketing copy is translated word for word?
Translate marketing copy word for word and you get the words but not the point. A headline written to sell ends up accurate and flat. The old 'Got Milk?' case still shows it: in Spanish the California Milk Processor Board's line reads as 'Are you lactating?', so a separate Spanish campaign was created instead of translating the tagline. It happens because a translator working from the text alone, with no brief and no steer on tone, cannot tell what the copy was for, so they translate it when it needs rewriting to sell.
