Do you get driven around the bend by this?

Any input/advice/words typed are appreciated, thank you all in advance for reading.

As with many of reading this now, writing to influence is my passion.

You probably also know too well how passion can turn to frustration. That’s where this forum thread becomes relevant.

At the age of 24 I’ve picked up my first junior copywriting job. I’m absolutely thrilled about it. I work for a large scale organization but with about 20 people focused on the same brand as myself.
As a successful salesperson of 5 years I feel I’ve “paid my dues” in terms of learning how to influence people, having said that I am always trying to take the path of the student; there’s always something to learn and there are always ways to improve.

The problem arises because my English copy is only used as a ‘base’ to be translated to other languages. 2% of our market read English, the vast majority reading a Scandinavian language –Norwegian/Swedish/Danish.
That in itself isn’t the crux of the issue. The heart of the problem is that I’m the only person focused on improving the ‘selling factor’ of the copy, as well as the standard of communication in general, to the extent that it will drive more business –in the form of email opening rates, click throughs, customer action taken.

For the good of the company and in the interests of driving better results, I want the best copy to exist in all languages. For the translators to find a way to understand important points of copy, and for the sales message to be communicated in the same way in a different language.

Another slight problem
The “client” (in this case the product developers/managers) constantly want to revise the English copy so that it will be “translator friendly” I.E Easier for the translator to change into their language without having to use their brains to understand and “localize” what is being said.

My key questions:

1. Is it too much to expect of translators to understand how a selling message works and to communicate it accordingly despite have to do it in a different language?

2. Are we crazy to expect our translators to produce effective copy in their language from a piece of effective English copy?

3. Would the company be much better off hiring dedicated copywriters for each language? As opposed to one good English copy and a team with translators for each language.

Solutions I had thought of
My initial solution (I hate coming to people with problems without demonstrating I’ve tried to find a solution myself) is to de-brief the translators on important copy points for as long as it takes for them to understand good copy

Solution 2:
Sit down with the English copy, the translated copy and ask the translator to run through what they have done.

Solution 1 and 2 would be implemented by having these meetings until such time that they are no longer necessary.
Regards

 

I will not attempt to give you any advice, I feel you don't require it as you seem like a very bright young man. I would like to venture a comment though.
My command of English is fairly good these days, but that was not always the case as I was raised in French. I find English to be a cold,clinical language. It is not always easy to express passion in this tongue.

Take an English sentence then rewrite it in any of the Latin languages. The Latin sentence will be at least 25-50% longer as they are far more expressive. I don't know if the Scandinavian dialects are like this or are closer to English?

 

Yes and yes.

 

Thanks for the great input.

lol Im currently doing a little French/English language exchange with a friend. C'est cool, mais pas facile . What you said makes a lot of sense to me. If it's also true for the languages we're working with then I need to re-imagine things.

You confirm my original suspicions Senobia. Maybe the best way to proceed would be with relevant copy education for the different languages. Not something I want to be making waves about though -for the time being anyway.

Maybe my copy will be set loose on larger audience someday! HaHa

 

The best long-term solution is to find writers proficient in English and the second language. Ideally, you should place yourself in the role of project coordinator where you define the original message and your teams translate it into expressions and idioms commonly used in the other languages. That way the company will present a uniform message across the board. Of course, you'll also have to rely upon your team to keep you up to date on anything that might make the message more powerful in their country.

If you are stuck with the you write it in English and someone translates it paradigm, you will have to change how you write. Do not write long sentences. Do not write sentences where the subject comes at the end of the sentence - the translation software gets really confused and human translators have trouble as well. Rewrite a sentence if it requires a semi-colon. Be very mindful of colloquialisms and other regional concepts, phrases and slang. Watch out for words with dissimilar meanings in different places. In the US, a marquee is a sign. In England, a marquee is a party tent. Basically, you are going to have to dumb down your word choices and sentence construction into something a child could understand but does not insult the intelligence of adults.

I've only worked on a project like this once. I can tell you that it's a real challenge. It does worry me that at 24 you believe you have paid your dues. Very few professionals have truly paid their dues at such a young age. I've met professionals who were twice your age and were still having to prove themselves to more senior co-workers. You might truly be a wonderkid but be careful mentioning your wealth of experience amongst your co-workers. Also, keep in mind that copywriting is much more challenging than face-to-face-sales as you lose the visual clues personal interaction provides. No doubt you learned how to read people in your previous job. You could change your approach in mid-stream based upon their facial expressions and body language. With the written word, you lose that feedback.

I would suggest that you always explain to the translators what message you are trying to convey. Use them as a research tool and as sounding boards. You're the expert in sales but they are probably more knowledgeable about your target audience. Ask them the obvious...Would this get you to buy? What information is missing? How would someone in Norway respond to it? Would someone in Denmark respond differently? Why waste such a great resource/secret weapon by training them to think like you do?

If your translators are familiar with the countries corresponding to the languages they are working with, try to get them to tell you about the culture of those countries. I was good friends in high school with a Norwegian exchange student. One of my college roommates was from Finland. One of my webhosts is from Holland. I've worked with people from Australia, England, Africa and India. I can tell you that all of them saw the world differently than we Americans do. What generates sales and excitement here may bore or insult them or vice versa. Getting the translators to teach you about the country they are translating for will probably be more productive than you trying to give them a crash course in sales and marketing. With time, you will meet in the middle and become even more effective as a team.

Good luck. It sounds like you've landed an exciting challenge of a position that could become great fun and quite rewarding.