Website translation typical 4 mistakes

4 Website Translation Mistakes That Can Hurt Law Firms

When you meet a potential client in person, you put your best foot forward. Your online presence should be no different. As your firm expands its market to include foreign-language-speaking clients, connecting with this new demographic can be challenging. High-quality, professional website translations send a signal that communication is important to your representation, no matter the language.

Some common pitfalls await law firms trying to attract new clients with foreign-language branding and messaging. Here are four mistakes law firms often make online when translating their original marketing materials into other languages.

Thinking Machine Translation Will Work Best

Machine translation uses software to translate text and speech into another language. The benefits are as follows: it happens automatically, and it’s a low-cost solution. The down-side is just as apparent, however: machine translation cannot understand context, nuance, or meaning. Worse, even the best machine translation software still make errors in grammar and word choice.

If the first thing clients encounter is poorly translated text in their language on your website, your business has lost its opportunity to make a good first impression. A client might feel that if your business fails to provide quality communication, they will opt to leave your website to find someplace that does.

A legal translation service not only performs foreign language translation, but also understands how to market your firm’s services. By using real experts in the language and industry, foreign language translation services overcome the first hurdle in converting your visitor to a client.

Neglecting to Translate Contact information

Your main landing page is only the first step of interaction with potential clients. Picture this: A new, foreign client arrives at your site. They are impressed and relieved to find information in their native language, and want to know more. They click a contact link to reach out to you and are instantly confused by an English-only contact page. Your warm lead has just gone cold.

Clients seeking legal advice need to feel confident throughout the entire sales journey. They might feel if you are only willing to do half the job of translating, you might not be doing the best job on legal matters, either.

Overlooking the Importance of Your Lawyer Profiles

Clients in need of legal services seek out recommendations from friends and family or coworkers. If they are given a specific name, that’s what they will search for online. Profiles help visitors understand that you are the person they are looking for, and assure them you have the skills and experience in the area they need. When your lawyer profiles do not have an obvious alternative version in a desired foreign language, your warm lead will begin to cool.

The good news is that translated profiles are a simple, quick project for a professional legal translation service. You can even use web analysis software like Google Analytics to determine who among your staff produces the highest search traffic and prioritize your translations based on this information.

Forgetting Your Email and Newsletter Marketing Counts, Too

If you’ve done all the right things on your website to turn a warm lead into an email address acquisition or sales conversion, you don’t want the relationship to end there. When using email and newsletters to keep clients (both current and potential) up-to-date on your services, remember to include your non-English-speaking market in the loop with translated versions.

Even better, show off your cultural awareness by scheduling your emails around holidays important to your target demographic. Wishing Spanish-speaking clients Feliz Cinco de Mayo or Día de Acción de Gracias, can go a long way to connecting with them on a more personal basis. A legal translation service firm can help you incorporate this level of attention into your sales and marketing strategy.