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Top 10 Industries That Require Specialized Translations

Specialized Translations are important for technical and medical industries as this image shows.

Verity Hartley at LanguageWire Verity Hartley , Marketing Specialist, LanguageWire ||  Reading Time: 7 minutes

Not all translations are created equal. Certain industries require specialized translations to ensure that their products and services are properly understood by consumers.

Getting these translations wrong could result in serious consequences. Accuracy and precision in meaning are critical in sectors like healthcare and precision engineering, which means validation by human subject matter experts cannot be overlooked.

Each industry presents its own challenges. Professional documents will require different types of translation from language experts who also understand the subject with some degree of technicality.

Specialized Translations by Industry

In this article, we are going to look at ten industries that require a professional level of translation when localizing their specialized content and identify their needs.

The industries we will highlight are:

Automotive

The average car has over 30,000 parts, each with its own name in every language. It is critical that automakers in global markets can find, order and install exactly what they need with minimal interference by language.

Automotive expert translations could involve technical design documents and schematics, user guides and manuals, as well as catalogues for specialized parts and machines.

For this reason, they require a translator with industry-relevant technical expertise supported by a detailed database of terminologies and part names.

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Banking & Finance

With roughly 1.1 billion credit card transactions taking place daily, the ability to move fast is crucial to success in the financial industry.

Bankers and financial experts work with clients from all over the globe and must ensure that everyone fully understands the terms and conditions before agreeing to a transaction.

The types of translation typically needed by this industry are contracts, reports and customer product materials that need to be translated precisely and produced to the highest quality.

In this industry, translators, project managers and designers need to work with maximum speed and efficiency to produce content rapidly. Being able to cut down on back-and-forth communication by working within a single language management system is a huge benefit.

Energy

The energy market is a huge growth area with an expectation of reaching a global value of nearly $2 billion by 2030. Utility companies provide a vital service in every country in the world and across multiple borders.

Energy companies need to make key assessment reports, audits and technical documentation available for clients, as well as provide websites to service their multilingual customers around the globe.

The energy industry is best supported by a language service provider who can help keep their website copy updated with minimal interference and downtime.

Legal

In legal documentation, there is no room for error. Translators need to be experts in the field and achieve certifications even to be able to work on certain documentation.

Sworn translators can produce legal documents in multiple languages that they can sign and seal themselves. People and businesses often need official documentation like birth certificates to be translated when they move to another country. Only a sworn translator can provide this service.

Other specialized translations may include providing interpretation services in court or at a legal hearing. Or a legal transcription of an official meeting.

The legal industry needs trusted translation experts who can provide exact and accurate transcriptions quickly and sometimes in a live setting.

Life Sciences & Healthcare

The start of the 2020’s showed us how quickly healthcare can become a global issue and the importance of being able to quickly and easily share information across borders.

Unsurprisingly the life sciences and health care industry has seen the biggest growth in demand for translation services in the last two years.

Language barriers can provide a real risk to being able to provide the best healthcare possible at the point of entry. Even within the realms of scientific research, language can prevent individuals from accessing medical documentation and studies that can hinder innovation.

For companies within the realms of the life sciences and healthcare, accuracy is essential. Inserts and labels, safety reports, and patient information letters all need to be translated, so they are clear and easy to understand.

Experts with experience in medical translations and well-maintained termbases of technical terms are essential for success.

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Manufacturing

Big manufacturing firms rely on language service providers for a variety of professional translations. These documents can range from highly technical and specialized translations to product descriptions and marketing materials for potential customers.

It is a broad and varied industry in which almost all providers have some touch points with suppliers or customers outside of their native country or language.

The manufacturing industry has suffered recently due to a rise in global inflation and shipping costs which makes cost savings in quality translation a key focus for any manager.

Speed to market is also essential for any manufacturing company, so an ability to automate translation processes for a quick turnaround time in expert translations is a valued asset.

Marketing and Advertising

The history of marketing is littered with examples of poor localization in campaigns trying to break into global markets. A mistranslation of a single word or phrase can completely change the meaning of a promotion from one language to the next.

Marketing specialized translations tend to focus on promotional materials and advertisements as well as digital marketing online. Social media is a fast-paced environment, and marketers do not have time to waste in constant communication between designers and translators.

Language software that allows all contributors to work on the same content and the same time can drastically cut the time required to get a piece ready for publication. Additionally, tools that help bring translation directly into a system you are already using, like a CMS, can help keep marketers stay one step ahead of the competition.

Retail & eCommerce

It is important for retail and eCommerce designs to look good. If they don't look good, they are not going to sell. One of the difficulties in translation is that different languages require different amounts of space on a page or a screen.

The types of translations retailers need are packaging, labels and sales materials. All of which need to look good across all languages. If a product name or description doesn't fit in a language variant, translators need to work with designers to make it work.

Keeping communications between translators and design experts as easy and minimal as possible is key to success in this industry. Translation software that supports this process and allows collaboration to be seamless is an enormous benefit.

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Technology

The technology and translation industries are intrinsically linked through the world of machine translation, but they also have other similarities. For example, both strive to make the world easier to understand and navigate.

In the technology industry, you need to ensure that applications and software are seamlessly translated across languages, both for the written word and audio. Many of us will have encountered an app that has seemed unusable due to a mislabelled button or a confusingly translated user interface.

Additionally, linguistic experts work side by side with technologists to continue pushing the boundaries of what AI can do in translation. Helping to build better algorithms and termbases that help improve all our lives.

Travel & Tourism

No other entry on this list has such a close personal relationship with language as the travel industry. Travel and tourism are built on relationships with people from all over the world, and their businesses can only succeed if they are understood in the new markets they move into.

Specialized translations in tourism could come in the form of instant website translations or AI chatbots that help customers in times of need.

Travel experts need their information to be updated quickly and accurately and with expert localization knowledge. They benefit from using translators who thoroughly understand a language and its culture and can help readers experience this through their translations.

The Growth of Specialized Translations

The needs of specific industries in the world of translation are constantly ebbing and flowing. Following the global pandemic, the greater need for improved translation services in the healthcare industry was the start of a new boom for the sector. Likewise, changing technologies and work processes will continually challenge how we provide language services to different sectors and what kinds of specialized translations they will need in the future.

If you need professional translations or localization services for your company and would like to know more about how LanguageWire can help you, please fill in the form below, and an advisor will be in touch.

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