3 ways language translation can make your market research more accurate
4th March 2022
If you’re considering expanding your business internationally, market research should be top of your agenda. It can help you understand; new audiences, buying behaviours, which marketing messages they respond to, which products they favour and, most importantly, why.
However, language can form a barrier to obtaining this information. This is where translation can become a door opener and the best way to acquire data from foreign markets and local demographics.
Below, we’ve listed three ways market research translation can help your business expand successfully.
1. Customer surveys and questionnaires
A tried and tested way of learning about new audiences is by conducting market research surveys and questionnaires. They are a reliable and affordable way to gather information from your target market and better understand your target audience.
Surveys can be used to access key demographic information, from what customers like about your brand to what kind of products your market needs.
If you want your survey to be successful, it must be delivered in the language of your target audience. To achieve that, both the questions and the answers need to be translated. Word for word translation won’t cut it here. The usage of local language, idioms and slang may be needed to get the most out of your consumer surveys.
This process is then completed with translation of survey responses, so as a business you can understand the gathered data and use them in your marketing strategy.
This is easily delivered by the professional translators at Foreign Tongues.
2. Focus groups
A Focus group is a small group of people tasked with providing feedback regarding a product or service or a marketing campaign. Participants in a focus group are selected based on predetermined criteria, such as age, location, race, socioeconomic status and more.
This group can either meet face-to-face or online. There is an increasing trend for online focus groups in the market research industry due to cost and time savings.
Focus groups can provide a wealth of information about the target audience, but they can be a nuisance if you don’t speak the language. To help take pressure off, you can use a translation agency to translate your materials or translation professionals to carry out any one-to-one discussions.
3. Data sources
Looking to find out what consumers in foreign markets are buying and why? Use data sources. They can reveal vital information about the target market which can be key in expanding your business.
Information that can be obtained from data sources includes:
- Trends showing products or services that are very popular in the market
- Products and services that sell a reasonable amount (suggesting room for expansion)
- Types of services and products without any sales potential
These sales data reports can be translated into English making them more usable for English business owners.
These are just three of the ways that professional translation services can help the accuracy of your market research. To ensure your market research is accurate and informative when you’re expanding your business, use professional translation services.
