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The power of translation and how it boosts your business growth

It’s easy to get the impression everybody speaks English. More than a billion people do if you count all the second language speakers who muddle through. But 4 out of 5 don’t, and hundreds of millions more probably prefer to use some other language.

That means translation is a fact of life, whether you do it yourself or get a machine to help. It’s also a fact of business, because you can leverage language diversity to drive growth. Here’s how language adds to your bottom line:

Your market gets bigger

The more people you talk to, the more potential customers you have. You may also grow in unexpected ways. Netflix invested heavily in creating and acquiring Korean content and made huge inroads among South Korea’s broadcasters and streaming platforms. McDonald’s succeeded spectacularly in India, despite the country’s dozen major languages. In all, 20 languages have over 100 million speakers—that’s a lot of people waiting to hear from you!

Your customer experience improves

Ever struggled to get by in a country where few people speak English? Or even a country where most people have some English? It’s not fun to feel left out. Your customers will think the world of you if you talk to them in their language. In Canada alone, an incredible 25% of the population speak some other mother tongue than English or French. Do the arithmetic: happier customers = more engaged customers + more profitable customers.

Your brand equity goes up

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