Doing a Google search on the phrase ‘escort interpereting’ can bring up numerous interesting results. Most of us are aware that the the word escort has become commonly associated with the world’s so-called oldest profession (hint: not interpreting). Nevertheless until another descriptive term reaches popular usage critical mass, the term escort interpreting is perhaps still the most commonly understood phrase to use.

Business travel in Mexico and the rest of Latin America can be extremely daunting for foreign business people. It’s not only the language but logistics and cultural considerations that can wreak havoc with otherwise well-laid plans. Even the most road-warrior-savvy American business person would likely find it unnerving to arrive in Mexico City (for example) for the first time, climb in a rental car, and drive (oh-my-god) to their scheduled appointment. Non-intuitive, every-man-for-themselves traffic patterns are just for starters. How to dress, what to eat, the best time and day to schedule appointments, how much time to allow … the answers to questions like these are second nature at home though not straightforward at all when traveling on business south of the US-Mexican border. An escort interpreter present at important meetings will undoubtedly pick up not only on spoken but also non-spoken cues that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Planning a business trip to Latin America? Consider hiring a professional escort interpreter that not only knows the language but the business culture lay-of-the-land as well.

A problem with traditional translation and language services companies is that they’re too interested in language alone. It seems strange to say it, but language services by themselves are not very marketable.

Rather it’s when language overlaps with other professions and business categories that marketable services are created. We see this with interpreters and the legal system for example. Products targeting multi-language markets create a need for localization services. Numerous examples of this principle can be cited.

Bilingual recruiting services are another. The need for English-Spanish language speaking employees exists with US companies seeking to do

business with the US hispanic market, much of which prefers Spanish language interaction. Two-thirds of Latin America is predominantly Spanish speaking. Worldwide around 500 million people speak Spanish. US companies interested in doing business with this sizeable in-part-language-defined market need language skills represented in their work force.

Thus a growing service offering for Affinity Spanish is bilingual employee recruiting. Here language overlaps with an established business category — that of employee search and recruiting. My original point you may recall.

Looking back over recent posts I note several on the topic of English-Spanish bilingual search engine marketing. I guess it’s a particular area of interest for me right now. Our company recently signed two new automobile dealer accounts to help them with their search engine ranking. Something on the order of 90% of new car purchases involve an internet search so the interest in ranking well is understandable.

In markets where the Hispanic population is significant, bilingual English-Spanish search promotion extends the benefits of traditional search engine marketing. Not all Hispanics prefer Spanish language content, though many do. Even Hispanics who are  bilingual may connect better with messages written in Spanish if it’s their first language.

In any case bilingual automotive search engine marketing is a current focus for our company. For readers interested in reading more click here for a descriptive listing of services.

Do your customers speak English and/or Spanish (or some other language combination)? Are you interested in improving your website’s search engine ranking in both languages? If so you may want to browse our article on bilingual search engine marketing (SEM) in the September 2007 issue of Client Side News. Click here to download the article. Topics include mini secondary language websites, bilingual keyword research, landing pages, news releases, blogs, PPC advertising, and more.

Who needs Spanish translation (or translation of any language for that matter)? The short answer is no one. No one needs translation services for the sake of them. Translators and translation companies might do well to keep this in mind. There is always a more fundamental motivation that underlies every translation project. Paying attention to these things might actually improve the quality of translations and make the deliverables more responsive to the real needs of clients.

Thinking back on recent translation projects performed by our company, the following underlying needs come to mind:

1. Need to expand market potential

2. Need to be seen as relevant in changing times

3. Need to connect with Hispanic business owners

4. Need to make changes and try something new

5. Need to strengthen search engine ranking

6. Need to recover from mistakes

7. Need to educate and retain employees

8. Need to appear politically correct

9. Need to protect intellectual property

10. Need to recruit people

These are just a few from recent first-hand experience. There are no doubt many others. Feel free to contribute to the list.

In my last post I began a line of thought concerning website content translation and how it affects search engine marketing (SEM). As it’s becoming more generally recognized, information content is a fundamental requirement that must be addressed to provide search engines with fuel. Search engines see website content the way Winnie the Pooh looks at honey. The attraction is deliciously overwhelming. As search engine technologies improve, it’s likely that content will become even more important to gaining and keeping their attention.

Bilingual SEM is a phrase/category not yet much referred to, though it may catch on. In fact I may just get on this bandwagon. With 1 in 7 Americans considered Hispanic (predicted to grow soon to 1 in 6) many organizations really should take a look at online marketing programs targeting both Spanish and English speaking audiences. Take the business of automobile sales for example. In speaking with dealership managers, their sense is that upwards of 90% of automobile sales are in some way impacted by the internet. At some stage in the buying process, whether early, mid-stream, or late, car buyers go online. Intuitively this rings true, explains why the traditional Sunday newspaper automobile section is becoming smaller, and highlights an area of promotion that automobile dealers can no longer afford to neglect. There are huge disparities in the online marketing presence and effectiveness of automobile dealers. Here even a little attention to online marketing basics can go a long way and result in distinct competitive advantage for dealers.

Lest I stray too far from my original topic, back to blogs. Active blogs represent a fresh stream of content that search engines see and index. My personal observation is that blog entries are often indexed almost immediately (e.g., within an hour of posting). Just a little extra effort in translating blogs into Spanish, can provide a rich stream of Spanish language content to attract the Spanish dominant portion of the US Hispanic market plus if an organization’s reach is international the majority of Latin America. The workflows for managing this translation process can be relatively straightforwward. Whether performed in-house or outsourced, once processes are in place, they can go like clockwork. The obvious benefit is that valued content in the original language is then leveraged to connect with an expanded audience. If you write a blog, consider going bilingual if your customers speak Spanish as well as English. Your search engine prospects are almost guaranteed to improve dramatically.

A search engine’s reason for being is to return search results that point to relevant content. To the extent a search engine lives up to this promise, it’s valuable. The ability to return relevant search results also directly and indirectly supports advertising based business models that generate revenue for search engine companies.

It stands to reason therefore that companies interested in reaching the online Hispanic market, whether in the US or abroad, must serve up relevant content to attract members of this audience. The Hispanic market is by no means homogeneous, though for many in the US Hispanic community, and the majority in Latin America, the Spanish language is a big factor in determining relevancy. More than half of US Hispanics prefer sites in Spanish. Spanish langauge content meets at least the first condition for relevancy, and worth, for many Hispanics.

In the world of search engine marketing (SEM) there are perhaps two camps: 1) the gamers, those who approach the pursuit of search engine ranking much like skillfully navigating a competitive video game, and 2) those who seek to add valued content, and in essence provide search engines with the content they seek to guide searchers to. Marketers in the latter group are much more philosophically aligned with the goals of search engine companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others. Their objective is to support clients in an effort to make valued content available to members of a target audience, and of course do it in a way that search engines can digest.

Developing quality Spansh language content can take time though there are several approaches to this that don’t require complete reinvention of business processes to get started:

The first, make your existing online content available in Spanish. It’s obvious I suppose. If you’re like many organizations, you have the equivalent of multiple ‘developer-years’ invested in creating your existing site. The marginal cost of making existing content available in Spanish is relatively low. You already have a website, it’s hosted, the original text has been developed. Making the text available in Spanish is basically all that’s required to make your message available to another audience (about 500 million worldwide). A professional translation company or independent translator can do the translation work quite nicely. Translation companies will likely have access to translators specializing in your organization’s business or primary activity.

Occasionally I research online search term usage to better understand the market for professional Spanish translation services. It seems that users of the major search engines regularly look for online tools that support free Spanish translation to English. Such online and other computer aided tools do exist, though from general observation, they don’t come close to matching the output of skilled human translators. It’s hard to imagine any competent business executive entrusting the current state of translation technology with the intricacies of a sensitive business deal for example (or for that matter even a routine email). Don’t get me wrong, I love technology, though the state of translation technology is not especially encouraging. Even defense budgets, often seemingly immune to real world financial accountability, to my knowledge haven’t made much of a dent in producing practical, viable translation technologies.

Though not exactly translation, voice recognition has some similar challenges. Check out the video linked here for an amusing few minutes of language and technology, courtesy of the guys in Redmond.

I’m particularly encouraged about the Hispanic internet marketing services we introduced in an announcement dated today. Online marketing is a special interest of mine. It’s a big emphasis in the way we promote the services of Affinity Spanish. As a fact it’s responsible for bringing in thousands of dollars to the company.

There are numerous forms search engine marketing can take. Initial Affinity Spanish services include: 1) keyword research, both Spanish and English, 2) Spanish language PPC advertising management, 3) bilingual keyword-rich news releases, 4) landing page creation, 5) of course Spanish website development, and 6) bilingual blogs. It’s a powerful lineup of content based SEM tools and we’re looking forward to putting these to work for companies interested in targeting the Hispanic market in the US and/or Latin America. We’ll be introducing even more search engine marketing services in the weeks and months to come. More information on this topic is available at Hispanic Internet Marketing.

What is the ‘next big thing’ in the business of translation … in particular Spanish translation (since this blog is dedicated to the topic)? Is it technology? Is it a new process that gives superior results at lower cost? Is it the combination of translation with other service offerings to produce new service categories? What is it that will propel the language services business forward, create opportunity for translators and agencies alike?

The organization or individual that figures this out will be in a position to distinguish themselves in an industry that on the surface looks rather homogenous. It’s ironic because as any language professional will tell you, translation is in reality anything but a commodity (i.e., distinguished only by price). Rather, translating and translations are as unique as the processes that support their creation.

What is the next big thing? Ideas?