Choosing the best translation agency for your needs in 2024

Choosing the best translation agency in 2024 can be challenging for many global businesses and companies, especially if they have no previous experience working with translation providers. In the era of globalisation, however, it can be a key decision which can directly influence your brand in the long term. As a result, choosing the best supplier for your specific language translation and interpretation needs is a crucial business decision you should take very seriously in 2024.

Translating and certifying your document and content can often be a challenging task, especially if you don’t have any previous experience in doing so, or a trusted translation provider who can guide you through the process. Although translations appear to be a fairly straightforward task on paper, in reality, to achieve the desired accuracy, they require a very careful approach, a detailed plan, and assistance from an expert translation agency experienced in translating materials similar to yours.

EXPERT’S TIP: Thinking about translating and localising your website? Make sure to read our expert’s in-depth guide here

TL;DR

To choose the best translation provider, ensure that the agency:

Only works with native & human translators
Are experienced within your business sector
Worked with clients from your industry
Can provide you with a translation sample
Is responsive & easy to communicate with

Working directly with a professional translation company can be especially significant for corporate clients. The quality and suitability of a translation can be strongly influenced by a number of different factors: target market and audience, language pair or even the type of content you wish to translate can all play an important part in how your materials will be perceived by the target audience.

Working directly with a translation agency will allow you to understand these factors better and, as a result, create a translation suitable for your chosen audience based on the market’s requirements.

But with thousands of translation providers out there, how do you go about choosing the right agency for your particular needs?

1. Native, human translators

When it comes to translating corporate and business materials, working with an agency that provides solely machine translations can be extremely harmful to your company. Although translation AI has come a long way from its humble beginnings, it still simply cannot match the accuracy and reliability of a professional human linguist.

When approaching foreign markets, a number of specific factors can directly affect your translation and how it will be perceived by the target audience, from consumer behaviour stimuli to socio-demographic, political or even religious elements.

As a result, it’s key to ensure that your chosen agency offers human translators as opposed to translations completed in full by a machine. Translators who are native speakers of the target language will be able to fully understand not only the linguistic aspects, but also outside factors that may affect the translation and ensure that it is fully appropriate for the target market.

2. Sector expertise

When trying to find the best translation agency for your needs, making sure that they fully understand your target market and audience is just one of the key considerations you should bear in mind. As each business sector has its own lingo and terminology, ensuring that your translation provider also understands your particular business sector, is equally important.

Whether your primary business focus lies in the technical, legal, financial, marketing or medical field, choosing an agency which is able to provide expert linguists with first-hand experience within your given sector is crucial.

3. Past clients

The list of businesses and organisations the translation agency has worked with in the past can tell you a lot about the quality of their work and expertise. Additionally, by exploring their portfolio, you can see whether any of the companies they have previously worked with are in fact from your particular business sector. By doing this, you will be able to tell whether the agency has an in-depth knowledge of translating content similar to yours.

4. Ask for a translation sample

Sometimes, the easiest way to see whether the agency will be a good fit for translating your company’s content is to simply ask for a sample translation. Usually, this consists of translating between 200-400 words into your target language.

Ideally, you will then have a native speaker of the language check the translation and provide you with further, independent feedback regarding the quality of the agency’s work.

5. Responsiveness

In business, time often really is money. Long turnaround times in translating your content can cause a chain reaction throughout all of your projects and cause further delays, directly affecting your business and sales. From a business point of view, it is, therefore, essential that the agency you choose to work with is responsive and easy to contact.

EXPERT’S TIP: Want to learn more about certified translations? Here’s an article from our certified translation expert!

About TS24

Translation Services 24 (TS24) is a professional translation agency offering expert services in over 200 languages. We work with clients in all corporate and public industries and specialise in sector-specific linguistic solutions. With over a decade of experience in the industry, 15+ million words converted every year and 100,000+ projects completed, TS24 is a leading provider of expert translations and interpretation services and an officially certified member of the ATC. Contact TS24 here. You can also read all of our recent articles here.