6 Tips to Get Cost-Saving Thai Translation Services in 2023

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed all businesses, regardless of size or industry, to make significant changes. But that isn’t to say you should put your expansion plans on hold until the economy recovers.

Thai translation services may help you overcome such economic obstacles beyond your expectations in the Thai market.

Read on to find some smart ways to keep your Thai translation services costs low while boosting translation efficiency. 

Evaluate Your Resources

You must be realistic at this stage. Thailand’s jobless rate touched its worst level in more than 16 years after the worst wave of the Covid-19 outbreak hit the nation. According to the National Economic and Social Development Council, this Southeast Asian country had 870,000 unemployed people at the end of September, reflecting a 2.25% unemployment rate. It’s the poorest performance since 2005, and it’s higher than the 1.89% recorded in the previous quarter, official data showed. 

To stay afloat, most businesses must reduce their budgets and reorganize. The overall market concerns may have an impact on your company as well. The world has changed overnight, and sticking to your old strategies may result in failure instead of gaining the ROI you expected. 

Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst might be the best strategy, at least for 2021. So, before you go ahead with localization projects, assess your resources to ensure that you can finish the project without losing quality.

Automate as Much as Possible with Thai Translation Services

Automation has been synonymous with efficiency in recent years. It streamlines processes, reduces human tasks, and overall helps you save money.

In translation, automation frees translators from the trouble of file sharing and tracking progress. Thai translation services rely on software and apps to speed up file transfers and cut down on the time it takes to prepare content for translation.

Simply said, you won’t have to manually select content for translation, download it, send hundreds of emails, or check the status of each document in your list with spreadsheets.

Tasks that used to take tens or hundreds of hours of work can now be completed in a day or two. So, before you even start translating, you get rid of the huge amounts you’ll have to pay.

Furthermore, localization apps and dedicated software allow all linguists to work in one place, making it easier for them to interact and collaborate at all times. This reduces the possibility of losing files or translating irrelevant content, resulting in less effort to pay for.

Before diving into translation and localization, evaluate the advantages of using technology and talk to your Thai translation services provider about the level of automation that best suits your needs.

Optimize Your Content for Translation

Maybelline has some videos with Thai model and actress “Lukkade” Metinee Kingpayom, Thailand’s Kate Moss (Source: Maybelline Thailand Youtube channel)

When you start on a localization project, you’ll need to translate piles of legal documents, technical paperwork, marketing materials, and code strings among other sorts of content.

It’s not an easy task, and it normally requires collaboration with a number of linguists who specialize in translation niches. A translator who is used to working with user manuals or product documentation is unlikely to have the skills or expertise necessary to translate your blog.

You risk wasting time and receiving wrong translations if you don’t send the correct content to the right specialist. Finally, you’ll need to make corrections, edits, and even a complete rework of the majority of your content.

Also, remember that you are tapping into the Thai market and access to an entirely new audience. Thus, you should proofread and revise any text that needs to be translated before sending it to your Thai translation services provider. Otherwise, you are likely to get more revisions and edits.

For example, if you mention an Italian horror movie from the early 1970s at a dinner party in your content, your Thais would probably find it hard to relate to. You should carefully consider cutting off redundant and unrelated details to the target audiences in your content. Instead, surround them with familiar things and people. 

Maybelline is one of the brands in Thailand that uses the power of local celebrities, bloggers, and other key online influencers to promote their products. Its Youtube channel contains many videos with well-known Thai celebrities and beauty gurus – bringing their products in front of a new audience right away.

Optimizing your content for translation and matching each piece of content with the appropriate translator is a brilliant way to get the job done right from the start and keep localization expenses down.

Localize Your Content for Thais with Thai Translation Services

A cost-saving project is also an effective one that is worth every single penny. Thailand’s cultural diversity, combined with its native language, creates two major barriers for any foreign companies looking to join the market. Localizing your content to fit well with Thais is a must if you want to maximize your chances of success in Thailand.

Here are some basic points you should bear in mind to get closer to Thai people:

• The Thai language is the national language of Thailand and belongs to the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. It has a population of about 60 million native speakers.
• The comma, semicolon, question mark, and other punctuation marks are not used in Thai. Thai sentences are written from left to right, much like in English. They are not, however, separated by space marks. Sentences are separated from one another by space marks instead of full stops.

• Thai is one of the few languages that has its own set of digit symbols. However, in everyday life, Thais hardly use their own numbers, especially in the last 10-15 years. They use Arabic numbers instead, which is rooted in the fast development of Thailand, its tight economic relations with other nations, and its large share of organized tourism.  
• Due to the difference in culture, behavior, lifestyle, etc; your target customer will have different “traits” in different countries, even though they are at the same age. Thus, it is worth analyzing your Thai target groups to understand their wants, needs, pains and get your products fitted with them. 

Excellent localization cases

LINE

LINE in Thailand is a leader of the local app market, as well as one of the company’s biggest markets outside its native Japan. To achieve that success, it has taken the effort to build different platforms and products that cater to the demands of local customers, including separate apps for TV, music, camera, selfies, etc. In Southeast Asia, the predominant user demographic is young, educated, and single. Because of this, LINE developed features and products specifically for this crowd.

Kiehl’s 

In Thailand, Kiehl’s is a wonderful example of how to make use of the holiday season. Songkran Festival, which marks the Thai New Year, was chosen as the background of the company’s campaign to give special discounts on its products and boost sales.

Integrate SEO Right from the Start

Sephora caters to local customers by providing the content in the Thai language. Source: Sephora Thailand website.

You’re probably aware that SEO (search engine optimization) is critical to the success of your new website. So, why delay optimizing for search engines until the translation is complete?

Hiring a local SEO agency to update your content with new keywords, metadata, and a variety of technical changes would simply end in more costs. And this is exactly what you want to avoid.

Instead, you could have your content translated with SEO in mind right from the start. Your Thai translation services then will integrate keywords into your web content naturally. Moreover, because they already know your original message and target audience, optimizing your content for both search engines and potential customers is simple for them.

Work with a Professional Provider for Thai Translation Services

Frequently, the cheaper option has a lower price but a higher cost. It may sound cliche, but it’s the reality, especially during a crisis when any mistake might result in fewer revenues and lost market share.

Working with people/Thai translation services agencies who have no experience with localization to save money might soon turn into a financial drain.

Even if you have to cut corners, a professional localization agency can help you downsize your existing projects while maintaining quality.

GTE Localize is one of those trustworthy agencies that you can rely on. As a professional translation agency with a focus on Asian markets, GTE Localize offers high-quality Thai translation services at the most reasonable price by experienced native Thai linguists.

• We have offices located in many countries in Southeast Asia. Hence, we have a thorough understanding of the Thai language, culture, and market.
• Our native Thai translators have more than 5 years translating a wide range of content from various languages to Thai.
• We follow a strict quality assurance procedure for all projects, for example, XBench.
• We use a variety of translation and localization management platforms, CAT Tools, DTP Tools, and other technologies to increase translation quality and reduce the turnaround time.

For more information on our Thai translation services, or to request a free consultation from our Thai localization experts, please contact our team.