Transcreation vs Translation – 6 Key Differences You Need to Know

In order to achieve the goal of building up a new customer base, several companies opt for either translation or transcreation based on their requirements to adapt content with enormous success.

They both are two widely used methods of adapting content from a source language into the desired language.

In reliable document translation, the translator focuses on the translation of words. Whereas, in transcreation, the transcreator translates content based on the culture of the target country, delivering the emotion, the message, and the influence intended by the source text.

In this blog, you will learn some more key differences between translation and transcreation.

Major Differences Between Translation and Transcreation

Here’s an explanation of some differences you should consider when opting out for translation—or transcreation—solutions for your project.

1- Key Objective

Transcreation aims to hold the emotion and intention conveyed by the actual message while translating it to the culture, needs and customs of the target nation’s customers.

Whereas, native business translation aims at enabling content to be completely understood and to overlook cultural and linguistic inconsistencies.

2- Work Process

Transcreation always keeps your brand’s message before the eyes of your readers. It attracts viewers/readers to engage and quickly respond while making them take the right action. It incorporates holding any humour, witty remarks, concepts and idioms in the actual text while ensuring that the message is neither weakened nor lost in translation.

If your marketing efforts include creating slogans or taglines that want to capture and recreate emotions in the desired language, then it’s more probable that you will want transcreation.

With cost effective document translation for business reach, the effort is highly taken to pass on the actual message reliably in a new language. That doesn’t imply you only translate word-for-word, but you also adhere to the actual meaning.

3- Accuracy

Accuracy & precision don’t cover the entire range of goals of a transcreation project.

In case, your project needs a great level of precision in delivering text from one language to another, then yours is a translation project. This is highly required in the areas like medical, legal, and engineering translation, where accuracy and precision is the key focus.

4- Creative Freedom

The transcreation experts always stay true to the actual text, but only till the time it works. Sometimes, the translation process alone just won’t work unless a touch of creativity is introduced into the word mix in order to maintain the tone, style and emotions of the original text.

One of the major benefits of professional translator is that he stays true to the source text. The translation only needs accurate delivery of the facts as they seem in the source text.

5- Time & Cost

Transcreation needs an extent of language finesse that often needs more time, whereas translation doesn’t require much attention than just focussing on accuracy.

Still, it’s crucial to identify this and stick to strict deadlines. This applies to both but highly with reliable transcreation.

A transcreator also acts as a skilled copywriter other than a professional translator. This means that you can expect low dissimilarities in terms of rates between the transcreator and specialist translator.

6- SEO Skills

As the transcreators work more on sales copy, they are required to have skills when it comes to the use of SEO.

The standard translations for small business do not usually need knowledge of SEO practices.

But, here is the exception! And that is SEO translation which is totally geared towards optimizing for search engines. This is a special field of translation.

Translation or Transcreation—A Summary

If you have tight deadlines and accuracy is needed in budget or want the text to seem more factual in nature and less creative, then your project needs translation.

If yours is marketing-related material, you want to capture emotions in the original text, your aim is to penetrate foreign markets or want to create a sales copy that includes a CTA (call-to-action), then your project needs transcreation.

Your choice solely depends on the type of project and quick translation help in any of these techniques could help you achieve your goal of business expansion.

Want to take up our exceptional translation or transcreation service? Give us a call us at +91-8527599523 or simply request a instant quote.