Small businesses have faced unprecedented challenges over the past year, as the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic continues to be felt around the world. Thankfully, many small businesses are in a strong position to be more agile than larger companies when it comes to finding ways to beat the financial impact of the pandemic. Those using translation in Sydney are a prime example of this.
Are translation services in Sydney the answer?
In this article, we’re going to look at how translation services in Sydney can provide local knowledge and the linguistic expertise to deliver multilingual sales opportunities for small businesses looking to get ahead.
Turning your website into a multilingual site costs very little when compared to the expense of creating the site in the first place. Yet it can have a major impact. People like to browse in their native language. Make it easy for them to do so and you have the potential to grow your customer base rapidly – something that many of Sydney’s small businesses need right now.
In fact, it could be of benefit to small businesses across Australia. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that there were 2,422,404 actively trading businesses in the Australian economy as at 30 June 2020. Of those, 1,546,865 are non-employing businesses. 28.4% of them had turnover of less than $50,000, while 93.0% had turnover of under $2 million.
Building customer connections
The figures highlight the scale of Australia’s small business community. Within Sydney, such businesses are the backbone of the city.
Introducing Sydney translation services to a venture can create a number of quick wins. First and foremost, having a multilingual website means the company can connect with new audiences and start making sales irrespective of language barriers.
Given the city’s linguistic diversity, translation services in Sydney have huge potential for helping businesses to expand. Some 51.5% of Sydney’s residents speak only English. That leaves 48.5% of those living in the city who either speak no English or who speak another language in addition to English.
9.9% of Sydney’s population, for example, speak Mandarin at home. This means that small businesses using Chinese translation in Sydney have a distinct advantage over those that don’t. Businesses that don’t use translation services in Sydney are automatically ruling out one in every ten potential customers!
Another benefit of using translation services in Sydney to deliver multilingual sales is the potential to drive up customer loyalty. Everyone likes to feel that the brands they buy from care about the customer experience. Reaching out to customers in their native tongue is a great way to kickstart that feeling. That’s an important step on the journey to having engaged, long-term customers.
Planning for the future
Small businesses that use translation services in Sydney to build up their customer base and drive brand loyalty are working to get the best out of the tricky economic times that the pandemic has created.
While the federal government is asserting that the Australian economy is roaring back to life, the University of Sydney has suggested that the recovery may be more muted, and that issues of underemployment and job insecurity need to be addressed as a priority. An emphasis on high-quality jobs, rather than just jobs, is presented as key to future economic success.
Within this complex economic picture, the day-to-day struggles of many small businesses need to be recognised. We saw from the figures above that over half of Australia’s businesses are non-employing businesses. These are not giant corporations but small enterprises that can be hugely sensitive to shifts in the economy. This is true in Sydney just as it is in towns and cities across the country.
Again, this is where forward-thinking businesses can help themselves, with translation services delivering a prime example of this. Businesses that do all they can to diversify and to build resilience will stand the best possible chance of surviving the pandemic. Creating new income streams is key here. Businesses can do this in a multitude of ways, from launching new products, to reimaging services and connecting with fresh audiences.
Sydney translation services can help with all of these, helping businesses to undertake market research, understand their customers and prepare suitable marketing and advertising materials. High-quality, localized language is a non-negotiable with all of these tasks. Customers need to feel that they can trust the brands from which they buy. If a brand presents poorly worded marketing materials that clearly aren’t in tune with the audience in question, it will likely miss out on a whole bunch of multilingual sales. Quality matters and this should not be forgotten, even when times are tough.
Small businesses make a vast contribution to Australia’s economy. As such, it’s essential to do as much as possible to protect them and help them move towards a brighter, post-pandemic future. Translation services in Sydney have a clear role to play in that process.
