Case study: Multilingual website for MPC Industries

At Nimus translations we enjoy helping our clients achieve international success. That’s exactly what we wanted to do for MPC Industries. This client came to us with a very special challenge: translating their website to over a dozen languages. Seventeen languages, to be exact. Luckily, we love a challenge, and got stuck in. The result? A multilingual website, successfully converted into US English, Flemish, Belgian French, French, Hungarian, Polish, Italian, Spanish, German, Czech, Norse, Swedish, Finnish and Danish. And we’re pretty pleased about that. That’s why we wanted to delve into the details of how we tackled this problem together with the client. Are you facing a similar challenge? Just keep on reading to learn more!

The client

We got in touch with MPC Industries the old-fashioned way: word-of-mouth advertising. Our existing client Sterc put us in contact. MPC Industries is a market leader in industrial clamping solutions. They design, produce and distribute industrial clamps for (among others) mobility and transport, agriculture, and renewable energy industries. Their products are used worldwide. This also means their clients could be anywhere in the world. As a manufacturer, this means you want to offer your services in as many languages as possible. The solution? A multilingual website, handled by native speakers with experience in the field.

This is where Nimus translations came in. With our worldwide network of translators, we can take care of almost any language request. Our approach to translation was a deciding factor for MPC representative Maaike Jonker: “Our choice for Nimus translations was also due to the fact that they work with native speakers, which, in our opinion, would yield a better result than a ‘normal’ translation agency.”

The challenge: a multilingual website

MPC Industries operates in many parts of the world. While in many countries people speak pretty decent English as their second language, that’s not always the case. Additionally, a multilingual website makes your services easier to find online, and makes the information itself more accessible to the reader.  In turn, you increase your chances of international success.

On top of this, a multilingual website is also user friendly. Many people prefer reading information, especially when its technical or specialist in nature, in their mother tongue. But how do you decided which languages to translate to? Maaike explained to us how they based this decision on their existing user data: “We chose these languages because most of the MPC clients are located in these countries. But we haven’t ruled out adding more languages in the future.”

Our approach to a multilingual website

Once you’ve selected your languages for a multilingual website, then you actually need to set up the project. That’s quite the task with so many different languages. That’s why planning and organisation is key. This can be pretty tricky for the client too: “What we found most difficult is planning out every single aspect of the site, to be sure that you’ve got everything covered. Especially as it’s a brand new website that’s being developed.” That’s why detailed planning and close collaboration can make all the difference.

Delivering in batches

Rather than processing all the content in one giant truckload, MPC Industries took the approach of smaller, more manageable batches. This way the developers of the website can keep working while receiving a constant flow of translated content. It also means we can plan ahead and make a schedule for our translators, giving them a consistent workload over a set period of time.

The client delivered the files for each batch via our portal. They could download completed translations from the same portal. It also offered the client an overview of the workflow, keeping everything in one place.

Another benefit of working in batches is that you can have individual batches checked by your internal staff in different countries. This is especially important when it comes to specialist content. Even though we always use translators with experience in the field, your internal staff will know your product best: “After we received each translation, we had them proofread by people within the company that spoke the language. We mainly did this because the content contained many technical terms, that can be difficult to translate in our experience as they’re hardly part of everyday vocabulary. But all our proofreaders were actually very enthusiastic about the level of the translations.”

One of the risks, however, of translating in batches is consistency. What you don’t want is that batch 1 is translated differently from batch 2. For this reason we set up dedicated translation teams for each target language. Each teach consisted out of native speakers with specific knowledge of the industry.

The collaboration

With such a huge, complicated project, it’s extra important that you uphold clear and frequent communication. We also aim to please in this department: “We always received responses swiftly, and the translations were always delivered quickly, especially considering the large quantity. We were updated every step of the way, which was very nice,” according to Maaike Jonker. “Nimus always kept us up to date about the status of the translations and any queries from the translators. It was a smooth process as far as we were concerned. ”

The results

After a few months of closely working together, it’s finally here: a clear, user-friendly website, available in as many as 17 languages. Easy to understand for any international client, wherever they may be. This was part MPC Industries’ of customer service, but it also contributed to making their own employees’ lives easier. Now their services are no longer being misinterpreted by clients, and their brand identity is represented accurately in each country. Aside from that, employees no longer have to repeat themselves as much: “We received fewer ‘irrelevant’ questions via the chat, which used to be a frequent occurrence. This is partly due to the application of a chatbot on the website, the content for which was also translated by Nimus translations.”

Do you want to expand your services for an international audience? Then listen to Maaike’s advice: “What’s really important to keep into account is that when you change something on website A, this also needs to be changed in all the other languages, which results in more translation work. Make sure you know exactly what you want to say, and present this to Nimus translations in a complete way.” Good tip!

Do you want to create a multilingual website to reach a worldwide audience? Explore which languages we offer to check out the options. Or just get in touch right away, and we’ll take care of it!