Alessandra Martelli is an Italian translator and copywriter. She writes and translates (from English and German) marketing and PR content, tourism texts, and medical content for small businesses and large corporates alike. Alessandra is also a trainer with a qualification in teaching, and the author of 21 Free Tools for Translators (2016). She enjoys sharing thoughts on effective communication and freelancing on her blog, and hates writing about herself in the third person. She’s an avid traveller, and a bibliophile with a passion for etymology. Alessandra is an Associate of ITI (UK) and a member of ACTA (Italy).
Translating your client’s personality
Marketing translations and transcreations are all about grasping your client’s personality, and translating their tone of voice in a way that “sounds like them”. While larger corporates usually provide details about these key aspects, small and mid-sized businesses often don’t. And this can lead to bland translations and adaptations that fail to convert. In this talk, we’ll explore how “personality” and “tone of voice” shine through marketing copy. Building on real-life examples, we’ll see how translators can transform brief details into words that work. Also, we’ll discuss how translators can infer the client’s personality from the source text – and thoughtfully bring it to life in another language.
Key learning points of the session:
• Understanding what tone of voice is;
• Exploring the relationship between tone of voice and word choice;
• Using “textual indicators” to grasp and translate the client’s personality.
