Translation Prices Under Pressure vs Discounted Rates

Pricing is one of the key topics in the translation industry. Unlike many other services, translation prices are often set as fixed quotes (exact price), rather than on an hourly rate (variable price).

Despite this fact, many translation agencies and freelance translators still use discounted rates to attract clients – charging more per hour to translate shorter documents or to do urgent jobs at the weekend.

For example. Is this practice justified? Why can’t agencies/freelancers simply charge less and charge by the word instead?

And should you follow their lead if you want to stay competitive?

The reasons for translation price under pressure

Many translation services offer discounts to their customers. However, those translation services may have quality that is vastly different from high-quality translations.

This is because the lesser translation service will take more liberties with translating. The less time they spend on a document, the lower the price will be.

Translation costs can vary greatly depending on which types of documents you need translated as well as what type of language it is translated into.

Different language service providers like Document translators, bilingual translators, and professional translators can charge varying amounts for their work depending on how long it takes them to translate your content and whether or not they require outside sources to complete your project.

Explaining the pricing models of translation services

Translation pricing models vary widely from one to another depending on how a company operates. Usually, translation agencies offer discounts per customer and a small percentage off their service with more of the latter, but some offer discounts on base price.

Discounts can lead to all sorts of unforeseeable consequences, as clients will look for even cheaper rates if they’re easily accessible. The key is to provide affordable services that do not require additional charges or breaking down sentences in order to meet low costs.

Translation memory is an excellent solution because it provides a considerable boost to quality assurance while providing other benefits such as increased client retention due to a satisfaction with their service and happy customers who no longer have any fears about accuracy problems or mistakes.

Translation companies should invest in professional translation services which include translation by native speakers, post-editing and translation into various formats.

In doing so, these translation companies would receive an increase in customer base and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction while maintaining cheap translation rates that are attractive to most clients.

Creating a charging strategy

The cheapest translation services won’t suit you if you’re looking for high-quality translations that take into account all your content, including original content.

Translating with a machine is less accurate than with the best translators. Machine translations can lead to lost customers and misunderstood content.

Choosing the right pricing strategy is critical in maintaining a long-term customer base as well as ensuring benefits from translation memory to make your work more efficient in future.

Even discounts on translation prices may not help your customer service or quality control, so it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons of different pricing strategies before committing.

Your client base will also have an impact on your pricing decision: If you have loyal clients who know they will get high-quality translations at a fair price, then discounting might not make sense because it could lose out on potential new clients.

Your business model will also play a role in what type of pricing strategy is right for you – many freelance translators prefer charging by the word to save time spent estimating.

This means they can charge less per page but take longer overall, which may result in some clients opting for cheaper solutions elsewhere if they want faster turnaround times.

How to solve this problem?

Determine who your client is. If they’re a larger enterprise or government, they will have to abide by certain standards. It’s important to understand these if you plan on doing any work for them.

Make sure that you do this before agreeing to a translation project with them – it’s best to err on the side of caution than to risk breaking their regulations.

The best way to maintain those standards is by making sure that there are enough translators in-house. This way, all documents will get translated at once and won’t need outsourced help from anyone else. If you’re looking to start an international business, this should be one of your top priorities.

A lack of qualified translators can lead to lost sales opportunities as well as safety risks (remember: translations may contain sensitive information).

Translation agencies don’t want you to know this because they make most of their money when someone outsources translation work (we hope this blog post helps give some insight into what the world looks like through our eyes!).

What you should do now about translation prices and discounted rates 

Discounted pricing isn’t going to cut it when it comes to translating content into other languages. Providing a good quality product is key in this regard, but that’s something you’re going to want to do at any rate.

It will also require putting forth more effort up front so that a customer doesn’t have to worry about paying for extensive edits down the line.

When someone expects their text to be translated for $0.05 per word, it’s easy for them not think about what needs to go into ensuring that quality.

Yet, if they knew how much effort was required in order for translated content from one language into another make sense—they’d understand why translation prices are under pressure. In many cases, your potential customers don’t even know how difficult it can be to translate quality material.

If they were made aware of these difficulties before purchasing a translation service, then maybe they would be willing to pay more than $0.05 per word.

Of course, with an understanding of all the extra work involved in such a project, they might reconsider where those dollars are best spent anyway.