We’ve blogged about serving culturally diverse clients, who require services of court interpreters and language translators. Today, the simple use of a phonebook advertisement is not enough to compete in the ever-growing legal business. Instead, attorneys and law firms must have a succinct marketing campaign in place that looks beyond the borders of their town or city. One key component to any law firm marketing campaign is a multilingual website. Typical websites will provide background information on the firm and its attorneys, areas of practice, contact information and some basic information regarding the law firm’s areas of expertise.
But what if the viewer is a non-English speaker? If your law firm’s website is only in English, you miss out on attracting this client. And in today’s diverse, global society, non-native English speakers make up a significant market. For this reason, any serious law firm should consider having a foreign language translation of its Web site content into Arabic, Farsi, Polish, Bosnian, Japanese, French, Russian, Czech, Spanish, or any other language spoken by its target audience. This does not mean creating a separate website, but simply another version containing a foreign language translation of the original website. Be sure to hire the foreign language translation service that translates into the language of the group you are targeting. This is important not only in terms of getting a correct foreign language translation of the text, but also in terms of getting advice on the cultural differences that need to be taken into consideration in the site’s design.