You’re not imagining it: the budget pressure is real, and it's hitting marketing teams harder these days. And when it comes to translation costs, there’s one popular idea that keeps resurfacing — cut translator fees.
Sure, it's tempting. But the truth is, slashing translator rates isn’t the silver bullet you're hoping for. In fact, it's probably missing the bigger (and more expensive) picture.
Translator Fees Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg
When we talk about translation costs, it’s easy to focus on what’s most visible: the translator invoice.
But if you zoom out, the real cost isn't just what you pay per word. It’s how much manual work your team does to get a translation project across the finish line.
Think about it:
- Hours spent copy-pasting texts from marketing documents into Word or Excel files.
- Endless back-and-forths coordinating translators by email, chat, or calls.
- Precious time tracking status updates across Teams, Zoom meetings, and spreadsheets.
- Countless hours manually verifying if terminology is consistent across all languages, or crossing your fingers and hoping for the best.
- Painstaking reformatting of documents to match the original layout after translations are done.
- Fixing translation mistakes after publication once the document is already live online or, worse, printed.
These hidden costs often slip under the radar, and they quietly add up to a much bigger expense than you realize.
The Real Problem: The Old Translation Workflow
If you’re still relying on traditional methods (like emailing files around and manually inserting translations into designs), you’re caught in a high-cost, low-efficiency loop.
This isn’t just inconvenient. It’s expensive.
And as your content demand grows — new campaigns, new markets, new product launches — the cracks only get wider.
As I pointed out in the ebook, "Getting Unstuck: Streamline Your Translation Workflow," six major pain points drag your translation projects down:
- Volume: Translating the same content again and again.
- Quality: Losing consistency without a centralized system.
- Cost: Higher expenses from repeated manual work.
- Time: Delays from scattered processes.
- Coordination: Constant effort just to stay on top of progress.
- Asset management: Difficulty managing versions across languages.
And the worst part is that these challenges are interconnected.
- If you require faster delivery your translation invoice usually increases — because translators need to prioritize your project or work outside regular hours.
- If you focus on achieving higher translation quality, your translators will need more time to review details carefully, cross-check terminology, and refine the content.
- Slow coordination drives up time and cost.
- More translation projects? Volume magnifies quality issues.
- The longer your translations take every time, the slower your international growth.
In other words, pulling on one lever inevitably affects the others. That's why traditional translation workflows feel like a constant balancing act with no easy wins.
Focus on the Friction, Not Just the Fee
If you’re measured by outcomes — customer engagement, brand loyalty, and international sales — cutting translator fees won’t get you there.
Instead, you need to think holistically and remove the friction from the workflow.
Imagine if:
- You didn’t need to extract text manually anymore.
- Translators worked together in one online place.
- Project status was visible at a glance — no emails needed.
- Completed translations auto-formatted back into your original design files.
That’s what a streamlined translation process looks like. And it's the real way to reduce costs and speed up results without compromising quality.
Wrapping Up
If you're serious about controlling translation costs and achieving better outcomes, it’s time to shift your focus.
Cutting translator fees alone won’t fix your workflow.
Fixing the workflow, however, can transform your entire translation operation — faster projects, lower hidden costs, and a team that has time to focus on what actually moves the needle.
