It took you quite a few hours searching through the Internet, but you finally found a perfect lead for your business. Your contact speaks a foreign language and you know you’ll have more chances to get a reply from him if you address him in his mother tongue. You’ve spent quite some time writing the perfect email and researching how to translate emails into a different language. And, finally, you’re ready to click “Send”.

[READ MORE: How to write the perfect pitch email to get the job of your dreams]

And then… Nothing happens. You can feel the excitement when you send that email, THE email. And you see this excitement going away as days go by without a reply.

And the most frustrating thing is that you don’t know what went wrong. It was a great offer and you’re 100% sure that your lead could benefit from it. Why did they never get back to you?

I know how you feel. The same was happening to me when I moved to the UK 6 years ago. I had to start reaching leads in a different language and my emails weren’t being very effective. I wasn’t getting many replies, and the ones I was actually receiving wouldn’t really lead to anything.

I learnt the hard way what I was doing wrong, and today I want to share it with you so you can learn from my experience.

How to translate emails: 3 elements involved

There are three parts involved when you translate an email and send it to a lead: the sender, the message and the receiver. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, right? The important thing here is that we’ll need to analyse these three parts involved to adapt and translate the message we want to send accordingly.

Let’s have a look at this process:

Do you want to write the perfect email? Follow this formula: attention, interest, desire and action. Click To Tweet

1. The sender

That’s you, the person reading these lines.

You have an intention in mind when you want to send an email to a lead. However, is this intention adapted to the receiver who is going to read your email translated into a different language?

This is intention may vary depending on leads in different markets, so make sure it’s adapted before clicking “Send”.

Ask yourself these questions before writing your email:

• Why would a Spanish-speaking customer want to buy my products/services?
• What do they want to achieve? Is this the same as a native speaker customer?
• If not, how can I adapt my message and products to meet their expectations?

In addition to your intention, we also need to bear in mind the language skills to write and translate an email into a different language, and the cultural knowledge to structure this message in an appropriate way within the receiver’s context.

There’s no doubt that an email with grammatical mistakes or culturally not appropriate will be ignored and can even be flagged as spammy.

2. The message

Once you have ticked these boxes, these must be reflected in the email itself.

Now it’s time to click on “new email” and start writing. Follow this structure to make sure your email is effective:

1. Identify the common grounds that you share with your lead.

2. Explain why you’re writing to him/her specifically.

3. Introduce yourself/your business and what you’re looking for with that email.

4. Describe what you need or expect.

5. Conclude your email with a call-to-action: what do you want the lead to do after reading your email? Get back to you? Then, leave your contact details. Visit a website/product page? Then, include the link clearly visible.

3. The reader

Once your intention and your message have been adapted, the reader will identify that the email comes from a reliable source.

And, if you follow the structure mentioned above, your message will guide your reader and encourage him/her to take action.

However, you’re probably thinking that this is easier said than that. I know. You may think that you have already checked all these boxes and still you’re not getting any replies.

I’m afraid there’s no magic formula that you can copy and paste to be successful. But let’s have a look at the most common mistakes I find daily in my inbox. I can guarantee that if you apply the tips mentioned above and avoid the following mistakes, you’ll be in a very solid position to get a reply from that perfect lead.

Mistakes you can’t afford to make when translating emails (with real examples)

1. Translate your emails without knowing your audience

One of the most common mistakes when addressing an international lead is not taking into account that you should adapt your email culturally.

Make sure you know how to address your lead: don’t be too formal or too informal, make sure you know his name and you spell it right.

As you can tell, this email didn’t get off on the right foot.

This tip seems obvious, but it’s also very commonly overlooked. I very rarely reply to emails that aren’t addressed to my personal name.

You can have a quick look on a website or LinkedIn to get to know who you’re writing to. If you aren’t willing to make this effort, why would your reader make an effort to reply to your email?

2. Using automatic email translations that make your sound spammy and unreliable

This one may seem quite obvious too. However, automatic translation plug-ins are becoming very popular. They are usually free or offer a very cheap subscription, and they claim that can translate your emails in one click.

This may be true but let’s have a look at the results.

You don’t need to speak Spanish to guess that this email sounds spammy. And so I flagged it as spam.

If you want to address your reader in his mother tongue, that’s definitely a great idea. But do it right, don’t copy a paste your content in the first free plug-in or Google Translate.

Make sure your content is translated by a professional who can also adapt your message culturally. Or you’ll end up in the spam folder.

3. Including too much or too little content

Sending cold emails is a hard way to get a new client. It’s not easy to make someone, who doesn’t know you, pay attention to what you have to say. And we tend to be suspicious of people we don’t know. That’s our nature and there’s nothing we can do about it.

That’s why when you’re emailing someone you don’t know, you have to introduce yourself. Not your business. The person who is actually writing that email. We need to humanise our content to connect with people.

Introduce yourself and explain briefly why you’re writing. But don’t make it all about yourself. Remember that your readers are usually very busy, and you only have a few seconds to gain their trust.

As you can see, there’s nothing human about this type of emails.

Make sure your reader knows who you are and why you’re writing that email within the first few lines.

4. Someone not specialised in your market is translating your emails

If you have finally decided to hire a professional translator to improve your chances to be successful with your emails, makes sure this person specialises in your industry.

Using the same jargon and terms than your readers will help you connect with them instantly. However, bad translations or a specialised term badly translated can be the end of your email.

Culture and language must be hand in hand to make sure your email is adapted correctly.

Have you had similar experiences receiving these types of emails? Have you ever tried to send a very important email and never got a reply? Tell me your experiences in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you and give you some additional tips!