Transcreation vs. translation: reaching Spanish speaking customers

Translation changes words from one language to another and stays close to the original. It's the right tool when accuracy matters more than style: contracts, forms, instructions and policies.

Localization adapts content to a place and its people: dates, units, prices, phone numbers and the references your audience recognizes.

Transcreation carries the meaning, tone and intent of a message into a new language and culture, so it lands the way you meant it. It's the right tool for taglines, headlines, ads, social posts and every line that asks someone to call, book or buy.

Take a common line from a contractor's website: “Get your free estimate today.” Word for word, it becomes “Obtenga su estimación libre hoy.” Every word is there, but “libre” means free as in freedom, not free of charge, and the formal tone can feel distant for a neighborhood business.

Transcreated, it becomes “Pide tu estimado gratis hoy”: short, warm and written the way many Spanish speakers in the U.S. talk about estimates.

Small choices like these can decide whether a Spanish speaker keeps reading or feels the page wasn't written for them.

• Transcreate your tagline, headlines, ads, social posts, flyers, website buttons and anything that asks people to call, book or buy.
• Carefully translate your service descriptions, forms, policies and instructions, and have a fluent reviewer check them.
• Keep required words exact. Some text, like legal notices or the keywords carriers require in text message programs (for example STOP and HELP), has rules of its own. Translate the explanation, but keep the required words as they must appear.
• Localize the details: the phone number Spanish speakers should call, how dates are written, and the places, examples and references your audience recognizes.

Spanish speakers in the U.S. are not one audience. Many families have roots in Mexico, Central America, South America or the Caribbean; some people prefer Spanish, some prefer English, and many move between the two. Vocabulary changes too: an estimate can be a “presupuesto,” a “cotización” or an “estimado,” depending on who you ask.

Decide early whether you'll address readers as “tú” (informal) or “usted” (formal), and keep it the same everywhere. Many local businesses choose “tú” to sound close and friendly; banks, clinics and government offices often choose “usted.” What matters is choosing on purpose and staying consistent.

In Solano County, 31.8% of residents are Hispanic or Latino, and in California 41.2% are, according to U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts. Not everyone in those numbers prefers Spanish, which is why bilingual materials often work best.

1. 01Choose your audience and your goal. Who do you want to reach, and what should they do: call, visit, sign up or buy?
2. 02Make a bilingual word list. Decide how you'll say your services, your offers and your key phrases in Spanish, and use the same words everywhere.
3. 03Pick one way to say “you.” Choose “tú” or “usted” and write it down, so every flyer, post and page sounds like the same business.
4. 04Transcreate your key messages first: your tagline, your homepage headline and your main call to action.
5. 05Test it with real people. Ask fluent Spanish speakers from your audience to read it out loud. If it sounds translated, it needs another pass.
6. 06Build Spanish pages people can find. On your website, give each Spanish page its own address, and write its title and description in Spanish, with the words people actually search for.

The goal of transcreation isn't to sound like a different business in Spanish. It's to sound like you: the same promise, the same personality and the same care, in words that feel natural.

That's the heart of our Hispanic Market Strategy work: understanding who you want to reach, then helping you say what you mean in natural, culturally relevant Spanish. Citlalli Flores Zepeda, originally from El Grullo, Jalisco, has helped organizations build trusted brands since 2004, in English and in Spanish.