Translate a Sales Brochure into English

What changes when a brochure goes into English

A sales brochure is persuasive copy, not neutral information, and that is where English differs most from many source languages.

• Length. Coming from French, English text is typically 10 to 15% shorter; other source languages vary. On a brochure of about 1,200 words that can mean a hundred words fewer: text boxes look emptier, one column ends higher than the other, a button suddenly seems too wide for its label.
• Register. Many European languages favour noun-heavy phrasing and a corporate third person: Our company places at your disposal a complete range of solutions. English sales copy speaks to the reader directly, with active verbs and short sentences: We give you everything you need to…
• Taglines. A slogan built on a pun in the source language rarely survives literally. A plain promise such as French excellence carries over; wordplay needs a decision from you.

None of this is a translation fault: these are simply the places to look first when you review.

British or American English: decide first

A brochure for buyers in London and one for buyers in Chicago are not written quite the same way. Choose your market, then check the free sample and the full translation against it.

• Spelling: colour / color, organise / organize, centre / center, catalogue / catalog. One variety throughout, captions included.
• Dates: 03/04/2025 is 3 April in the UK and 4 March in the US. On anything distributed internationally, spell the month: 3 April 2025.
• Headings: US style often capitalises every main word (Our Services and Solutions); UK style tends to use sentence case (Our services and solutions).
• Numbers and prices: continental 1 200,50 € becomes €1,200.50, with a comma for thousands and a full stop for decimals.
• Plurals: English has only two forms, singular and plural, so 1 site / 3 sites is straightforward. Watch nouns instead: a French or German brochure boasting 1,000 références means over 1,000 products, not references.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

Your brochure goes to Calliope, the engine specialised in marketing and sales content. Accepted formats are Word, PDF, PowerPoint, Excel, plain text, Markdown, HTML, RTF and CSV. The file comes back in its original format with the layout preserved, within minutes for a document of this size, and stays available in your client area. The quote appears as soon as you upload, based on the exact word count.

For a brochure going to customers, the Professional level (handled by the domain specialist) is the natural fit; Premium adds cross-review for a flagship document.

What Manuce does not do:

• A scanned PDF (an image with no selectable text) cannot be read. Likewise, a tagline drawn into an illustration is not text and will need redoing in your design file.
• Manuce does not take glossaries or terminology instructions. If a product range name or signature line must stay in the source language, check it in the free sample and then in the translation.
• Manuce does not produce sworn or certified translations; a brochure does not normally need one.

Preparing the file

1. Use the source file rather than the print PDF when you have it: a Word or PowerPoint file translates and reflows more cleanly. If you only have the PDF, try selecting a sentence with your cursor; if nothing highlights, it is an image.
2. Clean up first: outdated prices, comments, hidden slides. Every word in the file is counted and translated.
3. Mark what must not change: company name, legal form, registration number, address. A French SAS or a German GmbH stays as it is; it does not become a Ltd or an Inc.
4. Settle the figures: give phone numbers in international format, e.g. +33 1 23 45 67 89, without the leading zero. For a US audience, consider whether metric dimensions should also appear in inches; that is a content choice to make in the source.

Checking before you print

Before sending the English file to the printer or publishing it online, run through these points:

• Calls to action: Request a quote or Get a quote, Get in touch, Book a demo. Make sure each still fits its button.
• False friends common in sales copy translated from French and other Romance languages: performant should read high-performing or efficient; formation means training; eventually often wrongly stands in for possibly; actually for currently.
• Consistency: one spelling variety, one date format, the same prices as the source.
• Contact details: email addresses, URLs and promo codes must be untouched.
• Layout: with shorter text, rebalance columns and white space rather than enlarging the font.

For taglines and slogans, have someone from your target market read the final version.

In practice

1. Choose your market (UK or US) and tidy the source file.
2. Upload the brochure: the quote appears at once, on the exact word count.
3. Read the free translated paragraph to judge tone and spelling.
4. Pay and download the English file in its original format.
5. Review taglines, figures and layout before printing.