Hello everybody! How are you doing? Hope spring is bringing new blessings and challenges to you and your business. Please welcome Aniello Attianese with his first guest post in my blog. The topic we are going to talk about is marketing for freelance translators. Enjoy!
Whether you’re just a rookie at the very beginning of your great translation journey or an experienced translator with years of work behind your belt, one thing simply doesn’t change – in order to get business, you must market yourself successfully to the potential clients. It is extremely important to find the appropriate methods which will maximise results for the effort you put in.
This however, might sound much easier to do than it actually is. Remember, your goal is to stand out from the crowd of translators who might be just as talented and qualified as you are. Marketing your translation services isn’t just about getting out there and stopping. It is a constant effort to show your potential customers that you are qualified, professional and up-to-date with the industry.
Having worked with a translation agency for over 5 years now, I think it’s only right that I share some of the tips that helped me personally and made my job much more fun! Below are 6 ways in which you can approach translation agencies and offer them your translation services.
1. Your Own Website
I’m still fairly ‘new’ to the translation industry, which means that I have started working as a professional translator in the era when pretty much everything in our industry was already run and driven by the internet. Quite fortunately thought, this meant that I had it a little bit easier than my fellow translators who started working before the growth of World Wide Web. From day 1 – internet is a tool which continuously helps me to work and market myself in a way I would not be able to just 20 years ago.
One of the very first things I have done when started working as a translator professionally was creating my own website. This has helped me enviously in reaching out to new clients as well as showcasing my experience, skills and previous work. Creating your own little corner on the internet also helps to present yourself in a more professional manner and lets your potential clients to get to know you better.
An important thing to remember is that the website will be where you display your skills – so make sure that the layout is clean and professional. Also, it is key to proof read your content several times, making sure it is completely error free, as while attention is good – attention in a negative sense really isn’t something you should aim for and any grammar mistakes will definitely discourage your potential clients!
2. Social Media
Although extremely popular in our personal lives, the use of social media platforms isn’t nearly as common when it comes to our professional lives. Taking advantage of social media such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn will allow you to fully interact with your clients as well as reach more people within the industry and promote your services.
3. Industry Profiles
Similarly to the use of social media, creating professional profiles in industry specific portals can greatly increase your online presence. A number of professional translators nowadays use platforms such as Proz.com, which easily allows them to approach new clients and receive more work. An important factor to bear in mind is that these profiles must be updated regularly, with your experiences and recent work as this will help you stand out from the crowd.
4. Publish
I know we translators are a busy bunch – always working and keeping tight deadlines. Nevertheless, publishing post whether it’s on your own blog or as a guest post on someone else’s website will allow you to connect with other professionals within the industry. It is also a great tool in order to broaden your online presence. An additional advantage of writing and posting articles relevant to the translation industry are links to your website. If people like what you have written, they will simply share it with friends/family and perhaps re-post it on their own websites. Such recognition will not only allow you to become somewhat of an expert within our industry, but can also determine how well you rank organically in search engines such as Google.
5. Email Marketing
Although many people will frown upon these words and claim it is ‘so 2010’, email marketing still remains an important and perhaps a key strategy in my marketing mix. I personally find that I gain job opportunities most frequently through contacting my clients with a simple email campaign. It is important to remember that these emails must always be extremely professional and as least pushy as it is only possible. You must sell your services without writing a book and without annoying the person on the other end who will read it! A good idea is to simply mention the languages you cover, industry which you specialise in, your availability and perhaps some examples of your work. Keep it short and sweet!
6. Quality
Last but definitely not least – Quality of your translations. I know that this is a pretty obvious one, but it’s important to remind ourselves every now and then just how important it truly is. We may have the best website on the internet, publish a ton of articles about translations and languages, email all the translation agencies we have ever heard of, but at the end of the day, the quality of our work must always be outstanding. An agency won’t come back to you with a new project if they are not happy with the quality of your work, even if your website is amazing, believe it or not!
Dear Aniello, thank you so much for sharing your experience.
Aniello Attianese comes from Pagani, Italy. He worked as a professional translator for many years before joining a London based translation agency Language Reach as a Project Manager. Aniello speaks fluent Italian, French, German and English and just started learning Polish.
In his spare time, he enjoys travelling and good music, and of course, languages.
Whether you’re just a rookie at the very beginning of your great translation journey or an experienced translator with years of work behind your belt, one thing simply doesn’t change – in order to get business, you must market yourself successfully to the potential clients. It is extremely important to find the appropriate methods which will maximise results for the effort you put in.
This however, might sound much easier to do than it actually is. Remember, your goal is to stand out from the crowd of translators who might be just as talented and qualified as you are. Marketing your translation services isn’t just about getting out there and stopping. It is a constant effort to show your potential customers that you are qualified, professional and up-to-date with the industry.
Having worked with a translation agency for over 5 years now, I think it’s only right that I share some of the tips that helped me personally and made my job much more fun! Below are 6 ways in which you can approach translation agencies and offer them your translation services.1. Your Own Website
I’m still fairly ‘new’ to the translation industry, which means that I have started working as a professional translator in the era when pretty much everything in our industry was already run and driven by the internet. Quite fortunately thought, this meant that I had it a little bit easier than my fellow translators who started working before the growth of World Wide Web. From day 1 – internet is a tool which continuously helps me to work and market myself in a way I would not be able to just 20 years ago.
One of the very first things I have done when started working as a translator professionally was creating my own website. This has helped me enviously in reaching out to new clients as well as showcasing my experience, skills and previous work. Creating your own little corner on the internet also helps to present yourself in a more professional manner and lets your potential clients to get to know you better.
An important thing to remember is that the website will be where you display your skills – so make sure that the layout is clean and professional. Also, it is key to proof read your content several times, making sure it is completely error free, as while attention is good – attention in a negative sense really isn’t something you should aim for and any grammar mistakes will definitely discourage your potential clients!
2. Social Media
Although extremely popular in our personal lives, the use of social media platforms isn’t nearly as common when it comes to our professional lives. Taking advantage of social media such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn will allow you to fully interact with your clients as well as reach more people within the industry and promote your services.
3. Industry Profiles
Similarly to the use of social media, creating professional profiles in industry specific portals can greatly increase your online presence. A number of professional translators nowadays use platforms such as Proz.com, which easily allows them to approach new clients and receive more work. An important factor to bear in mind is that these profiles must be updated regularly, with your experiences and recent work as this will help you stand out from the crowd.
4. Publish
I know we translators are a busy bunch – always working and keeping tight deadlines. Nevertheless, publishing post whether it’s on your own blog or as a guest post on someone else’s website will allow you to connect with other professionals within the industry. It is also a great tool in order to broaden your online presence. An additional advantage of writing and posting articles relevant to the translation industry are links to your website. If people like what you have written, they will simply share it with friends/family and perhaps re-post it on their own websites. Such recognition will not only allow you to become somewhat of an expert within our industry, but can also determine how well you rank organically in search engines such as Google.
5. Email MarketingAlthough many people will frown upon these words and claim it is ‘so 2010’, email marketing still remains an important and perhaps a key strategy in my marketing mix. I personally find that I gain job opportunities most frequently through contacting my clients with a simple email campaign. It is important to remember that these emails must always be extremely professional and as least pushy as it is only possible. You must sell your services without writing a book and without annoying the person on the other end who will read it! A good idea is to simply mention the languages you cover, industry which you specialise in, your availability and perhaps some examples of your work. Keep it short and sweet!
6. Quality
Last but definitely not least – Quality of your translations. I know that this is a pretty obvious one, but it’s important to remind ourselves every now and then just how important it truly is. We may have the best website on the internet, publish a ton of articles about translations and languages, email all the translation agencies we have ever heard of, but at the end of the day, the quality of our work must always be outstanding. An agency won’t come back to you with a new project if they are not happy with the quality of your work, even if your website is amazing, believe it or not!
Dear Aniello, thank you so much for sharing your experience.
Aniello Attianese comes from Pagani, Italy. He worked as a professional translator for many years before joining a London based translation agency Language Reach as a Project Manager. Aniello speaks fluent Italian, French, German and English and just started learning Polish.In his spare time, he enjoys travelling and good music, and of course, languages.
Comments
Post a Comment