Marketing strategies
Thread poster: Maria Teresa Pozzi
Maria Teresa Pozzi
Maria Teresa Pozzi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 00:44
German to Italian
+ ...
Jul 31, 2014

Dear colleagues,

which are in your opinion the most effective marketing strategies to get direct customers?
How much time do you spend to market your services and how do you cope with high work load?

Tea


 
Dylan J Hartmann
Dylan J Hartmann  Identity Verified
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
+ ...

MODERATOR
No simple method Jul 31, 2014

I wish there was an easy way, but one must sit down on the phone, face plenty of rejection and be willing to continue searching for them. Call, arrange meetings if you can and try offer your services face to face, if the clients are local. The simple truth is that no one likes phone salespersons, everyone ignores email advertisements (even if they're targeted), so the only way to gauge a response is face to face.

How much time to spend really depends on how much marketing you need t
... See more
I wish there was an easy way, but one must sit down on the phone, face plenty of rejection and be willing to continue searching for them. Call, arrange meetings if you can and try offer your services face to face, if the clients are local. The simple truth is that no one likes phone salespersons, everyone ignores email advertisements (even if they're targeted), so the only way to gauge a response is face to face.

How much time to spend really depends on how much marketing you need to do. This is an open ended question, but of you're asking this question, it means you need to do more!

Best of luck, you need to be brave if you're doing cold-calls.
Collapse


 
Rudolf Frans Maulany
Rudolf Frans Maulany  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 00:44
English to Indonesian
+ ...
Experience active and passive marketing & do not overload Aug 1, 2014

Dear colleagues
From my 30 years experience as a translator/interpreter and still active after retirement:

Example from my experience:
-Active marketing by sending letters/emails to direct customer from about 300 I got only 10 positive answers but its worth it.
-Passive marketing through our local translations association or news ad who promote our service in their website I got on average at least 1-2 clients a month.


I try to avoid overloa
... See more
Dear colleagues
From my 30 years experience as a translator/interpreter and still active after retirement:

Example from my experience:
-Active marketing by sending letters/emails to direct customer from about 300 I got only 10 positive answers but its worth it.
-Passive marketing through our local translations association or news ad who promote our service in their website I got on average at least 1-2 clients a month.


I try to avoid overload because from my experience I see colleagues suffering burn out and stress and later quit their job. Freelance translation according to me is like a marathon competition the fittest will win.
Collapse


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 20:44
English to Portuguese
+ ...
In memoriam
A useful web site + networking Aug 1, 2014

My best marketing strategies are having a useful web site and networking with peers/colleagues. Most of my new clients come from these two.

My web site - http://www.lamensdorf.com.br - has a lot of valuable (i.e. useful, and not so easy to find) information for translation prospects. This ensures a fairly good Google ranking without having spent one single penny so far in SEO.

If yo
... See more
My best marketing strategies are having a useful web site and networking with peers/colleagues. Most of my new clients come from these two.

My web site - http://www.lamensdorf.com.br - has a lot of valuable (i.e. useful, and not so easy to find) information for translation prospects. This ensures a fairly good Google ranking without having spent one single penny so far in SEO.

If you look at it, it's visually more "spartan" than the average, no dazzling graphics, but plenty of info... maybe too much of it, however it has an internal search engine to make things easier for visitors.


Then networking...
I happen to know a few hundred fellow translators, their language pairs, their skills, their specialties.
Likewise, I get known by about as many (or more) translators for my skills, my specialties. Most of all, I get known by both my relentless ethics and my willingness to help colleagues/prospects/clients without a "what's in for me?" attitude.

Whenever I feel like admitting that I wouldn't be the ideal choice for some job I am offered, and of course when I shouldn't be an option for that job, I do my best to refer the request to a colleague that I know who is. I don't want - nor accept - any compensation for that, not even thankfulness. I expect them to do such a good job that the client will thank me for the referral.

Now here is the trick... I don't expect these colleagues I sent jobs to pay back by sending jobs specifically to me. Actually, I dumped those jobs to (the IMO best matching specialists in) the network. The return I expect (and it does come regularly) is that the entire network will dump my way any job for which they consider me the ideal specialist.


When prospects become clients, strategies switch to relentless ethics and excellent customer service. This will create another stream of referrals. And this stream has its affluents, so sometimes I can't trace back far enough to understand how a prospect came to me, out of the blue, with such high expectations based on what they heard from people I simply don't know.
Collapse


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 23:44
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
A true pro in action :) Aug 1, 2014

Nice bit of marketing, José

 
Maria Teresa Pozzi
Maria Teresa Pozzi  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 00:44
German to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you Aug 4, 2014

for your tips and for sharing your experience with me

 
Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member for the following reason: Unedited since 5 days
Ivana Bojcic
Ivana Bojcic  Identity Verified
Croatia
Member (2011)
German to Croatian
+ ...
... Dec 10, 2015

Rudolf Frans Maulany wrote:

Dear colleagues
From my 30 years experience as a translator/interpreter and still active after retirement:

Example from my experience:
-Active marketing by sending letters/emails to direct customer from about 300 I got only 10 positive answers but its worth it.





Hi Rudolf,

I've sent about 50 brochures to direct clients, made sure everything is perfect. I was wondering if you were doing the same thing when you sent those letters (not e-mails): did you sent something like leaflets, brochures, offers...what?
And how long did you exactly wait until you received first answers?
I'm having difficulties finding direct clients outside my country...just don't know what to do.


Thank you


 


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Marketing strategies







Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »
Trados Studio 2022 Freelance
The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.

Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

More info »