• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Training for Translators

Online courses for translators and interpreters

  • Blog
  • Classes for translators
    • Consulting
  • Resources for translators
    • Translate HSFT!
  • About/Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Cart

Jan 21 2015

Warm e-mail marketing: a success story

In 2014, I listened to two episodes of Tess Whitty’s podcast Marketing Tips for Translators that got me thinking about the whole “warm e-mail marketing” idea. Tess interviewed Joanne Archambault about marketing to direct clients that you can’t meet in person and then interviewed Ed Gandia about his warm e-mail marketing system, including his online class on the topic. I’ve always been a bit wary of e-mail marketing (seems spammy, hard to find the right contact person, hard to know what to say), and I’ve generally stuck with letters, postcards,  in-person networking and referrals to find my direct clients. But these two podcast episodes made me think a) maybe it’s just that I’m approaching e-mail marketing in the wrong way, b) it’s good to evolve and try new things and c) now that I travel for the ATA Board, I have less time to travel to client conferences, so e-mail marketing might be worth a shot.

First, I downloaded Ed’s free cheat sheet on warm e-mail marketing. The whole idea, drastically simplified, is to send short, highly personalized e-mails to potential clients, and to hopefully create a meaningful connection that might lead to some work. The concept appealed to me, so I signed up for the next session of Ed’s warm e-mail marketing class. Again, I was a little skeptical: I’m not a huge fan of pre-packaged online classes where there’s no interaction with the instructor, but the registration fee of under $200 was low-risk, and I forced myself to carve out the time to listen to all of the audio lessons over the course of a couple of weeks. Then, it was time to give the system a try.

My first two e-mails were to potential international development clients who had recently won a big contract involving French-speaking countries; I felt positive about what I wrote, but got no response from the recipients. But I forged on, surmising that I needed to send at least 10 e-mails before I could get a representative sample. My next e-mail was to a publishing house that I’d contacted a couple of years ago with a book translation idea. At that time, the publisher was interested, but the foreign rights arrangement was complicated and the project ultimately fizzled. Flash forward to a few months ago, when I read an excerpt from an interesting book by a French author, and out of curiosity I went to her website to learn more about her. Whoa; right there on the “News” page, the author (whose books are selling really well in Europe), stated that she was actively looking for an English-language publisher, and her books struck me as being right up the alley of the publishing house I’d contacted back in 2012. So, I composed a warm e-mail to my contact person, along the lines of, “I’m not presuming that you’d hire me, but here’s a potential translation that looks like a great fit for your audience.”

Within a day, I got a response from my contact person, saying that she’d look into the book I had suggested, and that as luck would have it, the publishing house had just acquired the translation rights to another French book on a similar topic, and would I be interested in submitting a sample? Well, right there, I knew that the time and money I invested in Ed’s class had just paid off: I had resisted the urge to write a long e-mail, to be overly self-promotional, or to just ping my contact person for no apparent reason (“Got any work for me?”). I had shared a piece of useful information, and it had really paid off. So, I’m excited to say that I submitted a sample, the publisher was happy with it, and I’m now under contract to translate the book between now and May…at which point I can tell you the details instead of referring to the project in veiled terms! But the point being, give warm e-mail marketing a try…

Written by Corinne McKay · Categorized: Marketing · Tagged: book translations, e-mail marketing, warm e-mail

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. alchymie2013 says

    January 21, 2015 at 6:17 pm

    Very interesting Corinne! I’m feeling a need to become more proactive about seeking out interesting jobs rather than just relying on what our regular agencies choose to offer us – not that we are short of interesting jobs and overall we do get treated very well :).

    Reply
  2. Anita Morf says

    January 21, 2015 at 7:03 pm

    That’s great! I like the idea of targeted marketing and have been doing it with postcards. Unfortunately, in Canada, there is now an anti-spam law that does not allow us to simply e-mail someone to offer our services. I guess if it was more customized, it might pass. Or I would have to go another route (contact them through LinkedIn, through their website, send them a letter).

    Reply
    • Dmitry Kornyukhov (@DKornyukhov) says

      February 5, 2015 at 5:30 pm

      Anita according to the CAN-SPAM Act, marketers (or anyone) are allowed to send one ‘unsolicited’ email = without permission.

      Reply
  3. villebilingue says

    January 21, 2015 at 9:04 pm

    I should try it.. at least its a push in the right direction

    Reply
  4. Andie Ho says

    January 21, 2015 at 11:54 pm

    I listened to Tess’s interview with Joanne a few months ago and had been wondering about Gandia’s program as well. On the face of it, the program looks like a cheesy self-help deal that I would normally write off immediately, but hearing trusted colleagues endorse it is making me curious. I’ll have to try it out sometime. Thanks for sharing your experience, Corinne!

    Reply
  5. Catherine Demaison-Doherty says

    January 21, 2015 at 11:57 pm

    Brilliant! Congratulations! A lot of hard work, serious thought, and beautiful serendipity – a winning combination!

    Reply
  6. Petra Wagner says

    January 22, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Very interesting, Corinne. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  7. Marta Stelmaszak says

    January 23, 2015 at 6:13 pm

    Congratulations, Corinne! I think warm email marketing works and it was good to read your success story 🙂

    Reply
  8. Caitlyn Sun says

    January 25, 2015 at 5:33 am

    Thank you for your sharing, Corinne! A very thought-provoking story. It was worth trying against our initial skeptics and finally found out it was actually a rewarding process. I will go to learn this “warm email marketing” class and make a try.

    Reply
  9. Nadine E. says

    March 3, 2015 at 7:04 pm

    Hello Corinne,
    Thank you for sharing your story. It’s hard to figure out where all of this fits without seeing it in action. I think warm email marketing works simply because you are forced to think — how can I really help this person? Where do I fit? Just as networking is not about landing leads, but about a professional relationship.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Some thoughts on translating books | Thoughts On Translation says:
    July 10, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    […] one was through an agency, and one was through a specialized publisher that I cold-contacted (with a warm e-mail). So, just like any other kind of client, you can find book translation clients in lots of ways; […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Become a better translator: join our mailing list!

Learn from our blog:

  • Speaking of Translation: Self-care and mental health in the pandemic
  • Interview with Oliver Dirs, author of Good Words Fast
  • March Marketing Madness starts Monday
  • The Translator’s Little Book of Poetry
  • Upcoming online courses for translators
  • Guest post: Join the educational interpreting movement!
  • Marketing to direct clients using a touch point system
  • Medical terminology and Online presence roadmap: Classes start Monday!

The original career how-to guide for freelance translators. Over 12,000 copies sold!

Search the Training for Translators blog

Copyright © 2021 · Training For Translators · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. To view this website's privacy policy, click About>Privacy Policy. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT