Here’s a common question from other freelancers: How much time should I spend on marketing? A percentage of my time? A certain amount per day? Should I market even when I have tons of work?
The easy answer would be to say: spend 15% of your time on marketing, and you’ll always have just the right amount of work. But it’s not that easy, and as I’ve mentioned before, “just the right amount of work” is a goal that perhaps .01% of translators achieve. The rest of us have a little too little work, or a little too much work, and personally I’ll take a little too much, so that I’m not worrying about keeping the lights on.
My thought on this marketing question: if, in general, you don’t have enough work, then you need to market consistently, every single day. You have to work on it like practicing a musical instrument or exercising: you don’t shut down for the day until you do your 30 minutes of marketing, or you don’t get coffee in the morning until you contact three potential clients, and so on.
But if you have enough work all of the time or most of the time, or especially if you’re turning down work, it’s OK to market toward a specific goal. That’s what I do: I don’t market for 30 minutes every day; I market when I have a specific goal. If I want to find more clients in Switzerland, or translate another book, or any other specific goal, then I do a campaign aimed at that target.
That’s it! Over to you!
Corinne, you always have such a clear idea about what to do. Great insight, as always!
Lots of trial and error!
Marketing is not math, and sales goals by themselves aren’t enough. Where do we get this figure of 0.01% translators achieving their just the right amount of work?
Since when do we have translators turned into marketing experts? This is like experienced parents telling new parents how to do things: each experience is unique. Don’t make your own particular experience some sort of universal rule that applies to most situations.
Speaking of trial and error, here’s a thought: if you, a translator, aren’t sure whether contacting 3 people daily on the phone to follow up after a conference or to cold call before you have lunch, just give it a try. Measure your results and keep a record of them over a reasonable period of time. What is a reasonable period of time? I don’t know! Make it 4 weeks, 4 months, 2 years.
There are four English words that I often use when someone asks me a question for which I have no definitive answer: “I do not know.”
Thanks Mario!
Dear Corinne,
thank you for your post, that is motivation I needed today!:)
I was planning to set up a real marketing schedule for next 6 months and … during last days I have been doing everything but not this plan.
Today I am not leaving the office till I get there:)
Take care!
Thanks Michael! I agree, the number one reason people (including me) say that they don’t work on their marketing is “I don’t have time.” But seriously…would you ever say “Things have been crazy! I haven’t even brushed my teeth in six months!” or “The car has been sitting in the driveway with no gas in it since December because I just haven’t had a chance to get to the gas station!”??? But realistically, incremental marketing is the same “periodic maintenance” on your business as the “periodic maintenance” you do in other areas of life.
The only thing I’d add is scheduling regular time to maintain your static marketing materials, so that even if you’re not marketing towards a specific goal, your online presence and print materials are always up-to-date. Thanks for the thoughts!
Thanks! Very good point!
Indeed! An absolute no-go is not updating the news feed on your website. I recently stumbled upon an agency’s website that had not updated their news section since 2013. This looks extremely bad and it makes the reader wonder whether they went out of business. Another explanation would be that they don’t maintain their website properly.
Very true! The other day, I wanted to send an agency’s website as an example to some students (of a good website). However, they have a “Blog” tab, that has not been updated since 2013. As you say, either way it looks awful: as if the agency simply doesn’t maintain the site, or can’t be bothered to take down the dormant blog, or… Any way you slice it, it’s not positive!
Thanks Corinne! I have to admit that I focus on marketing a little bit every day, but that it does not always happen. However, I still have a particular goal in mind, and sometimes this every little day is only to do some research on the new client niche, or to go through my Twitter feed, or LinkedIn, or updating one paragraph/page on my website. It does not always involve contacting the target client in any way. Sometime it all gets pushed to one day of the week though, and I market in bursts when I have more time. But I have noticed that I get more marketing done if I try to do a little bit every day.
Thanks Tess! Well, I would expect no less from the translation marketing goddess 🙂 But that is a great example, that “marketing” doesn’t just mean “pushing stuff out to clients.” Thanks a lot for those examples!
This is definitely something I needed to hear! Being new to this field there is so much to learn and apply– it’s become kind of addicting. But it is also good to set time limits to not go overboard and neglect other things in our lives that deserve just as much attention–like making dinner for my kids. Lol. However, I am now focusing on gathering a list of people/businesses I want to introduce myself to and hopefully that’ll pay off. i’ve also been learning a lot about writing content and how to best attract the right people to read my posts. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks Beverly! I agree: “analysis paralysis” is a real thing, and it’s important to break things down and focus! Good work!
I just thought of another question regarding marketing, Corinne. If I set a goal to spend 5% of my earnings in marketing, what do you think would bring the most value in the beginning stages? Have postcards been effective in your business? Thanks for the input! Beverly, intospanish.us
Hi Corinne,
Thanks for bringing this up. I’m into marketing for a purpose and marketing every day, yee haw! I really like what Tess said, and that’s the marketing every day that I try to do too. For me it’s about making a marketing move everyday, however small. There are so many profiles, internet pages, messages and organizational activities to edit, tweak, write and do that breaking these moves down into tiny tasks makes them manageable (for me).
What’s more challenging for me is the marketing toward a goal. Getting more direct clients is haaard (it wouldn’t be as much fun if it wasn’t, ha!) and the research part can feel overwhelming. Then it becomes stagnating. I use the water dripping on rock method with myself to move toward a large marketing goal. Lately I’ve found it helpful to ask people outside the translation world for help and ideas. Then again, nothing beats having access to another translator with 10+ years experience to help you find a foothold you can jump from. I’m meeting tomorrow with a fellow translator to work together on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) as he calls it. Translation: compiling lists of potential direct clients to contact.
Thanks for your posts.
Jesse
This is an excellent post. I think I spend about 0,20% of my time marketing myself. For me it works quite well.
I read an article a while back that has really helped me with taking action in my business (including marketing). It talks of setting your goal or intention for a given period and then setting 5 main milestones that you’ll need to hit to achieve it. I’ve applied it to lots of tasks/goals – developing a course, getting a client, completing a big job…it works really well.
Thanks again for a brilliant article, Corinne!
Great tip! Thank you!