Hidden client idea: Professional associations for your specializations

Greetings, Training for Translators readers, I hope you’re all doing well! A quick tip for this week: When you’re thinking of potential clients, don’t discount professional associations for your specializations (and I mean having them as actual clients, not just research and networking resources). 

I’ve been having fun researching potential clients for the students in my Direct client research lab course (seven spots left in the October session!). As part of my work with the participants in that class, I look for professional associations related to their specializations. At the outset, my thought was for them to use these associations mostly for research and networking purposes:

• Join their mailing list
• Read their blog
• Look at their professional development offerings
• Attend their networking events 
• Find out who their key members are, and connect with them on LinkedIn or in other places

And I still think that these are very worthy goals. But I’ve also noticed an interesting phenomenon: a lot of these associations’ own publications (their blog, their newsletter, their website copy) need a lot of work. As in:

• They direct you to their blog as a resource, but they’re posting to it once every six months
• “Read our newsletter archive” (last published in 2024)
• A lot of European associations have English text on their website, but it’s not always great 

This represents an opportunity for you! You’re a word person, and you’re familiar with their sector. In fact, you’d love to deepen your own network in their sector. I have a soft spot for this kind of work, because my own connection to the Colorado Translators Association (now Colorado Interpreters and Translators Association) started with administering the association newsletter back in the analog age (literally licking stamps!). I did that job for two or three years, and by the end, I knew almost everyone in the association: I had interviewed them, written about them, changed their address, whatever. Here’s how you can replicate that:

• Identify professional associations for your specialization(s) in your source and target language countries. Use Google or ChatGPT for this. 
• Spend around 30 minutes looking through their websites. Look for the kinds of things I mentioned above. Particularly look for irregular publishing schedules and poorly written stuff. 
• Even if things look good (but especially if they don’t), send them a pitch. Lots of associations list their staff on their website; maybe you can find the communications director there. Or again, ask Google or ChatGPT. 
• Write a brief, upbeat, and friendly e-mail to that person, or send a LinkedIn connection request with the 200-character note, then follow up with a longer message. “Hello Melissa, I recently came across your website while researching associations for the poodle breeding sector. As a translator and writer specializing in all things related to poodles, I immediately subscribed to your newsletter and then jumped over to your blog. I loved the article about the care of aging poodles (my own fur baby Lucinda is going strong at age 15!), and I couldn’t help noticing that your most recent post is from around six months ago. Have you ever thought about using a freelancer to help you keep your members engaged with more regular articles? I thought of a few topics that might interest you: feel free to use these, whether or not you’d like to talk about working together. [Give two or three topic ideas]. If a freelance content writer might be a good addition to your team, I’d love to talk further; would you be the correct person to speak with?” 

Remember, the name of the game with cold e-mail is personalization and targeting. Obviously my example is totally made up, but I’m serious that I would mention your personal connections to this association’s focus, an article on their site that you particularly liked, and so on. According to Hunter.io (the authority on cold e-mail), the main success factors when you’re e-mailing someone you don’t know are relevance and trust. Here, you’re already making a connection by showing you’ve looked at their website; and what fellow poodle enthusiast could resist a mention of your sweet Lucinda?? 

Try this! Try it today. “Get caught trying” is my new guiding principle. Then, let me know how it goes. 

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