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Corinne McKay

Is it better to market by e-mail or on paper?

Over the past six months or so, I’ve been experimenting (sometimes with my translation partner and sometimes on my own) with cold-marketing to potential direct clients. Because a great deal of our work is in a very targeted subject area (international development), it’s not hard to find potential clients but it’s often hard to know how to contact them. Here are some thoughts on whether you’re better off making the initial contact by e-mail or on paper; I’m not even going to touch cold-calling because I am the worst phone salesperson ever. Ever. Really. But if you’re interested in low-stress cold calling, The Freelancery has some excellent scripts that you can work from.

The great thing about e-mail marketing is that:

  • It’s fast. If you’re reading a business news article and see a tidbit that shouts “potential client” to you, you can fire off the e-mail right there.
  • It’s less formal. You can get away with “Just wanted to tell you that I loved staying at your inn this summer; if you’re ever inclined to translate your website/marketing brochure/menu into English, I’d love to talk,” whereas it would seem a little weird (at least to me) to print out a paper letter with that sentence and pop it in the mail.
  • The recipient can easily forward the message. I’d say that at least half the time I cold-contact, I don’t hit the right person on the first try. Especially with larger entities, it can be hard to tell who hires freelancers for the kind of work we do. But your prospect can quickly forward your message to the right person.
  • It’s cheap. If you’re looking at a paper marketing campaign to a few hundred prospects, the paper, envelopes, business cards, stamps, etc. add up over time.

But then again…

  • Unsolicited marketing e-mails always feel a little spammy. The person might just delete the message, or might receive so much e-mail that they just don’t have time to respond. In some countries, sending unsolicited marketing e-mails may be technically illegal, and it’s never fun to break the law to find new clients.
  • If you don’t personalize your e-mails in some way, the recipients may assume that they were auto-generated, or that you’re just sending the same blanket e-mail out to thousands of potential clients. And if you do personalize them, it takes time.

So what about good old paper? On the plus side:

  • In an era when most people’s postal mail is 95% ads and bills, a lot of people respond really favorably to something fun or personal in the mail. I know I do when I’m on the receiving end; a client recently sent me a “thank you” postcard for a large rush project, and I pinned it on my bulletin board to inspire me when I sit down to translate.
  • It shows a classy touch. A marketing letter with a little handwritten note at the end and a business card enclosed is kind of the anti-spam.
  • The recipient has something tangible to keep. If the person needs your services months or years later, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to locate an e-mail, but if they keep a file of business cards in their desk, you’re probably still in there.
  • You can write more. Not many people want to read a 400-word e-mail, but you can get away with a 400-word paper letter because it’s still one page.
  • Nice postcards and brochures appeal to people who are visual. You really don’t want to send a massive PDF to someone you don’t know, but you can send them a cool postcard and they’ll love it.

But then again…

  • Paper marketing campaigns are time-consuming. In the time it takes to personalize a paper letter, print it, sign it, stuff an envelope with it and your business card, put the stamp on and mail it, you could probably send out five quick e-mails.
  • Paper marketing campaigns can get expensive, at least compared to e-mail. Sending out marketing letters doesn’t cost much, but if you get into fancy postcards or brochures, you could be spending as much as a dollar per potential client just for the printing, not to mention graphic design.
  • Paper marketing campaigns also require more research; it’s pretty easy to find an e-mail contact on someone’s website, but sometimes you have to search for the right mailing address.

I don’t really have a verdict on this one. My translation partner and I did a modest (maybe 150 potential clients) direct client marketing campaign in the winter and spring and we did get some business from it, but it took a lot of time to put together. Now I’m experimenting with shorter, punchier marketing e-mails to see how that works. Any thoughts?


Corinne McKay

Using Gmail with your own domain

Do you ever read The Meh List (subtitle: Not Hot, Not Not, Just Meh) in the New York Times Magazine’s One Page Magazine feature? Well, if I were assembling a Meh List for the translation industry, “Translators who own their own domain but still use a Gmail address” would definitely be on it. I always try to refrain from criticizing other people’s decisions, but here I have to make an exception: just as free business cards with the printing company’s marketing message on them scream “I’m not willing to invest the princely sum of $25 in my freelance business,” owning one’s own domain name but still using Gmail screams (to me, at least) “I’m not willing to spend half an hour figuring out how to set up domain name e-mail.” For anyone who’s not familiar with it, domain name e-mail is like “corinne@translatewrite.com.” You buy a website domain name and then create e-mail addresses to go with it.

But, here I find myself preparing to spend two months in Europe this summer, and my current e-mail solutions are problematic. I love my ISP (Front Range Internet), but Gmail gives me more storage space and a fuller-featured webmail interface. And I don’t want to use a non-webmail interface for this extended stay abroad, because I don’t want to be tied to just one computer. So, all of a sudden I was faced with the prospect of becoming one of those translators who owns a domain and uses Gmail anyway, but I’m here to tell you that yes, you can set up Gmail with your own domain. If I set it up without having to call tech support, so can you. Here’s how:

The issue is that it’s easy to forward your domain name e-mail to Gmail, so that people can *send to* your domain name address. It’s a little harder to *reply as* your domain name address, so that people never see the @gmail.com domain. First, read Gmail’s knowledge base page on “Sending mail from a different address.” You’re probably “A Gmail or Google Apps user sending from an external address,” so open that section of the page and read it.

Basically you just follow the instructions on that page; Gmail advises that if this is your work e-mail address, you should use your domain’s SMTP servers rather than Gmail’s servers. My Unix admin husband tells me that this is to avoid your messages being flagged as spam because the SMTP server domain and the e-mail domain don’t match. In my case, my ISP helpfully has all of their SMTP server information in their knowledge base (you need to know the mail server address, the correct port to use, your username and your password) and all of that worked the first time I entered it. Then I simply forwarded my mail from my ISP to my Gmail address and it seems to be all set. This way, my clients do not see my Gmail address but I can take advantage of Gmail’s massive storage allocations and excellent webmail features.

For more on solutions that can help you work while on an extended trip abroad, you can listen to Eve Bodeux’s and my Speaking of Translation call tomorrow (Wednesday, June 13) at 12 noon New York Time. Or listen to the recording afterward! Here’s the link to the call access information (it’s free and you don’t have to preregister) and we’ll post a recording afterward.


Corinne McKay

Some thoughts on saturated markets

There are a lot of disparities within the translation and interpreting industry, and one of those is the difference between language pairs/specializations that are fairly rare versus those that are fairly saturated. In this post I’ll both offer and request advice, since I often have students in my online translation course who work in saturated markets (and I’d like some fresh tips to offer them!).

First, let’s look at some numbers from the ATA membership directory, in terms of the number of people who have the following language combinations listed in their profiles:

  • English to Spanish translators: 2,111
  • German to English translators: 800
  • Russian to English translators: 480
  • Japanese to English translators: 394
  • Arabic interpreters: 148
  • Burmese interpreters: 3

Obviously I selected these to prove a point. But even the number of people registered for a fairly large language pair such as German to English pales in comparison with the 2,000+ English to Spanish translators. I’ve recently begun the process of preparing for the French court interpreter exam in Colorado. French isn’t exactly an obscure language, but there are currently no certified French court interpreters in the state. By contrast, the list of certified Spanish interpreters takes up several pages. I would assume that the situation is the same for certain language pairs in other countries (for example English>French translators in Quebec).

Saturated markets have a few issues:

  • Competition among translators and interpreters is often intense and very price-based.
  • Clients, especially large clients, are often able to keep rates on the low end of the spectrum. For example, PRI’s The World recently ran a story on pay cuts to court interpreters in Nevada, and certified Spanish court interpreters here in Colorado make $35 an hour.
  • Freelancers who work in saturated markets are often reluctant to share information with their colleagues; they are afraid to disclose who they work for or how much they charge, for fear of being undercut by someone else who charges less.
  • Freelancers in saturated markets have less incentive to get new credentials or improve their skills, because they don’t feel that they can charge commensurately higher rates.
  • The sheer number of people in the saturated market creates an “anyone can do it” mentality, and the market becomes even more saturated with people whose skill levels are not up to par.

But enough doom and gloom: the real question is, what’s a translator or interpreter in a saturated market to do? Here are a few suggestions, and (please!) feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments.

  • First, a pep talk: remember that you do not need enough work to keep all 2,000 English to Spanish translators in the ATA busy. You just need enough work for yourself. I would venture a guess that many established translators earn the bulk of their income from their 3-5 main clients. Do you think there are 3-5 clients out there who will pay real money for your services? Right, I think so too. So let’s figure out how to find them.
  • For translators who are not restricted to working with clients in their home area, the obvious solution is to look for clients in other areas. For example, for English to Spanish translators who live in Latin America, I would definitely recommend looking for clients in the US and/or the UK.
  • In order to do that, make sure to solicit the help of a native English speaker who lives in your target market country. For example if you want to apply to translation clients in the US, your application materials must be in error-free US English.
  • Look for direct clients. I work for and enjoy working for both agencies and direct clients. But I think that many direct clients get attached to translators they like, and are also less price-sensitive than agencies are, so they are a good bet if you work in a saturated market.
  • Get some credentials. For example, of the 2,111 people registered as English to Spanish translators on the ATA website, only 484 are certified for English to Spanish. 484 people is still a lot, but here we’ve already narrowed the pool down to 1/4 of what it was. I think that any credential you can earn: ATA certification, a translation certificate, court interpreter certification (if at the Federal level, even better!), etc. is a big plus.
  • Concentrate on the advantages that you offer: familiarity with the source language culture, ability to do on-site work, ability to provide multiple services (voiceover, transcription, subtitling, etc.) all spring to mind.

And please tell me that you have some more tips too!


Corinne McKay

Some thoughts on rates and quotes

I really enjoyed reading The Freelancery’s recent post on whether or not to publish your freelance rates on your website. Since my website redesign a few years ago, I’ve struggled with this same dilemma: I grow weary of preparing quotes for clients whose budget turns out to be 1/3 of what I charge, so I post my rates on my website. Then I feel like having posted rates is too restrictive and doesn’t steer the conversation toward value for money, so I take my rates down. Here’s my current line of reasoning, which is, of course, subject to change!

No question about it, handling inquiries from prospective clients who have little to no budget can be draining. Sometimes the slim to nonexistent funding isn’t mentioned until 25 minutes into the phone conversation (this happened to me recently), and sometimes it’s brought up with a tone of righteous indignation on the prospective client’s part (“If you can’t do it for $25 an hour, our marketing manager’s son who studied abroad in Belgium will be happy to do it for $15”). It’s just a bummer to spend so much time talking to prospective clients who expect so much for so little. However, I agree with The Freelancery’s suggestion that these interactions are also opportunities: maybe an opportunity to refer work to a beginning translator who charges less, maybe an opportunity to mention that professional translators don’t generally work for what the client’s budget is, etc. In the end, I do think that we perform a service on behalf of the profession when we have these types of conversations.

In terms of posted rates, I feel that I’ve found somewhat of a happy medium that works for me.

  • I removed my general “Rates” page from my website and I ask prospective clients to call or e-mail for a quote. However, I don’t prepare a detailed quote until they confirm that my rates are at least somewhat within their budget. This avoids the time-suck of preparing a full quote only to find out that the client’s budget is less than half of what I charge.
  • I left my rates for “fixed-price” items on my website. For example for certified translations of official documents, I always charge $50 per page for the translation and $15 for a notarized certification, and most of these clients are first-time, one-time clients. The Freelancery’s post hits this one on the head (and they mention translation in their examples!); clients who want their birth certificate translated into English don’t want to call for a quote, they just want it done fast and for a not exorbitant amount of money. My rate to translate official documents might be more expensive than some other freelancers, but I know it’s much cheaper than most agencies’ minimum charges, so I feel fine about posting it.

In closing, although I think of myself as a kind and understanding person and as someone who tries to be helpful whenever it’s possible, two aspects of rates and quoting really raise my blood pressure. I’ll admit them publicly in order to get them off my chest:

  1. Why do so many prospective clients seem to lose the ability to do math when it comes to translation quotes? If I give the example that at 25 cents per word, a full page of single-spaced text would cost approximately $125 to translate, why is it then a surprise that a 10-page document costs $1,250 to translate?
  2. Why do so many prospective clients feel that it should take a couple of hours to translate something that took months or even years to write? I get this a lot from authors: “But the book is so short! It will really take you 10 hours to translate it?” I can’t decide whether it would be helpful or nasty to ask if it really took them more than 10 hours to write the book, but I try to just answer the question objectively since I enjoy doing literary translation and working with authors.

Feel free to add your own observations on rates and quotes too (or associated issues that you need to get off your chest!). Thanks for listening, I feel so much better.


Corinne McKay

When a client is dissatisfied

No matter how meticulous you are about a) your translations and b) your business practices, you can’t work as a freelancer without dealing with disgruntled clients from time to time. First, let’s say this: unless you love interpersonal conflict, dealing with unhappy clients is awful. Running your own business means caring very deeply about your work and putting your reputation behind every translation that you do, and it can be a truly horrible experience to have a client question your competence, integrity, whatever. But since this situation is bound to occur, let’s look at what you can/should do after you receive that angry phone call or e-mail from a client.

For the purposes of this post, let’s assume that the client’s complaint has at least some basis in fact. Maybe you don’t see the problem as being as serious as the client does, but you agree that there’s some shred of an issue to be dealt with. Baseless client complaints are another issue altogether, and one that I’ll save for another post (or better yet, another translation blogger can take that one on!). I think that resolving legitimate disputes boils down to three basic steps:

  • Admit to the mistake;
  • Apologize;
  • Try to make it better.

Admittedly, I’m a pretty conflict-averse person, and I’m also very committed to maintaining a good reputation in the translation industry. Therefore, I probably go a little further with these steps than some translators do. For example, if I make a legitimate error, I nearly always offer the client some sort of compensation: I once e-mailed a client the wrong file for a (thankfully) very small project the night before I was leaving for a vacation. When I returned from vacation and realized what had happened, I told the client that of course I didn’t expect to be paid for that project, but that I also wanted to do a small job for them for free in the future. I think that this type of gesture shows the client that I get it: that freelancing can be a “one strike and you’re out” type of business, and that I am very committed to client satisfaction.

A few other dispute resolution tips that I’ve gleaned over the years:

  • When you receive an angry e-mail from a client, first, do nothing. Don’t respond when you are angry too. Wait until you’ve cooled off a bit, then compose your response. Or compose your response and let it sit for an hour, then read it over before you send it.
  • Always ask for specific examples of quality issues. It’s really hard to know how to make it better with a client who says “The tone isn’t what we wanted,” “The terminology wasn’t right for our audience,” etc. Always ask for an edited version of your translation, or for a few specific examples of the kind of issues the client is talking about.
  • Resist the urge to write a lengthy explanation in response to a client complaint. When you respond, be concise, be kind and admit what happened. “I really apologize for neglecting to fully comply with your style sheet; I agree with the changes that you made to the document and I want to assure you that I will be more meticulous about this in the future” is enough. Save the venting and ranting for your trusted circle of friends and colleagues!
  • Don’t complain about the client’s requirements after the fact. If the client sends you a 12 page style guide for a 1,500 word project, or expects you to go through an arduous QA process with no increase in your rate, the time to lodge your objection is before the project starts.
  • Don’t take it personally. Clearly, this is easy to say and very, very hard to do. But when you’re dealing with a business issue, try to keep it businesslike. Stay calm, stay polite and try to see things from the client’s point of view.
  • After the complaint is resolved, decide whether this client is a good fit for you. Sometimes the client’s complaint reflects the fact that their work style and yours are not a good fit. And really, that’s OK. There is enough other work out there for you, and there are enough other translators out there for them.