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Upcoming master class: Breaking into the content writing  and content strategy market

On July 21, guest instructor Lee Densmer (former content marketing director for several major translation companies) closes out the T4T “school year” with a master class on Breaking into the content writing and content strategy market.

Lee knows the language business, so she’ll teach us how to use our translation and subject-matter skills as a jumping-off point for writing from scratch for well-paying clients. Registration is $75 and includes the recording. 

After that, I’ll be running a few self-paced offerings in August and early September, then we’ll kick back off with live classes in mid-September. 

Inbound, Outbound, Relational: You need to be doing all three 

If you want a thriving freelance business, in my opinion you need to be consistently doing three kinds of marketing. Don’t groan yet (“I would rather crawl in a hole than market, and now you’re telling me I have to market in three ways???”). I’ll give you examples of how to do this in a manageable way. 

• Inbound: Writing things that clients want to read 
• Outbound: E-mails and LinkedIn connection requests
• Relational: Maintaining the thread between you and clients to whom you have some connection but you’re not working together right now 

The key is to balance all three of these. What do we see when we go on the website of HubSpot, a massive inbound marketing company? An invitation to chat with the sales team! What do we see when we go to the website of Hunter.io, a massive outbound marketing company? A robust blog and other inbound marketing resources. Even big companies that specialize in one of these things, still do the other two. 

If there were just one way to attract and retain clients, we’d all be doing it, right? Instead, let’s look at how to get these three prongs working for us. 

Inbound: Informational content, referrals, conference presentations, etc. 

The classic inbound marketing technique is informational content: writing a blog, a newsletter, LinkedIn posts, etc. that contain information your potential clients want to read. They find the information, then decide they want to work with you because you’re an established authority on what they need. 

The issue? I’ll tell you, because I use these strategies myself, that they are long-term, slow-burning ways to generate business. Here’s the Google summary search result for the query “Resources for beginning translators.” 

This makes me happy! And it’s the result of more than a thousand (no kidding…and I have more ideas now than when I started!!) blog posts and newsletter articles. And you don’t necessarily have to write 1,500 blog posts to see some results. 

Something you can do right now: Write up a short case study of a freelance project where you really solved a problem for a client. Post it on LinkedIn, post it on your website, e-mail it to potential clients. Write a tip sheet: Three questions to ask before you use AI translations. Post/distribute that. Write cultural-linguistic advice: Top five mistakes German companies make when they write in English. Send that to potential German clients who don’t want to hire a translator/writer! 

Outbound: Cringey, I know, but clients can’t use you if they don’t know about you

When freelancers say, “I’d rather” [eat rocks/swim in a nest of eels/listen to 10 hours of Barry Manilow] “…than market!” mostly they’re talking about outbound marketing. 

Personally, e-mail marketing really doesn’t bother me. People don’t answer your marketing e-mails with hate mail. If they’re not interested, they just don’t write back.

The hard part is something Austin Church talks about a lot: being rejected or ignored is what happens most of the time, but not all the time, and you can learn to live with that reality. Why? Because (as Austin explains in the article linked above), you know that you have something valuable to offer, and some clients will want to take you up on that. 

Something you can do right now: Tell yourself, out loud, “Lots of clients need my help, but they can’t get my help if they don’t know that I exist. And they’re not coming to me, so I have to go to them.” With that mindset, write a few positive, upbeat marketing e-mails. “I noticed that you’re translating your web pages, but not your blog; have you ever thought about using a freelancer to help with that?” “We had talked about interpreting services for your quarterly meeting, and I imagine it’s coming up!” 

Relational: Keeping those warm leads warm 

We all have a long list (at least in our heads) of clients we should keep in touch with. Dormant clients, clients who expressed an interest in working with you but never followed up, clients who could use additional services that you’ve started offering. But it’s awkward. How do we do this without sounding like, “I need work! Do you have any work???” 

Things you  can do right now: Comment on a dormant client’s LinkedIn post with an actually substantive comment (“Your observation about the pendulum swinging away from AI writing is really interesting; I’ve noticed a similar trend among my regular clients” not “Great post!”).

Start a schedule where, on the last day of every quarter (I’m lookin’ at you, June 30!), you compare your accounting records from that quarter and the periods before it. Any client who sent you work in the past, but not in the previous three months, you nudge them. “I really enjoyed working on your patient intake forms in February, just checking in on whether you have anything similar in the pipeline?” 

To me, the three-pronged approach doesn’t feel like, “Ugh, three things I don’t feel like doing.” It feels like, “Three options, surely one of them is something I can make myself do today.” I’m fortunate that things are going well in my freelance business (next week: 2026 halftime update), and I think that these three prongs have a lot to do with that. 

Simple but important tip: When you’re paralyzed by the fear of making a mistake in your business, remind yourself that if you really mess something up, you’ll only make that mistake once! 

Especially if you’re new to freelancing, or to an aspect of freelancing such as direct client marketing, the fear of making mistakes can be debilitating. You literally cannot take action because you’re so afraid of doing something wrong. What if you:

• Call someone by the wrong name in an e-mail? 
• Send a message before it’s finalized? 
• Post something on LinkedIn with a typo? 
• Say something that turns out to be totally wrong or weird? 

Simply put, you channel my grandmother. She was a lifelong seamstress, and was determined that all of her granddaughters were going to learn to use a sewing machine at a young age.

When a friend expressed concern: “Aren’t you afraid they’re going to sew over their fingers?” (sounds crazy, but it’s surprisingly easy to do on a home sewing machine) my grandmother’s response was, “They’ll only do it once!”

As a kid (and still today, honestly) I loved the answer to this question. Not “That would never happen! They’re too gifted to ever do that!” but “If it happens, it will happen a total of one time!”

In our freelance business, this mindset teaches us:

• No matter how careful we are, we’re going to make mistakes and even say or do things we immediately regret 
• When (not if, when) that happens, the real mistake is not evaluating what went wrong, and letting the mistake happen again

Examples include:

• After the first time I accidentally sent a sensitive e-mail that wasn’t quite finished, I learned to add the recipient’s e-mail address only after the e-mail said exactly what I wanted it to say. Adding the recipient is the very last step before clicking Send. 
• After posting something on LinkedIn with a heinous typo, I trained myself to slow down and read my LinkedIn posts out loud before uploading them. 
• I’ve definitely left the previous client’s name in a marketing e-mail. That’s so cringe-worthy that you’re only going to do it once! After that, you learn to double, triple-check the key information every time. 

Especially if you’re exploring a whole new way of doing business, having the courage to try is really, really hard. When I’m trying something new (I’ve been doing this with Training for Translators and in my direct language work), I tell myself, often multiple times: If this is a total flop, I’ll take that as information and I just won’t do it again. No one is going to die because I tried something new and it didn’t go the way I hoped.

I hope these tips are helpful if you’re trying new things these days (and I hope you are!). 

Don’t forget to sign up for the SEO class if you’re interested.

Also: I’m excited to be speaking at next week’s techforword Direct Client Summit. My presentation, on a simple e-mail sequence for direct client marketing, is on Thursday, and there are tons of great presentations (social media, trade shows, LinkedIn, relationship-building, referrals, nudge marketing). The basic ticket is free, and if you buy the Power Pack (longer access to the recordings plus other bonuses) within 20 minutes of when you register, it’s 49 euros. That’s not an affiliate deal, just recommending a good opportunity!

Tomorrow’s free webinar on planning a book translation, with guest instructor Laurie Bennett, is sold out! For future free webinars, I’d recommend signing up as soon as you see the announcement. Registrations tend to trickle in at first, then people realize that the session is coming up in a few days and everyone signs up at once! Thanks to all 250 people who registered.

Greetings, Training for Translators subscribers! Tomorrow’s free webinar on planning a book translation is sold out; thanks to all 250 people who signed up! 

Next on the calendar is this month’s master class, Optimizing your website for search engines and generative engines (SEO/GEO) with guest instructor Stacey McCormack.

The live class is on June 24, registration is $75, and everyone who registers will receive the recording.

If you’d like to get ranked and recommended so that clients come to you via your website, you need this class! Stacey is an excellent instructor (I hired her based on a class of hers that I took) as well as a full-time web designer and marketing professional. 

This week’s topic: Using gaps and hooks in your marketing 

“I’m a translator! Do you need a translator?” 

This is the marketing message that many, or even most freelance translators, interpreters, subtitlers, and editors are using when they market to direct clients. 

The problem? This sounds basic, but we know what we do and how we help, so we assume that clients do too. It feels pedantic to explain it: don’t they already know what a translator does and why they might need us? 

But think of it this way: how many times has someone asked you, “What on earth needs to be translated??” Like, they really have no idea what we do. The problem? The potential client may need you, but you’re making them work too hard (“Do we need a translator? I don’t know! Maybe??”). Instead, do this! 

The key: Use a gap or a hook 

Simplify your marketing message by using one of two things:

• A gap: Something the client is doing poorly, inconsistently, or not at all, and you can help them remedy that
• A hook: Something about the client that you noticed, and that indicates a potential need for your services 

Here’s how to do it!

E-mail to the Director of Communications at an advertising agency in Germany. You’re a German to English translator: 

“Hello Martina, I hope you’re doing well. I recently came across [name of company]’s website while researching international advertising firms in Germany. As a German to English translator, I was impressed to see that you publish your blog in both German and English. In looking over your posts, I noticed that the last update to the English version was in February. Have you thought about using a freelancer to help you get that going again? I translate content marketing materials for a number of my clients; would you be the correct person to speak with about potentially working together?”

This points out a gap: a specific pain point that you’re available to solve, right now. 

You can do the same thing with:

• A company that’s expanding into a market with a new language: “I noticed the announcement about your new branch office in New York, and I can imagine there might be a need for an into-English translator to help with contracts and legal documents related to this move.” 
• A missed opportunity: “I wondered if you’ve considered making your museum’s recorded audio guide available in Japanese?” 
• A need that the company may not have thought about: “I noticed that your upcoming conference features a presenter who speaks [insert language]; have you thought about interpretation services for this talk?” (Actual pitch used by one of my students: the conference organizers had not thought about interpreting, and she got the job!) 

Pointing out a gap, or using a hook, is what differentiates you from the “I’m a translator! Do you need a translator?” pitch. It also helps ease imposter syndrome, because you’re already showing a valuable service that you provide. Try it, and let me know how it goes! 

Greetings, subscribers! About a year and a half ago, I decided to try an experiment: getting more business strategy input from people who know nothing about translation and interpreting. 

I did this for a few reasons:

• I feel like I’ve maxed out many of the “traditional” ideas for business development in the language world and wanted a fresh perspective. 
• To be totally honest, the LinkedIn feed (especially when it comes to “pure” translation) is pretty depressing these days. Nearly every time I log on, someone is quitting, someone has no work and is “open to absolutely anything,” etc. etc. 
• I surmised that “outsiders” might see possibilities in my business that I don’t see (and this turned out to be correct). 

How I got out of the echo chamber

Here are some things I did. You don’t have to do these things, but maybe they’ll give you some inspiration:

• It’s true that translation and interpreting are pretty unique/specific lines of business, but they do have a lot in common with other freelance knowledge work. In my case, I decided to tap into resources for freelance writers: people who do content marketing writing, ghostwriting, and similar things. I think there’s a lot of overlap with what we do, and it doesn’t hurt that a lot of writers earn significantly more than a lot of translators and interpreters do. 

In no particular order, I:

• Worked with a business coach who had never worked with a translator or interpreter before (that’s Treasa Edmond; I love her!) 
• Joined a Facebook group for content marketing writers (that’s The Freelance Content Marketing Writer) 
• Volunteered to head up a sub-group of The Freelance Content Marketing Writer, for people making around 10K per month and looking to increase 
• Subscribed to a couple of freelance writer newsletters, including Jen A. Miller’s Notes from a Hired Pen, and Lizzie Davey’s Freelance Friday Tips
• Signed up for a SCORE mentor (he’s great!) which then gives you access to SCORE’s business development webinars which are free or very low cost
• Attended Austin Church‘s Advanced Freelancers Summit 
• Started listening to some non-translator/interpreter podcasts, including Lizzie Davey’s It’s Fine, I’m a Freelancer, and Amelia Hruby’s Off the Grid

How has this worked out?  

For me, this “advice diversification” effort has been very successful on a few fronts:

• Last year was my highest-earning year in 22 years of freelancing (details here) and this year is on a similar track although I’m working less than last year
• I’ve embraced new things; through some new marketing strategies I landed a large writing client in the translation industry, which is a goal I’ve had for a while 
• I feel like I’m doing better work, feeling more engaged in what I’m doing 
• I feel a lot more positive about the future of my freelance business and the future of wordy freelancing in general 

Important note on taking advice from other people 

Here’s one of the most important things I learned: When you solicit advice from someone outside your “usual suspects,” you’re not going to agree with everything they say. In fact, you may vehemently disagree with some of what they tell you. 

Cases in point: When I did business coaching with Treasa, she suggested that I think about starting a translation company (never in a million years). Jen Miller is vehemently, vocally anti-AI and refers to ChatGPT as “the lying plagiarism machine” (I love the expression, I respect people who want nothing to do with AI, and I’ve actually found some really helpful uses for it). I enjoy Amelia Hruby’s stuff even though I don’t want to completely quit social media. I find Austin Church’s newsletters really interesting, but also long and rambling so I tend to skim them. 

I point this out because I think we have a tendency toward black/white thinking when we take advice from someone new. Like, “I was with her, until she mentioned that she’s vegan, and I could never take advice from a vegan.” We feel that if we don’t agree with 100% of what someone says, their way of thinking isn’t for us. 

My take: Many people who give good business advice, do so in an extreme way. “You should ALWAYS do X. You should NEVER do Y. No successful freelancer would ever do Z.” Take those statements with a grain of salt. Personally, I feel that if I get one good nugget from someone, I’ve gotten a lot of benefit from what they have to say, and I’m allowed to filter out what I find valuable and what I don’t. 

You can get out of the echo chamber in lots of ways: start going to an in-person networking group, follow new people on LinkedIn, listen to new podcasts, join a new online community, just get some new voices in your head! I hope these tips are helpful if you need some new energy in your freelance business.