freelance marketing

Feb 21 2017
Corinne McKay

Handwritten notes: a secret business weapon

Here’s an environmentally-incorrect confession: I love paper. I live in a little house, we have one car, I ride my bike to work, I’m a vegetarian, and we don’t have a clothes dryer. But I’m clinging to paper with all I’ve got: the little house is full of paper magazines and books, I take meeting notes on paper, and I love sending and receiving paper cards in the mail. Let’s look at some ways to use handwritten notes as a secret weapon in your freelance business.

Handwritten notes are appealing for obvious reasons:

They stand out amid the flood of e-mail that we all receive.
They show that you’re willing to take the time to send something truly personal.
Who gets anything interesting in the mail anymore? At my house, it’s 98.7% ads and bills. A personal card makes an impression.
They are clearly not generated by a spambot. This is sad, but it’s getting hard to differentiate legitimate fan e-mail (“Hey Corinne! I love your blog!”) from fan e-mail that is automatically generated. Handwritten notes circumvent that problem.
You can enclose things like a business card in them.
You don’t need the person’s e-mail address to send them.
They are a gift that doesn’t cost anything, so doesn’t seem like overkill. When someone does a favor for you, and you want to express appreciation but it might seem odd to offer to pay them, a handwritten card can split the difference.
They are another way to ping a client without being annoying. Without sending yet another, “Got any work for me yet???” e-mail.

You can use handwritten notes in various situations.

I send every client a handwritten note after they pay me for the first project; I think it gives a more personal tone to the relationship and shows them that I appreciate working with them.
In the early years of my freelance business, when I was actively looking for agency clients, I made copious use of handwritten notes. If I received any response from the agency, even, “Don’t need you right now but we’ll keep your information on file,” I sent a card. It said something like, “Thank you so much for responding to my inquiry about French to English translation work with your agency. I really appreciate your time, and hope to collaborate with you soon.” Then I popped a business card in it and sent it. Interestingly enough, those business cards kicked around people’s offices for a while, and I received several inquiries years later, still based on those initial cards.
I send cards to colleagues who refer me for substantial jobs.
I send cards to people who give presentations or classes that I really enjoy.
Lately I’ve been experimenting with cards as an actual marketing technique: sending them to prospective clients. This offers the added bonus that you don’t need the person’s e-mail address, only their name and the company’s mailing address.
I would definitely recommend handwritten notes if you’re aggressively trying to build up your agency client base. Agencies get so many unsolicited applications, and many of them are spam. Even if the agency doesn’t respond at all, send a card saying, “I recently applied for English to German translation work via your website. I’m looking forward to the next steps in the application process and hope to collaborate with you soon.” Enclose a business card.

Closing tip:

Give some thought to the actual cards. If you live in a distinctive place, that’s a good start. I have a former student from Alaska who sends out “Northern Lights” cards that are very representative of where she lives. If I’m sending the card to someone I know, I might go for something whimsical, like these zoo animals doing yoga. But don’t send an elephant in crow pose to a potential client, unless perhaps you translate for yoga retreat centers! For most prospective clients, go with a high-quality, conservative card and write with a nice pen.

Readers, any other examples of how you use handwritten cards?

Jan 12 2017
Corinne McKay

Selling the result

Here’s a basic but critical mistake that lots of freelancers make when marketing to direct clients. When the client asks, for example, “Why should we hire you?,” the freelancer’s answer promotes a) their life story, or b) their process. Don’t do this (we’ll talk about why). Instead, sell the result of your services, so that the client clearly sees what’s in it for them.

Let’s take a closer look. Back to the question from our prospective client. “We’re looking at a few different translators. Maybe we don’t even need this translated. Why should we hire you?” Here’s how many freelance translators would respond:

“Because I’ve been a translator for over 10 years and I specialize in your industry. I have a Master’s in Translation and I’m certified.”

“Because I translate over 3,000 words a day and I have all the latest software. I use the market leader translation memory tools. I’ve been building up my glossaries for the last 10 years, and I use many specialized dictionaries as well.”

What’s wrong with these kinds of pitches? Well, a few things. For example, many direct clients may not know (or, for that matter, care) what translation memory software is. But the root of the problem is that these pitches fail to show the client what’s in it for them. The client might extrapolate those advantages. Using a certified translator with 10 years’ experience should mean that the person is competent. The fact that the translator’s software is up to date is impressive. But that’s counting on a client to make connections that they shouldn’t have to make. What if our translator answered the client’s question like this:

“Why work with me? Because I help you market with confidence in Latin America.”

“Because I help you feel confident when you walk into a meeting with foreign investors.”

“Because I keep your social media presence engaging and consistent across languages.”

“Because content marketing is the new advertising, and I help you do that effectively in English.”

“Because I help Spanish speakers find you instead of your competition.”

These are exaggerated examples. But the point is: sell the result. Show the client what’s in it for them, and leave your life story and the process for later in the conversation, if the client wants to hear about them.

Here’s a humorous example from another sector. A friend of mine who’s a therapist put it this way. Not many people wake up in the morning thinking, “You know what would make today great? A relationship counseling session.” But if you look at the results end of that thought, *many* people wake up in the morning, thinking, “I wish I could talk to my spouse about money without arguing. I wish we didn’t have the same disagreements over and over again. I wish we had more time to do fun things together instead of talking about the appliances and the kids’ sports schedules.” So, instead of pitching “Don’t you want to come in and pay me to listen to your relationship problems,” or “I have a Master’s degree in Counseling, come see me,” the therapist could pitch, “Have you ever wished you could talk to your spouse about money without arguing? Have you ever wished you could resolve those recurring arguments and get back to having fun together, like when you first met?” See how those two pitches, for the same service, are radically different?

So, try it. Even if one of the sample pitches I wrote feels a little salesy to you, try selling the result. “Why hire me? Because dealing with translation isn’t your job, and it can feel really stressful and confusing when you don’t know much about it. So that’s my job: doing a great translation, on time, so that you can focus on what you do best.”

Readers, over to you: any thoughts on this approach?

Aug 22 2016
Corinne McKay

Yelp, Craigslist, Upwork: should you be there?

When it comes to marketing your freelance business, it’s important to cast a wide net. Taking an “if you build it, they will come” approach, for example by putting up a website and waiting for the work to start flowing in, is definitely not the way to go. But how wide should that marketing net be? Specifically, should you be on websites such as Yelp, Craigslist and Upwork? Let’s look at some of the pros and cons.

In my opinion, here’s the main argument for being on these types of websites: many direct clients know nothing…zero about translation (and as I’ve mentioned before, that’s not their fault). So, when they want to hire a translator, they’re likely to look in the places they’d look to hire other kinds of service providers. We may not love the idea of a client thinking, “Wait, I found my lawn guy on Yelp…maybe translators advertise there too,” but if the client puts those two things together, you want to be the person they end up finding.

Additionally, the fact that Yelp and Upwork allow/encourage reviews is likely to inspire trust in a potential client. I think that increasingly, when we ask the question, “How do you find a service provider (whether that’s an orthopedic surgeon or a landscaper) who you feel is trustworthy?” the answer is “I read online reviews before I contact them.” It’s a good idea to put testimonials on your website, but the potential client knows that those are cherry-picked from your favorite clients; online reviews tend to portray a much more realistic picture.

Finally, there’s the fact that you can piggyback on these sites’ very high search engine rankings and advertising power (this is also the reason I think every freelancer should be on LinkedIn). It’s free to create a basic account, and when someone Googles “Italian interpreter Detroit,” these sites are probably going to rank ahead of any individual freelancer’s site.

Then, there are the negatives. Chief among these (and this also applies to LinkedIn, and to online translation marketplaces) is that these sites advertise the competition right alongside you. And when the client is buying something they don’t really understand, like translation or interpreting services, and there are lots of people offering that service, they’re likely to gravitate toward the less expensive people. Encouragingly, I’ve recently read several online posts by translation clients who have used these services (specifically Upwork) and specifically said that they did not go with the cheapest person, but rather with the person who seemed the best fit for the job. That’s very positive. But still, having 15 different translators to choose from is very different from attracting a client to your own website, which features only you.

These types of sites have a few other negatives: they may be a “closed system,” where you are prohibited from communicating with clients outside the platform. They may take a commission on any work you find via the site. They may encourage reverse auction-style bidding on jobs. They may force you to name a specific hourly or per-word rate and guarantee that any work you find through the site will be done for that amount or less. They also may attract clients who have very small budgets or are looking for an absolute rock-bottom rate, and those are the clients you can do without.

In general, I would put these kinds of sites in the “worth a try” category, but I would not depend on them as a source of high-quality clients. However I’m interested to hear from readers who have found clients through these sites or other, similar ones. Any thoughts?

Apr 26 2016
Corinne McKay

Marketing: as a daily effort or toward a specific goal?

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!

Dec 08 2014
Corinne McKay

Marketing by e-mail, on paper, or both

In marketing your freelance services, you may wonder (or at least I do!) whether it’s better to market to direct clients by e-mail, on paper, or both. I don’t have a succinct answer to that, but here are a few thoughts.

For a long time, I was a devotée of marketing on paper: writing out a full-page cover letter, attaching my resumé and a business card, sticking it all in an envelope and mailing it to the potential client. I also did a number of postcard marketing campaigns, and I do think there’s a place for paper marketing materials:

They stand out: most people’s postal mail is 95% ads and bills. So, although your marketing packet is a type of ad, it’s also interesting, and personalized, and shows that you took more than 30 seconds to put something together for this potential candidate.
They stick around: once someone deletes an e-mail, it’s gone. But I’ve gotten inquiries from clients (literally) years after I sent them a marketing pitch in the mail, because my business card was still kicking around their office.
They let you say more than you would in an e-mail: no one is going to read an e-mail that’s the equivalent of a full-page cover letter. But I’ve had fairly good success with full-page cover letters sent in the mail. They let you describe your recent projects, something about the client that makes you feel there’s a good fit, etc.

The downside of paper marketing materials is that they’re time-consuming and potentially costly to create and send, and your prospect has to make a very deliberate effort (in the form of calling or e-mailing you) to respond. There’s no reply button on a paper letter, so the prospect has to be really interested in order to follow up.

Just because I wondered what I might be missing, I recently joined Ed Gandia’s Warm E-mail Prospecting course. It’s online and self-paced, and I really like it. It’s helped me see the advantages of e-mail marketing–not blast e-mails that you send to 1,000 potential prospects with one click, but short (125 words or less), targeted, personalized e-mails that you send when you see a meaningful connection between you and the potential client. The appeal:

They’re short: it takes me under one minute to read 125 words. I get a lot of unsolicited e-mail (marketing pitches from other translators, requests for information about freelancing, requests to speak or write or present, etc.) and when I open an e-mail and it’s short, personalized and to the point, I actually feel interested in reading it (here’s something written just for me and it will take two seconds…maybe it’s interesting!). But when I open an unsolicited e-mail and it’s 500 words, or begins with “I’d like to start by telling you about myself,” I often leave the e-mail “for later,” which usually means much later, or if the e-mail isn’t personalized, I end up deleting it without reading it.
They invite immediate action: if your prospect is interested, they can click Reply, and simply answer, “Sounds interesting; can you send me some more information?” or “We may need someone like you in the future; feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn,” and they’re done with it.
They’re easy to create once you get the hang of it: and easy is good. Easy is what gets done. Instead of tailoring the cover letter, then printing it, then printing your resumé, then locating a business card and an envelope, then stressing about whether the paper should be white or off-white, and whether it’s OK to use your leftover Christmas stamps on business letters, and so on, you just fire the thing off and you’re done.

Readers, other thoughts on this?