Earlier this month I moderated a webinar on the Art of Non-Salesy GDPR-Compliant Marketing, with Gabriella Ferenczi sharing her secrets with translators and interpreters.
It’s not uncommon to hear colleagues whinge about agencies domineering the market, yet many forget that like professionals in any other industry, translators can benefit from using email marketing as part of their overall strategy of winning business.
Gabriella explained why email marketing is such a vital tool for us by giving a few simple facts. More than half of millennials check their email while still in bed. Your email is your asset so you don’t have to rely on forever-changing social media algorithms. A well-written personal email is a powerful trust builder.
Email marketing allows us, language professionals, to communicate directly with our clients and prospects. We can send updates, invitations, offers and much more, and Gabriella created a padlet for us to fill in collectively to help each other with ideas as to what we could say in our email.
Email marketing is also cost-effective as you won’t have to spend any money if you choose a free package with an email service provider. So it’s literally your time you will be investing and that investment is bound to bring returns if you do things right and learn more as you go along.
Interpreters are also advised to segment their email list based on different criteria, such as direct clients, agencies, colleagues, prospects, etc as this segmentation allows for more personalised and relevant messaging. If we make our email communications regular, they can nurture relationships over time. Providing valuable content, sharing insights and sending updates on relevant topics help us to build trust, stay at the front of our clients' minds once they have a translation or interpreting requirement.
Understandably, the word “marketing” can have a bad connotation, and Gabriella demonstrated how positive marketing can inspire and influence. Who would refuse an opportunity to showcase their expertise and industry knowledge? By sharing useful tips and success stories with clients, and industry trends with colleagues, we, linguists can position ourselves as experts in our field.
Translators often mention they don’t get much feedback on their work, but we can put together simple surveys to gather that feedback from clients, which can help us improve our services or collect valuable testimonials.
Of course, our email marketing has to be in line with relevant data protection (GDPR) and once you understand best practices, it's not hard to follow them to keep that line of communication with your clients and prospects alive.
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