METM16 presentation
Simon Berrill, Badalona, Spain
Language professionals are often urged to make more effort to sell themselves, but is our marketing effort always aimed in the right directions? This presentation was inspired by one given last year by Graham Cross, who explained that investing a great deal of effort on marketing may not be worthwhile, because, statistically, most clients would not be around for more than one or two jobs. What I intend to do is answer the question: if that’s the case, what should we be doing? In other words, how can language professionals find and keep clients without making a disproportionate effort? Based on an analysis of my own successful and unsuccessful marketing initiatives and the realisation that most of us are probably doing a lot of things right without actually analysing them, I intend to look briefly at translator websites and social media (which would be topics for whole sessions in themselves) and to concentrate on the way we can use professional associations and contacts with colleagues to build networks that should serve as channels providing work. The presentation, which will take the standard format of a talk backed by a slide presentation, is aimed principally at newer language professionals and anyone interested in marketing strategies, particularly less extrovert translators who perhaps find selling difficult. Those attending should pick up ideas for things they could do to improve their own marketing with a reasonable return on the effort they put in.
Simon Berrill is a British freelance translator working from Spanish, Catalan and French into English. He specialises in tourism and related subjects, like heritage, food and drink, the arts and sport. He came to translation late, having been a journalist in England for many years, and he keeps his hand in as a writer by producing a regular blog called Only Human Translators. Simon lives near Barcelona with his wife and nine-year-old son.
Spinning your web: getting clients to come to you
Simon Berrill, Badalona, Spain Language professionals are often urged to make more effort to sell themselves, but is our marketing effort always aimed in the right directions? This presentation was inspired by one given last year by Graham Cross, who explained that investing a great deal of effort on marketing may not be worthwhile, because, statistically, most clients would not be around for more than one or two jobs. What I intend to do is answer the question: if that’s the case, what should we be doing? In other words, how can language professionals find and keep clients without making a disproportionate effort? Based on an analysis of my own successful and unsuccessful marketing initiatives and the realisation that most of us are probably doing a lot of things right without actually analysing them, I intend to look briefly at translator websites and social media (which would be topics for whole sessions in themselves) and to concentrate on the way we can use professional associations and contacts with colleagues to build networks that should serve as channels providing work. The presentation, which will take the standard format of a talk backed by a slide presentation, is aimed principally at newer language professionals and anyone interested in marketing strategies, particularly less extrovert translators who perhaps find selling difficult. Those attending should pick up ideas for things they could do to improve their own marketing with a reasonable return on the effort they put in.
Simon Berrill is a British freelance translator working from Spanish, Catalan and French into English. He specialises in tourism and related subjects, like heritage, food and drink, the arts and sport. He came to translation late, having been a journalist in England for many years, and he keeps his hand in as a writer by producing a regular blog called Only Human Translators. Simon lives near Barcelona with his wife and nine-year-old son.
