“So, what do you do?”
Someone asks me this for the 2,968,709 time since I began the Art of Meeting People. Or networking, whatever you want to call it.
Depending on my mood, my answer ranges from a simple “I’m a translator and writer” to “I help brands stand out in the English-speaking market”. The second tends to spark more interest than the first, but both occasionally inspire the following question:
“How do you get your clients?” or “how do you find freelance translation jobs?”
I usually give some brief response like “word-to-mouth” or “marketing,” because my client-getting process is neither uni-channel nor linear. There are many ways to find clients as a freelance translator.
Below are my personal methods for how I find my clients as a freelance translator. Other translators have been successful with different routes.
How to find freelance translation jobs
When you’re looking for freelance translator jobs, it’s important to take a long-term mindset. You don’t want a bunch of one-off jobs just to pay the bills. Your purpose should be to build long-term, sustainable relationships with clients. So instead of looking for freelance translation jobs, look find clients that you enjoy working with.
Of course, the next trick is how to find clients — the dream clients — as a freelance translator.
The Holy Grail Of Client-Getting
Before I go on with the business and marketing side of getting freelance translation jobs or translation clients, I want to drill something deep into your mind.
Work your craft. This is my motto for All Things. Any social media or marketing strategy or networking efforts you make will be worth nothing if you don’t do this.
As a freelancer, you’re a businessperson. So you do need business skills, which I’ll talk about below. But first and foremost, you’re a skilled professional — an artist. The most important thing you need to do is to work on your translation and writing skills (and your subject matter, SEO writing, or whatever it is your clients are actually paying you to do).
So before you try to get clients, practice your work. Get it revised by people better than you. Avoid using low-paid or free commercial work as practice. This will only harm the profession as a whole and you down the line when you try to raise your rates.
If you’re fortunate enough to have savings, a budget, or somebody supporting you, you can afford translating sample texts and paying a professional to review them and give you feedback. If not, you can help NGOs (e.g. Translators Without Borders) and offer your translation services for free while you build your portfolio. Take translation courses. Get a translation degree. Whatever you need to bring your skills to a professional level.
As a translator, you are writer. Repeat it: As a translator, you are a writer. Take writing courses where people revise your work (in your target language) and use those writing skills when you’re translating your texts.
Take courses in your subject-matter specialization and learn about the terminology and sector jargon or style guides in that area.
Master your craft first. Second, focus on business and marketing.
Okay, with that out of the way, how about we find some potential clients?
Related Post: 5 Freelancing Platforms That Actually Pay Well
Kinds of Translation Clients
Translation clients can be broken down into two major categories, and each have very different ways of hiring and working with translators:
- Direct clients
- Translation agencies
There are sub-groups within these two groups, but these are the two umbrella clients you can find. Some translators work exclusively with one or the other. Others, like me, work with both.
The Direct Translation Client
Deep pockets. Admirable, god-like respect for the translator and their transcendental language skills. And, of course, seeking to develop a partnership with their translator (as opposed to hiring them for a one-off job).
The direct client is often romanticized and idealized by freelance translators. Direct clients can be great. And when they care about their brand image, they often will be willing to spend more and develop a partnership-like relationship with their translator. But not all direct clients have big budgets, and not all direct clients will have a deep and respectful [business] relationship with the translator. In any case, there are many benefits to having direct clients. But what is a direct client?
A direct client is the end client him or herself. A person, a brand, a law firm — it’s the initial entity that needs the translation and the one that will receive it in the end. When you work with a direct client, you have no middleman, no intermediary. More importantly — you have no one taking a 30-50% profit margin off your rate.
Alternatively, you will also be alone in handling all the client’s translations and communication (they can get needy), hiring your own editor and proofreader, dealing with clients that do not understand the translation process, and communicating with high-level decision-makers in brands. If you don’t speak CEO and aren’t particularly strong in sales or customer service, direct clients may not be right for you. If this is the case, go ahead and scroll down to the translation agency section below.
Finding The Direct Translation Client
Offline Networking
My most successful method for finding direct clients has always been offline. I purposefully and actively meet people in and outside of my city, and always talk enthusiastically about what I do.
I don’t only educate my clients or potential clients about translation: I educate everyone I meet about it. I also make an effort to exude confidence when I speak about my job. It comes with experience, of course, but there is a difference between overtly putting yourself down when talking about what you do and being realistic and modest.
If you don’t yet have enough experience in translation to talk about how your translations have saved lives and made people millions, then just be super interested in everybody else’s brands and their cross-cultural communication. Shamelessly ask questions and be curious about them and their projects.
Long story short, go out and meet people enthusiastically and regularly. Go to trade shows, networking events. Hell, go to wine tastings if you’re more likely to talk to people there (especially if you want to specialize in wine translation!).
If you’re introverted, set yourself a quota — exchange business cards with one person and then you can go home to your book or Netflix. With time, it will feel easier and more natural.
Professional Association Directories
Another place to connect with direct clients is through professional association directories. All of these professional associations cost money to join, and many of them have additional requirements (years of experience, education, and some a quality examination). But the member directories are usually searchable and many clients use these to find translators in the language pair and specialization they need.
Plus, making connections in the associations is a good way to meet colleagues in person. And when people know you in person, they’re far more likely to recommend you for a job or client that they might not be able to take. That’s just fact.
And many of these associations host workshops and conferences and get you discounts on goodies. I’m a member of two in Europe, the ITI and the Mediterranean Editors and Translators. These directories are also good for getting agency clients — many agency recruiters peruse these directories to find new talent.
Social Media Marketing
I’m a big fan of social media. I become periodically obsessed with different channels: I began with Twitter (which I hardly use anymore, but it’s still useful for many translators), Facebook, Linkedin and now Instagram.
Read More: How to Optimize Your Freelance Translator LinkedIn Profile
I’ve heard people criticize social media for not working. As in, they put their CV up on LinkedIn or participated in a couple of Twitter conversations and haven’t had clients lining their inboxes with praise and big-budget requests.
And I’ve also heard many translators do not use social media at all (or even a website, for that matter), and have a perfectly healthy, lucrative career as a translator. I dig it. Though I suspect many of these social media deniers are translators that may have established their career before the digital age, OR had a well-established career in another field where they made some gold-tier contacts.
They very well could be ninja networkers who are so actively out there they don’t even need social media.
In any case, social media isn’t a direct way to ‘get clients’. Just like offline networking, it is a means of showing up and building rapport and communication with your entire online network.
It is a change in your mindset and way of relating to the world wide web of your business. It is a growth-oriented mindset, where every connection is important. It does manifest results.
It’s where you can talk about your expertise as a translator or in your subject matter and give useful tips to your potential clients. It’s where you can start conversations and where you can make your name show up consistently.
It’s important to use social media as a part of your strategy to reach out to clients, but it’s up to you which channel to focus on.
Content Marketing
As a blogger and content marketing specialist, I also have to stress the importance and effectiveness of content marketing. I personally focus on written content, but if you’re up to creating videos, infographics, or podcasts, you’ll be in an even better position to attract potential clients.
After you have created your freelance translation website, your next step is to start blogging for there frequently consistently. Create a plan that you are able to follow. If you’re too busy, then only blog once a month. Consistency is more important for traffic than frequency.
Try to avoid talking about your praise and education on this content. Clients don’t care about that, they only want to know how to solve their problem. Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing that allows potential clients to find you themselves when they need your work.
It is a long-term strategy. Most content does not even begin to see traction until after 6-9 months of regular, high-quality posting. But it’s an extremely effective one. If you can regularly blog (once a week) content that will help your client when they need to solve a problem, you will have an extraordinary advantage.
The Agency Translation Client
A translation agency is a great way to start getting translation work. It requires less business knowledge, so you can start working as soon as your translation skills are good enough. Working with direct clients isn’t for every translator. It requires a fine-tuned sense of business, customer service, marketing and project management. Some translators prefer to just focus on what they do best: translate.
If you can’t be bothered to craft the perfect email and sales funnel to onboard direct clients, or simply don’t want to be constantly networking and reaching out to brands and businesses, then translation agencies may be right for you. I have a mix of both kinds of clients, and that suits me just fine.
When working with agency clients, you’ll usually find: – They are easier to find and contact – They understand the translation process But you will also encounter that: – You have less bargaining power (they’ve often already negotiated rates with their clients)
– Many impose their own terms and conditions, including payment terms (should/can be negotiated)