Many freelance translators wonder whether email marketing is better for direct clients, or whether it should be paper marketing – or perhaps it should be both? There’s probably no right or wrong answer to this question, but are here are our thoughts on this subject.

The Advantages of Paper Marketing

One method of paper marketing is to write out your cover letter, attach your resume and a business card, pop it into an envelope and mail it to your potential client. You might also create a postcard marketing campaign. The following are some of the advantages of paper marketing materials –

95% of the general population’s postal mail these days consists of bills and advertisements. Yes, your marketing packet is a type of advertisement, but it’s personalized and it looks interesting. It clearly shows that your advertising campaign has taken a lot of time and effort to put together. So your paper marketing material stands out above the others, and because it’s personally addressed to your client (or potential client), it means that they’ll most likely take the time to read the material.

Your paper marketing material will probably be saved for future reference. On the other hand, if your marketing is done by email, it’s very easy for busy people to quickly click ‘delete’. Many people save business cards and marketing material, just in case they may be required one day.

You can say a lot more in your paper marketing campaign. Long emails are usually ignored and/or deleted, but people will generally take the time to sit down and read a full-page cover letter that they’ve received in the mail. You can tailor your paper marketing to each specific client, and describe recent projects that will reassure your client that you would be a good fit for their translation requirements.

Disadvantages of Paper Marketing Materials

The disadvantages of paper marketing materials are that this type of marketing is very time-consuming and can become very costly to create and send. Another disadvantage is that your prospective client will now be required to make a very deliberate effort (by either emailing or calling) to respond to your advertisement. For your potential client to follow up, they’ll have to be really impressed with your marketing material - because there’s no simple ‘reply’ button on a paper letter.

Online Email Advertising Courses

As a point of interest, there are courses online that teach successful email advertising, and some of these are very good. You’ll discover the advantages of email marketing, and the right way of going about this type of advertising. Generally, the consensus seems to be that you don’t shoot out thousands of emails to potential translation clients, but instead use short, targeted personalized emails of around 100 words or less when you see what could be a meaningful connection between you and a potential translation client. Below we’ve listed the appeal of these short communications.

The Advantages of Email Marketing

They’re Quick to Read

It probably takes less than a minute to read an email of this brevity. Most of us receive heaps of unsolicited email in our inbox, so when you open an email and see that it’s personalized, short and to the point, it’s likely that you’ll have some interest in reading it. On the other hand, long, unsolicited emails that start with: ‘Let me tell you a little about myself…’ are already uninteresting because they’re not personalized and they’re too long. No-one really has the time or the inclination to read this type of marketing; so the end result is that these emails are usually deleted without anyone taking the time to read them.

They Invite Immediate Action

Should your prospect be even remotely interested in your translation services they can click ‘Reply’ and respond with ‘Please send me further information’, ‘Sounds interesting’, ‘Connect with me on LinkedIn’, and so on. And now they’ve done with their emails!

They Get Easier to Create Each Time

Once you’ve had a little practice, marketing your translation services this way can be quick and easy to create. You don’t need to organize and print your cover letter, print your resume, attach a business card, put it all together in an envelope, attach a stamp, post it, and so on. Email marketing is a more immediate approach to advertising, and one that people expect in this day and age. The trick, of course, is to make it short, personalized, interesting, and with a ‘call-to-action’ included in your email!

So, perhaps it’s simply a personal choice between conducting a paper marketing campaign or an email marketing campaign. Either way, they both take time and effort, so make sure you do your homework on both of these types of marketing and know that, whichever way you decide to go, you’re going to make it count!