Marketing in the translation industry – what works?
Marketing is a pretty big buzz word in the translation industry right now, with loads of companies looking to grow their businesses and differentiate themselves in a very saturated market. While it looks like as an industry we’re getting somewhere, it’s still surprising the number of spam that ends up in our inbox. Like seriously, are these people’s bosses really happy that they’re paying someone to write such rubbish? Our management definitely wouldn’t be pleased! So, as an SLV that can vouch for the power of marketing first-hand, we thought we’d share our experience of what works for us and what doesn’t. Hope it inspires you on your LSP marketing journey!
Social Media
Surprisingly, our most popular social media posts are ones that aren’t about translation at all! It could be because translation isn’t all that sexy, but when we share knowledge about Poland, Polish pictures, Polish jokes, etc. it goes down a lot better than professional content. This probably has something to do with the fact you’re not meant to sell on social media, too!
SEO
SEO is a really long-term investment, and you really shouldn’t expect to see great results before the 6-month mark. But…get past that hard bit and it really does work wonders! We’ve even been nominated for a European Search Award for the ROI we’ve seen, which is pretty impressive for an SLV from Poland!
PPC
While paid advertising seems to get slated a lot by the language industry, it’s actually pretty good! If you’re happy to help individuals and not just companies, it’s a great way of attracting people from the local area. We’ve seen a great increase in the number of walk-ins we’ve got even though our budget is actually really tiny.
PR
Something else we’ve realised is that tradition PR is a really good way to go. Writing articles and doing things traditionally really helps. Even if you’re nervous about sharing your knowledge, if you give away just enough, you’ll reap the rewards!
Metrics
One thing that’s really helped us is measuring everything we do. Instead of paying for a press release that doesn’t get any traction, we’re able to spend our money where it really works, and invest in the channels where our clients really do spend their time.
Having an USP
The final point that has really helped us stand out is working on ur USP and buyer personas. Writing sales emails that are all about “me” doesn’t work – you need to address your clients pain points and be different. No-one cares about CAT tools and words translated, people buy from people and want to see your personality.
Have you got any marketing success stories? If you’d like to get in touch, we’d love to hear them!
Suggested read:
