Freelance translator marketing in the post-COVID world

后冠状病毒世界中的自由翻译营销

2020-06-24 14:50 Smartcat

本文共1011个字,阅读需11分钟

阅读模式 切换至中文

In this guest post, Tomedes’s Ofer Tirosh shares some ideas on what translators can do to stand out in the overcrowded post-COVID freelance economy.As translation professionals, you are no doubt well aware of just how challenging it can be to sell your services, especially if you are constantly seeking out work as an independent remote language service provider. The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent increase in freelance language workers is rapidly overwhelming and undercutting transcription and translation services everywhere. Freelancers with little to no experience are now entering the professional translation market en masse, some of whom have potential, but many are simply not competent enough. Freelancing: now even more competitive with coronavirus The tragic truth for the modern freelance translator or interpreter is that this influx of language workers will be devastating unless they change their marketing tactics. Many freelancing sites are seeing greatly reduced rates and an even larger number of freelancers looking for work online. A recent article in Time cited some truly somber statistics about the freelancing market. “Upwork says it has seen a 50% increase in freelancer sign-ups since the pandemic began. Talkdesk, a customer service provider that has launched a gig economy platform, got 10,000 new applications for gig work in 10 days. Instacart hired 300,000 additional workers in a month and said in late April that it planned to add 250,000 more.” This has meant that many of those already freelancing before the pandemic are now seeing their work and income plummet due to even fiercer competition. Source: PayoneerBefore getting into what freelance translators and interpreters can do to counteract the bloated marketplace, I want to point out that these recommendations will not work in each and every scenario or for each new client. There is no single solution that will fix every problem. Still, we are all in this together as industry professionals and, as such, we must work together to ensure that our businesses remain profitable and beneficial for all. The following suggestions are best suited for freelance and independent translators looking to work with online content. Let’s dive in. What professional translators can offer in a crowded freelance marketplace First, think about what the customer is buying when they are looking to hire an interpreter or translator. What are they looking to buy? What are you selling? What are your services? Are they the same as every other language service provider out there? If you are selling the exact same services as your competitors, how are you going to convince a potential client to choose you over a competitor? Especially in a mid/post-coronavirus world where the market is more saturated than ever. Now, take a moment to consider what every customer really wants to know. “What’s in it for me?” or “WIIFM” as it is sometimes referred to, is ultimately the question that the client wants answering. For better or worse, the reality is that your potential new client list may be just as satisfied with a translation from a new translator online for half the cost of your services. So should you cut your prices and undermine years of work dedicated to improving your name and reputation as a certified or professional language specialist? That’s not a viable solution. Competing on price exclusively is always a losing game. As an experienced and certified interpreter or a professional translator, you have developed a mastery of your working languages that you need to value and protect. So, think in terms of what the customer really wants. A translated text that will actually bring them results, right? This is what you need to sell — you need to show them how far your translation services can take them and how much they can directly benefit from the results you bring as a professional translator. Translation and transcription services — the multipurpose marketing goldmine Source: PayoneerThere are all manner of translation jobs for digital marketing. The client wants the translation services and you want the client, so why not sell them on the added benefits that they can receive by using your services? Video transcription is an important part of the creation of SRT (subtitling) or closed captioning files. But does the client know the true potential of transcription? Why not include an upsell for a video translation? It means more money coming in for you and the client gets the added benefit of having their video rank much higher on search engines — not only in their native language but in the translated language as well. They also now have a written transcription that can be used to create an article in the native language and another in the translated language. You can go even further: they have the basis for a script to create podcasts in their native language as well as in the language pair from the original video translation. Selling the whole package As a professional freelance translator, you are not merely selling them your services, nor are you merely translating a document. You are offering them the opportunity to gain an entire multi-purposed multilingual marketing package. This is what will help you stand out from the crowd of new freelancers. Many newbies are eager, yes, but few know how to effectively sell their services. This is why you need to offer something extra and give the client a reason to choose your services over someone else’s. This should not only open the door to more clients but also to the possibility of upselling to your existing clients. To sum up: offering and marketing At the end of the day, as a language service provider in the post-COVID economy, you need to be more than just a language expert — you also need to master the art of marketing and sales. This may not come easy to many translators who have spent their formative years focusing on their language skills, but going the extra mile with your offering and upping your marketing game are vital if you wish to succeed in the increasingly competitive freelance marketplace.
在这篇客座文章中,Tomedes的Ofer Tirosh分享了一些关于译者如何才能在过度拥挤的后冠状病毒自由职业经济中脱颖而出的想法。作为翻译专业人士,你很清楚,销售服务是多么具有挑战性,尤其是你一直在寻找独立远程语言服务提供商的工作时,这一体会更加明显。 目前全球流行的COVID-19病毒以及随之而来的自由应聘语言工作者的增加,各地转录和翻译服务迅速遭到压倒性削减。 几乎没有经验的自由职业者现在正成群结队地进入专业翻译市场,其中一些人有潜力,但许多人根本不够胜任。 自由职业者:比冠状病毒更有竞争力 对于现代自由笔译或口译员来说,悲惨的是,除非他们改变营销策略,否则语言工作者的大量涌入将是毁灭性的。 许多自由职业者网站看到费率大幅降低,更多的自由职业者在网上寻找工作。 《时代》杂志最近一篇文章,其中引用的关于自由职业者市场的统计数据确实令人担忧。 Upwork表示,自疫情爆发以来,自由职业者注册人数增加了50%。 推出了零工经济平台的客户服务提供商Talkdesk在10天内收到了1万份零工工作的新申请。 Instacart一个月内增聘30万名员工,并在4月底表示计划再增聘25万名,“这意味着,由于竞争更加激烈,许多在疫情爆发前就已经是自由职业者的人,其目前工作和收入都在急剧下降。 来源:Payone-在讨论自由职业笔译员和口译员能做些什么来抵消膨胀的市场之前,我想指出的是,这些建议并不是每一种情况下都能奏效,也不是对每一个新客户都能奏效。 没有一个单一的解决方案可以解决所有问题。 尽管如此,我们都是行业专业人士,因此,我们必须共同努力,确保我们的业务继续有利可图,为所有人造福。 以下建议最适合自由职业和独立译员寻找在线内容的工作。 我们一起看一下。 在一个拥挤的自由职业者市场中,专业翻译能提供什么 首先,当客户想要雇佣口译员或笔译员时,要考虑他们想买的是什么。 他们想买什么? 你在卖什么? 你的服务是什么? 你所提供的服务和其他语言服务提供商一样吗? 如果你和竞争对手销售完全相同的服务,你如何说服潜在客户选择你而不是竞争对手? 尤其是在冠状病毒中期/后期的世界,市场比以往任何时候都更加饱和。 现在,花点时间考虑一下每个客户真正想知道的是什么。 “这对我有什么好处?”或者有时被称为“Wiifm”,最终是客户想要回答的问题。 不管是好是坏,现实情况是,你潜在的新客户名单可能只是满意一个新的在线译员所提供的翻译服务,其费用为您服务费用的一半。 那么,你是否应该降低价格,破坏多年来致力于提高你作为一名认证或专业语言专家的名声和声誉呢? 这个办法并不可行。 单纯的价格竞争总是一场失败的游戏。 作为一名经验丰富,经过认证的口译员或专业笔译员,你已经掌握了你需要珍视和保护的工作语言。 所以,从客户真正想要的角度来考虑。 一个会给他们带来实际结果的翻译文本,对吗? 这就是你需要推销的东西--你需要向他们展示你的翻译服务能带他们走多远,以及他们能从你作为一名专业译者带来的结果中直接获益多少。 翻译和转录服务--多用途营销金矿 来源:Payoneer有各种各样的数字营销翻译工作。 客户想要翻译服务,而您也想要客户,那么为什么不在他们使用您的服务所能获得的附加利益上销售这些呢? 视频转录是创建字幕(SRT)或闭路字幕文件的一个重要部分。 但是客户知道转录的真正潜力吗? 为什么不包括一个视频翻译的加价? 这意味着你能赚更多的钱,而你的客户会得到额外好处,让其视频在搜索引擎中排名更高-无论是其其母语网页,还是翻译界面。 他们现在也有一个书面转录,可以用来创建一个母语文章和翻译语言版本。 你可以更进一步:他们有一个脚本的基础,可以用他们的母语和原始视频翻译的语言对创建播客。 全套出售 作为一个专业的自由译者,你不仅仅是向他们推销你的服务,也不仅仅是翻译一份文件。 您为他们提供了一个获得一个完整的多用途多语言营销包的机会。 这将帮助你从一群新的自由职业者中脱颖而出。 很多新手都很渴望,是的,但是很少有人知道如何有效地销售他们的服务。 这就是为什么你需要提供一些额外的东西,并给客户一个理由选择你的服务而不是别人的。 这不仅应该为更多的客户打开大门,而且还可以向现有的客户增加销售。 总而言之:提供和营销 归根结底,作为疫情后期经济中的语言服务商,你需要做的不仅仅是一个语言专家--你还需要掌握市场营销和销售的艺术。 这对于很多在成长过程中专注于语言技能的翻译来说可能并不容易,但是如果你想在竞争日益激烈的自由职业市场上取得成功,那么在提供服务的同时,加大营销力度至关重要。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

阅读原文