Translation - art & business » Marketing for language professionals »
Company VS Individual marketing
Thread poster: Anahit Simonyan
Anahit Simonyan
Anahit Simonyan  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:03
English to Armenian
+ ...
Feb 20, 2013

Hello everyone,
I am just wondering if you could share ideas and/or experience on companies vs freelancers marketing tactics. How do companies reach to direct clients that we freelancers could also do?
Are there any special methods that companies employ that we don´t have at our disposal.

I am asking because the majority of my clients are agencies and I would like to reach also to direct clients. Will be thankful for any ideas.
 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 09:03
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Companies usually have more to offer Feb 20, 2013

I would say that a translation company/translation office (I am in one) has usually more to offer to an end customer or a larger agency, be it more in-house or subcontracted languages, DTP services, terminology services, regular availability within working hours, higher throughput per day... So it is not the message really, but the real ability to offer a more comprehensive package.
 
Anahit Simonyan
Anahit Simonyan  Identity Verified
Local time: 11:03
English to Armenian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Perhaps location? Feb 21, 2013

Thanks for your ideas, Tomas. Perhaps the fact of having an office space, which is more "visible" to potential clients, also plays a role. Or that is more traditional thinking? As some the today's companies don't have a physical office at all?
 
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 09:03
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Not really the location Feb 21, 2013

Hm... Good point. Although in my case we do have an office for efficiency and organisational reasons, it is true that many small companies do not have an office. I would say that direct customers would expect you to have a proper office if you present yourself as a company or translation office.

I reckon that the scale of a prospect is also related to the scale of the translation service (or of any other service provider, for that matter). A bigger company will expect you to have bi... See more
Hm... Good point. Although in my case we do have an office for efficiency and organisational reasons, it is true that many small companies do not have an office. I would say that direct customers would expect you to have a proper office if you present yourself as a company or translation office.

I reckon that the scale of a prospect is also related to the scale of the translation service (or of any other service provider, for that matter). A bigger company will expect you to have bigger resources for their needs, but in exchange is more prone to accept a higher rate. Small companies will not necessarily expect that you have an office and will accept that you arrange teams and help as needs arise, but they will probably expect to pay less.

In general I would not think that a medium-to-large direct customer will be very interested in dealing with individual freelancers and they will naturally prefer to outsource work to an agency, for simplicity and a standardised result in all required languages. ▲ Collapse
 


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Company VS Individual marketing







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