Business bites: You've got email

Yelena McCafferty is a firm advocate of email marketing. She explains her reasons, and some of her recommendations for other interpreters and translators.

I know only a handful of translators and interpreters who use email marketing to generate business. Why? I’ve used email marketing for more than a decade so I can only make an educated guess. Believing email marketing is for pushy people or that you have nothing to email your clients about? Not knowing where to start? Or even assuming that email marketing is all about obtaining email addresses of people you have never come into contact with before?

The why

I am a big believer in email marketing, having attended a number of workshops and webinars on this very subject over the years. I hope that by the time you’ve finished reading this short article, I will have converted you into an email marketing believer too.

Email is still very much alive. Successive surveys show the high number of people who open their emails first thing in the morning while still in bed, and last thing at night before dozing off. Yes, social media also takes up a huge chunk of our lives, but social media is rented property. You will remember recent incidents of Facebook crashing, along with Instagram and WhatsApp. What’s more, social media giants keep changing the algorithms, so you are never in control of how many people your content is shown to. Your email list, on the other hand, is your own asset that can make you money.

The who and the what

Under GDPR you can email corporate contacts you have worked with and companies that once enquired about your services but for some reason never placed an order. Individual contacts are different: they either need to be an existing customer who bought a service from you in the past, or to have given express consent for you to email them. For example, you may have a specific form on your website encouraging visitors to subscribe to your newsletter.

In fact, though I’ve just used the word ‘newsletter’, it’s better not to think of your messaging in that way. This is about human- to-human messaging – telling people something that helps them, inspires them, educates them, entertains them. Effective marketing is understanding the feelings of the recipient and addressing their needs or fears. How about showing them real examples that worked in the past? Or you can invite your client to an event you are attending which they may also find useful. It’s a wonderful opportunity to catch up and see each other face to face if you have previously communicated only remotely. At a recent webinar I moderated, Gabriella Ferenczi created a Padlet online board for us which I populated with some ideas at the time, and I invite you to take a look and add your own.

Of course, there are best email marketing practices to follow if you want to get this right. The most important requirement is that your recipient must always have an option to unsubscribe. This is easily done with an opt-out link in the footer of your email. You should also think about segmentation. You need to create different content for different groups of subscribers: companies, individuals or perhaps colleagues. Picture your favourite representative of each group, and write your content with them in mind.

The when, where and how

Next, you can, of course, use your own email software to send your mailshot. However, it’s easier to do it using an email marketing tool (such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, Constant Contact, or Transpond). These are managed services with a free package available, but your mailing lists will always belong to you. The service also allows you to get detailed reports of your mailings.

Then there’s the question of the best time of day to send it, and how often; and there’s no golden rule for that. Experiment till you feel you’ve got it right: lunchtime, first thing in the morning, or another time? Once a week or at a different interval?

There will be unsubscribers – and this is fine. It’s not necessarily that they don’t like you; they may be limiting the volume of marketing communications, or they may already know you well and work with you.

Good email marketing influences sales, and every time I send my mailshots, they generate at least one sale – often many more. I am already thinking of the content for my next one. When are you typing up yours?

This article was first published in the September-October 2024 edition of ITI Bulletin

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website offers comprehensive advice for small businesses including direct marketing: ico.org.uk.
 

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