It is common for large companies specializing in language services to manage projects from different areas, in various language pairs and for all types of clients. This is partly due to the fact that agencies act as intermediaries between the client and the professional team best suited to meeting their needs. To do this, they have a more or less extensive portfolio of translators that encompasses the sectors of the projects they receive. In this regard, and although translation agencies can direct their business activity towards specific industries, the truth is that these are companies that have open horizons and have a larger number of resources available when managing translation projects that are different to each other (e.g., technology, health science, advertising, etc.).
However, this does not have to be the case for smaller agencies or, more commonly, for freelancers. In these cases, there are fewer human resources and, when offering a language service, it can be advantageous to choose a specific client profile to set themselves apart from the competition, to stand out and consolidate themselves in individual markets that ensure a continuous and profitable work flow in order to maintain their professional activity. This is why many professionals are interested in learning how to choose “target clients” and select a specialized market. In other words, study the skills of human resources and the technical resource potential and design a sales strategy aimed at obtaining the most optimal results possible.
This is because, when you know who you want to work for, it is easier to capture clients that meet this profile. If we want to find clients from different specialty areas at the same time, the task would become very scattered because we would focus on several points and, at times, it is hard to know where to start or how to maintain a constant approach. For example, if we want to enter the technical translation market, we can implement a proactive approach and join groups related to technology (on LinkedIn, Facebook, subject forums, etc.), attend industry conferences, contact companies in the sector that perhaps do not have the budget to work with large multinational companies or simply prefer to work with freelance translators for their convenience. Setting a target with regards to the client we wish to orient our services yields a higher success rate in the short- and medium-term. In the same vein, specialization enables a much more accurate and customized corporate and commercial message to be put across. This is especially true when creating our website, contents for our social media, etc., since we can publish information of particular interest for these types of client, for which we can use terminology pertaining to the sector. As we become more familiar with the sector we have chosen, we will get a better understanding of the needs of these clients, and we will know the most effective solutions to propose depending on the type of language service required. In general, our work is not limited to translation, but rather we sometimes become genuine subject matter consultants and specialists, attending to all the aspects of the client’s internationalization process. Ultimately, this approach allows us to become experts in a market niche and exploit the translation of a series of specific projects. Agencies and translators who deal with all kinds of translations have mastered several subject matters to a greater or lesser extent, but statistically the level of competition is higher, which can be a disadvantage. By contrast, professionals who are experts in a single subject can more easily access sectors that require translators with proven and specific experience. In the long term, some professionals and agencies use this highly specialized knowledge to increase their rates, leading to a clear greater economical gain.
So, how to get it right when choosing a target client? To do so, we need to ask ourselves a series of questions.
Firstly, we must be aware of our skills in order to know what type of problems we can solve through our services. Of course, it will be related to interlinguistic mediation, but we can think about whether it will be in a single language pair, orally (interpretation) or written (translation), nationally or internationally, the type of document, etc. Each client is unique and we must market ourselves exclusively. We must then discover what type of company has these problems (if they are large corporations, companies that work in different countries or have relationships abroad, etc.). Here, we must of course take into account that they require services in the language combinations that we are offering. Sometimes, many professionals pay attention to the location and size of the company, especially because this provides information of interest about their revenue and level of prosperity. Likewise, finding a potential client or company will allow us to study other related clients or companies, which will help us significantly increase our area of activity. Bearing all this in mind, we can design a sales strategy and focus on the relevant contact persons through conventional communication channels.
In short, choosing target clients is a more specific marketing strategy for a particular type of agency or professional seeking to stand out in a highly competitive sector where each entity has different resources. Therefore, we must know our precise position as independent professionals and agencies in order to determine with greater accuracy how to successfully navigate the translation market.
Ref. de la imagen: https://straymediagroup.com/target-audience-3-need-to-knows/
