The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2021 - 35

BP
Keep a swipe file of images
on your smartphone. Have
you recently received a
package or a piece of mail
with something you ordered
or with a marketing slant
that you found very effective?
How did this piece of mail
make you feel? Valued?
Understood? Happy? Clearly,
it's not practical to keep every
package or piece of effective
marketing that makes its
way into your mailbox.
Instead, snap a photo and
add the image to a folder on
your phone. If you can sync
the folder to your desktop
computer, even better!
Over time, you'll have a
collection of photos saved
of packaging or messaging
that you found effective and
worth noting. Could you do
something similar for your
clients? How could you find
a way to " package " your
services to make them feel
valued, understood, or happy?
This type of information
can be incredibly valuable
when you're tweaking your
client onboarding process,
submitting invoices, or even
sending basic emails to
clients. You'll be able to take
the common invoice or email
and tweak it to make them
feel how you did when you
opened that fun package in
the mail. Be creative and have
fun with it!
Add a folder to your email
account and name it
" Marketing Swipe Files " or
" Ideal Client Swipe Files. "
We all get marketing emails
from time to time, or even
daily for that matter. Which
emails or newsletters do you
find yourself opening time
and again? Add these emails to
your " Marketing Swipe Files "
www.ata-chronicle.online
folder in your inbox. Analyze
which emails you've found the
most effective in marketing to
you, as a customer, and that
really " speak " to you. What
did the business or sender
get right to keep you opening
their emails and engaged with
their content? How can you do
something similar in your own
business for your clients?
On a similar note, from
which emails do you find
yourself unsubscribing?
Instead of deleting them,
keep a folder to house these
unwanted emails so you can
look back and remember what
you don't want to do in your
own marketing campaigns.
In a separate " Ideal Client
Swipe Files " folder, store
emails that you've sent back
and forth with your clients
(remember, only the ideal
ones!) that you want to have
handy the next time you're
crafting a marketing email or
writing a new social media
post. Did someone ask you
a question that you're often
asked? File it in this folder.
It could very well be the
question that inspires your
next blog post topic or social
media post. Does your client
speak a certain way or use
specific jargon or terms? Take
note and try to incorporate
these into the messaging the
next time you write to them.
When gathering content for
your swipe files, it's important
to also look to other industries
for inspiration. I get a lot of
my own inspiration from
graphic designers and copy
editors, for example. I find
that both work similarly to
translators and interpreters,
and they also find incredibly
creative ways to market to
their ideal clients through
both images and copy.
Make the information in
your swipe file work for
you. Once you have a decent
amount of content in your
swipe files, analyze the
information you've collected.
y What can your swipe
files tell you about your
ideal client?
y What can you do with this
information to improve
your marketing efforts?
y What can you learn from
what others do in their
industries that could be
carried over creatively to
ours and help you to stand
out from others who provide
the same services as you?
Over time, you'll continue
to update your swipe files
as you learn more about
your ideal client and about
marketing in general. It
can be fun to collect this
information, and it should
ultimately give you a lot
of insight. Set some time
aside on your calendar each
week or month to search
for new information to add
to your swipe files. Doing
this will allow you to keep
your content fresh and
create content based on
what your ideal client would
want to see from you. It
also helps you stand out as
a translator or interpreter
in your language pair(s) or
area(s) of specialization,
because it shows you know
your client, you did your
homework, and you took the
time to find out more about
them and their needs.
You can be as detailed and
collect as much information as
you want to store in your
swipe files. They are yours to
use for marketing your
business or learning more
about the market in which you
want to work. You may find
that your ideal client or target
market can change over time.
All the more reason to keep
updating your swipe files to
remain relevant in your
marketing efforts.
Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo, CT is
ATA president-elect and chairs the Governance
and Communications Committee. She is the
owner of Accessible Translation Solutions
and a Spanish>English and ATA-certified
Portuguese>English translator. She served as chair of ATA's
Membership Committee (2018-2020), Public Relations
Committee (2014-2018), and administrator of ATA's Medical
Division (2011-2015). She has a BA in Spanish from the
University of Southern Mississippi and an MA in Spanish from the
University of Louisville. She is also a consultant for the University
of Louisville Graduate Certificate in Translation. You can read
more of her articles on her blog at www.madalenazampaulo.
com/blog-home. madalena@accessibletranslations.com
" Business Practices " will alternate in this space with
" The Entrepreneurial Linguist. " This column is not intended
to constitute legal, financial, or other business advice. Each
individual or company should make its own independent business
decisions and consult its own legal, financial, or other advisors as
appropriate. The views expressed here are not necessarily those
of ATA or its Board of Directors.
American Translators Association 35
http://www.madalenazampaulo.com/blog-home http://www.madalenazampaulo.com/blog-home http://www.ata-chronicle.online
The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2021

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