Generating Translation Service Leads On Demand

Being able to get more translation service leads can be easier than it seems. After all, you’re in a competitive niche, but if there are so many people working around it, it must be for a reason.

The problem with prospects is that they usually hire those with a lot of experience and people who offer great deals for numbers of words or similarly. Often, if you can’t offer something similar, you tend to be bound to lose against your competitors.

However, we don’t consider it is entirely necessary since lead generation for this service is more than reducing costs and experience. With the right methods, you can generate as many qualified leads like them.

The secret lies in how well you handle your marketing and follow the recommendations we have for you below:

Don’t Jump in Marketing Yet. Reflect on Your Skills

You should do some self-reflection before you go out looking for clients. After all, you truly need to have a good idea of what you’re looking for and how you can get it done. First, ask yourself these questions:

Which clients are compatible with your skills? Why do you want them to work with you?
Are you a local business with a lot of clients?
Are you able to provide kick-ass samples for a particular industry?

Make a complete curriculum vitae from the hard drive. You should make a list of all the jobs you have ever held, any volunteer experience, and your hobbies. Most translators are unlikely to be hired without this since prospects need proof of your experience.

Keep in mind that your CV should be more detailed than a resume.

Write down any experience you had as a teenager or previous jobs since, in this niche, it doesn’t really matter that much if they are different. Most translator service leads will take it as you have experience in a specific topic you can translate.

Keep a record of each client that you have worked within translation, as well as the type of documents and sector.

Although this initial trawl may be time-consuming, it will help you save time in your prospecting efforts.

Qualify Your Prospects

Many freelance translators overlook the crucial step of vetting whether a company is a good candidate for translation or if they should go their way for it.

To determine if a company would be a good prospect, there are three things you should ask:

Are they serving a bilingual audience?

Your company may appear to work with bilingual audiences, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they translate content for them.

For example, despite the fact that many restaurants in France serve English tourists, they tend to avoid English content because of the country’s French-language law. Even if the menu translation is not perfect, the server will explain the dishes to you so that communication issues can be avoided.

If you are looking to make a difference in the tourism industry, it is important to carefully consider this and target your clients. Instead of targeting restaurants, focus on larger hotels chains or tourism institutes.

Do they need quality translations?

Many translators target poorly translated websites, assuming these companies require translation. This is often a huge mistake!

Although they might require professional translations for their websites, poorly translated websites are a sign that the company doesn’t really need them.

You will waste significant energy on a cause that isn’t important to them if they don’t want you.

A company that has well-translated content may still require you. The translator who created their website might be gone, but you could be their backup. Don’t spend time on companies that don’t seem to care about the quality of their pages.

This also applies to any other type of work, be it a simple document, blog, or any content.

Are they willing to pay for high-quality translations?

You should target companies with at least $1,000,000 in annual revenues, and preferably between $5 million and $10 million. However, this is only for those trying to hit the jackpot with these companies.

If you are looking to get general leads with the potential outcome, you can just focus on a wide range of them individually or as businesses.

Make Your Website and Follow These Steps

A website is one of your best tools to increase your online presence, even if you are listed on several freelance websites to find jobs.

Your website is the central point for all of your marketing activities. It also serves as a place to store information about products and services. A website is a way for someone to “prove” that you are a freelancer by performing a search for your services.

It will convince the customer of the quality and professionalism of your translation services as soon as they visit it.

Although many people believe that creating websites requires advanced coding and design skills to be successful, this is no longer true. It’s easy to create a professional-looking website with today’s website platforms. It takes a few steps to start, then working on its marketing and make sure it operates properly:

Plan Your Website

Websites that are well-designed and planned are the result of thoughtful planning. We’ll begin there. You can still benefit even if your website is already up and running.

What is the purpose of my site? Do you want to drive sales? Demonstrate your talents? Potential customers can be educated. Your site should be structured around your purpose.
What can you offer? Consider what your site and you bring to the table. Do you have the ability to educate them? You can give them coupons and other valuable offers. No matter what your offer, make sure you structure your website to highlight them.
Is your domain name memorable? The URL is what people see first when they visit your website. Make sure it’s a great one. Choose a domain name that is relevant to your service and easy for people to remember.
Which template and host should you choose? Your site’s performance is directly affected by the layout and hosting provider you use. Many platforms are available, and most can provide the information you need. WordPress is the best choice if you are looking for something that’s popular, but sites like Wix, Snapps, and similar ones can work just fine.
What content do you need? Try to imagine yourself as your client. What information would you need if you wanted to translate something? What information should they know about your services? After this exercise, you can outline the type of copy that you will need.
Which keywords should you use? Which search terms do your clients use to find you? Are there ways to integrate their search terms into your website content? Make a list with high-value keywords and include them on your website. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is based on information.

Be careful not to make your website a resume. It should do more than just tell people who and what you do. It must also provide value and establish your authority in the subject and language you are using.

General Design Tips

Although you don’t need to hire a web developer, it’s important to ensure that your website meets the following requirements:

A professional logo. Your logo is an important part of your branding. It should be prominently displayed. You should use a high-resolution image and place it at the upper-left corner of your website.
White Space: It is easy to overwhelm your visitors with flashy pictures and multiple calls to action. But don’t do it! Instead, focus on the important things and make good use of white space.
High-quality images: Images that draw attention and create an emotional connection with the content. Make sure that they are relevant. Although you may love the photos of Japan, they are not the best way to showcase your Korean-to-English translation skills, for instance, finding them.
Make your calls to action and contact information prominent. These items should be styled in a way that makes them stand out.
Responsive design: A responsive website refers to a web design that adapts to the visitor’s screen size. It’s crucial to consider screen size when browsing, as more than half of all internet browsing takes place on smaller screens.
Use a good color scheme: Make certain your colors match. You can change your text if it is difficult to read.

Website Content

Your copy is too short for most people. This is why you need to make your copy easy to read and understand while also extending it a bit. You should break down large ideas into bullets and make use of white space. Keep your paragraphs to five lines but don’t cut the content way too early.

Web content is all about less. Ask yourself, when you edit your copy if you are actually reading it:

Helps to meet your goal: A-line or paragraph that doesn’t convert clients is out. Your content will perform better if it is more focused on your goal.
Get your clients to act: Visitors to your website come to it for many reasons. Some people want to learn. Others are looking to hire you. Your content should be structured to appeal to the motivations of your visitors.
Reduces customers’ fear: Clients do not want to feel cheated or overcharged. Therefore, make sure you provide content that makes them feel safe. You can offer a free consultation or feature testimonials from clients.

You can take it out if it doesn’t do one of these things.

That being said, what pages and content should a website of a translation service provider contain? These are some suggestions and recommendations.

Home page: This is the landing page. This page is where prospects first appear. You need to convince them to continue reading and where your services should be presented compellingly. Take the time to offer value and make sure to stand out.
About Page: The about page should describe who you are and what your company does. It should also tell visitors why they should choose the services that you offer or just you as the face of your personal brand.
Services page: You should create a page that explains the services you offer. Translation, voiceover, proofreading, interpreting, desktop publishing, and other services are all possible for a translator.
Contact page: To make it easy for potential clients and customers to reach you, contact information should be on every page of your website. It is important to create a separate contact page containing all of your contact information and a form for clients to reach you.
A page that contains sample translations and testimonials: It is important to show proof of your ability once a potential client has expressed interest in your services. You can do this by providing testimonials from satisfied clients as well as sample translations to show the potential client your quality and style.
A page listing events, training, certifications, and publications: As you build your website, you can also add a page that lists your education, degrees, and courses. You can list any publications or certifications here. These certifications and publications will increase your expertise and credibility.

Optimization Was Never So Important

SEO (search engine optimization) is a way to improve the ranking of your website in search results.

Although this is an important step, people often neglect it or do the opposite: they stuff their sites and online channels with many keywords or SEO elements.

It is gone a time when keywords could be stuffed onto a site and jumped a few pages within a week. Google’s algorithms are constantly changing. One trend is clear: The algorithms are getting smarter and more human. They reward websites that provide value to their visitors.

Therefore, you need to pay attention to this, but take the time to know how to do it well. Here, we can leave you some recommendations:

-Selecting the Right Keywords.

Although keywords aren’t everything, they should be considered all the time. Consider the words that your ideal customers would use to search for your services on Google. These words should be written down.

To generate a list with keywords related to your market, you can also use websites like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest. These sites will also give you information about how competitive these terms are as well as how frequently they are searched.

-More SEO Tips

Search engines don’t need to match exact keywords in order to rank high in search results. They now use a mix of site authority, content, and site popularity to rank search results.

They are looking for sites that meet user intent, but more importantly, can offer content, quality, and user usability. You need to design your site to attract customers and encourage on-page activity.

Here are some tips from SEO experts:

Website speed is critical: Sites slow to load will be penalized in rankings. You can speed up your site by removing unnecessary widgets and compressing images.
Fix broken links: A 404 error could leave customers with a bad taste in their mouths. It is important to test the functionality of your website.
Content is still the king: Although direct keyword usage is less powerful than it was in the past, it is still an important part of your SEO strategy. You should always put readers first and search engines last.
Use related terminology: Google will be able to identify the purpose of your article if you use terms that are closely related to your keywords. This can also boost your search engine credibility.
Prioritize specific keywords: 75% of search queries are between 3 and 5 words in length, so it is important to tailor your content accordingly.
Use keywords in the first 100 words of any site page or blog posting: Search engines will rank your site higher if you use keywords at the beginning of each page.
Consider mobile first: Create your website keeping in mind smartphones and tablets. A responsive website is essential now that Google indexes on smaller screens.
Use meta and title tags correctly: The title tag is what Google will look at when categorizing a web page. Your prospects will see the combination of the title tag (meta description) and “snippet” (“meta description”) in their search results.

Utilize Social Media Marketing

Social media should be every company’s love since they influence every niche, especially in translation. However, just use the social media platforms that are actually relevant to your company.

First, Twitter is still very useful for translators, but Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are the top options anyone can use today.

Now, you must keep in mind that social media is not a direct method to get clients most of the time, but it is amazing to build awareness and boost your online presence. It is just like offline networking. It allows you to show up and build rapport with your entire online network.

It’s a shift in your outlook and your way of thinking about the internet. It’s a growth-oriented mindset that values every connection. It can produce results.

This is where you can share your expertise as a translator and your subject matter with potential clients. Also, where you can have conversations and make your name known consistently.

Social media is an important part of any strategy to reach clients. However, it’s up to you to decide which channel to focus your efforts on.

Work with Content Marketing

Regardless of what others say, content marketing is essential for success. While most people prefer to write content, you can also create infographics and podcasts to help you attract clients.

Once you are done, post it on your website and optimize everything accordingly. Just keep this in mind: you must be consistent.

For this, you should have a plan you can follow. Blog once per month if you are too busy. Traffic is more important if you are consistent than if you blog frequently.

Talk about the content and not your praise. Clients don’t care about this; they just want to learn how to solve their problems. Content marketing allows potential clients to search for you when they need your services.

It’s a long-term strategy. After 6-9 months of consistent, high-quality content posting, most content doesn’t see any traction.

Agency Translation Client

It is an excellent way to get translation work. You will need less business knowledge to start work as soon as you have enough translation skills.

Since direct clients are not for everyone, you may find this agency option appealing. After all, working with the clients yourself requires a keen understanding of customer service, business, and project management. Some translators prefer to focus on the best part of their job: translating.

Translation agencies might be the right choice for you if you don’t have the time or energy to create an email and sales funnel that will onboard direct clients.

If you feel comfortable with both but have little time to do something about the previous lead generation strategies to guarantee high-quality leads, work with a mixture of both types of clients.

Now, when you’re picking what company to take part in, consider this: translation agencies do not all have the same quality.

The small, niche agency that specializes in both language and subject, as well as the giant translation agency with thousands of employees around the globe. Some agencies are better than others.

How do you know which ones to apply? After researching and determining what company’s vision fits your needs and goals the most.

An Extra for You: How to Find Translation Jobs

There are many ways to get clients for translations other than what we have listed. Even the ones we have just mentioned can be approached in many different ways, and you could work around the best options as you progress.

We want you to know that it isn’t always the best option as effective as a technique can be. For things to work out, personalize your approach to being a translator.

These are the main points to remember if you want to get those sales qualified leads:

The best thing that you can do is improve your writing and translation skills by working on them. Your work is more important than your marketing and networking.
To increase your chances of meeting clients, networking is the best thing. Your amazing work and your friends’ and colleagues’ word-of-mouth are the best sources of new clients.
Again, social media presence and content marketing are essential in this digital age. You must be careful about how you present yourself online. These channels are for professionals now. Don’t complain about clients or narrate your latest romantic drama.
Finally, consider the agency route if everything looks like a lot of work. Make sure you do your research before you contact them.

Final Words

If you are aiming to be a translation company, you will need sales teams that can control your sales pipeline, boost every lead generation strategy, and learn how to work with the target audience.

In the beginning, it is common to be the one that deals with all the lead generation processes. But while you grow, marketing qualified leads will be easier but more difficult to follow in terms of process and steps.

Therefore, don’t overwhelm yourself initially or later. Breathe and work in your lead scoring and prospective leads with professionals who can afford the service if needed.

Use some lead generation tools and offer your human translation services without fear or knowledge about what might happen.

The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Translation Service Business

All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?

The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).

Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:

The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.

Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”

You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.

The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.

The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.

To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.

Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.

To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.

By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.

An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor

You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.

HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.

They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.

If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.

HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.

Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).

Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?

They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.

However, you need to remember two facts:

Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
They don’t generate “natural” leads.

Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.

Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.

What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.

When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.

What Is Local SEO?

Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.

What does this mean?

Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.

To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.

If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.

Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.

“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.

Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.

Can My Translation Service Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?

If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.

Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.

Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.

How Powerful Are Organic Translation Service Leads from Google?

For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.

This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.

I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.

However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.

On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.

You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.

What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?

Here it goes: you can work from home.

The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.

We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.

You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.

Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.

So, let’s summarize this:

You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
You can bet on passive income.
There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.

How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?

Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.

Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?

You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.

You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.