How to Find Direct Clients featuring Corinne McKay

Hey , everyone , I'm here today with Kari McKay and we're going to be talking about direct clients .

Kin , how are you doing ?

I'm doing great .

Thank you so much for inviting me to talk .

No .

Brilliant .

Great to have you here .

Well , for those of you who don't know kin , she's , um she's the author of the original How To Book for For Freelance , for freelance translators .

She's very well known within the industry , and she's been working with direct clients for many , many years now .

And not only has she been working with , uh , direct clients for many years , she's also been training other translators helping trans other translators Um , get into that direct client market .

So I think she's absolutely the right person to have this , uh , this conversation with so so Corine .

The first question for you is , um , why do you think freelance translators should consider working with direct clients ?

Well , I think most people realistically are drawn to direct clients because of the money .

And I do think it's important to say , like , I don't think agencies are evil at all .

I think agencies feel a really important role in our industry and profession .

But I think realistically , most people hit a point where they're working as much as they can or want to , and they want to make more money .

And the way to do that is to move from agencies to direct clients .

But I also think , um , you know , a lot of people sort of come for the money , but stay for other factors such as , um , being able to work in specialisations that agencies don't handle .

Um , increase job satisfaction because you can usually have direct contact with either the person who wrote the source document or the person who's going to use the target target document .

So I think lots of other factors come into play as well .

Yeah , absolutely .

Yeah , I think there's a lot of , uh , a lot of opportunity for freelancers to really like .

You said , Get to get to work more closely with with the translation , and I think that can be quite .

I think that can be quite attractive .

So what ?

What what are some of the mistakes that you see that you see freelance translators make when they are trying to work more closely with with direct clients , number one hands Down is expecting too little or sorry expecting too greater return from too little marketing effort .

So people thinking , you know , I'm going to send out 10 emails and clients are going to beat a path to my door , um , you know , clamouring to work with me .

And if that happens to you , great .

But I think for most people that if you are doing a you know , cold , contacting method meaning contacting people you don't know , you're probably looking at more like 100 contacts before you would find , um , you know , a good client that has actual work .

Um , I think that's the the number one thing .

And I think subsidiary not having a targeted enough specialisation purely because then you don't know who to market to .

Um , I think it's just a sort of logistical issue that you can .

There is some opportunity to be more of a generalist translator with agencies .

Um , you know , not that agencies don't want specialised translators , but there is the potential to be a little broader , whereas with direct clients , if you're a really broad translator , how do you know who to market to ?

It's just a , you know , logistical question .

So that sort of , uh , that sort of specialising and also understanding that to a certain degree , it is a numbers game .

But it's a numbers game with a a sort of intelligent approach to back it up .

Right ?

Correct .

Yeah .

Brilliant .

And what would you say is the most difficult thing about trying to work with , uh , direct clients or trying to get new direct clients ?

Mhm , I think , um , sticking with the marketing long enough to see results and choosing a marketing method that fits with your personality .

So the problem is , if you pick a marketing method that you hate , even if other people tell you that it's successful , you're not going to do it because you hate it .

If you made me do telephone sales like I just I just wouldn't do it .

I mean , I actually think telephone sales could be fairly effective .

Um , but I just wouldn't do it because I hate cold calling .

You know , people I don't know to try to sell them something .

And some people , honestly , my favourite marketing method is targeted emails .

Um , I have had students go through my classes who hate sending targeted emails so they go to client side conferences , and they find tonnes of work through that .

Like I have .

At least this sounds kind of infomercial .

But it's true .

I have at least two students who took their direct client work from zero to more work than they could handle in , like , a year to a year and a half by attending client side conferences , um , and meeting clients for their target industry at their clients conferences .

Yeah , that's impressive .

That really is .

Yeah .

Yeah , Very good .

Very good .

Well , Corin , thank you so much .

Thank you so much for those tips .

I'm , uh I'm , of course , delighted to announce that you will be presenting a workshop , Um , with with pros dot com fearless direct client marketing on , uh , on march the 16th .

So we're really we're really looking forward to that .

Tell us a little bit about the workshop .

Corinn , please .

Yeah , so we'll talk a little bit about the direct client marketing mindset , but I think what my classes are really known for is the sort of practical nuts and bolts approach that will go over at least 10 different ways .

You could market to direct clients and then we'll go into depth on three techniques , which is , um , targeted emails , client side conferences and search engine optimisation .

So I think that's , um , you know , one thing I really try to do is give people like what ?

When you say , targeted email , what do you say ?

What do you write in the targeted email ?

Or when you talk about , go to client side conferences ?

How do you find them ?

What do you do when you're there , Things like that .

So we'll talk about , you know , very practical things that you can implement right away .

Getting into the specifics really good , Really good .

So it's a three hour workshop , and it's a new format that that we're trying out .

So it's a three hour workshop , followed by a one hour Q and a with a couple of weeks after the initial workshop , and and a really a little bit of a a special price .

I think it's , uh , I think we can all agree on 50 $50 to attend this workshop , Um , a workshop that when I teach it on my own , it's more expensive than that .

So I just want to say to everyone I know that sounds kind of sales , but it's really true that prose is offering this for a really attractive price .

I don't think you would be able to take that class elsewhere at that price .

So if you're interested , now is the time .

Absolutely .

Absolutely .

Now is the time .

And and as you've you've mentioned on this , uh , on this short call , it really has changed the situation for for a number of your students already going from , like that example of going from 00 to more work than you can handle .

II .

I like that one .

And , uh , you know , that's an absolutely a completely real case of someone who's who's who's gone through this type of workshop .

So So , yeah , I really encourage you to to sign up .

We do have limited seats on this workshop , so we will , uh , we will stop selling the workshop at some point .

Now is your chance .

Head on over to training dot pros dot com That's training dot pros dot com .

Let me know if you have any questions , Of course , and I hope to see you there looking forward to it .

Yeah , absolutely .

Looking forward to it so much .

And and thanks so much to you .

Thanks for all of the the the free tips and the that Your expert value that you you always share really , really appreciate it .

All right .

Thanks very much .

Thank you .

Ok , OK , we'll see you soon .

Bye Bye bye .

Bye bye .