220 likes | 334 Views
Presents FREE Webinar. Intro and Summary Review of London Workshop of 9 th July Marketing and Communication for Freelancers. Discussion Schedule. The Intro and Review will be covered in approximately in 30 mts This is divided into three parts
E N D
Presents FREE Webinar Intro and Summary Review of London Workshop of 9th July Marketing and Communication for Freelancers
Discussion Schedule • The Intro and Review will be covered in approximately in 30 mts • This is divided into three parts • Part I : A distilled essence of the webinars and Courses I conducted on this theme for last 2 years : online and in-person. • Part II : Assorted Tips, Ideas, Action Plan, Do-able strategies • Part III : Description of the Role-Play, Group Activities, Shared Problem Analysis, Individual and Joint learning Plan in the London Workshop to transform ‘knowledge and information’ into realized thinking, action and outcome. • Q/A and Discussion • A Free E-Book – Wordsmith Book of Business– my Journey as a Linguist and Agency Owner in Translation Business is enclosed • A List of Further Reading is enclosed
Intro and Review – Part I Few questions in Freelance Universe • How do I earn more ? • How do I get more free time without sacrificing my earning ? • What shall I do in mid-term (3-5 years) and long term (10-15 years) ? • How can I make my cash-flow inflation proof or inflation adjusted ? • How can I get more successful (type of job and fee) in bidding for jobs ? • How can I make a small team so that I can handle more volume without sacrificing quality ? • How do I get my first few clients ? (New Freelancer) • I feel anxious sometimes, especially when I have a lean work period. What to do ? • I think I have lost few jobs due to my pricing. What should be my price ?
Intro and Review : Part 1..contd • I feel a bit bored being a translator. What else can I do ? • How can my Freelancing experience help me to switch profession ? • I am baffled by all these technological changes. How to cope ? • My email campaign is not as per my expectation. What is to be done ? • Many people visit my website/blog/profile but less leads are generated. Why ? • How can I use social networking websites for my business ? • In bidding, my linguistic qualities are not properly recognized. How can I make sure the market rewards me as I deserve ? • Why do some project managers appear to be so impatient, finicky and sometimes behave in a strange manner ? • Rates are not increasing. Where are the good paying freelance assignments ?
Part I : Questions in Freelance Universe • All these questions relate to Freelancer Market interaction • All these questions also relate to Market’s response Freelancer • A Freelancer communicates his/her skill to market • The Market communicates back with jobs, cash-flow, profit, wealth • This communication process is an Art. • Like any art, this art needs to be perfected with knowledge and practice • This art can be practised individually and/or in a group. • In Group Activity, we become aware that there is a whole space of shared problems and new solutions are continuously formulated tested, adopted or discarded.
Part I : The Harmonization of Interests • Your interest, interest of your clients and your suppliers (if you run an agency) are not the same and sometimes in conflict. • Your communication needs to express effectively that you are aware of this. • The best way to influence someone to have a direct feel of how he/she works and what is the situation he / she is in [ Role Play ] • The best way to deliver information is by the process of story telling. This needs to be learnt as an art-form. • A story is listened to only when the ‘story’ is relevant for the listener and / or there is an incentive on the part of the listener. • To go on telling new stories in new media but keeping the core essentially same is the sublime art of communication.
Part II : Tips & Ideas • Email Marketing • Does your message has the relevance and incentive for the recipient ? • Is your subject line is within the 5 seconds of best-attention window ? • Does your email tell the essentials in this attention window ? • Best time to send a mail • Best day of the week to send a mail • Neuro-Linguistics aspect of email communication • What to tell in an email and to whom
A short digression into Profit and Wealth Profit is something like getting a plate of food – to be eaten [ consumption], to be served to someone else [ investment ], or to be wasted [ erosion of value by inflation] Wealth is the nourishment we get by eating that food and that nourishment can do many other things than procuring food. [ Consider buying a book from your profit this book may change the whole idea of profit itself ] For your Freelance Career, Profit is what you get from your Work. Marketing and Communication is a wealth creating investment involving work-time, money and attention.
How to tell your rate ? Rate as a subtle Marketing tool and the art of communicating your Rate • Shall I tell my rate ? Or Shouldn’t I ? • How do I tell my rate ? • In my email / other channel based marketing campaign, what are the ways I can spell out my rate ? • Rate as a marketing tool. • How to communicate something beyond the sheer arithmetic of the rate ? • How my rate quote is being decoded at the prospect or client’s end ?
The CV paradigm The Permission Asset and CV • Why is someone asking my CV ? • What are being searched in my CV by a prospect or a client ? • Do I have the permission to send someone my CV ? • Shall I send my CV in a bulk mail just because its easy to do ? • Multiple needs, Multiple CVs • How to use CV as a marketing tool and differentiator • CV as a credential • How to design a CV which can be tweaked to create lots of permutations? [ The Curry Making Process in a Restaurant ]
Online Presence and Social Networking Website, Blog, Social Network Presence, Portal Membership • The glass-housing of business : online presence and social networks • Protecting core business information (rate / colleagues / clients/ suppliers) • Mapping objectives with online presence • Designing a purpose and interest based online presence and social networking activities • Monitoring the output • How one can be heard over sonetoise* ? (Social Networking Noise) • Understanding the difference between marketing and ‘clicking connect’ • To be a solution for a problem someone is trying to solve. * A termI coined to denote SN – Noise
Using heritage marketing Email vis-à-vis Posted Mail • The new power of an old media : Posted Letter • Using this heritage marketing tool to create a campaign • Synthesizing offerings of on-line world to deliver the message in a heritage format • In attention economy, attention is a scarce item. • This method has the unusual advantage of tangibility and differentiation in-built. [ every handwriting is different – so is a handwritten note ! ] My own Blog post about a campaign we did : http://wordsmithofbengal.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/old-is-gold-and-is-a-differentiator-email-versus-post-mail/
Diversification : Freelancer is a CEO Axiom : Freelancer is a CEO from day one. Corollary I : None, except the CEO can take the ultimate decision of diversifying into other business – related to the core venture or unrelated. Corollary II : Being the Judge, Jury and Executioner, the Freelancer needs to plan for future. No one : clients or suppliers included, has any incentive to do this. • How to diversify ? • How to protect your core business and build the diversified business ? • How to sense when the core is no longer the core business ? • The Journey of self-discovery through the process of Diversification
Cross-over Words • As a CEO, marketing and communication in an uncertain environment is the key part of the job. • Practice and perfecting this art make a freelancer win over four ever-present and very powerful enemies : commoditization, anxiety about future, client behaviour, structural changes. • Marketing and Communication IS NOT an activity you do when you have free time from work • You need to take time off from your work (if needs be) to invest for future wealth • If practised with patience, this art can liberate you from many anxieties • It can help you fulfil your inner potential.(which you might have overlooked due to work pressure and other diversions)
Part III : What’s in the Workshop • Role Play • Case Studies – Challenges, Formulation of solutions and Testing • Simulated Market Environment • Story Telling • Bidding Process seen from the centre instead of from the periphery • Building and Testing online presence strategies • Live Group Communication and Marketing • Marketing Presentation – Individual and Group In short : a day of work. Literally : a work-shop by and for linguists.
Role Play • Play various roles : Project Manager, Supplier, Client, Client’s upstream Client to anticipate the decision making process • To get into the mind of the decision-maker • Multiple Groups in various role play – objective observation and evaluation • Individual and Group Presentation to get 360 degree view of the Role(/s). Objective : How to design an email campaign ? How to bid most effectively ? How to tell your price artfully ? My Role : Facilitator
Case Studies • Telling a story through Case Studies • Analysing Short Cases • Formulating Solutions Objectives • How to design your CV ? (i.e. how to tell a convincing story) • How to design and build your online presence and then the social networking presence ? • What to avoid in marketing and communication • How do words, signs, symbols influence the decision maker neuro-linguistically ? My Role : Fellow Listener, Commentator and Telling some of my own Case Stories
Bidding Process Simulation • Simulating a Bidding Process • Multiple Teams playing various Roles • Experience Share Objectives • To understand the issue of time available, uncertainty and pressure on the person who takes the decision • To understand the value of brevity • To understand the attention-span, incentive and relevance of a message • To formulate and test few bidding strategies in the group simulator
Review and Closing Words • Marketing and Communication would allow you to communicate your unique linguistic gifts and being adequately rewarded for it • This is an Art and there is no quick-fix algorithm to master it. • This Art is potent enough to liberate you from many anxieties • A simulated, in-person environment builds up confidence and makes the learning going deeper • In a Group Environment, shared problem and solution area become not something academic but a living thing. Hope to see you in London on 9th July You can register here at London Workshop
Further Reading -I Practitioner’s Tips for Email Marketing in Language Business http://translatorscafe.com/cafe/article125.htm - An essay which tells the issue of Quality in a story form How to market your marketing message over Social Networking Noise – A Practitioner’s Primer http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/article137.htm Stress Test for Translators – A Project Management Guide http://translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?ArtID=117 Wordsmith Quality Model WQM 10 http://translatorscafe.com/cafe/article104.htm - A short essay which narrates the 10 point Quality Model more elaborately. Price as Signature for Freelance Translators http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?ArtID=122 The Wordsmith Book of Business by Pritam Bhattacharyya http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-wordsmith-book-of-business/5585503 - My own chronicle of developing the language business from scratch. Seth Godin Blog : Arguably the most influential Marketing Thinker of our times. Read his blog here at www.sethgodin.com
Further Reading -II Survival Story of a Language Professional Turned Agency Owner – My own journey in a single page http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?ArtID=124 Freelancer for Freelancers – My own blog on Online Business and Freelancing http://wordsmithofbengal.wordpress.com Common Sense Advisory - A Language Business Research Company. They release survey reports featuring top agencies and a good resource to find leads and prospects. Already researched and segmented list available http://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/ From Wage Earner to Life-Designer [ Li-Der] – A 20 page e-book by me analysing the Change of Roles http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/file/?id=46438&UploadedBy=6671
Thank You Me and my team members at www.WordsmithCommunication.com , www.Pentasect.com www.Embracetheleadership.com Thank you for your time, patronage and patience. Please send your feedback. As a customer and colleague , your feedback is the best way to deliver better. Give your feedback at proz or here at wordsmith.bengal@gmail.com