“Obama’s Election Means … More Translation Work!”

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Believe it or not Barack Obama‘s election as President of the USA means more work for translators/interpreters!

This is not based on any Harvard study, or AMA research, or high-falutin’ statistics. It’s simple, commonsense, down-to-earth KLT marketing.

As we all know, (or should know) people usually prefer to buy from those they know, like and trust (KLT). And we are talking about the US selling abroad here.

The vast majority of the people in this world are “non-whites” and will find it very easy to identify with Barack Obama. Identifying wth somebody is certainly the highest form of KLT!

Look at this: VIDEO: Obama Celebrations Around World

And this: Obama Wins; The World Responds: In China “Opinion polls indicated two-thirds of Chinese people favored Obama, believing his racial background would give him a more international outlook.” But even ‘Old Europe’ has joined the chorus: “Europeans rejoiced over Obama’s election after eight years of an extremely unpopular Bush presidency.”

Finally this: Barack Obama has captivated the world

Of course Barack Obama is neither a Small Business owner nor a corporate CEO. He won’t be doing the exporting himself. But as President of the USA, his positive personal image is bound impact the whole country’s image. Awesome KLT!

So, all this will result in a huge boost to US exports, therefore to more translation work. Q.E.D.

Translators/interpreters, are you ready for a new Gold Rush?

A.M.Sall

P.S. Click here to download your copy of “The Insider Guide to The Strategic Marketing of Translation Services“, the book no translator/interpreter in his/her right mind should even think of going without . Or maybe you’d rather take a look at the Free Preview first? This is the book you’ve been waiting for so impatiently: it’s here NOW. And did I mention I’m now working on the 2nd edition, which will be much more complete, but also with a higher price (yes, there’s going to be a price rise!). Now here is the deal: if you get the book now (at the current price), you’ll get the 2nd edition for free. So why wait any longer…!?

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Great pictures from China, with a request to donate for earthquake relief.
I honestly hope this post by Top Marketing Strategist, Jeremiah Owyang will inspire you to donate for China earthquake relief. .

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How to Write a Press Release to Market Your Translation Services – PART II

Write a Press Release to Market Your Translation Services – PART II

IMG_0068 珠海情侶中路的大樓燈飾.JPG, originally uploaded by Ray Yu.

C. How this News Release Conforms to the Above Requirements

LENGTH: 370 words

HEADLINE: “When in China Do as the Chinese Do”

SUBHEAD: elaborates on the “Cultural Flexibility” angle and names the target market

LEAD PARAGRAPH (WHO, WHEN, WHAT, HOW, WHERE, WHY):

WHO: Chinese American translator, Valerie Chen

WHEN: Just

WHAT: launched a website

WHERE: http://www.wheninchina.com

WHY: Because SMBs seem to find it a daunting task to do business in China

HOW: She does it by showcasing her deep and vast knowledge of Chinese culture

4. REMAINING PARAGRAPHS: Briefly give more details about the story

5. END: Includes a little information about the business owner and her business. Only info, no hype!

This is an example that is easily reproducible by any translator and/or interpreter, with any language combination. Try to copy it and adapt it to your own case. That should be child play for you now, don’t you think?

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D. ACTION PLAN

It could be possible to rewrite this News release from another angle, for example: “Small is beautiful”, insisting on similarities between Freelance translators and SMBs on the one hand and their differences with Big Businesses and Huge Translation Agencies on the other hand

The HEADLINE could be changed to: “Small is Beautiful”

SUBHEAD: Freelance translators and SMBs are a perfect fit to unlock the door to success on the China marketplace

All the rest of the News Release remaining the same, including the LEAD PARAGRAPH

Can you find OTHER possible angles?

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End of Part II.

Part III’s title is: “You have written your Press Release, what now?.” Here is where you learn how to get your News Release published and also how to write a “pitch letter”. You’ll also get another Action Plan… (in 2 days’ time)

Note: This is a (slightly adapted) short excerpt from “The Insider Guide to the Strategic Marketing of Translation Services”. (Click here for Free Preview)

A.M.Sall

P.S. Subscribe to Translator Power and successfully market your translation/interpreting services either by Email or if you prefer the feed, just look on your left and make your choice!

P.P.S. I am now working on revamping TranslatorPower.com/, the companion website to your favorite blog Look out for the “LearningBase” section, with a bumper crop of resources on how to market your translation services, GILT, Social Media Marketing, Cultural Competency, Translation Agencies, Portals, Directories, and much more…

 

How to Write a Press Release to Market Your Translation Services – Part I

How to Write a Press Release to Market Your Translation Service – Part I

NYC, originally uploaded by cat•girl.

This is a 3-part-tutorial. Parts II and III will be published in 2 and 4 days respectively.

A. How to write a Press release (or News release)

It is obviously not possible to go into details in this short Tutorial. The most important point is to realize that a Press Release is neither an Ad nor even an Advertorial.

The 5 parts of a PR:

Headline: Grab attention and force people to read

Subhead: Short intro to expand the Headline

Lead Paragraph: Tell the major facts of the story. This paragraph should include who, what, when, where and how.

Remaining paragraphs: Briefly give more details about the story.

End: Should include a little information about the business owner and his business. Only info, no hype!

This structure is sometimes called the ‘inverted pyramid’, because the most important information must come first (on top).

IMPORTANT: Statistics help validate a story (you can get them from a variety of places, including Google searches, trade associations, research papers, and the U.S. Census Bureau)

B. News Release example

Remember Val Chen? Now take a look at the following News Release to illustrate the points above. It conforms to all good News Release requirements (except statistics, which is not really a requirement). You can find this News Release (and much more) in the “Insider Guide to The Strategic Marketing of Translation Services” – Click here for a Free Preview

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CONTACT: Valerie Chen
Email: mailto:valchencom@gmail.com
Website: http://www.wheninchina.com
Blog: http://wheninchina.com/blog
Phone: xyz-abc df ij/mobile: xyz-klm-nopq

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“When in China Do as the Chinese Do”

For SMBs, cultural flexibility is the key to swift and everlasting success on the China marketplace Chinese American translator, Valerie Chen has just launched a website where she showcases her deep and vast knowledge of Chinese culture. The new website (http://www.wheninchina.com) targets Small and Midsize Businesses (SMB) which seem to find it a daunting task to do business in China.

Ms Chen seems to have a soft spot for SMBs. Huge companies tend to rely too much on their financial clout. They don’t seem to realize there are things money can’t buy, even in China and however “business-minded” the Chinese may be.

“Freelance translators and SMBs, especially those where you can ‘walk straight to the Boss and talk to him or her’ are cast in the same mould, and there is every reason why they should get along fine”

On the site, it is possible to listen to Chinese music, a Chinese poetry recital (There is a written translation of the lyrics), learn a lot about Chinese culture, including a bit of Mandarin Chinese language (“Not too much, though”, quips Ms Chen “otherwise you won’t need my translation or interpreting services!”)

All the Mp3′s are downloadable

There is also a “serious” side to the website: it is chock-full of information on the Chinese economy, investment opportunities, legal and institutional environment, etc.

Says Ms Chen: “We’ve done all the research for you”

Valerie Chen makes frequent trips to China, “to keep abreast of new developments and feel the pulse”

She can translate all your documents, interpret for you if you have guests from China, even escort you to China, all this at (very) short notice.

Just like anywhere else in the world, the Chinese prefer to do business with people they know, like and trust (KLT), all other things being equal, warns Ms Chen.

“However gruff you may be, we can easily turn you into a likeable person in China, that’s a promise!”

Anyone planning on selling to China should visit this website. There you can also find the dates and venues of Valerie’s Public Talks on various China topics

The website has a companion blog where it’s so much easier to “talk” to Valerie (http://wheninchina.com/blog).

Quite an experience, really.

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CONTACT: Valerie Chen
Email: mailto:val chencom@gmail.com
W ebsite: http://www.wheninchina.com
Blog: http://wheninchina.com/blog
Phone: xyz-abc df ij/mobile: xyz-klm-nopq

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End of Part I

In 2 days’ time, in Part II. You’ll learn how this News Release conforms to the above requirements and you’ll also get an Action Plan on rewriting the same News Release using different angles.

Note: This is a (slightly adapted) short excerpt from “The Insider Guide to the Strategic Marketing of Translation Services”. (Click here for Free Preview)

A.M.Sall

P.S. Subscribe to Translator Power and successfully market your translation/interpreting services either by Email or if you prefer the feed, just look on your left and make your choice!

P.P.S. I am now working on revamping TranslatorPower.com/, the companion website to your favorite blog Look out for the “LearningBase” section, with a bumper crop of resources on how to market your translation services, GILT, Social Media Marketing, Cultural Competency, Translation Agencies, Portals, Directories, and much more…

 

Help! China Needs Translators!

Check out this article from the Xinhua China News Agency (Source China Daily)

A few highlights from the article:

“China is scurrying to get a sufficient number of translators for the Olympics and, beyond that, the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.”

“Ambassador Shi Yanhua, a foreign language expert with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and executive vice-chairman of the Translators’ Association of China, gives examples of translation crises in the early days of the New China. In her words, or, more precisely, in the words of her simultaneous translator from Chinese to English, the early leaders’ Mandarin “was not so good”. In negotiations with Sri Lanka, it was unclear to the Chinese whether the contract under discussion was for bananas or rubber.”

“Help for China could be available from the unlikely source of Norway.”

“Speaking at the translators’ meeting, Bente Christensen, vice president of the International Federation of Translators, said that Norway, with a population of just 4.5 million, has a highly successful translation program that could well be adapted by China.”

Check out the article

Chinese Translations

If you are a Chinese/English and/or English/Chinese translator/interpreter, you would be well-advised to take a look at the China Herald blog thus described by its owner:  ”Weblog with daily updates of the news on a harmonious, socialist society, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and China-consultant Fons Tuinstra”

After you’ve finished wondering whether the Fons Tuinstra really means every word of this description , you’ll find it’s quite a good blog, especially as regards new opportunities translators/interpreters can derive from China’s ever-growing relationship with the U.S.

Globalization, France, “Chindia Revolution”, etc. – An Endless Stream of New Opportunities for Translators!

France

According to Forbes “Another way the French economy is keeping up with the 21st century is by opening its doors to foreign investors–and businesses are entering eagerly. Major corporations such as the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (nyse: GSK – news – people ) and the U.S. express delivery service provider FedEx (nyse:FDX – news – people ) have already set up shop in France.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, foreign direct investment in France was up nearly 40%, to $88 billion, in 2006. Some 40,000 new jobs were created as a result of foreign projects. The United States is the leading foreign investor in France, with corporate investments valued at $171 billion, supporting almost 550,000 French jobs. About $1 billion worth of commercial transactions occur between the U.S. and France every business day.”

Forbes also tells how China and India have benefited from Globalization in Why Globalization is Good”

China

“Foreign direct investment… has helped drive China’s gross domestic product to a more than tenfold increase since 1978. Since the reforms started, $600 billion has flooded into the country, $70 billion of it in the past year. Foreigners built hundreds of thousands of new factories as the Chinese government built the coal mines, power grid, airports and highways to supply them.”

India

“Today…the lumbering Elephant (India) now is in a trot, growing more than 7% annually for the last decade. In 2005, borrowing from the Chinese, India began a five-year, $150 billion plan to update its roads, airports, ports and electric plants. India is creating free trade zones, like those in China, to encourage exports of software, apparel, auto parts and more.”

Global Communication

But globalization does not only benefit countries; translators must also seize the opportunity because business is first and foremost communication, and they are the people who make communication possible.

Always remember you are, by definition, the facilitators of Global Communication!

Advice: keep abreast of current affairs and always make sure you know “what’s going on”. For example, go to Forbes.com register for free!

P.S. Have you signed up to receive your Free 7-Part ecourse on How to Market Your Translation/Interpreting Services through Press Releases?

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