How to Bring in Clients with Effective Blog Posts: An Interview with Marco Díaz

When it comes to blogging, we hear the same things all the time.

“You really should be writing blogs.”

“You know blogs are a proven way to boost your SEO ranking.”

“The best blogs provide meaningful info to your clients.”

It’s great to think about in the abstract, but how do you get started? And how do you know that what you are writing about will even attract clients?

Well, for starters, write about what you know (the advice every fledgling writer gets).

And then write what YOU would want to know if you were learning about the topic.

Success by Rx member Marco Díaz did just that – with impressive results. We recently talked to him to learn more about the marketing success that came from one blog post in particular.

Success by Rx: Tell us about your blog post, How to Translate Official Documents. It ended up generating some leads for you. What kind of content did you include? What made it so meaningful for readers? Who contacted you as a result of the blog?

Marco Díaz: When I was brainstorming the content for this article, I had the idea to include an overview of what is involved in translating certain official documents depending on the particular situation. Finding information through different sources, I was able to compile a set of answers to the most common questions that come up when various clients need to translate this type of document.

I was contacted by several clients who needed to translate marriage, birth, and death certificates and also translate background checks, both for foreign and domestic purposes.

Thanks to the traffic that this post generated, I was also able to position my website on the first pages of main search engines for specific keywords.

Success by Rx: That’s impressive that having a carefully-crafted article could boost your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking so dramatically.

What did you learn from the success of this blog post that you will bring to your other marketing efforts?

Marco Díaz: If done right, blogging could be one of the most successful marketing tools out there, especially when the target audience is narrowed down to your particular niche. And you don’t necessarily need to address your potential clients – as long as you write content that provides value to whoever reads it, you can still get the desired traffic to increase your SEO.

Knowing the type of information people search for or the common questions that you get from inquiries is the best starting point to write a blog post. If you brainstorm certain keywords that your potential clients might type in a search engine, they could be naturally inserted into your content. The more you speak your potential clients’ language by answering questions about your services, the easier it will be to attract them to your website.

In a way, those magic keywords are like digital bait waiting to catch your ideal clients and, naturally, the more content you have, the higher the chances of success.

Success by Rx: What do you recommend other translators and interpreters do to get similar results?

Marco Díaz: As language professionals, we should showcase our language skills in the languages we work with, which is one of the best ways to convince potential clients that they can trust us with their projects. If blogging is not for you, try different ways of showcasing your skills, perhaps public speaking or networking at industry events. However, the more you combine your marketing efforts, the more likely it is you will see results.

Success by Rx: In what ways has Success by Rx coaching helped your business? Any courses in particular that were especially helpful?

Marco Díaz: Success by Rx helped me get my translation business off the ground because I learned proven methods that have worked in the past to get clients.

The best courses for me have been Killer Cover Letter and Building the Perfect Resume, and learning how to use the Translation Prospects Contact Tracker Excel sheet helped as well. There is definitely more content that I haven’t been able to leverage enough yet, but the abovementioned ones have kept me busy for a while now.

Success by Rx: Anything else you would like to share with fellow T&I professionals?

Marco Díaz: Make sure to have a marketing strategy, specialize in a few areas, and never forget about constantly polishing your skills.

Biography and contact information

Marco Díaz is an English to Spanish translator, specializing in business and contract law, family law, labor law, and mechanical-electrical engineering. Originally from Guatemala City, Guatemala, Marco has lived in Mexico and the United States for a good part of his life.

He graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Electrical Engineering from the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico. Marco holds a Specialized Certificate in Translation from the University of California San Diego Extension Program and has completed several specialized courses in legal translation both from Cálamo & Cran in Madrid, Spain, and the Academia Traducción Jurídica in Valladolid, Spain. Marco is also Vice President of the Association of Translators and Interpreters in the San Diego Area (ATISDA), Assistant Administrator of the Spanish Language Division of the American Translators Association (ATA), and an active member of the ATA, the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), and San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association (SDLRLA).

Marco resides in San Diego, California, and when he is not translating or managing the business, he enjoys reading books, playing guitar, riding his bicycle, and hiking in the mountains or the desert.

E-mail Marco Díaz: m.diaz@marcotranslator.com

Website: www.marcotranslator.com

Want to go beyond blogging to boost your SEO? Check out this article by Hanna Sles on SEO and backlinks!