Advertise = Capitalise

Translation and Branding - Empty BillboardI’m back!

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past few days. The stream of translation, editing and MA work (plus packing and heading back to my parents for a few weeks) were threatening to take over, but I have managed to carve out some time to get back into the swing of things.

Today’s thoughts centre on using the great ideas that I read on other translators’ blogs to grow my own business and work on consolidating my brand. A lot of the people I speak to about branding (note: friends and family) seem to think that the even word itself sounds too ‘corporate’ for what I do, but it is vital for every freelance translator to think of him or herself as a business, and work on their online and ‘real-life’ presence accordingly.

Due to a fortunate gap between translation assignments, I will take the time to really concentrate on this over the next few days, as well as working on the ongoing project of writing copy for my website (watch this space!). Two main sources of ideas have come from Marta Stelmaszak at Want Words, whose excellently presented portfolio has inspired me to work on my own.

Secondly, I read a great post (as always!) on Catherine Jan’s blog about the need (or not) for translators to have taglines. The post highlighted some great examples, and I plan to have a brainstorming session in the next few days to try and come up with something as snappy and memorable as Céline Graciet’s: “Perfect English, now available in French”. What a fantastic slogan!

Do you have any other examples of great taglines? Please do share them in the comments section!