I'm going to show you the exact step-by-step process that I use when writing job proposals to capture clients' attention fast and show them that working with me is the best. I'm personally one of the top freelancers on all of our work I've worked with over a hundred clients and have earned over five hundred thirty thousand dollars in just three years. Just like a lot of you I face the same struggles when I first started the freelance journey I submitted tons of proposals without being noticed I tried to underbid on jobs I made so many mistakes because I just didn't have any experience and honestly I didn't know what I was doing when I first started out my goal is to help you avoid the mistakes that I made and share everything with you that has worked for me and getting me to where I am today. I'm gonna change the way you think when writing job proposals putting you in the perspective of the client and their needs. You have to consistently put in the work and execute which is going to continuously move you forward to the next level and next level and make you better as a freelancer.
let's go ahead and get started writing job proposals that will prove to clients why you're the best freelancer for them.
1. SELECTION OF JOBS
Before you ever click submit a proposal you first need to fully identify if the job is right for you. Use your skillset when determining if a job is right for you or not. Read the job description thoroughly till you understand what the client is expecting.
2. PRE-CANNED TEMPLATES
Pre-canned templates are usually not the best idea because you're throwing away your chance to be creating original and custom tailor your job proposal for each client so for the no part of my answer using a pre-canned template to bid on every single job that you submit a proposal for is something that I do not recommend and for the yes part of my answer you're gonna have certain sentences and certain phrases that are in all of your job proposals I have a text file saved to my computer that contains the main selling points that are repeated in all of my job proposals that are copy and paste in if you choose to do this as well first copy it into a Word document to avoid spelling and grammar issues after I paste in the main selling points I then custom tailor my job proposal for the client at hand.
3. READ THE JOB DESCRIPTION
The very first thing that you should do which should be obvious but most of us including myself get impatient at times is to fully read the job description before you start
constructing your cover letter you need to fully read the job description so that you can build your cover letter around what the client is looking for and even more importantly make sure that you have all the necessary skills for the job as well if the client has been on the UpWork you also need to look at what the client has paid other freelancers to make sure that your price range is something that they would consider
4. CREATIVE AND ATTRACTIVE INITIAL SENTENCE.
The first section is to grab attention and hook the client fast the first and by far the most critical part of your job proposal is the first one to two sentences where you capture their attention you need to capture the client's attention fast then creatively and focus on standing out when clients are looking through job proposals submitted for their job. for each freelancer who submitted a job proposal the client will see their profile photo their name their title their hourly rate earnings location and most importantly the first one to two sentences of their cover letter this is why the first one to two sentences are so immensely critical it's your chance to grab their attention and give them a reason to click on you before you even have a chance to have your cover letter and job proposal viewed by a client.
5. WHY YOU
➢ You have to give them a reason to click on you it’s going to give them confidence that this is something that you're really calm in doing the job. it's something that falls within your skillset with the next sentence going directly into what they're looking for.
➢ Try to grab their attention with the first sentence by telling them that their job details really jumped out at us and then we dive directly into why the job details jumped out.
➢ Be yourself there's no one on earth like you what makes you so special is you have to be creative and you have to be original. think of ways to get them to click on your job proposal.
Greet the client professionally without any informal indications. Read the job description and identify the name of the client, you can add their first name to the cover letter within your friendly greeting. This will show a sign of a formal way and have a great impact on the first impression.
➢ Provide examples of work, clients want to know that you can deliver high-quality work on their project and will want to see specific examples of your work relating to the project right after the attention-grabber and hook that causes the client to click on your proposal next dive right into an example of your work that directly relates to their job or project this is where you're going to build your credibility with the client.
➢ Describe a previous project that you completed successfully using keywords from the client's job overview and then link the job directly below as well, this shows the client right from the start that you can give them what they want from you if you're a new freelancer and you don't have previous jobs on UpWork to showcase then use an example from a previous job that you held or a project that you completed it doesn't have to be something that you did on the upward it's immensely important to get right to the point and show them why you are the best freelancer for their job.
➢ Think of something creative that you can do as well to give examples of work that you've done and focus to give a summary of your experience and highlight some of your achievements.
Next step is to explain what separates me why they should hire me it's time to give the client reasons why they should hire you out of all the other freelancers who submitted job proposals briefly and I mean briefly because overall you need to keep your proposals pretty short if you're writing long cover letters clients will not take the time to read your entire life's work
in one to two sentences max give them a reason while hiring you is the best decision don't start out with this is why you should hire me think creatively and make it a real reason that would hook them take a look at be creative and think of a way to sink the hook in further.
9. CALL TO ACTION.
The most important section is the call to action, it's immensely important not to leave the client pondering contemplating your proposal and likely moving on to the next proposal this is where you want to think like a copywriter and cause them to take action
usually, do this by using a statement similar to the following
“Let's jump on an initial -minute call free of charge so that we can discuss your project in more detail and identify how my skill set will work best for you and provide immense value to your organization”
give them a call to action by telling them that you want to jump on a call saying let's jump is an action or immediate phrase indicating that you want to get on a call ASAP but if they do want to set up a call with you it will also give you the chance to learn more about their project identify if anything was left out of the job description identify if it's a good fit for you and determine if the client will be good to work with this intro call is so important for you in setting yourself up for success.
10. PROFESSIONAL CLOSING
Be professional and friendly with your cover letter closing and always use best regards but you can use anything similar as well or you can even thank them for taking the time to read your proposal. This goes without saying but you should always be professional and friendly anytime that you communicate with a client soft skills and business and freelancing are just as important as your actual skill set being kind and friendly will build relationships with your clients that hopefully will result in long term work
after you get some long-term clients you're then able to build a steady and consistent stream of income and the jobs will start coming to you always put yourself in the perspective of a client and consider what you would expect from a freelancer if you were the client once you get to a point in your business where you need help or you just need to delegate a task that you don't have time or expertise in create a client account on UpWork and hire a freelancer to help you this will be an eye-opening experience and will completely change the way that you work as a freelancer because you will be actually in the perspective client and identify things you need to start doing better as a freelancer if you consistently construct your job proposals and cover letters the way that we discussed above you're gonna put yourself in the best position possible to win jobs.
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