“I’m a contract beginner, and I can’t land purchasers regardless of the various proposals I ship to prospects,” Andrew grieves.
Lucy sighs:
“I’m a savvy freelance author with superior expertise within the area of interest, however prospects appear to overlook this level within the proposals I ship to them. Most by no means get again.”
Get Weekly Freelance Gigs by way of E mail
Enter your freelancing tackle and we’ll ship you a FREE curated checklist of freelance jobs in your high class each week.
I nod with sympathy:
No matter expertise and background, most freelancers search for a failproof methodology to ship proposals that win purchasers. Guess what? There isn’t any. Whether or not you write customized faculty essays, craft advertising texts, or freelance on books as a ghostwriter, you possibly can’t stick with a single template for sending your bids.
However you possibly can set up it correctly to spice up your possibilities of touchdown a gig. On this article, I’ll reveal the anatomy of a successful freelance writing proposal that helps stand out within the fierce competitors of the freelance workforce.
After 10 years in artistic content material creation, I do have some insights to share on the topic.
Able to stand out as a freelancer? Right here we go!
What (Precisely!) Is a Proposal, and Why Do You Want a Killer One?
A proposal is an in depth pitch or doc a freelancer sends to prospects (corporations or particular person purchasers). It’s an instrument to introduce your self, point out your expertise, and description how they may tackle the shopper’s wants.
Confession:
Earlier than 2020, I didn’t give a rattling about proposals. I wrote texts, gathered them in a portfolio, and shared the hyperlink with potential purchasers when pitching them. Let’s face it, it was sufficient again then: I landed gigs, grew and polished my expertise, and constructed my repute as an expert content material author.
Growth!
The post-COVID period has modified the foundations of this sport. Freelancing broke new floor and went from a facet hustle to a profession path for a lot of. End result? The market will get a large pool of expertise — freelancer inhabitants has reached over 1.5 billion folks globally in 2024 — and turns right into a bloodthirsty hunt for purchasers.
ChatGPT and its fellow AI writers stoke the fireplace, threatening to steal a freelancer’s job, thus encouraging specialists to search for other ways to face out.
An efficient freelance proposal is your trump card to win this battle. Your human creativity, personalization expertise, and added worth are your secret weapons to make your proposal unique and excellent.
Find out how to Write a Proposal: The Construction
I’ve watched tons of video tutorials and browse myriads of articles on freelance proposal writing. Most of them point out the checklist of, as they are saying, “essential” (man, I hate this phrase now, due to AI and AI detectors) components to incorporate in your proposal to make it shine.
Right here’s the checklist:
- Introduction: Present a concise overview of your self and your work. Right here, you possibly can embrace your touchdown web page (when you have one) or a quick about your companies.
- Understanding the undertaking you might be making use of to: Reveal your understanding of their necessities and that your imaginative and prescient aligns with theirs.
- Scope of labor: Give them particulars of what you’ll ship, with all of the milestones and limitations. Present an in depth timeline of when the shopper can count on the end result.
- Strategy: Clarify the how behind your work (what methodologies and instruments you’ll use to finish the undertaking/activity).
- Credentials: Spotlight that your expertise and experience are related to what your prospect is in search of. Showcase your portfolio, testimonials, case research, and so forth.
- Pricing: State your charges within the proposal and be clear about fee phrases.
- Contacts: Make it straightforward for the shopper to achieve you.
I don’t see any drawback with the weather themselves. All of them are important to offer to potential purchasers in order that they know in case you match their expectations and wishes. The issue is totally different:
If you happen to take this construction as a template and stick with it when writing your proposal, the end result will disappoint your prospects. Your pitch will look mechanical, non-genuine, and impassive.
What to do?
Take all these components, combine them up, taste them together with your authenticity, add personalization, and put a pinch of storytelling to evoke the specified feelings in readers. People, not bots, will learn your proposals; not like bots, people are emotional; encourage the correct feelings in a prospect — and your possibilities of successful their favor will skyrocket.
Beneath, I’ll share some recommendations on this.
Find out how to Write a Proposal: Ideas
- Give you a catchy topic line.
- Give them worth from the beginning.
- Thoughts your tone of voice.
- Make your proposal visually interesting.
- Provide a freebie.
Give you a catchy topic line
You already know the weather of a proposal. It’s time to mix them into compelling textual content and ship it to prospects. Given the competitors, the toughest half is to make them discover your e mail within the inbox and open it.
Take a while to craft an enticing but related topic line in your proposal.
My tips:
- I begin it with an emoji, if relevant. (It relies on the shopper, the enterprise specifics, and the tone of voice they use in communication with the viewers.) A tiny emoji serves as an eye-catcher whereas scanning incoming emails.
- I construction a topic line as a query, thus evoking curiosity to open my e mail and study extra.
- I point out one thing of worth for the shopper. (Extra on that beneath.) Who doesn’t need to test what others have for his or her enterprise?
As an illustration, after I pitched publishing homes with my e-book, my topic line was, “🎁 What a e-book a brand new e-book manuscript?” It’s catchy, intriguing, and related to what they had been in search of: With the 70% open fee, it did the job!
Give them worth from the beginning
Your proposal will not be about you however what you can provide to the shopper.
What’s your USP (distinctive promoting proposition)? What units you aside from different freelancers? Is it your method to work, the subjects you cowl, your distinctive methodology, and so forth.?
Concentrate on emphasizing the worth and options your experience can present to their enterprise. Present your real curiosity within the undertaking: Your proposal ought to talk your understanding of their wants and your willingness to meet them.
When showcasing your worth, again up your claims with related expertise and expertise. Boasting is tremendous (if finished proper), however they want proof of your capability to do what you promise.
My case:
Visitor running a blog helps me construct my portfolio and display my experience, so I typically pitch web sites to supply a complete visitor submit that can complement their content material technique. For them to see I can try this, I add just a few samples of my printed works to that proposal.
(Positive factor, these samples are on the subjects related to their area of interest.)
Thoughts your tone of voice
Preserve it conversational but skilled; sound assured but heat. Stability is vital: Write such as you’re in a pleasant chat however showcase your experience.
My tip: Smile whereas writing. It helps keep a constructive tone all through the message and communicates these constructive vibes to the reader.
Don’t copy-paste one proposal template for all prospects you plan to achieve—personalize every.
- Handle the person wants of each shopper.
- Add private touches all through your proposal: Name the shopper by identify, reference particular factors from their communication, point out one thing about their firm, and so forth.
- Finish with a name to motion to precise your eagerness to listen to suggestions.
Make your proposal visually interesting
Nobody desires or has time to learn lengthy partitions of textual content, so do your greatest to make your proposal reader-friendly at first look.
When utilizing a format, select neat and arranged ones with clear construction and aesthetically pleasing design. When writing an e mail, stick with the foundations of net writing:
- Brief sentences and paragraphs
- White house between paragraphs for extra snug scan and studying
- Energetic verbs, descriptive adjectives, and up-to-point info
- In-text hyperlinks to your portfolio or different references (Some choose to not open hooked up information from unknowns for safety.)
- 5-7 paragraphs most: salutation, introduction, provide, credentials, and name to motion
Provide a freebie
Consider some extras you may provide together with your proposal. For instance, a reduction in your companies or in-kind provides that may make you a extra enticing candidate.
As a content material author, I typically embrace one thing of those in my proposals: designing customized photos for the article I’ll write, importing and formatting it in WordPress, repurposing it for different channels (social media posts, SlideShare, optimizing it for search engines like google, and so forth.
Now, It’s Time to Craft Yours!
A contract proposal is your highly effective weapon for specialists prepared to face out from the competitors, construct their model, and win extra purchasers. Now that you understand how to put in writing it and have recommendations on crafting it, it’s time to follow!
Preserve the dialog going…
Over 10,000 of us are having each day conversations over in our free Fb group and we would like to see you there. Be a part of us!