These 3 Outreach Strategies Landed me $7,000/month as a Freelancer

Conditions to your outreach

Each profitable chilly outreach marketing campaign hinges on two issues: belief and social proof. Whenever you’re a stranger to a consumer, you must present why you’re match for the job and why they need to belief you.

Listed below are 2 methods you’ll be able to obtain that:

A whole profile on a freelancing platform

You must have an entire profile in one of many standard freelancing platforms in your trade. These platforms are a good way to showcase your consumer base, expertise, and experience. Since I’m lively on Upwork, I’ll share a couple of tricks to make your profile stand out.

Upwork places particular emphasis on profile completeness for brand spanking new freelancers as that results in the Rising Expertise badge and extra job invites. Listed below are a couple of parts in an Upwork profile you need to take note of:

Title and overview

• Title: The very first thing potential purchasers see is your profile title and overview. The title should present what you do finest and it ought to be concise and actionable.
• Overview: The overview, however, ought to delve deeper into your provide and course of. That is the place you promote. Use brief, actionable sentences and flaunt your wins. As an illustration, write “drove sign-ups by 72% in 4 months” as a substitute of “elevated the variety of prospects in a couple of months”. Break down the overview into small paragraphs and use totally different formatting types to enhance scannability. Shoppers wish to know what you are able to do for them so the much less you discuss your self the higher. Do not forget that Upwork’s profile overview has no affect on Website positioning, so concentrate on exhibiting how one can assist purchasers.
• Expertise: That is typically an missed a part of your Upwork profile that may make or break job invitations. Expertise are situated on the backside of the Upwork profile they usually’re like Website positioning tags. Listing down the related freelance abilities you may have.
• Portfolio: The part over the abilities hosts your social proof. You could persuade a couple of purchasers together with your profile overview however you’ll be able to win over nearly all purchasers with related portfolio samples. Collect proof and let others see your finest work.
• Profile image: At all times have an expert headshot as your profile image. A little bit of coloration and a smile will solely make purchasers belief you extra. If you happen to can have the image as your LinkedIn, it’s even higher.
• Employment historical past: Not crucial a part of an Upwork profile, however it’s necessary to concentrate to particulars. A number of purchasers may wish to verify the place you’ve labored up to now so this can be a good place to indicate your expertise as a substitute of crowding the overview part.
• Schooling: If you happen to’re providing a distinct segment service, schooling historical past may matter rather a lot. Keep in mind to fill this out with related information to face out.

Talking of distinctive profiles, you’ll be able to add a clip to your profile which may provide a video introduction or consumer testimonials. When you’ve got certificates (AWS, Cisco, Oracle, and so forth.), don’t neglect so as to add them as nicely!

SponsoredTurn out to be a sponsor

And what actually makes a distinction are testimonials from earlier purchasers. That is the perfect belief and authority booster so as to add to your arsenal.

LinkedIn profile

There’s probability you already have a LinkedIn profile gathering mud. If you happen to’re planning to make use of chilly outreach as a freelancer, having an lively and properly formatted LinkedIn profile will go a good distance—in any case, it’s the stamp of authenticity!

Earlier than beginning bear in mind this one: LinkedIn is just not a CV. Deal with your profile as a touchdown web page.

When you’ve got an previous account or are planning to create a brand new one, right here are some things you must cross off the checklist:

• Profile picture and background picture: just like Upwork. A pleasant headshot and a smile. LinkedIn is extra lenient about individuality so you’ll be able to experiment with colours and types. Use the background picture to increase in your providers and add CTAs.
• Bio: LinkedIn bios are a special ballgame. You will be enjoyable, private, skilled, or generally, you. Aside from that, observe the Upwork overview ideas—brief paragraphs, properly formatted texts, and CTAs. An Website positioning-optimized LinkedIn bio is a large lead magnet. Analysis your key phrases and attempt to incorporate them naturally. You’ll know in the event that they’re working if you verify your weekly search appearances.
• Creator mode: I counsel you activate the creator mode as quickly as doable. With the creator mode, you’ll be able to set featured content material larger up in your profile, and add hashtags and bio hyperlinks beneath your identify.
• Experiences: Arguably crucial a part of your LinkedIn profile. Potential purchasers verify your work historical past to gauge your experience and competency. Be as detailed as doable.

Aside from the above sections, add schooling historical past and abilities to return up larger in related searches. Accumulating testimonials from previous purchasers and associates can even allow you to set up authority. An lively LinkedIn profile is beneficial for on-platform networking as nicely.

SponsoredTurn out to be a sponsor

Implement these 3 outreach strategies and 7x your recurring income

Upon getting the conditions coated, you’d want to maneuver to the primary job: chilly outreach.

Listed below are three tried and examined ways in which bought me leads that you should use to extend your recurring income:

Outline your ICPs and construct your lead checklist

The very first thing you must do is use the companies to achieve out to. Most freelancers make errors right here. They ship a bunch of emails to random companies and after they don’t get replies, they turn out to be annoyed and abandon the system.

Profitable chilly emails are about precision and that comes from defining your supreme buyer profile (ICP). Earlier than operating a chilly outreach marketing campaign, ask your self these questions:

• Who’s almost definitely to make use of my providers?
• What are the primary ache factors potential purchasers face?
• How my providers remedy potential consumer’s ache factors?
• Why are my providers higher than the competitors?

This provides you with a clearer understanding about companies which may profit out of your providers which lets you tailor your chilly outreach method.

Narrowing down and specializing to unravel issues in a selected area of interest is a approach to go. It’s good to have a normal information, however that’s not what sells.

Let’s say that you just present web site design providers. Everybody wants an internet site, so reaching out to everybody gained’t convey a lot success. It’s essential set up your self as an authority in a selected area of interest.

Right here is how one can do it:

SponsoredTurn out to be a sponsor

• Service: web site design
• Area of interest: journey
• Consumer dimension: small tour organizers
• Ache level: not having an internet presence

As you’ll be able to see, this data offers you a greater provide and the provide is what sells.

Right here is the provide you could possibly use: “Do you know that 78% of tour bookings are performed on-line? I seen that your primary opponents X and Y have a pleasant net presence, when you don’t. I’m offering web site design providers to small tour organizers who don’t have an internet presence.”

In my case, I provide SaaS hyperlink constructing providers to SaaS firms and following my ICP has been my purpose since beginnings. As an illustration, I do know HubSpot doesn’t require my providers as a result of it’s already a longtime model.

However I will help a brand new CRM challenger enhance area authority and backlink profiles. So I verify opponents which can be rating however not beating HubSpot in SERPs and firms which have just lately raised funding to maneuver up the ladder. This manner I slender down my prospects and with a couple of extra tweaks and filters, I’ve a set of prospects prepared.

Be ruthless in qualifying your ICP and concentrate on one area of interest to have the perfect probability at success. As soon as that’s out of the way in which, it’s time to construct a lead checklist of potential purchasers.

Upwork

If you happen to’re on Upwork, looking for supreme initiatives is fairly easy. Use particular key phrases to seek for jobs after which apply filters to slender them down.

You should use the expertise degree, job sort, funds vary, variety of proposals, and consumer location to seek out jobs that go well with you. One other factor you need to do is save the search key phrase by clicking on Save search. As an illustration, when you’re a UX designer for CRM instruments, use “CRM UX” as a key phrase to create a customized job feed.

Discover companies on-line

One other manner you could find related purchasers is by checking web sites associated to your ICP. For instance, when you’re an internet developer, you could find leads in GitHub, Stack Trade, and even Discord. Discover related networks and construct up your on-line presence.

Amongst all these platforms, LinkedIn works the perfect for many freelancers. Whenever you begin following related content material creators and trade specialists, LinkedIn will begin exhibiting you extra personalised content material. If you happen to’re a developer, you could find CTOs and undertaking managers of firms you wish to work with and ship them LinkedIn InMails. However I’d advocate one thing else.

As an alternative of arduous promoting, attempt constructing a reference to them. Have interaction with their posts, tag them in conversations, and share useful content material. When you construct an expert rapport, you’ll perceive what they need assistance with and plug your providers, organically.

However LinkedIn outreach alone could not yield outcomes as a result of purchasers verify their emails greater than LinkedIn messages. Aside from speaking to them on LinkedIn, you also needs to shoot an electronic mail to make a robust case. Most purchasers have their emails talked about of their social media profiles or web sites however you may also use an electronic mail finder instrument like Hunter to discover legitimate electronic mail addresses. You can even outsource this half, however bear in mind you’ll have higher management over lead high quality when you’re hands-on.

Upon getting leads flowing in, you’d want to make use of a CRM or a Spreadsheet to trace leads. Freelancers typically ignore this step and find yourself with chaotic lists of duplicate emails.

One other superb supply of potential purchasers is ProductHunt.

Simply head over to the “Subjects” part and slender down your most popular trade. When you establish the trade, it’s time to accumulate all of the potential firms within the spreadsheet. In a while, you’ll be able to enrich your spreadsheet and put together it for the following step which is the precise outreach.

Personalize and automate your electronic mail sequence

At this stage, you already constructed a listing of goal firms together with contact data of determination makers. It’s time to work in your chilly outreach recreation.

The job of chilly emails is to fetch you a reply and your first job is to face out. I could sound like a damaged file at this level, however you need to personalize every electronic mail by speaking concerning the consumer’s ache factors and directing them to the options. Don’t use off-the-shelf electronic mail templates to ship a whole bunch of emails—it is not going to have a considerable affect.

Whereas researching your supreme purchasers you’ll come throughout related data that can be utilized within the topic line or electronic mail introduction to indicate you’ve performed your homework. You’re basically asking them to provide you cash so you must impress them together with your professionalism and ingenuity.

Right here is how one can automate creating super-personalized electronic mail introductions.

Go to prospect’s LinkedIn profile and navigate “About” part. Copy that textual content and head over to ChatGPT.

And right here is the outcome:

Use brief topic traces (ideally 4-6 phrases), embody the consumer’s identify, and experiment with inquiries to get their consideration. As soon as they open the e-mail, concentrate on their challenges and necessities to maintain their consideration. When the consumer is , pitch your providers by including related hyperlinks.

An attention-grabbing topic line, brief electronic mail physique, totally personalised content material, and related outcomes will get you extra purchasers. That is what I carried out in my chilly outreach campaigns and it bought me stable outcomes. Right here is an effective performing instance:

When you get used to sending chilly emails, you’ll be able to improve quantity and ROI by automating many of the course of. Arrange a chilly electronic mail sequence and use a marketing campaign monitoring instrument to gauge metrics.

If you’re simply beginning out with freelancing and the funds you wish to spend on instruments is restricted, you should use Hunter Campaigns. It lets you ship automated chilly emails to as much as 500 recipients without cost.

Don’t be afraid to follow-up

Now, the key ingredient of profitable chilly outreach campaigns: follow-ups.

Far too many freelancers ship one chilly electronic mail and quit on a prospect after they don’t reply. However right here’s the factor.

There might be a number of explanation why your first electronic mail doesn’t fetch a reply. The consumer is perhaps not sure of your pitch, planning to know extra, or just doesn’t have the time to answer instantly. It’s important to keep high of thoughts by following up recurrently.

Listed below are a couple of methods you’ll be able to observe up with out being obnoxious:

• The primary follow-up electronic mail ought to be inside 3-4 days (at worst, one week)
• It shouldn’t simply repeat the identical message. Provide new worth to the e-mail chain by including extra data. It might be a free Website positioning audit, a content material framework, or examples of latest leads—no matter you provide, ensure you add new worth with every new electronic mail
• Study to cease. If you happen to don’t get a reply after 4-5 follow-up emails and inside a month, focus your efforts on new purchasers
• When you launch a follow-up marketing campaign, you’ll discover patterns in consumer replies. Use the info to tweak your follow-up schedules and don’t neglect to experiment.

Comply with-ups don’t make you seem like a spammer, supplied you do it nicely. I used to be first introduced into this concept and I see many freelancers making the identical errors even at present. Here’s a follow-up marketing campaign that fetch me about 50% of all responses:

Bonus tip: Upwork outreach

If an Upwork job suits into your funds, location, and experience, you’ll have to ship a proposal that stands out and catches the consumer’s consideration.

Earlier than continuing bear in mind this: Don’t discuss your self and leap straight into speaking how one can assist purchasers remedy their ache factors.

Issues to bear in mind for Upwork proposals:

• Learn the job description rigorously and perceive what’s required of you. Most freelancers pay little consideration to the main points so that is the way you’ll stand out
• Show what you are able to do to assist the consumer and the way you’d go about it
• Present related samples and shut with a CTA
• Break the proposal into small paragraphs however maintain it brief and to the purpose
• You’re competing with a number of freelancers for the job so use a hook early on and get proper into the meat of the proposal

Closing phrases

This was a information to chilly outreach for freelancers based mostly on my private experiences. If you happen to’re simply beginning out, you can’t go unsuitable with these strategies. However when you attain a degree the place lead era must be streamlined, you might need to spend money on electronic mail advertising and marketing and gross sales instruments. Alternatively, you’ll be able to outsource some parts of chilly outreach to maintain a stable margin for your self.