Once all of the above are in place, you also want to make sure to highlight important testimonials and social proof on key pages of your website; this includes on your homepage, on your about page, and on your services page.
9. Cold pitch potential clients
Cold pitching is my all-time favorite method for getting freelance writing jobs. I’m particularly in love with cold pitching for the following reasons:
- Anybody can do it. You can send cold pitches and get your services in front of potential clients regardless of your freelance writing experience or how authoritative your website is.
- You get results really fast. While some methods of getting clients (like blogging) can take months, cold pitching can yield results super fast. In fact, during a cold pitching campaign I once closed a freelance writing deal worth $625 in just two hours.
- It is scalable; during my most recent cold pitching campaign I closed deals worth five figures with minimal effort. If I wanted to, and if I had the ability to do the work, I could close deals worth six figures in months. To achieve this same result through blogging, investing in ads, or other means will require a much greater deal of effort and resources.
With the above benefits outlined, how then do you go about cold pitching effectively. There are a few key things to put in place:
Set up your website and online presence
When you send cold pitches to potential clients, you should realize that you are a stranger to practically all of the people you’re cold pitching. You’ve had no interactions with them before and they probably haven’t heard about you. So guess what they do first when they see your email? If it isn’t trite enough to be ignored, they do a background check on you by searching for your name on Google. If they find a website and an established online presence you’ll be at an advantage.
Ensure your cold pitches are sent from your professional email address
While many freelance writers looking for job opportunities send cold pitches using free email addresses like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, this is something I strongly advocate against for a key reason: spammers abuse free emails a lot, and as a result most people ignore them or even have filters against them. A professional email address associated with your website (e.g. yourname[AT]yourwebsite.com) stands out on the other hand and ensures you’re more likely to be taken seriously.
Keep your cold pitch simple and to the point
Remember, you’re a stranger in this person’s inbox so he/she doesn’t have the time to read an epistle from you. Assume that you’ve wasted the opportunity you have if a prospect needs to spend more than a minute to read your cold email. All the better if you can keep it under 30 seconds.
Do your homework
Take a few minutes to do your work. Know the name of the person
[…]
This article was written by Bamidele Onibalusi and originally published on CodeinWP.