If you want to land a freelance job, you have to write a compelling proposal to convince clients that you have the experience they are looking for.
In this post, we’ll go through the most important aspects of writing a freelance proposal, review common mistakes, and get a proper understanding of how to write a client-winning proposal.
What is a Freelance proposal?
It’s a piece of text, 150-250 words, that introduces your work experience, your strengths, and some additional information (like soft skills) to the potential client.
How to Write a client-winning proposal
Writing a proposal is seemingly easy. It has to be compelling and elaborate, conveying the information your client will need to know about you and your services.
While the freelance market grows and more freelancers get into the competition — the proposal game is a serious aspect of really good freelancing. The key here is to stand out.
For beginner freelancers, this step is quite hard, both practically and mentally. Maybe, you already sent over ten, twenty maybe fifty proposals with no response at all. I know, I know, it’s really hard to persevere while being ignored. It took me over a hundred attempts and a few dozen nerve cells to get my first client.
So, as smoothly as we can, we’ll get through the difficulties of writing a client-winning proposal.
Here are the must-have points while writing your proposal:
1. Read the job post description
Beginner freelancers send dozens of copy-pasted proposals to take the first job as fast as possible and don’t even read the job post. It’s the first and the most common mistake.
Always take your time to read the description. Sending proposals will only work if you’re sending the good ones. Quality over quantity!
Also, lots of job posts require you to answer the screening questions. It goes without saying that you have to answer all of them to be considered a valid candidate.
2. Greetings, formal tone, punctuation, and spelling
Being formal, polite, and literal is the key to getting to the best clients. For some reason, some freelancers tend to miss this point.
Freelancing is not a friendly chit-chat, it’s a client-executor relationship. Use a formal tone. Once you build the relationship, you’ll get to the How u doin, buddy stage.
It’s important to include the proper greeting, the client’s name, and a hook. Instead of starting with a bland Hey Joe, start with Dear Joe or my favorite Greetings, Joe! Hope you’re doing well! This will draw attention and add emotional flare to your proposal.
Also, punctuation and correct spelling are crucial to help you present a good image of yourself and your services. Would you be serious about a lowercase message with tons of spelling errors? I don’t think so.
Useful tip: Sometimes, it’s hard to find the client’s name if it’s not in the job description. Scroll down to the client’s review section. You’ll find the client’s name, intentionally mentioned by your fellow freelancers 😉
3. Determine and showcase your strengths
It’s important to show your strongest sides to the client as it’s exactly what makes you potentially valuable.
While this point might seem obvious, I’ve seen lots of freelancers starting proposals like this;
Hello, Smiles Davis. I’m a beginner web developer and I’d very much like to help you with your project.
From the client's perspective, it’s an instant no.
First of all, you have to be intentional and confident; use I will (do something) instead of I’d like to, I would, I can, and so on.
Then, no one wants to hire a beginner, even if it’s cheaper. Good clients are ready to pay a lot for a great result and good clients are what you should aim for.
Don’t make yourself look cheap and show your real strengths in a way that’ll make them look attractive.
Here is my example:
Email Design and Templating is my narrow specialization, composing emails with HTML tables and inline CSS. I know all the quirks regarding responsiveness and compatibility with email clients, with special attention to Outlook. All of my templates are fully responsive, well-tested, and compatible with 80+ email clients - desktop, web, and mobile. I do provide all the compatibility test links generated by my software. I have experience working with numerous email service providers - Klaviyo, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Sendinblue, Active Campaign, SendGrid, HubSpot, and any other ESP compatible.
Emphasize your strengths, be intentional and straightforward.
And yeah don’t hesitate to embellish your years of work experience and areas of expertise. I didn’t know lots of the stuff I’ve mentioned there, I learned it on the way. It’ll be fun!
4. Always include a CTA
It’s important to include a call to action after your general presentation.
I always use one of these:
- I would like to invite you to a brief introduction call to assure I'll be a great fit for your workflow.
- Feel free to contact me so we can discuss your project on call.
Like this, you'll make the client take action to reply to you, which increases the chance of landing the contract.
5. Use a template
Using a template is a must for every good freelancer. Who wants to write the whole thing from scratch every time? Yeah, that’d be a waste of time.
You can find my active proposal template here.
What’s next?
After sending a couple of dozens of good proposals, you’ll be ready to get to the conversation with a client. In the conversation, use a formal tone and be on point.
Once you follow those steps, you’ll be ready to onboard your first client and kick off your freelancing journey!
Happy freelancing!