In my last letter, I discussed finding the right job on upwork.
If you missed my last letter, read it here.
Today, I am going to talk about writing the right proposal and show you my secret technique at the end of this letter.
Let's dig into today's topic.
The first three months on Upwork will be tough for you if you don't know how to win a job.
I have analyzed tons of my proposals in the first 3 months on Upwork.
I found this one thing common...
I was talking about my skills, experience, and achievements.
Remember one thing we are human beings, emotional and greedy creatures on this planet. We like it if someone talks about us and we don't like it if someone, talks about himself.
That's the biggest mistake I was making in writing proposals, I was talking about myself.
Don't talk about yourself, talk about their problems and how you can help them to achieve their goals.
Your proposal must have these five things
1. An emotional hook
There is so much competition on upwork these days, you can see the average number of submitted proposals for a single job is 20 to 50 and sometimes it's extended to 50 plus.
I am not talking about the boosted proposals today, we will talk about it in future letters.
It's difficult for a buyer to choose a proposal so you need to get his attention.
How you can do that?
First three lines...
You are right, you have the chance to win his attention in the first three lines.
Remember it all depends on the job post. Every job post is different.
Customize your hook according to each job post.
Here are a few ways to write a hook in the first three lines.
- Ask questions according to the job post
- Talk about the problem you found in his expectations or goals
- Talk about his business, product, website, story, or social media page
- Get straight to the solution or how you helped a similar client
P.S. Don't forget to add line breaks in the first three lines.
2. How you can help?
When you get his attention the next section should be - How you can help him to achieve his goal.
Make every point clear and concise.
Show him a way to achieve his goal and add a timeline.
Again it all depends on the problem and the resources.
Make your solution under his budget and resources.
Sometimes, they don't reveal the fixed budget, hourly rate, or resources.
If your solution needs more resources then add it too or if you can help him with other resources it will be a plus point.
In my case, I positioned myself as a digital marketing and brand strategist but I was providing other services too like copywriting, designing, development, and advertising. I provide these services because I know all of them and it took me five years to learn all these skills.
I would say, in the start focus on one skill and don't make unrealistic promises, just be true about your skills. Later on, you can build your own agency and sell other services too.
I will tell you in my future letter, how I become an agency owner from a freelancer.
3. How you helped others win?
Sometimes they ask this specific question in job posts if they ask then you must answer the question if they don't then again you must write, how you worked on similar projects.
Talk about the problem, your contribution, and the result.
Share the link to that project or attach something that is proof, of what you are saying.
4. Call to action
When you write these three sections then add a call to action.
Add a simple call to action like,
Let's chat
Let's have a quick call
Let's discuss this project further
5. Previous work samples
Your work samples are proof of what are you saying in the cover letter.
If you have a one-page website containing all the previous work then make sure there is no email address or external link that violates Upwork terms and conditions.
Use linktree to build a one page, containing links to all the files.
Download the linkree page as a PDF and attach it with your proposal.
Remember to attach only relevant previous work and links.
Make it clean and easy to scroll.
As promised here is a job post and proposal, that helped me win a job.
If you look closely at this job post, You will notice a few things.
He mentioned the website of his consulting business.
He talks about his target audience.
He talks about the resources.
He has multiple goals.
He looks confused and seems like he doesn’t have any proper guidelines.
He wants to build trust and looking for a long-term working relationship.
He asked specific questions you can see in the next screenshot.
His hourly rate is $32- $75, It’s means he is a high-paying client.
Now let me show you, how I wrote a proposal for this job post.
Here is the takeaway for this cover letter
Hook in the first line. I asked this question because he was looking confused in his job post. So, I made him think again.
Build trust in the second line by writing something that will make him- this person has read the job post.
The third section contains the solution, and how I can help him.
4rth section contains the previous work links that’s proof of what I am saying.
A simple call to action.
Answer the specific question, as he asked for my experience in similar projects and how I use matrics to inform the strategy. Upwork suggests these questions to add to the job posts. Don’t leave it empty.
I have attached my portfolio which will support my cover letter.
Lastly, Please don’t write your cover letter using ChatGPT if you don’t know how to write a cover letter.
I won a few jobs too using chatGPT but that was the beginning.
Now everyone is using it to write cover letters.
Here is the chance for you to be different and write the proposal with your mind and heart.
I guess that’s enough for today.
See you next week.
Have a great week ahead my friend.
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Hadi 🖤