In today's video we're going to be going over how you can write the perfect proposal to land
freelance projects, as well as if you're applying to let's say a normal job or a remote position
how you can use these tips to write the best cover letter so you can get hired. So let's
get right into it, and the first part of writing the perfect proposal and the perfect cover letter
is to focus on the introduction your introduction is vital to the entire proposal for your cover
letter and for what the client sees because this is the first thing they're going to see
when they get your proposal in the door and if this doesn't capture their attention it
doesn't make them want to read more that will set the tone for the rest of your
proposal. So if they see that first couple sentences and it just kind of sounds bland,
doesn't really catch their interest that severely hurts your chances of actually landing that job.
So that goes into how do you even write a good introduction? How do you capture
the client's attention before you even get into your full proposal? And the answer is you need
to understand the client what is important to them try to read the job description in as much
detail as you can and from there try to find out what the most important thing is to that client
and then work that into the introduction. So there's a lot of different ways to do that
but in order to really think outside of the box a lot of times you want to think about
what the competition is doing and try to go one step above what they're doing try to be a little
bit clever in that introduction and remember if this doesn't help you get on that good side of
the client immediately the rest of your proposal is wasted so all the time you put into creating
the entire proposal it doesn't matter if you don't nail that intro down. So when you're just
starting out of course you're not going to know what the best intro is but once you start to try
out different things and you start to figure out what is important to each specific client that's
when you can start to find your own style and once you start to find what works out for you you can
start to replicate that but of course tailor it to each specific job that you're sending a proposal
out to and in that introduction. You also want to be very careful because I see this in a lot
of freelance jobs especially on Upwork, clients know that people are just copying and pasting a
lot of proposals out and because of this a lot of times at the end of the job description they will
mention something very specific that they want to see you say in the introduction. This could
actually just be a word. I had one client who wrote put the word avocado in the first sentence
just to show me that you read this whole job description, that's the easiest way to show that
okay you actually read the description you put the word avocado in there and it automatically
shows the client that you read the full description you didn't just breeze through it
you're not just copying and pasting a million proposals but they don't always do that of course
but what they will do is they will shed some light on what's important to them what their goals are,
so use that in that introduction to capture their attention then what you want to do is you want to
show off that you have some skills you have some expertise as it relates to what they want to
get done. Now this is also very important because once you've kind of hooked them in with the intro
now you have to back it up and you don't want to go overboard here, you don't want to sound
like you're bragging, that's one of the biggest things I see, one of the largest mistakes actually
in a cover letter is just going on and on about yourself. Remember, the client doesn't really care
about you, they care about the problem they need solved they care about the person that they want
to hire are they going to be able to help them solve that problem so every single thing that
you mention about your skill set make sure it's only relating to the job, so if you're applying
to a job to help someone with YouTube advertising, don't mention Facebook ads, don't mention blog
writing, keep it very specific based on what the client needs done and let them know that you have
the skills and expertise to help them accomplish that. Now kind of walking this fine line between
being arrogant and kind of just showing them that you are the right person for the job it can be a
balancing act but once again just like with the introduction you're going to start to find your
groove once you start to have some success once you start to see what clients like to hear from
you based on the type of jobs you're reaching out to then you can start to replicate that and tweak
it for each job that you apply to so once you started to show off your skills a little bit more
you let them know that you have expertise in the exact areas that they're asking and you don't
keep it so spread out and go off into tangents about things that aren't related to the job
that's when you can then back it up with showing off some of your past work examples. Now I'm a
big believer in creating case studies because a case study shows the client that you don't only
have experience but you've put it together in a format that shows the results that you've helped
other clients achieve clients don't just want to know oh I worked on this type of project before
they want to know what the results were they want to know how much
value you added in numerical terms so whether that's how much money you made a client
how many more followers you helped them get how many views you helped them
receive how much engagement all of that stuff is what the client wants to see when you're sharing
your work examples and keep this short and sweet. I like to keep it to one to two work examples
in your proposal you don't want to go overboard so pick the best jobs that you did in the past that
relate exactly to what the client wants to get done now if you're watching this and you're like
hey well i don't have any past experience well you know what everyone has to start somewhere every
single marathon starts with that initial step so don't let that discourage you but what you can do
is focus a little bit more on the previous step showing off the skills your knowledge of the skill
set that you have and that will help you get those first couple clients you can focus on some smaller
projects or jobs and then from there you can use those as your work experience moving forward
and that's why also finding the best jobs for you based on your skill set is so important because if
you're working on projects that are just scattered all over the place you're not going to be able to
cherry pick the best work examples to land future projects so always be thinking a couple steps
ahead you don't just want to find out a job and just apply to it just to get a couple bucks you
want to think about your future your career that you're building with every single job that you get
and then what you want to do is focus on questions now the first way to do this is for you to answer
all of the unasked questions that the client didn't ask in their job description, and a lot
of times clients will put a couple questions out there but they won't put it all out there
so you can also go above and beyond especially to try to stand out from the competition right
because that's what you're doing you're going against dozens if not you know 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
other proposals sometimes. And sometimes people say oh don't even apply to a job that has over
15 proposals but in the world we live in today you're definitely going to have to learn how
to cut through the noise because if you only just cherry pick the jobs that are just posted
that is a great strategy and you do want to use speed but you can't always rely on that if the
perfect job comes up for you you're the best fit but it has too many proposals in your mind already
don't let that discourage you it's a numbers game you need to put yourself out there
in order to get hired because if you don't you'll never get the job anyway. It's just
like that quote right 'you miss all the shots that you don't take' so even if a job has a lot
of competition that might be a good thing that might be because it's a very high paying role
with a client that has good experience so you want to go above and beyond answer those unasked
questions that will really show the client that you're going to that next step you're answering
questions that they didn't even ask but you know that are relevant for the job and then one of the
best ways to finish off any proposal or to finish off any cover letter is to ask questions yourself
this shows the client that you're not just kissing up to them you're not just saying
hey I want to work for you so bad please hire me but you're also turning the tables back on them
you're seeing are they the right fit for you and you can ask a couple different questions,
one of the best questions I like to ask if the client doesn't specifically notate this in the
description is asking them how are we going to be measuring success? That shows the client okay well
this person actually knows what they're talking about they want to know exactly what my goals are
Do I want to get a 3X ROI? Do I want to hit a certain amount of followers?
What is exactly the success metric we're going to be basing this on that will show the client
that you're there to actually add value and some other questions you can ask them are specifically
related to the job post so if they say that they want to increase let's say their website's traffic
but they don't list the website out there ask them hey what's your website I'd love to check
it out before we get on a call before you ask me for an interview you can kind of assume the sale
here a little bit that's one of the big things in sales and marketing you don't want to come
off as too arrogant but you also want to let them know that you're open to talking you're open for
the interview but you have questions and those questions are going to help you come into that
interview the most prepared possible because let's say they don't include their website
and then they do answer you and say oh hey this is my website go check it out I'd love to talk
now before you go into that actual interview you have so much ammo that you can use that
you didn't have previously you can go to their website you can see what they're doing
well what they're not doing well and start to craft that into the perfect message for them
because one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they focus it all on themselves
they focus all on their achievements and like we said the clients don't necessarily care about that
they want to know can you get the job done and by asking them questions back it also gives them
more of a reason to reach back out to you and once the client has reached back out to you initially
boom there you go that line of communication is open and that is vital because you can be
aggressive you can message them back now you can follow up with them you can try to get their
number their email and from there that opens up the whole line of communication whereas with a
lot of other proposals they just go unread or let's say it's a great proposal but they didn't
ask any questions at the end there's no call to action it's easy to kind of just put that proposal
to the side and then if the next one comes up and they're asking all these great questions
the client wants to get back to you on them so these are a lot of ways you can start to
help craft a better proposal that helps you land freelance projects as well as if you're
going for a more typical job position how you can write cover letters that actually get opened
and they help get you a response. Now if this kind of stuff is helpful for you I have a course on
this on the ZTM academy which walks you through the entire freelance sales process sending the
proposal out is just one step in this process but building a rockstar profile finding the best jobs
having to weed out the worst jobs and then once you even get the client on the phone how to sell
the client how to bundle your services together how to turn them into recurring clients and then
ultimately how to build a profitable freelancing business that's what this course teaches and
if you sign up for the ZTM academy you also get access to all of their other courses a lot of them
are on the coding side of the spectrum but they've also opened the doors to more business courses
just like my freelancing course so if you're interested click the link in the description to
check out the ZTM academy, you can learn much more about how to build a profitable freelance business
but even if you don't do that try to use some of these tips tricks and hacks in your proposals to
help you land more freelancing clients and to land more jobs if you like this kind of content please
subscribe, I'm cranking out videos about all the freelancing topics what's in demand how to work
from home how to make money online and ultimately how to create lifestyle freedom, also please hit
the thumbs up button it helps more people just see the video in the algorithm leave a comment down
below if any of this has helped you and remember it's a numbers game so if you send out a couple
proposals and it's not working there's one of two things that is happening either number one you're
writing great proposals but you just haven't sent enough out don't get discouraged if you
haven't really put in the work yet or number two you're not doing it the right way your proposals
are too bland and they're not getting the client's attention so try to figure out which boat you're
in if you're not having success and use that to reverse engineer where you can have more success.
Until the next one, my name is Paul Mendes with Profitable Freelancer and hope you have a great
day! Do you want to be free? Do you want to have the freedom to be able to work when you
want where you want and have the freedom to be your own boss and to make money for yourself?
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