How To Write A Freelance Proposal That Gets You Clients

Being a freelancer, you will find yourself writing a lot of proposals, especially in the beginning when you need to find your first clients. There are so many ways you can do this, and depending on the media you do it through, your approach should adjust as well.

To write a Freelance Proposal that gets you clients, it’s essential you include personality, show you understand the job description, challenge the job description, and demonstrate how you have solved similar issues and how you will solve this job.

Before we dive into the 8 things you absolutely need to include, I’ll just dive into the basis for what the foundation of a great freelance proposal looks like.

Basis For A Great Freelance Proposal

When you set out to send your proposals, there are multiple ways to do it. If you pursue your clients via their website or word-of-mouth, your approach would be different than if you used a platform like Upwork.

But even with different approaches, the content of your freelance proposal would still consist of the same elements. It would primarily be the pricing section that differed.

Say on Upwork you’ve found a job you want to apply for. Here you enter your project price or hourly rate in a dedicated input box, and if you want to elaborate on it, you’ll have to do that in your message.

Whereas if you’ve found the client yourself via their website, or word-of-mouth, you would have to apply your price as a section in your proposal, and here you get the chance to elaborate in detail.

But the basis for your freelance proposal is that it’s personalised and addresses all the queries your potential client has described in their job post, and maybe even further. Let’s dive into it.

8 Things To Include In Your Freelance Proposal

Now for the fun part, it’s time to write your proposal, and whether you’ve written proposals before or this is the first one, these 8 things apply to you.

I’ve seen numerous proposals being total of the mark, and the issue I see the most is that freelancers simply copy and paste their proposal, don’t do this; you remove all the chances of getting the job by doing this.

Stay authentic and stay relevant to the job description. Read it thoroughly and write your proposal as a new one every single time. This is what will help you succeed. Now let’s dive into the first step.

1. Keep the tone true to who you are

Even if you’re sending a freelance proposal to a formal company or a large company you’ve always dreamed of working with, then stay true to yourself. Do not change the tone of who you are.

If they don’t like who you are and start working together on a false basis, you won’t thrive working with them, and it’ll slowly drive you tired.

As a freelancer, you will never be liked by all companies, and that’s fine. You need to find the companies and clients whom you match with. You won’t like all companies either. It’s about finding the right match.

So, to sum up, if you’re not formal by nature, don’t pretend to be. Be yourself and let that shine through your entire freelance proposal. That’s the way to benefit both you and your potential client in the long run.

2. Challenge the job description

When you read the description of the job description either sent to you or on a platform, then remember to read it carefully and challenge it.

Every time I read a job description, I always take notes along the way, and often you will find clients already suggesting solutions in the job description. But if you don’t agree with those solutions, then challenge them.

The client is hiring you for your expertise and your skillset, and they want to hear your opinion on the matter. Don’t be afraid to speak up, the worst that can happen is the client just insist on the solution, and then you go with that.

Now when you write your own proposal then, remember to include stuff from the job description. If the job description mentions, they want someone with expertise within the short film, for instance. Then address this in your proposal and write a little about that

Everything from the job description you can include in your proposal shows you’ve not only read the job description thoroughly and you have an eye for detail, but it also demonstrates your knowledge.

Remember as well to include how you see yourself solving the use case. Often when clients make job descriptions, it’s because they have a specific use case they want to solve. Give them the solution, and you don’t need to go into a very detailed answer. Just briefly describe how you would handle it.

3. Personalise your proposal

This is a super important step. Combined with step 1, these 2 steps work seamlessly together. Make your proposal personal. Make it look like it comes from you.

When you write your proposal, it’s essential to leave a glimpse of who you are. Not everyone can work together, and clients look for this as well. They want to find a freelancer who matches both the skill set they’re looking for and the personal aspect.

So leave a little paragraph about who you are, how you work and what impression you like to leave on people you work with. It’s a small step, but it makes a massive difference for the client.

The other thing is, do not copy and paste your proposals, make them personalised for each client where you write in your language. You can’t avoid some proposals sounding the same, but I can’t stress enough how important it is you don’t copy and paste your proposals.

By copying and pasting, you will lose clients. Clients can immediately feel if the proposal has been written for them or not.

4. Demonstrate your experience

The next 3 things are a bit combined, yet show your experience from different angles.

It’s super important when you’re done with your freelance proposal that you can read it through and tell solely based on your proposal that you have the skills necessary for the job.

This you can showcase in multiple ways by talking about previous jobs, which I’ll dive more into in step 5. You can include previous use cases where you show the output, or you can develop a solution for the client in the proposal.

Now as mentioned in step 3, the solution doesn’t need to be fulfilling. It just needs to show you know how to get from start to finish.

If you want to go even further, you can include visuals, which increases your chances of getting the job in front of all the other freelancers applying for the client.

5. Include relevant projects for the job

The number one mistake I see freelancers make way too often is just linking to their portfolios. This is fine. You can do that, but often your portfolio is filled with all your previous clients or clients in different industries, and the client who gets this link doesn’t want to spend time looking for something specific.

When you write your proposal, include links to relevant projects you’ve completed before or are working on currently which are relevant for the current client. These projects show you know what you’re doing and can solve their project.

Add a line to the link if you have it on your website, otherwise to the client, and then a short description of the issue and how you handled it. If possible, you can add the result of your work as well.

By personalising the links you send in the freelance proposal, you increase the value you’re providing to your potential new client. It’s all about personalising for the client.

6. Include previous use cases relevant to the job

This is a more elaborate step of number 5. This is absolutely not relevant, but if you have it already, then you should definitely use it.

The minimum to do is to create a portfolio page for each client you’ve worked with, but you can go a step further and dive into the collaboration with the client. Include the issue you solved, the process of solving it, if you worked on other elements, and what the output was of you working with the client.

All of this gives your potential new client an idea of how it is working with you, what you bring to the table and if they can imagine themselves working with you.

7. Go the extra mile

This is always a fun step for me, where you get to be a little creative to go beyond the job description. You don’t have to do this step, but it adds flair to your freelance proposal.

What I usually like to do is add something extra to my proposal, which they haven’t necessarily mentioned in the job description but shows my capabilities.

So if the job, for instance, is to set up a new landing page on a website, then I like to look through their website to find optimisation ideas they can perform to increase their conversion rate, and then I include that in my proposal.

This shows I’ve gone the extra mile to study who they are, and I’m proactive and give suggestions.

Another way could be to record a video where you talk directly to your client. Either by giving them tips based on your experience or simply showing who you are and talking about something relevant for the client to know.

8. End with a Call To Action

It’s so important when you’re done writing your proposal and you end with a call to action. What do you want to happen next? Do you want them to choose a time to meet you physically or online? Do you want them to answer a set of questions or perform a task?

You cannot allow the client to be in doubt about what to do next. That’s why I always end my proposals with a text such as: If you find any of this interesting, then let me know when you’re available for an online meeting so we can discuss the next possible steps.

Be very gentle with your messaging, don’t let the client feel forced to do the following steps.

Examples Of My Successful Freelance Proposals

Those 8 steps are what I often include, with some exceptions depending on the client I’m sending my freelance proposal.

But I have collected some of my successful freelance proposals down below. But remember, the freelance proposal is only the first step. It’s your way in to get a meeting, and then in the meeting, you need to excel and close the client to be your new client.

Freelance Proposal example for a WordPress client

Hello

I can help solve the issue you’re experiencing.
I have worked with WordPress for 10+ years and really feel at home in the field. I started as a very young, curious mind, and today I’ve worked with more than 30+ different WordPress clients.
When it comes to CMS systems, WordPress is a clear favourite. I think it’s super cool that you don’t compromise with your design. There are more of them out there.

If you want to see some of the WordPress websites I have made, here is a small excerpt:
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I hope you find my profile interesting, and in that case, I am very ready to take a Skype call when it suits you. Let me know.

Otherwise, I just wish you a very good day.

Best regards
Phillip Stemann

Freelance Proposal example for a Google Analytics issue

Hello

That’s something I can fix. There can be several reasons for this. Either the plugin used is not compatible.
You may be using Analytics V4, which is the latest version, but not all plugins are ready for this.
It could also be a cache plugin blocking it.

It is difficult for me to estimate how long it will take as it will require some testing.
My immediate guess is that it will take 1-2 hours, depending on what the issue is.

I have worked with Google Analytics in many different settings, both for e-commerce and for info websites tracking their conversions, so I know how to integrate Google Analytics into your current setup.

I can see you use WordPress, which is my favourite CMS system. It is the most versatile and the system with the most plugins developed for it. I have been working with WordPress for as long as I can remember and know all my ins and outs.

I would very much like to help you with this task and look forward to hearing from you. Let me know if you find my proposal interesting, and if such, then when does an online meeting suit you?

Have a fantastic day.

With best regards
Phillip Stemann

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