How do I present myself as a freelancer?

[Dr_Kdub28]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how to get clients as a freelancer copywriter. I know there's tons of videos and guides on the topic. However, my problem is paralysis by analysis. I've been watching/taking notes, but have become too concerned with perfection. This concern stems from failed attempts on several job sites(upwork,fiverr,linkedin). I have some samples that I can add to my portfolio via google drive(a few emails and sales letters) but what else should I be doing? Do I need to construct a website? Build a resume?

 

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[Andy Black]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how to get clients as a freelancer copywriter. I know there's tons of videos and guides on the topic. However, my problem is paralysis by analysis. I've been watching/taking notes, but have become too concerned with perfection. This concern stems from failed attempts on several job sites(upwork,fiverr,linkedin). I have some samples that I can add to my portfolio via google drive(a few emails and sales letters) but what else should I be doing? Do I need to construct a website? Build a resume?

You don’t need a website. Let everyone you know know what you’re doing. Post it on social media. Send emails to everyone you’ve ever worked with. Join communities online and start helping people. Get out there and start making waves.

For more specifics check out the inbound/sales link in my signature.

 

[Vross]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how to get clients as a freelancer copywriter. I know there's tons of videos and guides on the topic. However, my problem is paralysis by analysis. I've been watching/taking notes, but have become too concerned with perfection. This concern stems from failed attempts on several job sites(upwork,fiverr,linkedin). I have some samples that I can add to my portfolio via google drive(a few emails and sales letters) but what else should I be doing? Do I need to construct a website? Build a resume?

Don't try to be perfect or you risk procrastinating. Start small - tell your friends and acquaintances about your work.

 

[K1 Lambo]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how to get clients as a freelancer copywriter. I know there's tons of videos and guides on the topic. However, my problem is paralysis by analysis. I've been watching/taking notes, but have become too concerned with perfection. This concern stems from failed attempts on several job sites(upwork,fiverr,linkedin). I have some samples that I can add to my portfolio via google drive(a few emails and sales letters) but what else should I be doing? Do I need to construct a website? Build a resume?

I don't blame you sir, there's too much of them. No, a website is not important in the beginning. You're thinking about step 7 when you should be thinking about step one.

I used to have the same problem as you dude when it came to getting clients, with my own marketing agency. One guy said I should only outreach with cold calling. The other guy said I should stick with emails, and one guy said I should do DMs where as the other dude said I should be giving value on FB groups and it went on and on... THERE IS NO PERFECT STRATEGY. If there was, everyone would be using it and would be smashing it! That is not the case.

WHAT is important however is to find a way that works FOR you. You have to play to your talents/strengths, don't work on your weaknesses! You can improve them but focus on what you're good at. What are you naturally good at? If you have a sexy confident voice, then cold calling/voice messages might be for you. If you're shy but have killer scripts, then emails may be perfect for you. If you're good looking and are not afraid of the camera, then video messages might work for you! By the way, voice and video messages have worked extremely well for me(much much better than emails), probably because 1. You stand out, it makes you memorable for your potential customer but also 2. It shows confidence and that little swagger about you that's attractive to people, especially if the owner/CEO is a woman.

You could write a whole book on this topic because it's very complex since there's probably a couple things you're doing wrong, and you have to identify them yourself. But if you'd like a short guide, then here's what you can think of:

1. Who is my ideal customer? Is it a plastic surgeon? A real estate agent? A pregnant woman? Gym owner? Luxury car dealer? Hotel owner? You need to be clear who you're targeting. TIP: Niche down and be very specific who you're targeting. Why? It's very replicable. You'll know the ins and outs of that industry and you'll know what people respond to.
2. Where can I find them? Ok, now that you have identified your ideal customer, where can you find them? Or better yet, how can they find you? Upwork, Fiverr and all these sites you mentioned are a good start. Facebook/LinkedIn freelancer/marketing groups? Where are my clients congregated? You'll find this pretty quickly if you do your research.

3. What's my hook/offer? What is it that's gonna get their attention immediately? This is probably the most important step of them all, because everything up to this point can be on point but if you get this wrong you'll never sign clients. I recommend reading Alex Hormozi's $100m offer since it's a short, detailed book that explains everything there. Put it short, you need to standout.

If you'd ask me, I recommend video/voice memos on social media as they're incredibly powerful. Also find their first name, people love to hear their names. And if you can, compliment them or say something interesting to them about their company or whatever. JUST try to find something about the owner or the company that you're reaching out to. Those are your golden points of contact SINCE it shows them you did your research. It'll make them go: "Damn, that guy is cool. How did he know that my dad founded this company back in 1975? He cares about me! I should do business with him.". These are the value skews that win you the clients. But it's not just your offer, it's also how you present yourself. Make sure your socials are on point if you're gonna contact them on FB or Instagram. Don't be that private profile, no photo guy on Instagram when you reach out to them. Show that you're a human. Those points have worked well for me.

4. How can I close them? You could do meetings if you'd like to or meet them at a coffee shop and talk about the ideas that you have(personally I don't do meetings, I send my potential leads a short 6-7 min presentation about me and that does the work).

You also have things like your own traffic, organic traffic and paid traffic but that's step 10.

EDIT: Don't take rejections personally. A lot of the times clients will tell you they're not interested, when in reality that's a natural human reaction. A lot of the times they are interested, but not now. But once you explain to them HOW IT CAN ACTUALLY BENEFIT THEM(a lot of the times they're not even aware of it), then they'll trust you because you showed your expertize.

Hope it helps!

 

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[Edgar King]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how to get clients as a freelancer copywriter. I know there's tons of videos and guides on the topic. However, my problem is paralysis by analysis. I've been watching/taking notes, but have become too concerned with perfection. This concern stems from failed attempts on several job sites(upwork,fiverr,linkedin). I have some samples that I can add to my portfolio via google drive(a few emails and sales letters) but what else should I be doing? Do I need to construct a website? Build a resume?

You've gotta give Lex's tutorial a roll- GOLD! - Lex DeVille's: 15 Days to Freedom - Make Money Copywriting in 15 Days or Less

Try again, this time after seeing why you failed and make corrections on those mistakes. You've got this!

 

[Dr_Kdub28]

I don't blame you sir, there's too much of them. No, a website is not important in the beginning. You're thinking about step 7 when you should be thinking about step one.

I used to have the same problem as you dude when it came to getting clients, with my own marketing agency. One guy said I should only outreach with cold calling. The other guy said I should stick with emails, and one guy said I should do DMs where as the other dude said I should be giving value on FB groups and it went on and on... THERE IS NO PERFECT STRATEGY. If there was, everyone would be using it and would be smashing it! That is not the case.

WHAT is important however is to find a way that works FOR you. You have to play to your talents/strengths, don't work on your weaknesses! You can improve them but focus on what you're good at. What are you naturally good at? If you have a sexy confident voice, then cold calling/voice messages might be for you. If you're shy but have killer scripts, then emails may be perfect for you. If you're good looking and are not afraid of the camera, then video messages might work for you! By the way, voice and video messages have worked extremely well for me(much much better than emails), probably because 1. You stand out, it makes you memorable for your potential customer but also 2. It shows confidence and that little swagger about you that's attractive to people, especially if the owner/CEO is a woman.

You could write a whole book on this topic because it's very complex since there's probably a couple things you're doing wrong, and you have to identify them yourself. But if you'd like a short guide, then here's what you can think of:

1. Who is my ideal customer? Is it a plastic surgeon? A real estate agent? A pregnant woman? Gym owner? Luxury car dealer? Hotel owner? You need to be clear who you're targeting. TIP: Niche down and be very specific who you're targeting. Why? It's very replicable. You'll know the ins and outs of that industry and you'll know what people respond to.
2. Where can I find them? Ok, now that you have identified your ideal customer, where can you find them? Or better yet, how can they find you? Upwork, Fiverr and all these sites you mentioned are a good start. Facebook/LinkedIn freelancer/marketing groups? Where are my clients congregated? You'll find this pretty quickly if you do your research.

3. What's my hook/offer? What is it that's gonna get their attention immediately? This is probably the most important step of them all, because everything up to this point can be on point but if you get this wrong you'll never sign clients. I recommend reading Alex Hormozi's $100m offer since it's a short, detailed book that explains everything there. Put it short, you need to standout.

If you'd ask me, I recommend video/voice memos on social media as they're incredibly powerful. Also find their first name, people love to hear their names. And if you can, compliment them or say something interesting to them about their company or whatever. JUST try to find something about the owner or the company that you're reaching out to. Those are your golden points of contact SINCE it shows them you did your research. It'll make them go: "Damn, that guy is cool. How did he know that my dad founded this company back in 1975? He cares about me! I should do business with him.". These are the value skews that win you the clients. But it's not just your offer, it's also how you present yourself. Make sure your socials are on point if you're gonna contact them on FB or Instagram. Don't be that private profile, no photo guy on Instagram when you reach out to them. Show that you're a human. Those points have worked well for me.

4. How can I close them? You could do meetings if you'd like to or meet them at a coffee shop and talk about the ideas that you have(personally I don't do meetings, I send my potential leads a short 6-7 min presentation about me and that does the work).

You also have things like your own traffic, organic traffic and paid traffic but that's step 10.

EDIT: Don't take rejections personally. A lot of the times clients will tell you they're not interested, when in reality that's a natural human reaction. A lot of the times they are interested, but not now. But once you explain to them HOW IT CAN ACTUALLY BENEFIT THEM(a lot of the times they're not even aware of it), then they'll trust you because you showed your expertize.

Hope it helps!

This is great. Appreciate the feedback. I've been implementing some of these strategies since my first post. Figuring out what works for me is the hardest part. It's slogging through the trial and error lol

 

[Dr_Kdub28]

You've gotta give Lex's tutorial a roll- GOLD! - Lex DeVille's: 15 Days to Freedom - Make Money Copywriting in 15 Days or Less

Try again, this time after seeing why you failed and make corrections on those mistakes. You've got this!

Thanks I'll check this out

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[copywizard10]

I don't blame you sir, there's too much of them. No, a website is not important in the beginning. You're thinking about step 7 when you should be thinking about step one.

I used to have the same problem as you dude when it came to getting clients, with my own marketing agency. One guy said I should only outreach with cold calling. The other guy said I should stick with emails, and one guy said I should do DMs where as the other dude said I should be giving value on FB groups and it went on and on... THERE IS NO PERFECT STRATEGY. If there was, everyone would be using it and would be smashing it! That is not the case.

WHAT is important however is to find a way that works FOR you. You have to play to your talents/strengths, don't work on your weaknesses! You can improve them but focus on what you're good at. What are you naturally good at? If you have a sexy confident voice, then cold calling/voice messages might be for you. If you're shy but have killer scripts, then emails may be perfect for you. If you're good looking and are not afraid of the camera, then video messages might work for you! By the way, voice and video messages have worked extremely well for me(much much better than emails), probably because 1. You stand out, it makes you memorable for your potential customer but also 2. It shows confidence and that little swagger about you that's attractive to people, especially if the owner/CEO is a woman.

You could write a whole book on this topic because it's very complex since there's probably a couple things you're doing wrong, and you have to identify them yourself. But if you'd like a short guide, then here's what you can think of:

1. Who is my ideal customer? Is it a plastic surgeon? A real estate agent? A pregnant woman? Gym owner? Luxury car dealer? Hotel owner? You need to be clear who you're targeting. TIP: Niche down and be very specific who you're targeting. Why? It's very replicable. You'll know the ins and outs of that industry and you'll know what people respond to.
2. Where can I find them? Ok, now that you have identified your ideal customer, where can you find them? Or better yet, how can they find you? Upwork, Fiverr and all these sites you mentioned are a good start. Facebook/LinkedIn freelancer/marketing groups? Where are my clients congregated? You'll find this pretty quickly if you do your research.

3. What's my hook/offer? What is it that's gonna get their attention immediately? This is probably the most important step of them all, because everything up to this point can be on point but if you get this wrong you'll never sign clients. I recommend reading Alex Hormozi's $100m offer since it's a short, detailed book that explains everything there. Put it short, you need to standout.

If you'd ask me, I recommend video/voice memos on social media as they're incredibly powerful. Also find their first name, people love to hear their names. And if you can, compliment them or say something interesting to them about their company or whatever. JUST try to find something about the owner or the company that you're reaching out to. Those are your golden points of contact SINCE it shows them you did your research. It'll make them go: "Damn, that guy is cool. How did he know that my dad founded this company back in 1975? He cares about me! I should do business with him.". These are the value skews that win you the clients. But it's not just your offer, it's also how you present yourself. Make sure your socials are on point if you're gonna contact them on FB or Instagram. Don't be that private profile, no photo guy on Instagram when you reach out to them. Show that you're a human. Those points have worked well for me.

4. How can I close them? You could do meetings if you'd like to or meet them at a coffee shop and talk about the ideas that you have(personally I don't do meetings, I send my potential leads a short 6-7 min presentation about me and that does the work).

You also have things like your own traffic, organic traffic and paid traffic but that's step 10.

EDIT: Don't take rejections personally. A lot of the times clients will tell you they're not interested, when in reality that's a natural human reaction. A lot of the times they are interested, but not now. But once you explain to them HOW IT CAN ACTUALLY BENEFIT THEM(a lot of the times they're not even aware of it), then they'll trust you because you showed your expertize.

Hope it helps!

Thanks for sharing