18 Ways to Write your Upwork cover letter effectively
Freelancing on Upwork hasn’t been more accessible, even if you’re a trained professional. Landing your first gig will take some time, so we must be patient. Follow these 18 ways to write your Upwork cover letter effectively to improve your response rate on Upwork and land more clients with high-paying and long-term projects; the more influential the Upwork proposal will be, the easier it will be to land the clients.
Here are the 18 ways to write your Upwork cover letter effectively helping you get your 1st order or your journey on the way.
1. Address Your clients by their name
You can find your client’s name in their Recent History. To do that, Visit the job you’d like to bid on, choose it, then scroll to the bottom. There you will see something relevant, such as this image below.; once you find the name, note it down and move to the next step.
In this Picture, the Client’s Name is Rex; check the one you are looking for.
2. Show them you’ve read their job description
Please read the job description from A to Z and understand what your clients want you to do for their business or Whatever the project is related to.To understand it the best way, let me show you an example. The Description is present in job in which the client requires writers for content who are focused on Science and Religion or whatever, so they can write the best content for their website and as well as for their Social media handles.
3. Share a surprising piece of knowledge
While writing your proposal, share something catchy, attractive, and pleasant to your client so that you can grab their attention to your submissions. Try to catch them in your first two lines of the knowledge you are sharing; doing this will not only capture your client’s attention, but he will come to know that who powerfully you grab his attention, the same you will do for his content readers.
4. Ask a thoughtful question
While writing your cover letter for Upwork, you must ask related questions from your client about the project to build their interest in your proposal rather than moving on to the next bid.
You can start questioning them with a statement, “Hi! I just read your job and it sparked a couple of Questions in my mind:
1. Ask Question Number 1
2. Ask Question Number 2
3. Ask Question Number 3
You can ask a minimum of 2 questions and a maximum of 3 to 4 Questions. It will make your client interested in you to get a quote from you and start discussing his project more.
5. Offer helpful Suggestions
Who wouldn’t like to take helpful Suggestions? Of course, no one! You can make your Upwork Proposal more stunning if you offer your clients helpful suggestions that can boost their sales and bring value to their business, they would love to talk to you about their projects in detail, sometimes they become very, very happy, and they hire you after reading your Upwork Proposal regarding their Job Post.
6. Don’t open with “Dear sir or madam”
Starting from your first line, don’t open up your Upwork Proposal like “Dear Sir/Madam, I have read your project details and it……”
Instead, open up like this “Rex, Hi! I just read that you are looking for a “Social Media Management” Expert. But before anything…….”
7. Break the ice with a compliment
When you write your Upwork Proposal, you must be politely thanking them for starting your business. This will help break the ice between yourself and your customer.
Let Say, You add this complement in your Upwork Proposal letter “Rex, Hi! Congratulations on starting your online blog. I can help you write content that can engage readers all over the world and can boost your audience and traffic by 10x by my proven strategies; here is the link to my past work directly related to your job details.”
8. Find common ground, then mention it
While reading the job description in detail, you should find common ground to which the client is pointing your attention; you have to note that point and talk around that because your client will be comfortable and want more to hear from you in this circle. Grab that points and start talking to your client about his project, i.e., If he is talking about content writing, you should talk only about content writing rather than talking about how expert you are or talking out of yours’s client’s interest; they don’t care how much you are expert they need their work to done perfectly by the freelancer they hire for which they’ll pay you $$$.
9. Show them a relevant Piece of work you’ve done
In doing so, they will understand better that you are a great fit for this project.Also, they would be eager to ask you questions about the relevant work you have done for the past clients. This is a fantastic option to make your Upwork suggestions more appealing, much stunning, and much eye-catching.
The best way to share your Relevant work is to:
1. Upload all your work to Google Drive and share the link to your clients in your Upwork Proposal.
2. Directly attach your work in the Upwork sample Area where you use to attach the samples, i.e., you can upload up to 10 samples, and each has a size capacity of 25 Megabytes (MB).
10. Tell a Story About a similar client you helped
If you have worked on similar projects, Interns, Jobs, or you might help someone with the same project, you can tell them about that. Also, you can attach the relevant work done in the story you are telling to your client.Tell them how you helped your client with your expertise and boosted their sales and audience, and you bring their business from having zero to top. For make them sure you can add up the screenshot of the results that you have driven for your client’s work you are talking about, this way they will be 100% sure that you are a great fit for them, and they will hire you as soon as possible and the submit their requirements to you about their project.
11. Say something that shows your expertise
Now here comes the part you will talk about yourself, your expertise, and the work you have done so for past clients, also. You can mention your experience and the $$$ You earned from the past projects you have done, your current Ranking, i.e.,
For Upwork: Rising Star, Top Rated, Top-rated Plus, and Expert Vetted
For Fiverr: Level 1 Seller, Level 2 Seller, and Top Rated Seller
You can also add that you got 5 Star raving Feedback from your clients on the projects you have done from them, also their testimonials.
But these all must be very short and precise. Your whole Upwork Proposal Should not Exceed more than 6-7 Lines.
12. Don’t talk all about yourself
You are writing the Upwork Proposal for the dream jobs you want. It would be best if you remembered that you have to talk less about ( I ), i.e., About yourself and more and more about your client’s Job details and description to build their attention to your job proposal.
13. Research the client before writing a proposal
What does this mean? Well, it means you have to research the client well and gather all the required information needed before you start writing the Upwork Proposal.
Well, you need all this info mentioned below:
1. Clients Recent History.
2. Client’s Feedbacks.
3. Client’s Ratings.
4. Client’s Hire Rate.
5. Client’s Payment Method Must be approved.
6. Average Hourly rate Paid to Freelancers.
14. Never spam them with copy/paste
Never spam your clients with copy/paste templates; they would come to know that you have used the copy/paste template to get the job.
Make your own Upwork Proposal every time you apply for the job/project you want to work on.
Always remember one thing “First Impression is the last impression.”
15. Tell them pitfalls they should avoid
Help them out by telling what they should avoid while doing business, making their strategies correct, searching out for the mistakes they are doing, and telling them not to do; this is a great way to grab a long-term client.
16. Don’t Focus too Much on Your Education (No one cares)
This is my personal experience no one cares how much educated you are, they only care if you have proven your skills and drive great results for the projects you have done for your clients, So this will be friendly advice don’t bother to write about your education too much, they already know how much educated you are, because it is mentioned on your profile as you can see here:
17. Keep items simple and to the point
While writing your Upwork proposal, you must keep all the stuff simple, easy, and related to the job description; in short, tell your clients what they expect to listen to. To understand this, consider yourself as you are a client and find the best freelancer to get your work done; this is a great way to think about how your client thinks and what type of expertise he is looking to hire and work with. Believe me, I practiced it, and it’s very cool you will get to know what type of work your client is looking For.
18. Don’t Write unnecessary and long paragraphs
Don’t write essays in your Upwork proposals, and clients wouldn’t consider looking at least at your Cover letters. Here’s what you need to be doing to ensure that your proposal on Upwork is stunning and rocking.
1. Don’t Talk out of the Ground (Talk only about your job description).
2. Again, talk less about yourself and more about your client’s work.
3. Only talk about the Client’s Problems solution, Suggest him in 3 to 4 ways to solve their problems.
4. Short, sweet, and precise proposal focusing on the pain point.
Remember Few Points:
- Your Profile Should be 100% Complete.
- The client’s reviews are very important. Get a good one always.
- Don’t bid on the job if you can’t do it.
- Under-promise and overdeliver.
- The portfolio is key.
- Few testimonials on the profile are a goldmine.We have mentioned the best 18 ways to write your Upwork cover letter effectively, follow up and see how your results changes into days, or weeks.
Thank You For Reading; Should you need any queries or suggestions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us., We would love to listen to them.