Tip and Different Strategies for Writing Winning Proposals

Vladimir · 2024-12-29T13:12:57+00:00

Hey everyone, In my opinion and experience, there's not just one way to write a winning proposal. Some expert freelancers like it short and to the point, so...

Eve

Kelly_E A client that has had bad experiences with other freelancers before is basically my target client. They're the ones that will appreciate the work I do, and also understand why I charge more. Those and brand new Upwork clients. The worst ones for me are those that have been around for a couple of months or a year, and are still looking for a dirt cheap freelancer that can do excellent work.

Eve

Mark Yeah, I agree. A lot of freelancers do it, so I assume it does work. But it's just not for me.

I think one useful thing to know is that when a client opens a proposal, the answers to their questions are shown on top, so that's the real introduction. The cover letter seems more like a continuation.

My first sentence is usually something like
"Hi, thanks for reviewing my proposal. I have 10+ years experience working in the iGaming industry, both in-house and as a freelancer."
Maybe that comes across as psychotic, but I don't really care.

Looking at my stats, 2/3 of my proposals are viewed, and I'm not sure, but I think as an average for Upworkers that's not too bad.

And yes, I also turn down a lot of jobs. Two only this last week. I'm not interested in working with clients on boring projects or with clients that seem nightmareish. Steady long-term work with clients that treat me as freelancers should be treated are the only ones I'm interested in.

Kelly_E

Eve "Dear" is out? Darn, that makes me feel old. I haven't written a real, snail-mail letter in forever, but of course I still remember that you would never start a real letter without it... and the whole point is trying to feel real...

Time to test "Hi David" vs "Dear David." After all, I just said test test test!

From the stats I keep (also mentioned above)—name gets more clickthroughs than no name. When I said above that I don't know if it does better, I meant quality—I don't know if the ones that don't click might have been the better jobs, etc. Like you! And I haven't had Mark's experience with anyone telling me directly that they disliked personalization—as I mentioned, people who do specifically talk about the proposal, always say really positive things.

This is such a lot of food for thought!

Hmm... having worked for myself for a long time before UW, and trying to wrangle something out of UW for years now as well.... Proposals are like dating—trying to find two working styles and personalities that mesh. So... if there are job-listers that wish I hadn't done that homework to find out more about them and save us both time... well, they probably aren't going to like the rest of the proposal, either—because if I can get us "matched" or unmatched before we've even spoken, that's what I'm trying to do!

Eve

Kelly_E I think it completely depends who your clients are. Most of my clients, and frankly most people in my industry, are in their 30s. And they're usually quite laid back and, maybe most importantly, European. We're not very formal. Even when I worked in-house, we never started emails and such with formal greetings and all of that. Usually, it was just "Hi Kelly," "Hello" or when extra lazy, just a smiley face. Haha!

So the important thing is probably that you communicate in a way that resonates with your clients. For me, that means being informal.

Petra

Kelly_E

"Dear David,"

I used to do that until I started hiring for a client and proposals sent to me started with "Dear David" which I found mildly irritating.

I also (funnily enough the same week) got told by a client that she thought that it's creepy and she actually asked Upwork to remove her name from reviews.

Ever since then I just start with "Hi".

Eve

Petra I used to do that until I started hiring for a client and proposals sent to me started with "Dear David" which I found mildly irritating.

Same. I've hired from the same account as several other people, and it's annoying to be greeted by another persons name. Almost feels like I have to start the conversation explaining who I am or apoligizing for not being that person.

Petra

Kelly_E

Wow—I've never had anyone say they didn't like my having read enough about them to know their name.

Would they tell you though? I've had a client tell me, talking about other freelancers. She said she felt it was creepy, and having been called by the previous person's name when I took over handling a client's freelancers wasn't great either.

Kelly_E

Petra Well, as I said (someplace above), people might not tell me something negative or I might simply miss out on some very fine folks who didn't reach out at all—but all the things that have been mentioned about my proposals have been high praise... in fact, kinda higher praise than I expect, but I have been making proposals to clients for a very long time so maybe I really do write "the best" proposals that (some) people have seen (in my field) on UW?? I can't really fact-check that, haha...

But yeah, as also mentioned someplace above, it's advice written into Upwork's own onboarding & FAQs (unless they've updated it)—so between UW's recommending it and it seeming in my mind (and from occasional direct feedback) to be a good way to do things, I've just continued on with it.

It appears, from this very interesting discussion, that it's time to see what happens to my stats if I do the pre-click intro differently.

Alexandra

When I started out and realised (because I hired on UW) that the first line counts, my stubbornness got the better of me and I decided to start my cover letters with a "thank you for..." Because I was genuinely grateful, but also because I want clients to CLICK ON THE **** THING if they want to find out more. Probably not best practice, though.

For those who do consider it worth their time to read my cover letter in full, I sometimes add my time zone and business hours, especially when the client mentions response times and availability as a criterion.

Petra

Alexandra

Clients see the first two lines.... And empty lines and spaces are truncated. So "thank you for.." would just look super weird 🤣

Ravi

Alexandra
Yes, I should probably add that I work PST hours.

Kelly_E

Petra Oh, I see—I thought she meant there was something after the "Thank you for."

(For instance I tested "Thank you for clicking through to my proposal and extra goodies" for a while, before launching into the usual... I think it was worded a bit more smoothly than that, but it's been a while because it didn't give me any bump.)

Petra

Kelly_E

it didn't give me any bump

I'm not really so surprised lol. At the time the client saw that, they had not actually clicked on anything 🤣

Alexandra

Kelly_E I do in fact write more than "Thank you for..."😂 I have no reason to be unprofessional in my communication.

Kelly_E

Petra True, but it's a tried and true sales/ copy technique: assume the sale (or click!) and thank in advance. Gotta test to see how things work in different contexts!

Honestly when UW was working better, I didn't vary my approach much, or do so much A/B testing. I brought what worked in proposals when I worked for myself off-UW, and just did that.

Now if it's been a month of meh, I'll pull in something new (or old) and see how/if it changes the clicks, etc.

Ravi

Kelly_E
Same here.
Only recently have I begun to revise my proposal.
At least, it got me a view.

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