If you ever wondered how you can craft winning proposals that get noticed by clients, keep reading to learn helpful tips and strategies to use, including:

• Crafting a Winning Proposal
• Getting Noticed
• Going Above & Beyond The Competition
• Practicing & Improving
  

Crafting a Winning Proposal

A proposal is how you reach out to a specific client on Upwork. Proposals are the first impression that potential clients are going to get of you. When crafting out your cover letter you will need to sell yourself, and stand out from the rest.

One of the most vital qualities of a winning proposal is originality. This is important if you want to stand out from the competition. Make sure that you fully read the job description and pick out the most important pieces of that job description and touch on the client's pain points in the initial cover letter section. You don't want to blend in with the competition.

If you want to succeed as a freelancer and land higher-paying jobs, you’ll need to get noticed and make the client feel that you are genuine. Clients will skim through all of their proposals, check out specific freelancer reviews and then make a final decision. According to Upwork, writing a winning proposal needs to be crafted well-or it will not get noticed at all.

Getting Noticed

If you want to get more noticed, stop copying and pasting your templates. Instead, craft every single proposal from scratch. You can have a template that you work from and mold for each job. However, if you're sending out a generic copy and paste proposal, you will blend in, and not get noticed. The clients will sense that you're not taking it seriously and they will most likely see you as not the best fit. No matter how much experience you have, make sure that you're writing out every single proposal by hand.

This is going to be on you to take the attention to detail necessary to have success. It's easy to just blame the process, or to blame it on the competition when you don't get noticed, but it's all on you. So don't blame it on other people, look at where you can get better as you craft your proposals.

> Other ways to get your potential client’s attention is to:

• Keep your proposal to the point and avoid unnecessary length

• Start the application with your client's name or company name

• Answer all their questions outlined in their job description

• Mention results you’ve driven for a similar brand or type of project

Start the proposal off by talking about the client's needs and their job posting before talking about yourself. This is a powerful way to get more noticed because it shows them you read their job posting and are there for them, and not just for a quick payday.

A lot of freelancers often make the mistake of copying and pasting the same proposal to every client because it's so tempting to do. But in reality, that is a sure way to get the clients to throw out your proposal immediately. So the sooner you can show this proposal is really for them, and not a generic copy & paste message that's unoriginal.

Clients can spot generic cover letters from a mile away. You can tell straight away which cover letters have been thought out in detail or rushed. Sure, It might be easier to have a cover letter that you use to apply for every job position, but you’re not going to land many jobs that way. A general template is good to use as a structure to follow, but spending a 10-20 minutes making it personal is going to provide much better results and land additional jobs.

Think about it, would you hire someone who didn’t put in the effort to write out a formal proposal, or someone who took the time to write it out?

Going Above & Beyond The Competition

Go above and beyond what the competition is going to do will also increase your chances of getting noticed and the opportunity for an interview. Whether you're providing some of your time for free to analyze the project, tell them why you're the best fit. Do everything you can to maximize each job opportunity (aka proposal) by attaching different files, case studies, and past testimonials from previous clients.

When you go above and beyond and take your time to craft a thorough proposal, the client will see that and give you a chance to see why you are the best fit. In their mind, they are evaluating a bunch of different freelancers to determine who is going to make it to the next round. Ask yourself what would they be looking for? Put yourself in the clients shoes and see which type of value you can provide to show them you are worth an interview.

Your entire goal with your proposal is to get it opened and have the client consider you for the job position. If your proposal does not get opened, or if it get's opened but does not make it to the interview round, then the time you put into crafting it goes to waste. Now I'm not saying that you are going to get a response from every single proposal. But I am stating an important point, which is to put your 100% effort into providing a reason for the client to consider you in your proposal. Since you know it will go to waste if it doesn't, use that as fuel and motivation to craft the most thought out proposals so you make the best use of your time.

Quality over quantity is a helpful mantra to keep on a sticky note when working on proposals.

Practicing & Improving

To start to separate yourself from the competition, don’t be hard on yourself. If you don’t get noticed right away, it’s good practice to keep crafting and sending proposals to different job posts Once you do the work, it will pay off, but you need to remember the big picture. Eventually when you find what starts to work for you, begin to model after that. Replicate the same type of proposal that worked for you in the past but personalize it for the job at hand.

An important word of caution: Be careful spending your time applying to tiny jobs or those that aren't worth your time. Make sure you're only applying to the best jobs because every proposal requires a time commitment if you want it to be a winning proposal. But it will pay off if you stick with it. Even one good week of freelancing can change your entire freelance business.

All it takes is a handful of high-paying freelance clients to change your entire income and career trajectory.

In Conclusion

If you want to hear more about how to craft winning proposals on Upwork, I made a YouTube video where I discuss multiple strategies I've learned on my journey that have helped me build better proposals that add value to clients and get noticed.

I also reveal a behind-the-scenes view of what Upwork looks like on the client-side so you can set yourself up for success. Be sure to watch this video for even more freelance value.

>>> Click here to watch my new YouTube video now!

- Paul Mendes

 Founder of Profitable Freelancer