How to Write a Winning Freelance Proposal

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Writing a successful freelance proposal necessitates moving your focus away from your own accomplishments and toward solving the client’s specific challenge. A successful proposal is brief, personalized, and provides immediate value.

It’s critical to understand that there is no one-size-fits-all method for submitting winning bids. Remember that humans are reviewing your offers, not bots or some supernatural person from an unknown foreign location. However, it will not help if your proposals appear to be templated rather than creative.

Humans experience feelings such as excitement, eagerness, anger, disappointment, frustration, and boredom. Your proposals have the potential to elicit any of the emotions listed above, as well as others.

As a result, you must take care to ensure that your proposal evokes the appropriate emotions, which can significantly increase your chances of winning a high-paying writing gig.

We’ll share the list below, and then I’ll attempt to explain them later.

Start with a salutation.
Briefly introduce yourself and tell your prospect how you found their job posting.
Show great interest in the job opportunity
Show that you understand the job requirements
Demonstrate your willingness and ability to fulfill the job requirements
Back up your claims by indicating relevant skills and experience
Give a promise, security, or an attractive offer
Express your eagerness to hear a positive feedback
Close with a salutation
Always attach your CV, sample articles, or links to your portfolio

1. Salutation

A warm salutation will get your prospect ready for a conversation. It’s inviting to start your proposal with ‘hi’ or ‘hello.’

Note that it would be better if you find the prospect’s first name. That way, you can start with something like ‘hi Mary’ or ‘hello Mario.’ You get the drill, right?

2. Introduce and familiarize with the employer

You don’t want to bump into your proposal without giving an idea about who you are and how you learned about them.

Say something like this:

I am a freelance SEO copywriter with 5+ years of experience. I was searching for writing jobs on LinkedIn when I stumbled on your job posting.

I am a 6-year experienced freelance technical writer. Simon Crater from Paperworks incorporation advised me to apply to your job posting.

When you introduce and familiarize yourself with an employer, it helps them feel at ease with you. Nobody wants to work with an alien from Mercury. Hiring managers want to feel connected with you in some way.

3. Show genuine interest in the job

You must know that every employer is looking for someone that can make a difference in their company. Guess who can make a difference? Someone who loves what they do, of course.

See an example of how to show interest in a job posting below:

I have sent a couple of proposals in the past week, but your job description stands out, mainly because it perfectly aligns with my skills and experience.

When I read your job description, it really jumped at me because the requirements are what I am skilled and experienced at exactly.

4. Show you understand the job requirements

Employers don’t have time to explain what they need you to do, so they do their best to include all the details in the job description. Showing you understand their needs and summarising the requirements is a great way to get them interested in you.

5. Demonstrate your willingness and ability to fulfil the requirements

After showing that you understand the requirements, it’s time to boast about your willingness and ability to fulfil the requirements. You should talk about how you took down several Goliaths with your sling and stone.

6. Back your claims with relevant skills and experience

Boasting is piece of cake, and employers know that not everyone can do what they claim they’ll accomplish. So, you have to show your relevant experience by highlighting businesses you worked for and how your services grew the company.

Adding as many experiences as possible will go a long way in making your prospect confident in your ability to truly transform their business.

7. Give a promise, security, and an irresistible offer

If you carefully follow my suggestions up to ‘no 6,’ it’s very likely that your prospect is already interested in a conversation with you.

Now, this is where you can seal the deal. Give them something they’ll be unable to ignore. Something like:

I’ll revise your article until you are completely satisfied
I’ll write for half the price in the first month
Don’t bother about paying me if you don’t like my first job, though you’ll really love my work.
I guarantee you’ll get 100% original and quality articles all the time. No plagiarism! No bad grammar! No wrong spellings! No boring fillers and fluffs!

8. Express your eagerness for a positive feedback

Many people think telling your clients that you look forward to their positive feedback makes you sound desperate. But that’s not true. On the contrary, it passes a message that you are proactive and have a serious and jealous attitude to work — what every employer wants.

9. Close with a salutation

Now, wrap up your proposal with a salutation. At this point, we’ll advise you to stick with the regular salutations, such as “best/warm/kind regards,” “sincerely yours,” etc.

We have seen people recommend that you should act jovial and say something like “cheers” or “thumbs up.” Some prospects may not have a problem with using such words, but not everyone will take you seriously if you sound quite informal.

So, it’s better to always be on the safer side, right?

10. Attach your CV and other relevant credentials

CVs are not the only things employers look out for when hiring, but it’s an important document to determine the best fit for their company.

That being the case, you should have a detailed and updated CV that you attach to your proposals. We recommend Intelligent CV if you need to create or update CVs. You can use the app from the comfort of your smartphone for free.