Fellow Freelancers—try adding variety with videos in your job proposals!

[codyabear]

Hello fellow Upwork freelancers! 

If you are like me, proposals are one of the most fun, but frustrating aspects of Upwork! Always getting outbid, clients never responding, and even proposals getting declined for no reason at all. I found a bunch of templates on the internet on how proposals should be written, and my biggest takeaway from that was to make it less about me and ALL about how I can provide value to the client! It sounded easy enough! I began intensely reading job postings and thinking about how I could provide value based on the problems that clients were sharing. I noticed I was getting more responses when I changed my tone and framework, but I still didn't feel like it was great, BUT then I discovered my secret sauce.

Clients on Upwork want to work with freelancers that are friendly, genuine, and skillful. The skillful part can be assessed by reviewing our profiles to see if we've taken assessments, reviewing our portfolio, etc. However, friendly and genuine are a bit harder to gauge through text. So I started using video. I have found that recording myself on video for a minute or so shows how enthusiastic I am to work with the potential client and also gives them an idea of who I am as a freelancer! These videos usually start with a "Hello, my name is Cody, I've read your job post, and here is how I can successfully complete the work you are asking for..." of course the opener will be vary depending on the client and the work they need to be completed, but wow—video is easy to watch, it's engaging for the client, and takes way less time than writing proposals via messenger! 

I hope this tip helps others who are struggling with getting proposals over to clients and winning the bids, it sure has drastically helped my odds! If anyone else has tips on successfully earning new client trust and work, let me know! I'd love to hear about other ways fellow freelancers are leveling up their bidding process! 

Cheers, 

Cody 

[ce3cb603]

Thank you, Cody, for the tips.

I am new in Upwork and stuck on sending proposals and not getting any invitations as well jobs.

I hope your tips help me to grab my first job. 

[codyabear]

Welcome to the crazy game of UpWork! There is lots to gain from the platform, but it does come with a LOT of work and dedication to how you send proposals to clients! 

[2af03968]

that sounds great and we should replicate it

[codyabear]

Yes! Let me know how it goes! Of course, feel free to share your video here if you want to get feedback! 

[2af03968]

Yes I will share most probably today

[6064a7be]

This was extremely helpful and I'm definitely applying these tips.

[codyabear]

Awesome! I can't wait to hear how it goes! Keep up the awesome work! 

[407957a6]

You are quite right, I always have the same problem. Customers never respond when I submit a proposal and don't understand why?

[codyabear]

Yes! I had this issue for a LONG time! As I said, sending hundreds of proposals can feel defeating! I hope this approach helps you through your job search! 

[alen_prane]

Thank you for this info, Cody! I haven't thought about sending a proposal with a video 😮 But you are right, clients want someone friendly and genuine. In my experience I like to write a proposal to a client by writing different ideas/suggestions to develop his project with the current info they posted. Even if we do not follow those suggestions at the end they would help to let the client know how interested we are on the project by paying attention to every detail in the description 🙂

Thank you and good luck!

[codyabear]

Absolutely! Sometimes I will send the text-written proposal, and If I don't hear anything from them, I will send a follow-up video telling them how excited I am to work on the project with them! With lots of smiles and waves! 

[56f503f0]

This was extremely helpful and I'm applying these tips.

[codyabear]

Awesome Let me know how it goes! 

[Anonymous-User]

Isn't it strange, Upwork is now recommending using video?

I spoke earlier today to Support and was told hey, lots of freelancers are using video to promote.

Personally, I see very little benefit. Clients don't have time to watch all the videos, do they care you are friendly? They care you can get the job and that's why we have profiles and JSS.

Here is another thing, everyone rants about profile, yesterday I had 3 invitations to interview, yet only 1 profile visitor.

Now yes, clients can offer direct and one of those offers was a regualr client of mine that goes direct when they need assistance, but still 2 other invitations and only one profile view, that tells me clients aren't messing about with profiles, and that's without videos.

Personally, I think Upwork is trying to make them stand out from the crowd, which isn't a bad thing, but come on, 50  profile videos is going to drag the process out even longer.

[codyabear]

Hey Pete! It sounds like UpWork may promote your profile to clients posting jobs! There have been times when I ask clients how they found me in the landscape of thousands of other freelancers making the same thing, and their response... "Upwork told me to send you a message after I posted my job." In situations like that, AWESOME! I didn't have to spend any connects to get the job, and I just needed to deliver on what my profile promised. 

However, when I'm not so lucky, I don't want to leave my chances for a job to luck or wonder if a client read my proposal! With my video approach, I know when my video was viewed, and I can send a timely follow-up with the client to ask if they liked what they saw in the video and have a deeper conversation with them. 

As you mentioned, watching 50 profile views as a client would be exhausting, but most people don't want to put the energy into making a video to send a proposal. They want to copy and paste... I've been a client on Upwork, and I hated copy and paste cover letters! They were exhausting; a video was refreshing! All freelancers need to do what they think works, and this is my secret sauce to more jobs! 

[marioaro]

Nice tip! I'll definitely try that.

How long is your cover letter? How many paragraphs do you write knowing that your focus is now the video?

[codyabear]

My cover letter is around 2-3 sentences telling them how much time I can save and give them back! 

[d-infotech]

Great post

[codyabear]

Thank you! I hope you are able to try those tips! 

[56f503f0]

That's great to know. Thank you for sharing your secret.

[codyabear]

You are very welcome! I hope it helps to become a bit more profitable on the platform! 

[sabiha1270]

Insightful tip! Thanks so much

[codyabear]

You are very welcome! I hope it's helpful for you! Let me know how your search goes with the video intros! 

[beduria]

Great tip and insight, Cody! 

But yeah, gone are the days when the algorithm would pick your profile up and recommend for invites. Some profiles' algorithm require you to be more aggressive in client acquistion. It sucks now but we work on things we can control 🙂

[codyabear]

AH, Benedick! Your response is a breath of fresh air! You are exactly right! So many freelancers want to blame the algo, but who cares, we can't control that beast of a thing! We CAN control how we bid and how aggressive we are with proposals! 

RIGHT ON! 

Cheers, 

Cody

[ashrafkhan81]

Cody, thanks for sharing your thoughts. You may have had a "small" success with a few new clients with that method but it will still take a strong and persuasive proposal write-up to get the client to click an external link! 

You said, "it sure has drastically helped my odds!" I do not think that to be the case, about 70-80% of your profile earnings came from just 1 contract of value USD 19000+, and that contract ended in 2020!

So that is a wrong and misleading claim! And more than half of your 19 completed projects are from 2016 and before...and no new contract since July 2022 and total earnings in the last 10 months of 2022 from 7 projects is  USD 969! You've earned more in prior years with fewer projects! 

So I would not call it a "drastically helping the odds" for someone sending out 100s of proposals and researching proposal templets on the internet.:) 

[codyabear]

Hey Ashraf! 

As you know, bidding on Upwork is difficult... Unfortunately, budgets didn't align with what clients wanted to pay for the services they were asking for. I'm not setting a claim that videos will get you the job; of course, there are LOTS of other elements that need to line up in order to get an agreed-upon job started!

However, the number of responses I have received from my proposals has been drastic! I am constantly experimenting with text proposals versus video proposals and can tell you, for me, video proposals have worked far better than my text proposals. 

Hopefully, that clears things up! 

Cheers, and have a great weekend! I wish you all the best! 

[ashrafkhan81]

Wonderful! Can you share some stats on how many viewed your proposal and interviewed you? The stats are available on the My Stats page?

Here is mine...I have around 34% "view to proposals sent" ratio and 50% "interview to view" ratio. And my interview to Job offer rate is around 60% it is somehow not reflected in the stats page...

I am requesting this because many new freelancers will follow your advice and it may not give desired results! And a lot of them will end up spending time 

[02fba6ef]

Hi Cody, I have been on Upwork for few weeks. I applied strategically. I concluded that the problem aren't job-seekers, or their profiles or their proposals, but clients who post jobs but never hire (no interviews, no hires), including clients who had previous history on Upwork. I think the Upwork system should find a way to sort this out, because freelancer is spending connects for jobs that never hire (as great as your proposal for a job may be). Best wishes!

[pmarangi01]

It is a good approach

[f1ecd428]

This is a great idea! It's an easy way for the client to verify that you are not a scammer and can communicate well in english, while also taking a glimpse of your personality. Thanks for sharing!

[codyabear]

Yes! The scammer point is a very good one! I didn't even think about that from the client's perspective, but I am sure they deal with a lot of them! It's so easy for them to see who you really are via video! 

[0582353f]

Love it!  Thank you for sharing this.  I'm going to try it.

[codyabear]

That is awesome April! Let me know how it works for you and what you learn by doing it! 

[Anonymous-User]

Strangely Cody hasn't replied to the question that if it is so successful, why hasn't he got a new contract in over 2 months?

Something fishy here.

[codyabear]

Hey Pete! I thought I responded to this in another thread. I mentioned that I hadn't been as active on Upwork since I've been busy with some other longer-term clients. However, it's still a challenge to solidify a budget even after getting responses back from clients! I don't want to spread myself too thin, so I am very cautious with whom I enter job agreements with! 

[lizablau]

It was my question that you never answered.  You haven't landed a job here for months, so your post is misleading, and is leading hopeful freelancers to go through the hassle of creating a video when you have no concerete evidence that it'll increase their chances of getting hired. 

Plus, you wrote in your post: "I hope this tip helps others who are struggling with getting proposals over to clients and winning the bids, it sure has drastically helped my odds!" 

So you say creating videos has helped you "win bids" -- yet now you admit you haven't been active on Upwork, and the lack of jobs on your profile confirms this.  

Actually, I highly doubt most busy clients who are getting swamped with proposals will take the time to watch a video.

Again, prove me wrong.  Show me how this strategy is the secret to Upwork success as you claim. 

[codyabear]

Hey Lisa! It sounds like video creation may be more friction for others than I initially anticipated! It's never been a hassle for me to record a 60-second video to include with my cover letters to clients telling them hello, and why I would love to work with them 🙂 

I don't have concrete evidence that it will help everyone, so I should most definitely change the title of this post not to mislead other freelancers! I've used video intros on Upwork and other platforms to stand out from the crowd, and have also noticed it with other recruiters sending videos to me on LinkedIn and for me... it's a breath of fresh air! I'm certain this comes down to preference and personality types on whether this feels like  a great option to try or not! 

IMO, the equation is simple, if freelancers have been sending text bids and proposals with no responses, try a video; there's nothing to lose, and video provides analytics such as watch time and engagement that text proposals lack 😕 

Cheers, 

Cody

[Anonymous-User]

Cody, you don't have concrete evidence it helps you!! never mind everyone.

So, come on,  give us the truth.

Or are you videos so helpful to you that you get offers from clients and then turn them down because you are so busy? Now that is really doing the client a great service, way to go Cody!!

So cut the BS, and let's get to the truth.

[Anonymous-User]

I think it's Upwork, they are promoting this.

I had a chat with support on a completely unrelated topic, and guess what they mentioned........video proposals.

The anecdotal evicence that I've seen is clients don't like boosting and don't have time to watch videos,  They want to hire, hire the best that thier price point affords and get in and out in quick time, clients are too busy doing their own work to sit here looking at videos.

I have a very long term client that is fast approaching the 5% mark and I know they are busy by the amount of work they are giving me, and they don't look at all the proposals sent to them now, without videos, never mind with.

So all you video lovers, crack on, I will wait until the client gets sick and tired of video proposals that they just message me directly.