Igor S wrote:
Hi Melike,
It's a bit discouraging tho because I already have 10 years of experience and the connects are running low. I've already done the readiness test and had my 80 connects, left with only 28 connects for today and I'm sure they'll be out of stock by the end of the day. Knowing it's a monthly refill I'm starting to feel a bit worried.
By my 10 years of experience I'm not claiming that I'm "the designer" to work with. But it's hard to convince client proposals if they don't even click trough and go to your profile.
I've attached an example proposal I send so you can have an idea how I approach clients. It would mean a lot to me if you could run it trough and provide me with some feedback. Just to be sure I'm on the right track. Keep in mind I'm from Antwerp (Belgium), so if there are some improvements to make on my writing, feel free to provide me with tips!
I'm still trying to improve my proposals and profile too. But some advice from me:
Visit the topic "Tips from Upwork’s Talent Success Team", and the Upwork Resources section. Those include valuable tips for optimizing your profile overview and proposals. And dig deeper to improve your marketing effectiveness.
For your profile overview: Instead of including details about how covid affected your ongoing work, it is better to focus on how you can help clients, the difference you can create, a list of niche services you provide, and your achievements related to your job. Especially the first 200 characters should be point shot and grab clients' attention as they will be visible before they decide to click on your full profile.
For proposals, try to focus on the specific needs of that client and the requirements of that particular job. I prefer to write proposals as short as possible, including only the most important aspects as clients receive so many proposals and probably don't read everything written there. So you should convince your client why you are the best fit for that particular task, mention any experience directly related to it, (you can also attach related samples) and omit any unnecessary details as you can discuss them if the client is interested and writes you back. Try avoiding copy-paste proposals (of course you can copy-paste some sentences but using the exact same proposal for all the jobs is not a good idea).
And, you should claim "you are the designer to work with". There was an excellent explanation Preston wrote about that under a different topic. You are not claiming you are the most successful designer on earth (yet), but you should believe that you are the "best fit" for that job, not only with your skills but also with your availability, turnaround time, client's budget, and expectations so that you can convince the client.
Also, keep in mind that not all jobs result in hiring. For example, job posts from clients without a verified payment method rarely results in hiring in my field, so I usually skip them unless there is a big opportunity. In order to increase your chance, you can check the client's history (hire rate, rates of previous freelancers the client worked with, feedbacks) to avoid wasting connects. And if you can find some easy to do, quick jobs you can do, that will help you get some feedback and a JSS. Things will get easier after that.
<those are my observations and I hope they will help.
