How to write an upwork cover letter that stands out

all right so big video uh turns out that around 80% of people don't actually make a single Dollar on upwork um people think that the more proposals I send the more likely I am to get a job but that's just not the case a lot of people have actually reached out to me and said that you know they've sent a lot of proposals but they're not getting any traction and they blame it on their lack of experience and that's just not the case so let me give you every single reason that I think a client does not respond to your proposal so one your cover letter sucks um I'm going to get into that this that's the whole point of this video two uh your profile is bad now I'm not talking about your lack of experience I'm talking about you go on your profile bad profile picture bad bio skill sets don't match title doesn't match what the job description is or what the client is looking for you don't have a good portfolio you don't have any examples proof of work things like that and three you just didn't give it time I've had clients literally reach out to me months after I sent my proposal and after I apply to their job a lot of people are just sending a proposal and then expecting a response the next day like give it some time now notice how I didn't mention experience or lack of experience in this because I genuinely don't think it's that big of a deal as long as you're providing some sort of value to the client okay so I'm not going to talk about you know the profile the portfolio um the experience or things like that for this video I'm just going to focus purely on the C letter okay so let me ask you a question say you sent like 10 different prop proposals for 10 different jobs with 10 different cover letters if I were to go into your account and take all those cover letters that you sent all 10 of them put them side by side you know excluding the intro and I guess like the conclusion would I find any similarities with those 10 cover letters if your answer is yes then there you go we can start there every job every business owner every brand every client on upwork is different but you're sending the same exact cover letter to every single one of them just think about that like you can't just take a cover letter template change two or three words and say that's a brand new unique cover letter no it's not like if I was just starting out what I would do is literally custom write every single cover letter for every single job that I apply to I don't care how long it takes me yes it's going to take a lot of time but that's what I would do one it'll help develop a good habit of just going through the job description and writing a cover letter that directly speaks to the client and two if you do this you already separated yourself from 90% of the crowd everybody else is using a template everybody else is copying and pasting everybody else is doing something generic nobody is custom writing every single job proposal that they send so if you aren't changing any words in your cover letter or you're just changing you know two or three words or if you don't spend the time to actually go through each job description and look for what the client is struggling with and how you can help then don't be surprised when you don't get a response another thing is you should go through your cover letter and just check for yourself how many times you're using the word I like not not the letter I you know that goes into words but I'm talking about the word the one letter word I like read through your cover letter and see how many times you have that word in your cover letter and I think you'll be pretty surprised it's there way too often instead of saying I've done this for this many years I've provided this for this client I have this much experience I attached some links for you that I've done for them like instead of doing that just say here are some links that you can take a look at here are some work example links that you can take a look at that directly relates to what you're looking for boom just take out the eye make it about the client provide value to the client like keep it simple just what's the problem what's the client going through here's the solution that's it just don't no one wants to hear about your experience or what you've done in the past or like who you've worked with unless they asked for it um but in your cover letter just just I wouldn't okay so I went on upwork and then I kind of scrolled through and found some jobs uh on the first page um and I'm just going to send write a cover letter I haven't looked at the jobs yet I just saw the title and like the first sentence or two and thought it would be good fit I found three different jobs um and I'm going to apply to every single one of them and write a custom cover letter with what I just talked about in mind okay so the first one produce six Instagram post uh I'm looking for a designer um I prepared a brief for con consideration if you're interested kindly share your portfolio I like to get six Instagram posts okay so this person attached a brief for you to take a look at and they they're literally telling you exactly what they're looking for okay so this is the brief they're giving you their page um design requirements types of post expectations um you know reference pages that you can look at so with that in mind let me apply and write a cover letter for this okay so let's say I'm brand new starting out and I want to apply to this job what I would do is literally this is how I would write the cover letters so I'm going to actually copy this and just paste it here just so uh I don't lose it so I don't or so I don't have to keep scrolling going up and down okay so what I'm going to do is just type hi okay so they're looking for six Instagram posts and they gave a brief of what they're looking for so when you send the cover letter the client actually just sees the first like two sentences um before actually unless they click on it then they can see the whole thing but the first two lines are very important you want to make sure that you're getting their attention hooking them in those first two sentences so what you want to do is in those two sentences get them so hooked that they have no choice but to click on your proposal and once they read through your cover letter again give them no choice but to actually become interested and give you a response I've created the six Instagram posts ahead of time for your review below completely free boom that's that's that's the first sentence now you might be complaining oh I'm doing free work yes um that's the only way you're going to get attention what I'll do if I'm starting out literally attach like I would create these posts ahead of time and do the work for free and attach them below you have to do something to stand out but this stands out from everybody else like you're doing you're literally doing what they're asking for for free you're not even talking about payment or anything like that or your rates now I don't Advocate I'm not advocating you to just do free work all the time but the reason why I put this here is just to get attention because if you look through the this thing that they sent they said here uh the expectations first they want to get those six Pro posts but they're also looking for full content creation services on a consistent basis so it looks like they're looking for someone who can provide these six posts and then kind of see your designs first kind of like an as an example or like a trial run and then once they like what your work and what you do then they want to start with the three to four posts a week I guess for full management duties so that's why I would do this if I was just starting out create these six post this trial run do it for free do it for free and then just attach it in the cover letterer again this is going to take time but it gives the client a reason to actually click on your cover letter no strings attached just wanted to show you a bit of what I can do okay so what you can do is like create these six Instagram posts but instead of actually putting um the PDF file the actual PDF file like take a screenshot or something of the graphics or of the post and then put that in the cover letter and then they'll ask for the actual PDF files and then that's where you can kind of work your magic and talk with the client but again this is just the cover letter is just to get the client's attention no strings attached completely free here are six Instagram posts exactly what you're looking for I just want to show you what I can do but yeah that's pretty much it uh if you're interested or like the work that I've shown I would love to discuss things further with you and tell you exactly how I can grow your accounts with high quality posts thank you boom and then I would erase this that's it three lines or however two lines of actual cover letter and the high and then thank you like this would be it and then I would also attach you know my portfolio here okay so this is another one it says only Freelancers in the US May apply so I guess take that into consideration but I'm just like let's just ignore that I'm just going to focus on this um again I haven't thoroughly going to look at any of this but I'm going to show you um the importance of it what habits you can build doing this so take this copy it paste it here just so you can so you don't have to keep scrolling up okay so this person is looking for a copywriter which is the most important part they have designers already they need help with strategy social media paid and organic campaigns email marketing and everything in between and then someone who can reply quickly okay so this is what I would write hi oh attached the no is the best copy writing strategies business as well has some tips that no one else in the industry talks about when it comes to email to social media and email marketing boom first two lines uh um get their attention now with this you can literally just find some copyrighting template that you find online look up tips tips and tricks on email marketing uh social media paid campaigns online uh find a dock on it boom like I literally just came up with this now and it provides tons of value for the client everybody else is talking about me my experiences what I've done whatever this just focuses on let me help you this is what I can do for you it gets straight to the point you could also put if you're open to it I can provide you with a free audit on how I can help grow your business with just a couple easy steps now I'm just making this up but like this gets attention it's simple to the point and it provides value again this is what you focus on providing value to the client give them a reason to respond to you give them a reason to open your cover letter give them a reason to you know take you seriously and actually take the time out of their day to you know give you a response and they're also looking for someone who can you know reply quickly so I pride myself in being able to communicate effectively and also being available 247 Boom the client also talks about like Alex Hero's books both Alex books his approach on blah blah blah is pretty interesting you can find this I don't even I don't even know what book she's talking about but you can find it online literally read through like like a overview of a book or you know find something about it and then write it here to discuss this project F you please get thank youas that's that's it and then I would delete this oh there and then I would attach the my portfolio in as well so yeah that's pretty much it uh give the client a reason to open your cover letter and actually read through it provide value to the client you should be able to read through your cover letter and tell yourself there is no reason why the client should not respond back to this message write your cover letter to the point where it's on the client and it's actually weird for the client to not respond to you that's how much value you should be providing in these cover letters that's the only way you're going to separate yourself from the crowd um keep in mind everybody's applying to these jobs everyone's sending these cover letter templates these basic templates separate yourself provide value keep it simple and to the point and be consistent with it give it time if there's anyone that still has any other questions uh just leave a comment and let me know

Channel: Thomas Im

Views: 2,418

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Id: l85TkansynM

Length: 15min 17sec (917 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2024