Why Cold Pitching is the BEST Way to Get Freelance Writing Clients as a Beginner
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a beginner freelance writer who’s looking for freelance writing clients.
But not just any clients.
You want to find excellent, high-paying clients, right?
Well, look no further, buddy!
In my experience, cold pitching is the best way to get new clients. Many beginners make the mistake of only looking for clients through freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or freelance writing job boards. Big mistake!
With freelance writing platforms, it’s often a race to the bottom. It’s hard to find clients and it’s even harder to find quality clients who will pay you what you’re worth.
And that’s where cold pitching comes in. If you’re not cold pitching, you’re missing out on clients that will pay you the big bucks.
Keep reading to learn what cold pitching is and why you should add it to your client acquisition strategy, especially if you’re a new freelance writer.
What is cold pitching?
Cold pitching is when you reach out to a potential client with whom you have no previous relationship and sell your services to them.
Why does cold pitching work?
Cold pitching is how I built my business from $800/month to $4K/month within the first six months of starting my business.
And, according to my recent survey of freelance writers, 44% of writers who make $1000+ per month cold pitch.
When you’re cold pitching, you’re finding the clients that you want to work with and you’re telling them why they should work with you. Not the other way around, which is how Upwork and Fiverr operate.
Here are the main reasons why cold pitching works:
1. Marketing teams are busy
If you’ve never worked on a marketing team before, let me tell you what it’s like: insane. Every marketing team at every company is overwhelmed. They have tons of projects they want to take on and they never have enough time or manpower to complete them.
Most companies know about the benefits of blogging for business, but they don’t have time to write all those blog posts. They don’t even have time to hire a blogger to do it for them!
2. Blogs are a long-term strategy
Businesses LOVE blog posts because they’re great for SEO (search engine optimization).
But SEO takes time to garner traffic and customers. Unlike a social media post that generates traffic and revenue quickly, it takes at least three months of regular, high-quality blog content to get the ball rolling with SEO.
Plus, a blog post lives on for years in Google. So, if you have several well-performing blog posts, that means you’re going to have a lot more website traffic and a lot more customers.
So, this is where you enter the picture: you come in with your perfectly-timed, professional cold email pitch, ready to help them achieve their blogging goals. If the marketing team has a budget to hire you, you will truly be a godsend to them. You’re taking a dreaded task off their plate so they can focus on their strengths and everyone is happy.
How to cold pitch
Before you start cold pitching, it’s important that you choose a niche, which is the industry you want to work in. You also need to create your portfolio, which is a collection of writing samples that show off your best work.
Your cold pitch email should include two things:
Details about your skills and experience
A link to your portfolio
If you don’t have any experience, then you can highlight your passion and knowledge in the niche that you’re working in.
For example, if you’re a blog writer in the pet industry, you can talk about all of the animals you’ve rescued or that you’re a professional dog walker. Because chances are, the person who’s opening your email has rescue animals of their own!
Obviously, it’s tempting to write just one cold email pitch and send it out over and over again, only swapping out the potential client’s name and company.
However, if done incorrectly, this can come off as totally spammy.
The trick is to leave a placeholder in your template where you write a customized sentence or two for each client. You need to demonstrate that you actually want to work for them and that you care enough about them to do a little research on their business. It’s literally just doing the bare minimum to get them not to delete your email immediately.
More tips for crafting your cold pitch
1. Keep it informal
2. Get straight to the point, but don’t be afraid to be a little long-winded
According to Campaign Monitor, cold emails that are 1400 to 1500 characters in length have an 8% response rate compared to emails that are 200-400 characters, which only have a 3.5% response rate.
3. Be confident
Not sure where to start? Download my cold email pitch kit, which includes five customizable templates and an organization tracker. This will give you the perfect starting point for crafting your own kickass cold pitches.
What about rejection?
When you’re a freelance writer (especially a newbie), you experience A LOT of rejection. When you’re cold pitching all the time, you’re really putting yourself in a vulnerable position. Most people will ignore you, and others will tell you no. And if you’re not used to rejection, that can sting. A lot.
My secret? I reframed how I thought of rejection, which gave me the courage to act despite my fear. Eventually, I lost the fear altogether.
You can read more about how I dealt with rejection and my top tips in this blog post.
Don’t let your fear of rejection be the one thing that holds you back from making your freelance writing dreams come true! Remember that rejection isn’t a reflection of your worth. Trust me, the pain of rejection is worth the freedom on the other side!
How do you know if you’re doing it right?
If you’re not getting at least a 5% response rate on your cold pitches, there’s probably an issue with your cold pitch or portfolio.
If you’re in The Freelance Writer’s Guide to the Galaxy, bring your cold pitch and portfolio to the next office hours and I’ll review them for you! Not a Galaxy member yet? Get the details on my self-guided course and become a lifetime member here.
If you want help creating your cold pitch and your portfolio, join my 1:1 mentorship program here.