Clients are the live wire of every business. If you don’t have clients then you don’t have a business. As a freelancer, you need to keep pitching for new clients to get the flow of clients coming in. The biggest mistake you can ever make is to start your business and wait for someone to hire you. Although one or two clients may come your way, pitching helps you increase you chances. The more clients you have, the more money you make.
Here’s a step-by-step process on how you can pitch to get new clients:
Step #1: Get clear on who your clients are
No matter how long you have been into freelancing, you need to consistently review your client avatar. Understanding who you ideal client is will help you in crafting the perfect pitch. Take note of how they think, their needs and how you can help them. Remember, your focus needs to be on your potential clients and not on yourself.
Step #2: Craft your pitch
One important thing you need to note about writing your pitch is that you have to keep it short and simple. You need to keep in mind that your potential client may be busy and would not have time to read a long email explaining all the services you offer.
Always address your potential client with their first name. It’s so much better to start on a friendly note. Emails that begin with “Hi Sally” make your client feel like they are receiving an email from a friend. Next, in one or two sentences give a short intro about yourself.
“I am [write your name] and I’m a freelance writer. I have had my work published on [write where your article was published].”
Remember to keep the tone nice and friendly. The idea is to make sure that they feel like they’re receiving an email from a friend.
The next thing you need to include in your pitch is to tell your prospective client why you’re sending them the email. You need to be brief and straight to the point here. Something like this:
“Just wanted to reach out to you to find out if you’d be interested in having someone to write your content for you. I also do some publicity work if you’d be interested in it too. I find your business interesting and I feel that increasing your reach will help you get more clients and promote your brand. Let me know if you’re interested.”
Step #3: Do a follow-up
It’s possible that you may not receive a reply as soon as you expected. If you don’t receive a reply after one week of sending them your pitch then send them a follow-up one week later. If there is still no reply then you can let it go.
The reason why it’s good to do a follow-up is that there are situations where the person you pitched to may have missed your email or wanted to reply to your email but forgot to do so. So don’t feel bad when you don’t receive a reply as soon as you send your first pitch.
How do you pitch to your clients?
Great tips here. It’s always good to have a good media pack with all your up to date stats.
Thanks Dannii
Oh these are brilliant tips! I think crafting your pitch is very important! I like the follow up after one week, too! Great post. xx
Thanks Sarah xx
I always find it hard to put myself out there and pitch to clients x
It can be hard but it gets easier x
Your tips are great, really helpful. As I’m working in a small business and this will help me for work too. x
Oh good. Thanks Anca x
This is my problem. I’m really bad at this, In fact, I’ve never tried pitching to any brands before. I really ought to. It’s on my list-of-things to do somewhere 😉 Will keep your tips in mind.
Ah nice. Thanks Dean.
Some great tips – pitching can be scary but putting some extra thought into it can really help!
Yea it can be..
As someone who has to make picthes to people from across all forms of working life, these tips are brilliant!
Thanks Stephen.
You are right, if you leave it up to clients you will not get many opportunities at all. It is good to pitch clients.
Yea it is..
This is very helpful for any type of business owner and/or freelancers. Especially loved the importance of being friendly when crafting your pitch yet keeping it straight to the point.
Yea it is.
I think doing a follow up is so important, it is something I do all of the time x
Yea it is important. I do it too..
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Great tips! Thanks for sharing <3
Thank you..
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