How to Write a Freelance Gig to Attract More Buyers

According to the 2017 study from the Freelancers Union, freelancing will hit the US workforce by 2027.

Indeed, freelancers grow in numbers and professional skills. Today they’re more forward-thinking specialists compared to in-house employees.

The only problem:

The more freelancers within the market, the faster competition grows. So, you can’t sit and wait for clients to come after reading your winning profile on freelancing platforms. Instead, you need to spend time looking for new gigs and landing new clients yourself.

If you’re a specialist who wants to grow a freelance business, you must be proactive and hunt for more gigs. Besides freelancing platforms, niche groups and communities are waiting for your offers, too!

So why not take them by storm? Master the art of writing your freelance gigs so that no one could pass them by.

Build a Catchy Visual Structure

What is the visual structure of your freelance gig? It’s the parts of your text a reader is most likely to notice when scanning it. So, make sure you craft the gig accordingly:

• Specify who you are (a copywriter, a designer, a developer, etc.).
• Show your skills (focus on those most relevant to a client).
• Let them know you understand their pain points.
• Make them see you’re responsible and that you won’t run from difficulties.
• Don’t forget about the contacts to reach you.

How to Build a Visual Structure?

First, think about what a potential client wants to see in your proposal. Second, incorporate that information into a consistent list of meanings. And finally, think of words to describe those meanings persuasively enough so that readers can understand you.

These instruments will help your freelance gig look more digestible:

• Subheads
• Bullet lists
• Short sentences and paragraphs
• Relevant images

Ensure it’s well-organized and free from spelling and grammatical errors.

Keep it short, and avoid huge blocks of texts. Build a visual structure of your proposal so that it would capture attention fast. It also needs to answer the “Why should I work with you?” question in no uncertain terms.

Attention to the First Line

The first line of your freelance gig is the most significant one: It hooks a reader and helps them decide if they want to learn more about you.

All courses and books on creative writing scream about it. Why? That’s because most freelancers keep on starting their proposals with something like this:

• Hello. My name is John Snow, and I’m a freelance copywriter.
• I’ll help you make the website design more appealing.
• Hi there! My name is Vanda, and I do text writing for your target audience.
• I am looking for a job!

Why are such intros awful? They are same-looking, undescriptive, and incompetent. More than that, they are too salesy, focusing on freelancers themselves.

A winning freelance gig is not about you. When posting it on social media (LinkedIn pages, Facebook groups, whatever), please think about a client first. You need to focus on their problems. Think of what will resonate with them.

Remember: You come to strangers to sell your skills. Not only do you need to show your worth, but also make potential clients notice you. Burst your way through the crowd of other freelancers.

Tips:

• Use numbers in the first line of your freelance gig. Human brains love them: Numbers promise something specific, make reading more comfortable, and organize the info logically.
• Start with an interesting fact to hook readers. But use facts that are relevant to your niche and offer.
• Add a picture. When you post a freelance gig in groups, forums, or online communities, an eye-grabbing image is your extra chance to get noticed.

Add Eye-Grabbing Pictures

Besides its eye-catching effect, a picture in your freelance gig serves two goals:

1. It makes your proposal rank better. (Publications with visual content have more chances to appear in users’ news feed)
2. A good picture shows that you have a taste, know the visualization basics, and take your freelance work seriously.

How to Choose Pictures for Your Freelance Gigs?

Consider the color psychology and color schemes in web design. They will help you influence users’ perceptions right. If you’re going to write a text in a picture, choose plain fonts to impact readability. Be creative: 

• Play with words
• Consider universal jokes everyone will understand
• Use relevant GIFs

But don’t use generic stock photos, don’t list your services, and don’t place the prices in pictures. Stay decent.

Feel free to use some handy tools to personalize your freelance gigs and their visual content for each social media platform. They will also help you schedule publications and check their performance.

Sell Your Strengths

The critical moment to remember: No one wants to hire a “freelancer.”

Hundreds of freelance specialists are on the market today. A client doesn’t need “freelance copywriters,” “freelance designers,” “freelance marketers,” and so on. They need an expert with specific skills.

So please never write anything like “I’m a freelance writer” in your proposal.

Instead, tailor your professional strengths to a particular job. Learn how to highlight your skills for every individual client. That’s a sure-fire way to start making money freelancing.

Even if someone looks for a freelance writer, they’ll need that writer to craft certain content: landing page texts, marketing emails, social reports, etc. 

So, the better you describe the value of specific types of writing you gig, the better impression you’ll make.

Focus on the overlap between what you have and what a client needs. Streamline your services so they would speak for themselves. Do not position yourself as a generalist:

Instead, elaborate on two or three of your best qualities, depending on how they relate to a particular job you offer.

Show That It’s Great to Work With You

The ugly truth of life:

People looking for your services had a negative experience of working with freelancers. Yes, they met irresponsible freelancers at least once. Some of your fellows missed deadlines; others couldn’t handle the task. More than that, some freelancers disappeared, ignoring a client’s comments.

This negative experience turns into a client’s fears and objections when working with freelancers. So, it would help if you withdrew them with your offer.

Show a client they won’t have any problems with working with you.

Let’s say you write texts. What can be a client’s objections here?

They may doubt if your writing style meets their needs and if you complete tasks on time. Or, they’ll wonder if you understand their niche inside out. They may doubt if you are open to edits or suggestions.

That’s what you could write in your freelance gig:

• We’ll discuss your project in detail, including your target audience needs and the result you want to get from the content asset you assign.
• I never miss deadlines, breaking down the work into steps so you could control the progress.
• I’ll ask for more guidelines and technical requirements from you to make sure I’ve understood everything right to craft a compelling text.

And yet, remember that a winning freelance gig is brief. So, write it without fear but edit without mercy. Your success with freelance gigs depends on many factors, but a well-crafted proposal plays a significant role in this process.

Once you know how to write great offers, you’ll book more clients. When that happens, you’ll need an invoicing platform to manage that growth and your freelance finances. And that’s where AND.CO is ready to help.