Create Your Freelance Copywriter Invoice Template Effortlessly

Freelance copywriter invoice template

whether you're using cold email social media DMS or LinkedIn your cold pitch message to freelance clients has to be structured a certain way in order to cut through the noise your ideal clients are most likely bombarded with writers pitching them and not to worry that doesn't mean you shouldn't be trying to reach out to them it just means there's a huge opportunity for you to get creative with your cold pitch so that you can cut through the noise and prove that you're not just spamming them there are hundreds of bad cold pitches going out every single day so if you can avoid some of those mistakes you will get a response from your ideal freelance writing clients you will be able to increase your income and become a full-time copywriter making the money that you actually want to make and that's why I'm so passionate on the topic of cold pitching for freelance writing clients it's how I built my entire freelance business and it's why I share so much about this topic on this YouTube channel cold pitching is one of the most powerful client acquisition strategies for any service based business but especially freelance copywrators it's something I continue to do weekly in my freelance business even though I'm fully booked it's how I stay competitive it's the reason why I'm able to really detach from a lot of outcomes and not ride the roller coaster of feast and famine in my freelance business because it's a skill that once you have it nobody can take it away from you and even if you lose your highest paying client you're never going to wonder where business is going to come from next because you're not relying on referrals or upwork or any of these freelance sites you're really taking control of your own destiny and I love teaching writers how to do that by the end of this video not only are you going to know how to craft a cold pick so you can start sending today but I'm going to teach you how to write a cold pitch that has clients thanking you for reaching out to them most importantly I'm going to help you overcome the most common mindset issues fear anxiety that writers tend to have around cold pitching because believe me I have been there I'm Christine I'm a full-time freelance copywriter I work from home I make my own schedule I make a really good income as a writer something I never thought was possible for me I don't deal with a commute or office politics and I've taken my career trajectory into my own hands but that was not always the case I have been a traditionally employed nine to five sales person I never thought I would be able to make it work as a freelance copywriter until I learned the power of cold pitching now I'm taking all of those miserable years as a salesperson and teaching other writers the skills that I learned so they can get out and find clients writers tend to be more introverted people they probably don't have a sales background so I'm using the skills I've learned throughout my career to empower writers to take their freelance business into their own hands with cold pitching you're definitely going to want to subscribe to this Channel and like this video it's a free way to keep me going and creating content on here and I'm putting out two new videos per week definitely subscribe and like now let's get into some of the mindset stuff the fear and anxiety that freelance writers have around cold pitching nobody is going to feel comfortable reaching out to people out of the blue so this is a very common fear the only reason I believe I was able to get past that is because it was such a huge part of my job like my job every single day before I became a writer was to reach out to people I would actually go knock on doors and get denied I would cold call get denied I would cold email I would do the LinkedIn messages so I really built them muscle for not being afraid of rejection and it was because I had a sales manager over my head telling me how to do it and keeping me going when I wanted to quit so I hope I can be that person for you without being an annoying manager one of the hardest parts of cold pitching is not even just getting up the nerve it's staying consistent that's why in my course 30 days to paid we're doing a cold pitch accountability challenge in the slack support group that comes with the course and basically myself and all the writers in that Community are sharing who they reached out to what their mindset issues are and we're keeping each other accountable because I'm telling you consistency is really the hardest part about cold pitching I'll start by laying out why coal pitching is effective and then I'll get into some of the mindset stuff that holds writers back from carrying out cold pitches companies use cold pitching to generate business this is how these big tech companies and you know these Fortune 500s that's how they get their clients a company doesn't exist without bringing in clients and generating revenue and that's why in some form or another all companies have a sales function that's responsible for culpit I was in sales for so many years and I brought in thousands of dollars for the companies that I worked for by doing cold Outreach so again my mindset is just hey I did that for other companies why shouldn't I do that for myself you know companies are paying these gigantic salaries for sales reps to do what they do because they know it works someone has to hit the phones write the emails knock on doors to find customers so that's why when I see other people online saying you shouldn't take advantage of cold pitching or like oh that's not what you should do on LinkedIn wow that's pretty unfair because why shouldn't we be able to build our freelance business the same way all of these other companies are doing it so this is why you need to do it number one creating your own opportunities puts you in control so guys when you send a set amount of cold pitches to Ideal clients a percentage of those messages when they're structured correctly they're going to convert to a certain amount of calls that lead to a certain amount of clients so in sales and marketing we just call this a conversion rate it's like x amount of tries results in x amount of a book calls with clients but when you don't even send the cold message to begin with your likelihood of getting in front of that client is zero so that's what I want to talk about today is how to set your own Outreach goals because when you do that you can take Destiny into your own hands and play this numbers game number two is that cold pitching makes you proactive instead of reactive the other approach that a lot of copywriters talk about is oh um jump on job opportunities wait for referrals guys you can you know scour job listings and narrow down the ones that fit your ideal Niche or you can just make a list of who you'd rather write for and just start reaching out and ask if they need a writer it's that simple right so methods other than cold pitching they're making you wait for a company to create a job posting versus you just getting yourself out there and offering your services as a business owner you may even catch someone before they go to post a job so you're ahead of the curve when you're cold pitching and running a business whether it's freelance or whatever else it really does require you to be proactive at every level so whether that's improving your portfolio or requesting testimonials from clients Freelancers really do have to be proactive this is the third and the biggest reason which is why I don't go on sites like upwork and Fiverr cold Outreach results in higher paying higher quality clients being on Fiverr and upwork you know you set your profile up you're kind of waiting to be found and I know you guys can maybe send proposals on there but you're still limited to the clients that are hiring on that platform and they're usually not the high paying clients I'm gonna be real with you I've never been on that platform I was cautioned in the beginning of my freelance career to to not bother with that platform simply because you can't command the highest rate on there plus they're taking a percentage of what you earn which for me I was never a fan of I'm not on upwork and Fiverr I'm not saying people haven't got great results I'm just saying that with the time that you spend making a profile on upwork and sending proposals and trying to like really Embrace that platform you could be on LinkedIn for free growing your network and sending messages to your ideal clients and gaining that exposure and visibility for free here's the two levels of preparation required before you begin cold Outreach like I said before it's best to not just jump in and go willy-nilly on this the key is to set yourself up properly online so that when a client receives your message they're going to be able to check your website your portfolio and your LinkedIn profile to see if they're interested as soon as you send a message that's what they do they they see your message if it resonates with them they jump right to your website and portfolio on your profile knowing a few things ahead of time is going to help you confidently craft cold messages because you'll know the elements you need to touch on each message but we have to get clear on a few elements before you even begin typing out your message back to establishing your online presence right first things first you need to have that up and running like I said the moment you reach out they're going to be looking for your portfolio whatever else they can find to determine if you're the right fit for them and then the second important element is just knowing what's important to your target audience to your ideal clients we have to craft these messages specifically to the people that we're contacting if you personalize your messages it's always going going to result in higher response rates because your messages you have to remember they're not about you they're about the person that you're reaching out to you want to start by choosing your Niche you have to be positioned properly marketing expert Amy Porterfield she says that if you're speaking to everyone you're talking to no one so if you just label yourself as a copywriter you really risk getting lost in the crowd and contrary to what other people might think about niching down and choosing one specialty it doesn't limit your reach it actually helps you stand out in a sea of other writers and it really increases your odds of being Chosen and it's funny because one opportunity that I was interviewing for I got on the call with a client recently and they said you are the only person who applied to this job that actually only wrote in the tech space which blew my mind because I figured like all other copywriters were doing this guys they're not so if you have a specialty you don't realize how much you will pop yourself to the top of that list and and how much you will stand out to these clients let's get into mindset right most new Freelancers are afraid of annoying people by messaging them or being seen as salesy and it really actually holds everyone back from cold pitching we need to abolish that fear we need to cancel it because cult pitching is really the best way to build a freelance business from scratch let's begin by understanding what people actually mean when they say oh I don't want to be salesy it actually just stems from the fear of rejection the fear is that either you're not going to get a response to your message or that the other person is going to be annoyed that you reached out or maybe you're afraid you're going to say the wrong thing and screw up your chances of getting the client in the first place other people worry a lot that when they contact a client directly that you're being overly aggressive or too bold but really the secret sauce to successful cold pitching it's not just like oh let's get the perfect message it's about your mindset if you're going to repeat one Mantra throughout your cold pitching just let it be this it's a numbers game nothing's personal and when you remind yourself that you're playing a numbers game you can do what you need to do to succeed as a freelancer and just so you guys know LinkedIn is a professional networking platform the fact that it has this professional Focus it's very different from platforms like Facebook or Instagram where you're dming people sending someone a connection invitation it's not the same thing as DMS on Instagram people are doing it all day long there's nothing wrong with it and that's really what the platform is for so I want you to possibly if you want to take a picture of this slide and remind yourself whenever you have this voice in your head telling you like oh I'm not gonna do this I don't want to do this you know we have to do a little cognitive behavioral therapy here to fix our thoughts and really allow us to be confident and move through the fears if you are scared to send cold pitches I just want to remind you of like a few basic things this is not you being a telemarketer or calling someone in the middle of dinner you are not a pyramid scheme person asking someone to you know join your downline and you have to put this in perspective you're offering a service to marketers that need what you do and it does not make you sleazy I need you to know that the people that you're messaging they're already tasked with going on LinkedIn to find writers like you they want writers to make their job easier and I can just tell you that from personal experience because I also hire writers you are simply putting yourself in that lineup and there's nothing wrong with cold pitching you are not doing anything wrong next I want to cover the message structure so like I said before I want you to understand the structure of the message so that no matter what message you're sending you can be sure that it includes all of the critical elements and then I'm going to go into the seven different types of messages that you should have on hand for when any situation comes about when you're communicating with clients first let's talk about message structure this is where you're going to really just fill in the blanks because once you have this down you can create highly personalized messages at scale and what that means is that you're sending a lot of messages but every client thinks that they're receiving a personalized message from you that's the goal of what we're doing with our cold pitching the secret to writing a non-salesy message to your ideal clients is personalization that's the number one thing to take away a personalization is what distinguishes a marketing or a mass email from a personal message that actually requires a response like we open messages that are personalized to us we know that right we do it with the mail we do with emails but like I said to get traction with cold pitching you're gonna have to send a bunch of cold pitches so that's why we need a way to personalize these messages efficiently so we don't spend all day researching our clients to personalize these messages right here at the top I really want you to write this down in your workbook on page four this is the message structure it's really important because having the right structure really is the difference between getting your message read or just skipped over entirely and you're going to use this structure of a message no matter what platform you're using so if you are doing cold email if you are doing Fiverr if you are doing upwork this message will still apply to you the four must-have elements of this message in order to grab their attention and get them to respond it has to include their name the reason why you're reaching out why they should give you a chance which is that your Niche you should give me a chance because I write in your Niche and then number four something personal about them that's what really hits home do you see how all of these things are customizable let's get deeper on that right I want you to address them by their first name only Hello Jake that's it you know hi Jake a lot of things we can do in messages could send these red flags that a message is Spam I was taught this trick really early on in sales just say the person's first name and a comma you want to be direct and to the point and you also want to write like you're on their level don't try to soften how you address them because think of when you get a call from a telemarketer they always talk in a certain way it's like kind of robotic and you know immediately it's about to be a robo call or something like that I want you to just make your message pretty direct and to the point so that you don't sound like spam number two is just get right into it say why you're reaching out to them don't beat around the bush don't have openers like I hope you and your family are well like don't do it just say I'm reaching out to see if you need help with your content marketing strategy I'm reaching out to see if you're looking for a writer just come right out and say it because you have to think of it from their end a lot of people are sending them irrelevant messages all day long like stuff that doesn't even have to do with them right we all get these messages and you're like what this I don't even do that for a living why are you reaching out to me for this job you need to immediately clarify that what you're offering has to do with their job directly to actually get their attention and then stating why you're qualified to write for them right so just saying you're a copywriter it isn't enough it's really not compelling this is where your Niche comes in you want to mention that you've worked for clients like them that you've helped other clients with their exact problems again if you haven't written for clients yet I understand that that's going to be a little bit difficult but just by me saying in my initial pitches I'm a B2B technology writer I write in the tech space that gave me the credibility that stood out to them and that helped them give me a chance as a new writer you could say something like I write for health and wellness companies like well and good and the honest brand it's just saying hey I helped companies like you and then you want to mention some something personal about their brand or them this is a cherry on top and this is what 100 makes you stand out from any other pitch they're receiving you want to end your message like this by saying hey by the way I saw this about you when you do this it's almost like when you're in a job interview and the employer goes hey why do you want to work for uh why do you want to work for our company and the reason they ask that is companies want to know that you have a specific interest in them not that you're just looking for any client that's going to throw you work I usually give them a compliment on their web copy or their blog or I see oh I saw you in an interview like I said before we want to do this quickly I don't want you to spend time researching every company that you message it's too much but you can still call out something specific to show that this isn't a mass email and that you meant to reach out to them and just bookmark this moment because I'm going to actually show you in the templates how to search for Relevant things that you can include right there here's where we get into the actual messages different client interactions are going to obviously call for different responses I want you to save these templates they're just have them on hand because the goal here is for you to look at these templates and just not spend so much time overthinking how to creatively reach out to clients that's the whole point of templates is we're not staring at a blank screen we know what we have to say we just have to structure it and fill it with the right information definitely take the time to use the workbook that I provided if it feels like I'm going through the slides too quickly just like take a photo with your phone of the screen so you can save it and obviously if you join the course you'll have all these templates and more provided for you with a more detailed breakdown but for now if you want to steal these templates just know this is your chance the first one is the connection request message if the person you're targeting is not already part of your network you should send them a connection invitation this is the whole growing your network part of LinkedIn when you go on LinkedIn it's going to give you the option of leaving the invitation blank or using like a generic message always add a note because this is your opportunity to use the message structure that I gave you this is a Bare Bones message it's the shortest one because you only have a certain word count and that's what it looks like life so when you go to connect with somebody on LinkedIn it's saying you can customize this invitation you can fill that out right there just know that you have 300 words it's a very short to the point message but I when I tell you I built my entire freelance business with these little connection requests there it is right there that is how I did it typically I would get a response or I would follow up and that brings me to my second template which is okay they've accepted you know when they accept your per uh your request what it's going to look like is your message automatically appears again in your own inbox so like they accept your request like you send out this connection request it kind of disappears but the moment they accept a little conversation chat box shows up that's your opportunity to write a follow-up message if they don't respond to your first message here you actually can write a longer message you could say something like thanks for accepting my invitation here's a link to my portfolio do you have time to briefly connect this week or Wednesday so I can learn more about your content marketing strategy and how I can potentially help but you can write a longer pitch message it'll go something like thanks for accepting my invitation here's a link to my portfolio do you have time to connect briefly this week on Wednesday so I can learn more about your content marketing strategy and how I could potentially help but what's important here is that once they've accepted you know that they saw your message it's okay to come in now with a bit of a stronger message let's talk about ctas also known as a call to action a call to action in your cold pitch message is really just a short simple phrase that usually appears at the end of a message and guys as copywriters that's ctas are going to be our lives like our clients are going to want us to craft and write ctas it's really just you asking the person to do something that moves the interaction forward for copywriters you're gonna end your cold pitch message in two ways you're either gonna ask for their interest or ask for their time so okay what do I mean by that when you have a CTA that's interest based it's saying hey are you currently looking for freelance copywriters for your email marketing strategy that's like a first message that you would send but then by the second follow-up message you can come in a little stronger and say hey do you have 15 minutes this Friday so I can learn more about your marketing strategy and see if we're a good fit one is appropriate for the first message the other one is more appropriate once they've heard from you and they have an idea of who you are so like think of it like being on the dating apps right which I've definitely had my go on there like it's so weird when guys will send the message like the first thing they message is like hey want to go on a date it's like well we haven't even had a conversation yet calm down you gotta come in with a softer approach just gauge whether the person's interested in you then you can ask for their time and once you confirm that there's a need for your service and that they are interested in you then you move in with that time-based call to action do you have 15 minutes this Friday the reason I harp on this and included it is that a lot of Freelancers they don't include this they think they're being too pushy or they think that the message is self-explanatory it's not true when someone receives your pitch they've read your portfolio they are interested now your call to action is just going to make it as easy as possible for them to respond because think about it this way you're basically giving them the words to to use to respond to your message you could say do you have 15 minutes this Friday they're going to respond back with yeah Friday works just think of the CTA as the final line in your email that makes them take action on everything that they just read that you sent them I hope this video helped I'm holding a free workshop at the end of November beginning of December if you are watching this in real time where I am showing you where the high paying clients are hiding and how to best position yourself to get responses from them definitely register for that webinar it is live it is live live live so I get to interact with you guys which I'm so excited about there's three available dates and you'll find the link in the description box below I would love if you would register and gain this free information from me save your spot before they are taken