How to Write an Effective Cold-Email to Get Freelance Writing Clients
How do I get started with cold-emailing? How do I write an effective cold-email? Do you have any cold-emailing recommendations?
These questions are popping up in freelance writing groups all the time. So if you’ve been wondering the same, this is your day. I decided to answer all your cold-emailing questions. Read on to learn how to find clients to send cold-email to and how to write an effective cold-email.
Step 1: Figure Out Your Ideal Client
Before you get started writing a cold-email, you need to figure out your ideal client. The internet is full of businesses and brands that are looking for writers. The good news is that there are a lot of options. The bad news is that there are a lot of options. Unless you are clear on what you are looking for, you may end up feeling lost. If you feel lost, you will have trouble writing a cold-email and knowing how to find companies to send them to.
Pick a Niche
I am #teamniche. Niching down has so many benefits:
Standing out: Having a niche can help you stand out from the crowd of freelance writers.
Expertise: Having a niche allows you to position yourself as an expert in your industry.
Earning more: Having a niche, expertise, and niche-specific skills may help you to secure higher-paying clients.
Defining your target clients: Having a niche will help you define your target clients and cold-email the right companies.
More joy: Having a niche you enjoy will give you more joy every day.
Getting the right clients: Having a niche can help you to find, book, and retain the clients you want to work with.
More efficiency: Having a niche will allow you to gain expertise in a certain industry, which can lead to more efficiency and speed over time.
Better quality work: Having a niche in a certain niche will also help you to create better quality work than in an area you’ve never heard about.
How to Pick Your Freelance Writing Niche
You may have a specific industry in mind, and this is a no-brainer. You may not. Most new freelance writers struggle with picking their freelance writing niche. A good freelance writing niche meets all these 3 areas:
Passion: A good freelance writing niche is something that excites you, and you are interested in.
Expertise: A good freelance writing niche is something you know a lot about and has experience or expertise in from previous work experiences, school work, volunteer work, self-study, or a hobby. It is something you want to gain deeper expertise in.
Profitable: A good freelance writing niche is profitable. You need a niche with plenty of companies, brands, and professionals that need writers and have the budget to pay for their services.
What If I Don’t Want to Niche Down?
Niching down is not right for everyone. There is an exception to every rule. There are some successful generalists out there who are happy without a niche. Not niching down right away may be helpful for newbie writers. If you are a complete beginner without a clear passion for a niche, you may want to try yourself in different fields.
If you don’t have a niche, I still recommend that you select a few different industries you want to write about. For example, I dabbled with writing about travel, cultures, learning languages, teaching languages, and education before I settled on health and mental health. Having 3 to 6 industries in mind may help you to narrow things down. Settling on at least a few different industries will narrow your choices when cold-emailing.
What’s even more important than having a niche, is choosing a type of writing service you want to provide. Whether you have a niche or not, I recommend choosing 1 to 4 types of writing services that you want to offer. This will help you cold-email clients that actually need these services.
What Kind of Clients Do You Want?
Now that you have your niche and specialties, it is time to figure out what kind of clients you want to work with. You may create an Ideal Client Avatar writing down every quality your ideal clients may have. You may simply brainstorm and journal about it. Think about the following:
Do you want to work with small, medium, or large companies, or solopreneurs?
Do you want to work with female-led businesses or female professionals, or perhaps the opposite?
What kind of relationship are you looking for with your client?
What are your client's values and goals?
Do you want to be in direct communication with the founder/CEO or work with a team of writers, editors, and other members of a content marketing team?
The better you understand your ideal client, the easier it will be to find a client to cold-email.
One important note: Having a niche, writing specialty, or an ideal client avatar does NOT mean you can’t work with someone who doesn’t fit this category. You absolutely can!
Step 2: Create a Portfolio
Your portfolio is the most important thing that will catch your future clients’ attention! You may know how to write an amazing cold-email, but without proof that you can do the work, it will be difficult to book someone. Your portfolio is everything.
Your portfolio has to be high-quality and relevant. If you don’t have clients or a portfolio yet, don’t worry. Research top companies in your niche or top companies that fit your ideal client avatar. Look at their website and writing. Try to mimic top blogs (or other types of writing) in your chosen industry or area. Do NOT copy, but use them as a guide to create a portfolio to attract clients in your cold-email.
If you haven’t yet had any clients, you can:
Publish on Medium, Linkedin, Substack, and other platforms
Guest blogs
Do some volunteer/pro-bono work
Create some mock-ups
It makes sense to put the time and effort into creating a good portfolio. Don’t just throw something together. Your portfolio has to be high-quality and relevant. You want the people you are cold-emailing to go, “Wow, THIS is what I need.”
Ideally, you want to publish your portfolio on your website. If you don’t have a website and don’t want to create one just yet, you can make a pdf and include links to your samples.
Step 3: Find Companies to Cold-Email
One of the most common questions new writers ask on forums is how to find companies to send cold-emails to. It couldn’t be easier. Here are some tips for finding companies to cold-email:
Look at your own life. Consider the brands you already use or love in your niche.
Use Google. Search for best brands in your niche, eg. top personal finance apps, best personal finance blogs, personal finance professionals in NY, etc for the personal finance niche.
Search Linkedin for companies and professionals in your niche. If you find professionals in your niche, look at the company they work for.
Search social media. Look at hashtags and open your eyes when scrolling. Note brands influencers are promoting.
Watch for ads. If a company is advertising a product or service, chances are, they have or need some writers on board.
Step 4: Find Email Addresses for Cold-Emailing
You have your niche, writing service, and portfolio. You have some companies in mind you want to cold-email. It’s time to start cold-emails.
How Do I Find Email Addresses to Cold-Email?
I see so many freelance writers feeling frozen. But who should I be cold-emailing? And how do I find their email address? Don’t worry; I’m here to help.
If you are cold-emailing a smaller company, emailing the CEO/owner is usually the best option. For medium-sized or bigger businesses, you want to send a cold-email to someone in the marketing or content department. The content manager, content coordinator, marketing manager, editorial manager, or someone along those lines is a great idea. Do NOT cold-email another writer, especially not another freelance writer. Chances are, they don’t want someone competing for their work.
To find email addresses to cold-email to, try the following options:
Search their website: It’s possible that you find the appropriate email right on their website.
Search Linkedin. Search for the appropriate professionals at the company on Linkedin and check their email. Maybe they have their professional email listed. Don’t send cold-emails to their personal email, but if you see a professional email, use it.
Try some websites that can search for email addresses. Some great websites can help you find email addresses for a company: https://hunter.io/, https://findthat.email/, https://finder.expert/, https://snov.io/, and https://findthatlead.com/en
Guess: If you know the name of the person, you can easily guess their email using their name and the company’s url. Some options may include: john@company.com, jsmith@company.com, john.smith@company.com, johnsmith@company.com, and so on. Send a separate email to each option. The wrong ones will bounce. Typing these emails into gmail, you may notice a profile picture popping up for the right email. This is not always the case, but it is worth a shot. If it works, send your email to the one with the profile picture.
Guess even if you don’t know their name: Even if you don’t know their name, guessing a more generic email may work. Trying marketing@company.com, editor@company.com, or content@company.com may help you to reach the right person.
Last resort: email their generic email. Most people don’t recommend sending cold-emails to a generic email, such as info@company.com, contact@company.com, or hello@company.com. I generally don’t recommend it either, but if all else fails, you can try it. In most cases, these end up unreturned, but something the VA or admin opening them will forward to the right person. I’ve gained two clients emailing their “info mail”.
Step 5: Write an Effective Cold-Email
It’s time to write those cold-emails! But how do you do that?
Using cold-emailing templates can be helpful, but you should never copy-paste your cold-emails. Way too many freelance writers have access to the exact same cold-emailing templates you find online or as part of a course. Even if just a small percentage of writers end up copy-pasting them, clients will receive an overflow of the same email. Even if you are using your own templates, templates are missing personalization. And personalization is the most important aspect of writing a cold email.
I recommend using this cold-emailing outline as your guide:
-> Intro paragraph: It’s time to personalize this section. What do you love about their company? How did you find them? Perhaps you’ve used and loved one of their products? Maybe you loved their latest blog or Podcast they were on. Make it personal, and grab their interests.
-> Mention why you are emailing them: Perhaps you’ve noted that they haven’t published a blog in 6 months. Maybe you’ve noticed that they are coming out with a new product and may need some copywriting help. Don’t be mean by pointing out huge mistakes, but try to show a gap they may need help with.
-> Introducing yourself + establishing credibility: Who are you? What do you specialize in? What do you offer?
-> Sharing something about what they can expect from working with you: Share your superpowers or talk briefly about your work process.
-> Link to your website: Always share links to your website and portfolio.
-> Clear call-to-action: Do you want them to email you back or book a call? Share all your contact information. Spell out your email address. Trust me, some clients won’t bother to find your email under ‘sender’.
-> Closing, your name
Step 6: Track and Follow Up
You can track your emails and open rate with www.streak.com/email-tracking-from-gmail for free. If you don’t hear back within a week, follow up. I recommend following up twice. Three is okay, but after three follow-ups, it’s time to let it go. If a company doesn’t respond or says no, you can always try again in 3, 6, or 12 months down the line. Their needs may change.
Remember, you won’t receive a response to all your cold-emails. In fact, cold-emailing is a numbers game. Stay consistent and keep going. By selecting the right companies and sending personalized, quality cold-emails, you will increase your chances of getting a positive response.
Step 7: Stop Chasing Perfection and Stop Comparing Yourself
I see too many new freelance writers online chasing perfection and comparing themselves to others. There is no such thing as a perfect cold-email or perfect strategy. You may write an amazing cold-email and it may simply be the wrong time for the company.
There is no such thing as a perfect number of cold-emails to send. Sure, it’s a numbers game and sending more cold-emails can increase your chances. But we are human. If you are a single mom with a full-time job and two kids, you will have less time than someone without a job and a spouse financially supporting them.
Do the best you can. If it’s sending 5 quality cold-emails in a week, do that. Something is better than nothing. And though quality matters, don’t try to perfect one.
I know it all sounds like a cliche, but it’s true. Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Give yourself permission to try without getting it perfect right away. Give yourself the permission to learn, course-correct, and change things as you go.
Another great way to get freelance writing clients is to use Linkedin. Read this blog to learn how to use Linkedin to get freelance writing clients.
Are you interested in creating a sustainable freelance writing business without the hustle? Check out my freelance writing course with a step-by-step process of exactly what you need.
Have you been using cold-emailing to get clients? Do you have any tips for newbies on how to write an effective cold-email? What are your biggest learning lessons from cold-emailing? Share your experiences in the comments below, I would love to hear from you.