As a freelancer on Upwork, whether you’re brand new or established, how you identify clients and pitch to the right people can make your life extremely enjoyable and lead to lucrative and fun contracts. A job posting on Upwork can tell you a lot about a client. It can tell you the emotional state they were in when they initially posted their request for a proposal. You can learn a lot about the client and their overall mentality by reviewing the proposal.
While the person posting the proposal might think they’re just doing their due diligence to find a high-quality freelancer, those can be signs that someone is actually way too difficult to work with. A perfectionist can be a major problem as a client. Look for clues in the job proposal to figure out whether this is the right client for you.
Who Are the Right Upwork Clients?
When you’re not sure about how to find the right clients, however, you’re throwing spaghetti against the wall and getting frustrated by bidding on job after job with no success. Finding the right clients begins with an understanding of what you want to offer.
If your own unique value proposition is unclear and clients cannot see the individual characteristics that you bring to the table, they will struggle to see how you can contribute directly to their organization.
For that reason, your own marketing materials on Upwork, such as your profile and your pitch, should be uniquely tailored to your area of expertise. People who specialize in particular types of projects or software need to ensure that this is reflected throughout their profile and their proposal.
When an ideal client is reviewing your materials, you want it to be immediately clear what you offer and why they should consider hiring you. A Facebook ads expert for example, would want to focus on their knowledge and success in the arena of Facebook ads. If you pitch yourself as a social media strategist however, someone who is looking for help specifically with Facebook ads may never find it.
1. Create a results-focused headline
Your headline is one of the first things clients see on your profile, and it’s your first chance to stand out and impress the client.
Instead of putting a job title like, “Digital Marketing Consultant,” make it about the result clients get when they work with you.
Here is an example of a headline I used in the past:
Emails, Ads and Funnels that Boost Sales
With this method, you can still include great keywords in your Upwork headline, but you’re also being interesting/unique, rather than just naming your job title.
Here are two other proven headline formulas you can try:
Template 1: I help [ideal type of client] get [result] with [how you do it]
Example: I help e-commerce stores boost revenue by 10-20% with automated emails
Template 2: [desired goal] with [what you do]
Example: Beautiful modern websites with WordPress
2. Begin your Profile with a Testimonial
Most freelancers start their Upwork profile by talking about themselves. “Hi, I’m Susan and I do ___.”
This is not going to help you get clients on Upwork, because it’s exactly what every other freelancer is doing on their profile.
So what should you do instead? Start with a testimonial from a past client. I did this for my own profile and readers loved it.
Here’s how I began my profile:
“Biron went above and beyond to make this project a success. He was able to provide actionable insight into my current marketing funnel, including strategy and copy adjustments to make it more compelling and more targeted to the right audience. HIGHLY recommend Biron, and look forward to working with Biron in the future!”
It’s okay if you don’t have the perfect testimonial. This testimonial could have been better; it doesn’t have specific results (like income earned, percent increase in sales, etc.)
But action beats perfection any day.
If you have any testimonials at all, consider including one in your Upwork profile. If not, make it a priority to get a great result for a client and ask for a testimonial ASAP.
This is crucial to growing your freelance business and will immediately get you more interviews because clients will be curious to hear more about how you’ve helped other people.
3. Use varied formatting
There’s no better way to lose your reader’s attention than big, bulky paragraphs and poor spacing on your Upwork profile.
Instead, use short, skimmable paragraphs and other types of formatting (like bullets, asterisks, dashes, etc.) to keep their eyes glued to your profile.
It’s okay to use incomplete sentences, etc. For example, I had a section of my Upwork profile that said:
Here’s what I specialize in:
- Email Marketing
- Sales Funnels
- Facebook Ads & Landing Pages
- Who I’ve studied: Frank Kern, Russell Brunson, Ryan Deiss, Dan Kennedy, David Ogilvy, Claude Hopkins, and many more.
- Short, punchy lists like this get read more than long, dense paragraphs.
4. Target one niche
There’s a saying in marketing that if your product or service is for everyone, it’s for no one. This sounds counter-intuitive, but you’ll actually get more clients by being more specific about who you can (and cannot) help.
So I recommend picking a niche and making it clear what your niche is on your Upwork profile. You can niche down by industry or by service offering.
I’ll give you a few examples below.
Rather than being a general copywriter, you might become a copywriter for the finance & accounting industry. That would be niching down by industry.
Or, you could become an email copywriter. That’s an example of niching down by service offering.
Eventually, you can do both. The bottom line is: You aren’t missing out on opportunities by narrowing your focus and “niching down”. You’re missing out on opportunities by being too broad.
Look at it like this: If you had an ant problem in your house, are you going to hire a general home repair person, or an ant and pest expert? I’m going with the pest expert every time.
5. Write about “you” more than “I”
After you’ve written your Upwork profile, do a quick search for the words “you” and “I”. Your Upwork profile should contain the word “You” more than “I”. Keep adjusting/editing your profile until you pass this test.
Most people’s profiles will fail this test, which is why it’s one of the best Upwork profile tips to stand out quickly. Your Upwork profile should be all about your target client and their needs, because that’s what they care about when reading your profile.
6. Finish with a clear “Call to Action”
Don’t let the reader wander off of your profile at the end; tell them exactly what to do with a “Call to Action”.
You can use an If/Then statement for this. Here’s an example:
“If getting ____ (result you deliver) sounds interesting, send me a message and we’ll set up a time to talk.”
Or you can simply tell them to contact you. Here’s how I concluded my Upwork profile:
“Send me a note with a bit about your company, your track record, and your project. If it seems like a good fit, we’ll schedule a time to talk.”
7. Be Exclusive
You’ll notice in my example “Call to Action” above, I’m not saying, “Please call me so we can start your project.” I’m making it clear that I have criteria and certain types of people I want to work with, and that I need information about their project to decide.
The more you can position your profile like this, the better. Be clear that you help a certain type of person/business and that you need to talk with them to determine if it’s a good fit.
You might think that making yourself more difficult to work with will cost you clients, but it will actually make people more eager to speak with you, and it will get you higher-quality clients, too.
8. Create an Upwork client account to see what it’s like
I want to leave you with one more tip to make everything you do on Upwork more effective. I can promise you 90% of freelancers aren’t using this tactic.
Here’s what you should do:
Go create an Upwork client account (you can do this under your existing login/profile), and then post a job as a client. You can post something small that you need done for $25 or $50. That way, you’ll get proposals coming to you, and you’ll see what YOU notice about profiles and proposals as they come in.
You’ll immediately see why things like job success score and your headline are so important – because clients see that before even deciding to click your profile. And after you click people’s profiles, take note of what stands out and catches your attention. What makes you choose to interview someone and reject someone else?
Noticing these things will help you improve your own profile and proposals to get more interviews and job offers. This is one of the best things I did for myself as a freelancer and completely changed my success on Upwork. If you follow the Upwork profile tips above, you’ll stand out from the competition and get more clients without having to send out more proposals.
