You need to pitch more

You need to pitch more

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If you felt called out (or overwhelmed) by that title, hear me out. I’ll just get right on with it so you don’t have to sit here and panic about your pitching practices… 😅

Why you might not be getting clients

If you’re reading this, I’m assuming you’re struggling to get clients.

(Or you’re self-conscious about how much effort you put into pitching).

There are 3 main reasons you might not be getting clients:

  1. You’re not doing enough direct outreach (email cold pitches, LinkedIn LOIs, networking) – AKA pitching
  2. Your profile and portfolio aren’t positioned for the leads (potential clients) you’re pitching
  3. You’re not following up enough

Today we’re gonna tackle the first – volume of direct outreach.

Getting clients is a numbers game.

I’m going to put it into perspective for you here.

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Pitching conversion rates:

  • About 25% of all connection requests on LinkedIn actually get accepted (if you add an LOI in the note).
  • About 25-50% of those connections will become your client within the next 24 months.
  • About 8.5% of all email cold pitches get responses. About 20% of those will actually convert within 2 years.
  • Content marketing only has a 2-5% conversion rate.

This is data that I’ve collected over the past 4 years from my coaching clients (and backed up with some data from LinkedIn and Email Marketing studies). These are only estimates; your actual results may vary.

How to get clients short-term

Let’s say you need 3-5 clients to have a thriving freelance writing business.

If we just aim to fill your schedule short term (let’s say you need 5 clients), you’d need to send a minimum of:

  • 40 LOIs
  • 300 Email Cold Pitches
  • 250 pieces of content

This is why I always advocate for using LinkedIn – especially connection requests + LOIs.

It’s the highest ROI activity you can do to get clients for your business.

How to fill your schedule long-term

But if you want a sustainable business that can thrive for a long time with minimal ups and downs. You’ll need a steady stream of leads. For that, you’ll need a marketing routine that you do every week.

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Here’s the routine me and my coaching clients use:

  1. Find the most relevant people that work for your ideal client
  2. Reach out to them (with an LOI + connection request on LinkedIn or an email cold pitch)
  3. Thank them if/when they accept your request or respond to your email
  4. Wait 2 weeks to follow up and ask if they work with freelancers
  5. Reply to any responses and/or follow up again 2 weeks later
  6. For anyone who didn’t respond, keep following up every 3 months (up to 5 times)
  7. REPEAT

Mindset: Play the game

Now that you have the cold, hard truth. Data. Facts. You need to get your mindset right.

  • You’re planting the seeds for future clients every time you pitch/send a connection request
  • You’re gambling (in a way), and the more you play, the more likely you are to win
  • You’re putting coins in your piggy bank that you’ll be able to cash in later

It might feel overwhelming to see those numbers at first. But the more you practice, the faster you’ll get at pitching and the more clients you’ll get.

Pitching Resources

Need help with pitching? Don’t worry, I gotchu. Try out the LinkedIn Challenge to get more clients on LinkedIn or learn how to pitch via email in this lesson →

Looking for something else?

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