How to get new clients with cold email by providing a few actionable ideas upfront

Developer: get new clients by reaching out to businesses and giving them a few ideas of what you can help them build

Many businesses are open to working with freelance developers or development agencies to bring projects and features to life and out of backlog. The key is to proactively reach out to the owners or department directors of businesses you want to work with and provide a few ideas of what you can help them build, so they understand what is possible with your skills. This will help you stand out among the 99% of other developers who just list the programming languages they know and hope a potential client will figure out a way to put their skills to use.

Subject line: A few membership ideas for Art of Emails

Provide one positive comment about the work they're doing to open the conversation.

Share 2-3 valuable ideas of what you can build for them that would help them achieve an important business goal (examples: more conversions, user signups or paying customers).

Briefly describe what tech stack you specialize in and mention a recent project you built for a client and the goals it has helped the company achieve.

Ask them for an initial call, framed as a brainstorm session to entice them to learn more.

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Writer: get new clients by sharing a few content ideas that will help them capture more leads or sales

For this approach, reach out to the owners or marketing mangers of businesses that either make meaningful money with their content (affiliate marketing, ads) or offer a paid product and capture leads with their content. This means that they likely have the budget to hire a freelancer writer.

The key is to provide 2-3 content ideas you can write for them that would attract their target audience. This really helps you stand out among other writers who simply link to a few pieces of their past work.

Subject line: 2 lead magnet ideas

Provide a positive comment about one of the prospect's recent articles to show them that you're already familiar with what they do and their audience.

Provide a few content topics that would attract their target audience such as leads.

Briefly explain what type of writing you specialize in and link to a few recent articles you have written.

Ask them for an initial call framed as brainstorm session so they're enticed to learn more.

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Web designer: get new clients by sharing a few design ideas that will improve their conversions

For this approach, reach out to the owners or marketing directors of businesses that capture leads, customers or users with their website and provide 2-3 design ideas that will improve their conversions. This will put you leads and bounds ahead of other designers who simply make generic statements about improving the look of their websites and link to their portfolios.

Subject line: A few ways to get more quote requests from website visitors

Provide a positive comment about a specific aspect of their business to build rapport.

Provide 2-3 actionable design ideas and explain how each change would help the prospect achieve an important business goal.

Ask them what they think of your ideas. This nudges them to reply to your email to open the conversation.

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Copywriter: get new clients by sharing a few copy suggestions to improve their conversions

Subject line: Some copy ideas just for Savist

Find companies who are spending money on their marketing and advertising to reach out to. They are much more likely to have the budget and business need to hire a copywriter.

Offer to share 2-3 copy suggestions to improve their conversion rates. Providing a few concrete ideas of what you can do for them makes it much more likely prospects will hire you. When you just talk about some abstract generic benefits like how your copy can help them boost conversions, they have no clue how you'll actually be able to apply your skills to help their business.

Share 2-3 copy suggestions and briefly explain the reasoning and psychology behind your idea to demonstrate your expertise.

Ask them what they think to open the conversation.

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SEO consultant: get new clients by providing an actionable idea on how to improve their rankings

Subject line: One change you can make right now to improve your Google ranking

Provide a compliment about the prospect's service or product.

Show them one change they can make right now to improve their SEO. Helping the prospect achieve a quick win means they are much more likely to trust you and your expertise. This is key to stand out in a field like SEO where potential clients are much more skeptical of consultants' ability to deliver.

Ask them for their thoughts to reopen the conversation.

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How to get regular work from agencies by offering to take on their overflow projects

For this approach, reach out to agencies and offer to take on their overflow work, which can provide you a steady source of paid projects. The key is to highlight your communication skills, reliability and ability to adapt your style to what their client needs.

Subject line: How I can help your team to keep wowing your clients [UX design]

Provide a meaningful comment about the agency’s work to build rapport.

Mention why you're reaching out to them to set the context and transition into how you'll be able to apply your skills to help their agency.

Highlight your relevant skills framed in terms of how you would be able to help the agency with their clients. Mention your reliability and communication skills as well to stand out. Agencies not only want someone who is talented, but someone who can be trusted to reply and deliver their work on time.

Since agencies often work with clients from different industries, show them that your work is adaptable and provide a few examples of results you’ve achieved for previous clients to show them how you can help the agency with theirs.

Ask for an initial chat, framed in terms of you wanting to learn more about how you can help their agency.

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Approach: share your prospect's content on social media before cold emailing them

This is the approach Ryan Robinson used to land a $10,000/month retainer to write 4 blog posts a month for his client. You don't have to have a huge audience to share your prospect's content, it's about helping someone first before making an ask so they're more likely to reply to you.

[Site name] content marketing (and mention)
Ryan  <ryan@email.com>
to [Prospect]
Hi [Name],

I wanted to reach out and give you a heads up that I've been loving the content coming out of [Site name] platform these past few months. I can appreciate great content when I see it :)

Just shared your recent post about with my audience on Twitter and I also mentioned the platform as a great resource for freelancers in one of my recent blog posts right here.

The other reason I'm reaching out is because a large part of my business is working with brands like Linkedln, Zendesk, SoFi and others to help scale high-return content marketing programs.

Would you be up for chatting about [Site name]'s content marketing or connecting me with someone else on your team if that'd be a better fit?

Ryan

P.S. Here's where you read more about my process and the clients I've worked with.

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"How do I get new clients?" No you don't have to create content, get active on social media or complete on job boards. Yes all of these help, but you're forced to play the waiting game. While your bills stack up... Instead you can proactively reach out to clients you want to work with. Here's how (and no, talking about your benefits is not enough). Yes, let's get proactive
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