Having access to a database of executives or managers on LinkedIn via LinkedIn ProFinder or any other feature doesn’t automatically unlock opportunities for your freelance services.
The competitive environment on ProFinder means that freelancers are often vying with numerous others for the same projects. This competition can make it challenging to stand out and may require freelancers to invest significant effort in optimizing their profiles and proposals to attract clients.
You may as well buy an email list online and blast everyone with a presentation of yours.
There are 3 essential problems you’ll be facing with this approach:
- Most people don’t really need freelance services in the first place
- There are loads of agencies and freelancers spamming like crazy and trying to land another client
- Many prospects haven’t identified a reasonable opportunity to outsource work
Let’s review these separately.
No Need for Freelancing Services
The fact that a business has an operating website or a blog doesn’t mean they actually need a developer, a copywriter, or an SEO manager.
They may have people in-house, another partner or no budget for these initiatives at the time.
We’ve been doing development for over a decade (as a team) and still receive offers from people who are offering freelance services and want to “build our website”. Sure, we realize these are automated mass emailing services but it doesn’t help regardless.
Tons of Agencies and Freelancers Are Reaching Out
We get over 70 pitches for freelance services a week (and this doesn’t include the piles of emails in our spam folders).
Once, I wrote a short piece on LinkedIn about PHP and its market share. Within a week, I got 150+ connection requests (mostly from Asia) from freelancers and business developers in companies. The market is brutal and overwhelming.
Let alone the fact that our domain authority is decent and the volume of guest posting emails is vast as well.
Prospects Don’t Have a Problem to Solve
Most beginner freelancers try to land a deal for a website. That’s it.
But there are hundreds of thousands of agencies (dev and marketing) selling websites. And many millions of freelancers doing the same.
It’s no different in the content, design, or SEO space. We even get $99/mo offers for complete SEO audits, link building, and content in one from automated emails.
What freelancers need to do instead is spend a good chunk of their time reviewing everything public and identifying key business challenges they are capable of solving that will contribute to a business’ bottom line.
It could be website performance. It could be content ideas for something closely related to their industry. Or lucrative partnerships they have access to.
It’s still not an easy sell but it changes the narrative.
Merely reaching out to business owners or managers with a freelance pitch won’t do any good.
Check out the most pressing LinkedIn questions and maximize the benefits of using LinkedIn.
