Being a serious freelancer, When doing your outreach, you can’t downplay the effect of a killer caption on your message. Your outreach message could be proposals, ads, emails, DMs, and calls. This works for your profiles on Upwork, LinkedIn, etc.
Why Does it Matter?
For instance, Coach Gbenga strained his nerves, emphasizing how a freelancer can make their clients read their proposals on Upwork. But why did he? Because the first thing clients see when they scroll through proposals is the intro. What seems like the headlines or captions for upwork proposals? Take a look here.
This image gives a clue on how your proposals are viewed. Then you can imagine what will make the clients move further to reading your message from here. Something must have gripped their attention to click your proposal. It lies in your presentation.
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Therefore, your headlines and intro matter greatly because potential clients may not move further to consider your proposal and offer if your message does not appeal to them or resonate with their bottom line. It is your first impression. You are convincing them to dive in. Then how will you make this happen? Keep digging to find out.
Captions and Intro that get results
Messages that win have powerful intro, subject lines, and headlines. What makes them powerful are the psychology-evoking ingredients. They are relevant and personal to the reader not to the freelancer.
Let’s see some examples of result-attuned captions.
- Captions that make clear promises
The caption entails that the reader will get real value if they decide to move on with you. An example is “Elevate your UI/UX performance with professional writing”. This may be a subject line for an email pitch that a writer sends to a software developer or the owner of the project.
- Captions that play on their fears
As a freelancer, you can do some deep research to find out certain fears associated with potential clients. Examples are the fear of missing out. The fear of being cheated. Fear of loss. Fear of making costly mistakes, among others. An example is “The insider secrets data analysts will keep from you so you spend more yet not get quality results”. This caption preys on clients’ fear of missing out and being cheated.
Here, the data analyst may want to prove his/her honesty and transparency to the client while promising a better result via his/her service.
- Captions and intros for curious and ambitious prospects.
This works for those who need exclusive information on getting things done quickly, and more efficiently, or have the potential to achieve greater results. Example, “The smarter, faster way to…”, “80% of online businesses are dull due to ineffective email marketing strategy, however, you can…”, “Are you having issues with your website stability, consider…” and it goes on and on.
Given the above, if there’s any lesson to learn, it is that “your message must be about them”. About their problems, their conditions, their goals, and, their experiences.
Some general guidelines to ponder
- For profiles and even when pitching, don’t start with achievements. Show your audience what’s in it for them, and how you can help them. Research shows that people don’t care about what you’ve achieved until they see how you can be of value.
- Achievements can then follow the above to show authority, build trust, and give credibility.
- Use the language, tone, and voice that relates to the audience.
- Make it true. lessen the hype.
Bottom Line
Studies show that most freelancers really want to attract top-notch clients who pay well. But it’s not given, you’ve got to show your worth. It’s a value-for-value game. That’s why it’s important to write catchy profiles, messages, and captions to communicate your value. It’s all about standing out in the freelance game.
