How to Get Your First Upwork Client in 7 Days — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So, in this video I'm going to show you
2. 0:01step-by-step how to close your very
3. 0:02first client on Upwork within 7 days,
4. 0:04assuming you're completely new to the
5. 0:06platform. If you follow what I'm going
6. 0:07to go through in this video and you do
7. 0:09every single day for the next 7 days,
8. 0:10it's very, very likely that you can
9. 0:12actually close your very first client
10. 0:14because this strategy still works in
11. 0:152026 and I've witnessed so many
12. 0:17freelancers and agencies on Upwork pull
13. 0:19it off with a brand new account. So, as
14. 0:22you can see here, I'm in my Upwork
15. 0:23account and the very first and most
16. 0:25obvious thing is optimizing your actual
17. 0:27profile. So, at this point you should
18. 0:29have already created an Upwork account
19. 0:31and all you need to do is make sure that
20. 0:32your profile's in good standing and you
21. 0:34do that in a very easy way.
22. 0:37All you need is a good profile title,
23. 0:39which specifically says the keywords of
24. 0:42what your skill set is. Now, if you're
25. 0:44not sure what to put there, search for
26. 0:46other people in your space. You can just
27. 0:48go in here and type in UI UX designer
28. 0:52and you can find a freelancer that's
29. 0:54made over 100k, over 200k in your niche.
30. 0:57And you can see, okay, well, how is
31. 0:58their title structured? How is their
32. 1:00profile description structured? You can
33. 1:01see this person's made 500k
34. 1:04and we can take a look at their title
35. 1:06and follow a similar structure, but we
36. 1:08don't want to copy it identically. But
37. 1:09this is a good way to make sure that
38. 1:11your title is structured in a way that
39. 1:12is optimized. Again, you can look at
40. 1:14other people's profile description, but
41. 1:15the way I recommend structuring it is
42. 1:18similar to how Haley did it because her
43. 1:20profile description is very nicely laid
44. 1:22out. A bit about her, her skills and
45. 1:24expertise specifically, her experience
46. 1:26and what she's done in the UX UI
47. 1:29UX UI design space.
48. 1:31Why people should work with her. And
49. 1:34it's as simple as that. This is a good
50. 1:35selling point as to why somebody should
51. 1:37message Haley. Maybe the opening line
52. 1:39could be a bit more impactful, like I
53. 1:41guarantee increasing your user retention
54. 1:43by 27% or 30% when you
55. 1:47when we work together for your UX UI
56. 1:48design project. Something like that is a
57. 1:50good hook. But at this point you can
58. 1:52write out your profile description and
59. 1:53title even using artificial intelligence
60. 1:56like ChatGPT.
61. 1:57Having a video introduction will really
62. 1:59help if you record a 30-second video
63. 2:01saying,
64. 2:02you know, in my case it would be, "Hi,
65. 2:03my name is Ali. I'm a Facebook ad
66. 2:04specialist.
67. 2:05Uh welcome to my profile. If you have a
68. 2:08project where you're requiring meta ads,
69. 2:10I would love to work with you. Just a
70. 2:11bit about myself, I've worked with
71. 2:12brands such as Gloss Kitchen, such as
72. 2:14Ella Sera. So, I'm very confident that
73. 2:16I'm able to deliver you. Feel free to
74. 2:17shoot me a message and we can hop on a
75. 2:20call." It can be as simple as that. It
76. 2:21does not need to be a complicated video
77. 2:23intro.
78. 2:24And aside from that, just making sure
79. 2:26you have things in your portfolio, just
80. 2:28at least three things. You know, if
81. 2:30you're offering a service, you must have
82. 2:31some form of experience in that space,
83. 2:33even if you've only done the skill for
84. 2:35yourself. So, if you're an accountant,
85. 2:37maybe you've only done accounting for
86. 2:38your own business, that's still
87. 2:39something to put in your portfolio.
88. 2:41Same with skills, we want to add all
89. 2:43relevant keywords. So, you can see here
90. 2:44we've got graphic design, UI/UX
91. 2:46prototyping, UX/UI design, UX frame
92. 2:49wireframe, web design, etc.
93. 2:52And the final thing is employment
94. 2:53history. Make sure all of these are
95. 2:55filled out first before you proceed.
96. 2:58Because if you're bidding in the way I'm
97. 3:00about to show you and you have a profile
98. 3:02that is not optimized, it's just going
99. 3:03to set you back.
100. 3:05Now, I'm going to show you exactly how,
101. 3:07with a new account, with no earnings, no
102. 3:09reviews, you can easily land your first
103. 3:11contract within 7 days. So, the first
104. 3:13thing is, we're going to head on over to
105. 3:15find work.
106. 3:17And we're going to search for jobs in
107. 3:20your niche. So, in my case, Facebook
108. 3:22ads. So, we're going to click search.
109. 3:25And on the left panel, we're going to
110. 3:27filter things down to be above $500 $
111. 3:30fixed. We're going to filter it down to
112. 3:32be above 40 minimum in my case.
113. 3:35And I want people who have a payment
114. 3:38method verified attached.
115. 3:40And now, we're just going to scroll on
116. 3:42the most recent contracts. The reason we
117. 3:45want most recent because speed to bid is
118. 3:47very important. The sooner you apply to
119. 3:48contracts that were recently posted, the
120. 3:50more likely you will have responses.
121. 3:52And so now we just scroll and we find
122. 3:54projects, maybe five or six that are
123. 3:56extremely relevant. So you can see here
124. 3:58this person wants Facebook ads for a
125. 4:01high-end roofing company. This is very
126. 4:03relevant to someone that has my skill
127. 4:05set, which is running paid ads.
128. 4:07So I can open this up. And then I'm
129. 4:09going to find four or maybe five others.
130. 4:12Preferably you want to hit 10 a day.
131. 4:15If you can do 10 a day for the next
132. 4:16week, that's 70 contracts. Even better
133. 4:19is if you can do 20 a day, that's 140
134. 4:21contracts. Volume is key in this. And so
135. 4:23depending on your Connects budget, I
136. 4:25would recommend bidding on anywhere from
137. 4:26five to 10 a day at the very least.
138. 4:29So in this case, we found one and I'm
139. 4:31going to show you exactly how to apply
140. 4:33to all of the five jobs or 10 jobs that
141. 4:35you found and the best way to do it. So
142. 4:37we're going to click on apply now.
143. 4:41And
144. 4:43now we're going to Well, I don't have
145. 4:45Connects, but for now we're just going
146. 4:46to leave that as is.
147. 4:48Get rid of that. And we scroll down. So
148. 4:50what I like to do is I always select by
149. 4:53project. And I keep the bid the same as
150. 4:56the fixed price as what they set. That
151. 4:58does not mean that I have to take the
152. 5:00project for this amount. You have to
153. 5:01understand that the reason we're bidding
154. 5:03on this contract is to be able to speak
155. 5:05to the client. Once we apply to the
156. 5:07contract and we get response, we can get
157. 5:08on a call with the client, understand
158. 5:10more about the requirements, more about
159. 5:12the project, and then we can quote them
160. 5:13more accurately. So this is simply just
161. 5:15a placeholder at this point. We all I
162. 5:18always match the exact number that they
163. 5:20put here.
164. 5:21Go down. How long will this project
165. 5:23take? More than six months. And now we
166. 5:25need a cover letter. I'm going to give
167. 5:26you a very, very effective cover letter
168. 5:28that I've used across loads of different
169. 5:30niches and it does work very
170. 5:31effectively. There are different schools
171. 5:33of thoughts of what makes a good cover
172. 5:35letter. In my opinion today, one of the
173. 5:37best you can do is very short, straight
174. 5:40to the point with a Loom video attached.
175. 5:43And so here is a cover letter that I'm
176. 5:45going to use. Made this Loom for you.
177. 5:48Here we're going to enter a URL and I'll
178. 5:50show you exactly what we're going to put
179. 5:51here shortly. I walk through how I'd
180. 5:53approach your project and a few ideas
181. 5:54that could help. I've worked with
182. 5:55multiple brands to deliver this exact
183. 5:57work including XYZ. This is going to be
184. 5:59personalized and this is the part we're
185. 6:01going to change in relation to the
186. 6:03contract.
187. 6:05If it looks like a good fit, happy to
188. 6:06jump on a call and discuss. Now, if you
189. 6:09have never worked with a brand
190. 6:11similar to the contract you're applying
191. 6:13to, get rid of this part. And literally
192. 6:16everything is centered around the Loom.
193. 6:18I walk through I walk through how I'd
194. 6:19approach a project and a few ideas that
195. 6:21could help. The Loom is the biggest
196. 6:22selling point. In my case, I have some
197. 6:25brands that I've worked with that are
198. 6:26similar to what these guys are looking
199. 6:28for for meta ads, so I can keep this
200. 6:30part. So, I'm just going to go ahead and
201. 6:31copy this.
202. 6:33Paste it in here.
203. 6:35Make the spacing.
204. 6:37Perfect. And now I'm going to show you
205. 6:39exactly how we generate a Loom video for
206. 6:41this.
207. 6:42So, if you guys have never used Loom
208. 6:44before, it's a very simple software to
209. 6:46use. You download it and you can add it
210. 6:47as a extension or you can download the
211. 6:49actual app. Now, if you've downloaded
212. 6:51the extension, you can just click on it
213. 6:54and what it's going to do is it's going
214. 6:55to bring up your ability to record
215. 6:59a video similar to this. Obviously, I
216. 7:01can select my camera and microphone and
217. 7:03share your screen while you're doing so.
218. 7:05So, you'll have your video in the corner
219. 7:07and you can show what you're talking
220. 7:08about. And what we're going to do is I'm
221. 7:10going to show you exactly how I would
222. 7:11record a Loom video for a company like
223. 7:13this.
224. 7:14If we read through the job description,
225. 7:16which is very important,
226. 7:18it says, "We run a luxury roofing
227. 7:20company serving high-end residential
228. 7:22clients and we need someone who knows
229. 7:23Facebook ads to generate qualified
230. 7:25leads. We've run some campaigns
231. 7:27ourselves, but lead quality has not been
232. 7:28good. We want a specialist to take
233. 7:30over." That's their pain point.
234. 7:32"Looking for somebody experienced in the
235. 7:33lead generation space through Facebook
236. 7:35advertising who can build out campaigns,
237. 7:36test audiences, and bring down the cost
238. 7:38per booked appointment." Now, I
239. 7:39understand what their pain point is and
240. 7:41I'm going to touch on that in the Loom
241. 7:42video.
242. 7:43And [snorts] we're going to make a
243. 7:44custom Loom video just for this
244. 7:46contract.
245. 7:47Now, I understand a lot of you watching
246. 7:49this may not want to do it. You might
247. 7:50find it tiring to do it for five or 10
248. 7:52contracts a day. But if you're brand new
249. 7:54on Upwork, this is the most effective
250. 7:56way.
251. 7:57And especially if you don't have any
252. 7:58portfolio to show, you're going to be
253. 8:00able to make up for that by making a
254. 8:02Loom video and talking about strategy.
255. 8:05So, I'm going to go ahead and record a
256. 8:07Loom video and show you exactly how I
257. 8:09would do this. The first thing I want to
258. 8:11do is get up any related work
259. 8:14that I have ever conducted in this
260. 8:16space. So, I know that they're looking
261. 8:18for a Facebook Ads Manager for roofing
262. 8:20company to generate leads.
263. 8:22And so, what I will do is I would open
264. 8:24up my Facebook Ads Manager, and I will
265. 8:26find companies that I've worked with in
266. 8:27the past to do this. So, I'm basically
267. 8:29essentially finding things in my
268. 8:30portfolio.
269. 8:32And that's exactly what I've done here.
270. 8:34You can see Gloss Kitchens, I got them
271. 8:36202 leads.
272. 8:37I've got
273. 8:39Raptor Striker 20, I got them $23 per
274. 8:41lead.
275. 8:42And I've got an agency here called
276. 8:44UpMatch, which I've generated
277. 8:48approximately
278. 8:523,432
279. 8:53leads for a value of £38 per lead. So,
280. 8:57all of these things I'm going to run
281. 8:58through in the video, and I'm going to
282. 9:00show you exactly how I do that. So, let
283. 9:02me get started.
284. 9:05Hey there, my name is Ali. I just came
285. 9:07across your Upwork contract, and I
286. 9:08really wanted to record a Loom video
287. 9:09going over the details of what you're
288. 9:11looking for and a bit about my
289. 9:12experience to show you that this is a
290. 9:14perfect fit for me. So, to tell you
291. 9:16about myself, I'm a Facebook Ads
292. 9:17specialist. I've been doing this for the
293. 9:18past 7 years. I've worked with a variety
294. 9:20of different brands primarily to help
295. 9:22them generate leads through Facebook,
296. 9:23which is essentially my specialty.
297. 9:25Reading through your job description, I
298. 9:27understand that you've run campaigns
299. 9:28yourself, but you're specifically
300. 9:30struggling to be able to generate good
301. 9:32quality leads through meta, which is
302. 9:34completely understandable. Um I would
303. 9:36love to learn a little bit more by
304. 9:37hopping on a call as to how you've done
305. 9:38it in the past, but I'm going to tell
306. 9:39you what I've done for clients similar
307. 9:41to you to be able to generate them
308. 9:43results. So,
309. 9:44here's company number one. This is Gloss
310. 9:46Kitchens. They're based in London, and
311. 9:48what they basically do is sell luxury
312. 9:51fitted kitchens, specifically German
313. 9:52kitchens.
314. 9:54And they approached me quite a while
315. 9:56back now, and they simply just wanted
316. 9:58leads in London of people who wanted to
317. 10:00renovate their kitchen and potentially
318. 10:02buy a kitchen from them.
319. 10:03So, in their case, what I did was
320. 10:05generate a lead form, and this lead form
321. 10:07had a very specific line of
322. 10:08questionnaire and questions to be asked,
323. 10:11which filtered out disqualified leads.
324. 10:13And when a lead would sign up, we would
325. 10:14have a specialist actually call them and
326. 10:16make sure that they're the perfect fit
327. 10:17for what Gloss Kitchens are looking for
328. 10:19before we pass them over to Gloss
329. 10:22Kitchens themselves.
330. 10:23And the campaign that I ran, I was able
331. 10:25to generate them leads for every £15
332. 10:27spent, which was really profitable
333. 10:29because their kitchens range anywhere
334. 10:30from £5,000 all the way up all the way
335. 10:33up to 50 to 60,000 GBP.
336. 10:35So, the return was was very profitable
337. 10:37because we were getting them, you know,
338. 10:39over 200 leads.
339. 10:41About three of them actually converted
340. 10:43to a paying customer. They came into the
341. 10:45showroom and met with the team, and they
342. 10:46converted into an actual purchase, and
343. 10:49it was wildly profitable for them purely
344. 10:50because it was such a high-ticket offer.
345. 10:53Another company is UpMatch. This is an
346. 10:55agency that I've run ads for. You can
347. 10:57see here a total spend of 132,000 GBP,
348. 11:00and in total that brought in 3,437
349. 11:03qualified leads.
350. 11:06This funnel was a lot more complicated
351. 11:07because the ads would drive traffic to a
352. 11:10website where there would be a Calendly
353. 11:12booking form. And the Calendly booking
354. 11:14form would essentially ask some very
355. 11:15specific questions and disqualify people
356. 11:17that didn't answer it correctly.
357. 11:19And I think that might be a good
358. 11:20solution to your problem because I'm not
359. 11:21sure if you've run Facebook lead forms
360. 11:23in the past yourself, um, or whether you
361. 11:26drove people to a landing page, but
362. 11:27there's definitely something in the
363. 11:28qualification process that you're
364. 11:30failing to do to be able to make your
365. 11:33system currently work just because I can
366. 11:35see here that you mentioned you've run
367. 11:36in the past and lead quality was
368. 11:38inconsistent. But these are just two
369. 11:39examples of companies I've worked with
370. 11:41in the past. I've also serviced a bunch
371. 11:42of others like Raptors Tri-City
372. 11:45specifically to generate leads and I've
373. 11:47I've done it with two specific methods.
374. 11:49I've run Facebook ad lead forms and I've
375. 11:50run ads to website landing pages to get
376. 11:53people to book in on the website, both
377. 11:55of which have their pro and cons, but
378. 11:56both of which I kind of accustomed to
379. 11:58figuring out exactly how to increase the
380. 12:00quality
381. 12:02because there's certain tactics that
382. 12:03I've learned over the years. So I would
383. 12:04love to hop on a call. Let me know if
384. 12:06you're free today or tomorrow. I have a
385. 12:08few questions about how you've done it
386. 12:09in the past and we can take it from
387. 12:10there.
388. 12:14And that's basically it, guys. So that's
389. 12:15exactly how I would record a Loom video.
390. 12:16It's a very specific, very tailored to
391. 12:19speaking about both what the client's
392. 12:21pain point is and how I have the
393. 12:23solution because I've done something
394. 12:25similar in the past. Now this is very
395. 12:26portfolio focused, but if you had no
396. 12:28past experience, then I would just focus
397. 12:31on speaking about how
398. 12:33I see that you're failing to generate
399. 12:34good quality leads and I have a few
400. 12:36ideas as to how to fix that. I wonder
401. 12:38whether you currently have certain
402. 12:39qualification processes in place like
403. 12:41asking the lead a certain questions
404. 12:42before allowing them to sign up. Do you
405. 12:45take them to a landing page? You're
406. 12:46basically asking about their pain points
407. 12:48and that will the right questions will
408. 12:50allow them to really consider that this
409. 12:52person understands what they're talking
410. 12:53about because the purpose of this Loom
411. 12:55video is not to convince them to buy
412. 12:57from you. It's to convince them to get
413. 12:58on a call with you.
414. 13:00And so the more that you can show that
415. 13:01you understand their problem, the more
416. 13:02they're willing to speak with you.
417. 13:04Now once you've recorded the Loom video,
418. 13:06you're just going to go on in
419. 13:07and copy the title of the contract,
420. 13:11put it as the title video, make sure
421. 13:13that the date is here. So in this case
422. 13:14it's 16 03 2026
423. 13:17and then we can copy the link,
424. 13:20go back,
425. 13:22paste in the URL,
426. 13:26just like that and then we're going to
427. 13:27fill out this. So, I've worked with
428. 13:28multiple brands that deliver this exact
429. 13:29work including
430. 13:31Gloss Kitchens,
431. 13:34UpMatch, and
432. 13:36what other clients should I put here?
433. 13:37We'll put Raptors Tri-City.
434. 13:41So, now this is very personalized
435. 13:42because the three that I went through in
436. 13:44my Loom video are also written here. I
437. 13:46can even attach a screenshot of the
438. 13:48three ad accounts that I showed in the
439. 13:50video.
440. 13:52And now we have a full proposal that is
441. 13:53very tailored and very specific to this
442. 13:55client. And if you are completely new as
443. 13:57a freelancer and this is the way you're
444. 13:59bidding every day for the next week, I
445. 14:01assure you you're going to get way more
446. 14:02responses. This is the best way to break
447. 14:05into any niche on Upwork. I say that
448. 14:08from my own experience and I say that
449. 14:09from all of the clients that I currently
450. 14:10manage under my agency, which is
451. 14:12actually upmatch.io. I've currently have
452. 14:15serviced over 400 clients in the past
453. 14:17year, specifically freelancers and
454. 14:19agencies that want more clients on
455. 14:20Upwork. So, I've seen this time and time
456. 14:21again work effectively with brand new
457. 14:23profiles.
458. 14:25So, make sure that if you are completely
459. 14:27new and you're very eager to get results
460. 14:29in the next week, you record a
461. 14:30personalized video for every single
462. 14:33proposal you submit for the next week.
463. 14:35And as time goes on and you get reviews
464. 14:37and you get 100% job success and your
465. 14:39your social credibility builds up on
466. 14:41Upwork,
467. 14:42you're not going to have to keep doing
468. 14:43this for every contract bid. This is
469. 14:45just a good way to enter the market on
470. 14:47Upwork. And then as you get social proof
471. 14:49it becomes easier to close clients
472. 14:50without the need of doing personalized
473. 14:52videos. In fact, you can eventually just
474. 14:54record one video and reuse it in every
475. 14:56single cover letter, which is what I
476. 14:58began doing and this is what a lot of
477. 14:59the clients inside of UpMatch do now.
478. 15:02But this is a very effective method and
479. 15:03I highly recommend if you're brand new
480. 15:06to consider making very, very powerful
481. 15:08Loom videos that are tailored towards
482. 15:10each contract bid every single day for
483. 15:12the next week and you'll see a large
484. 15:14influx of responses come in
485. 15:16in comparison to if you were not going
486. 15:18to use Loom videos. So, I hope you guys
487. 15:20find this video useful. If you have any
488. 15:21questions about this, feel free to
489. 15:22comment it down below. And if you want
490. 15:23to join our completely free school
491. 15:25community, you can connect with me there
492. 15:26and ask specific questions to me and the
493. 15:28community about Upwork growth and even
494. 15:31about the Loom strategy.