Everyone and his uncle is in hoarding mode, and things are getting weird.<\/p>\n

So far, I’ve seen the following shortages:<\/p>\n

\n
• Toilet paper<\/li>\n
• Tofu<\/li>\n
• Live magnolias in pots taller than 2 feet<\/li>\n
• Plain white t-shirts in my size (and under $85)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  While the tofu was a bit of a surprise, the white t-shirt was just madness. I’ve shrunk a full size. What I have now is too big. So if I can’t find a relatively inexpensive white cotton t-shirt in a few weeks, I may have to haul out the sewing machine and do some altering (and post photos so we can all have a laugh together).<\/p>\n

  One thing we freelancers aren’t hoarding right now: clients.<\/p>\n

  I had two potential clients in the last two months. As of yesterday, I confirmed both of those clients are not buying. Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n

  The first one was down to the “Let’s do this” and the NDA was about to be sent when the budget was yanked. The last one — I knew it wasn’t happening. But I reached out because we were to meet at the trade show that didn’t happen this week.<\/p>\n

  The conversation started with me telling him I had a feeling his budget wasn’t there right now because of what’s going on. We had a good conversation. We vowed to meet on the other side of this current version of hell.<\/p>\n

  It’s what you do when you put people in front of business — you lead with compassion.<\/p>\n

  But we freelance writers still have to eat, so let’s look at how we’re attracting clients who are still there.<\/p>\n

  My favorite marketing method is a well-crafted letter of introduction (LOI). Note I said well-crafted<\/strong>. Sure, you could put anything out there and someone someday might decide to buy. It’s like hockey — if I shot a puck at the net all day long, even I could get one goal without the skills to do so. But we’re going to do more than just shoot randomly, right?<\/p>\n

  So let’s say the LOI is your favorite method, too. But hey wait, no one is answering any of your emailed notes. Not even on follow up.<\/p>\n

  A few things could be going on:<\/p>\n

  \n
  • They’re not interested and simply not into responding<\/li>\n
  • Your notes are stuck in the Spam folder<\/li>\n
  • They’re working from home for the first time in their lives with cats and kids and mayhem along with a full in box and a tense manager<\/li>\n
  • They have no money right now<\/li>\n
  • They never were going to hire you<\/li>\n
  • Any other reason known or unknown to you<\/li>\n
  • It’s the wrong way to reach them (this may be the case for phone calls to corporate offices right now)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    I’m not sure it even matters why they’re not responding. What matters is how you get them to respond, and how you change up what you’re doing to get more responses.<\/p>\n

    Here’s what I’ve done to get more responses:<\/p>\n

    \n
    • Lead with compassion (yea, I’m repeating it because right now, that really matters)<\/li>\n
    • Ask directly — could you let me know either way so I’m not filling your in box with unwanted email?<\/em><\/li>\n
    • Try something new, like social media notes or mailed letters (again, right now, anything going to a closed office might be a bad idea)<\/li>\n
    • Deconstruct, then reconstruct that LOI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      That last one is the thing that may be costing you clients during the good times, too. And since the other points are self-explanatory, let’s stick with this one.<\/p>\n

      Let’s take the following example of a freelance pitch that needed a bit of work before it went out:<\/p>\n

      Many industries have had to revise their business operations amid the COVID-19 crisis. Jane Doe built an entire organization during a financial meltdown.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Doe is founder of Communities First Association (CFA), a provider of business products for the nonprofit sector. Her entire business was built on the idea that companies can be social enterprises first, businesses second.\u00a0 By combining a critical need with a community approach, Doe is able to bring stability to a segment of the market that was in desperate need. To date, the company has returned nearly $24 million to its investors and communities.<\/em><\/p>\n

      We would like to propose a contributed article, Community First: how CFA has built a community-facing enterprise (and how you can, too). The article will detail how Doe developed and implemented her successful business that serves many communities in the tri-state area. Doe will offer insights on creating value beyond product offerings, and how community-based enterprises are building stronger communities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

      The article will also show how organizations can remain flexible to respond to a rapidly changing landscape. As COVID-19 exploded in the US, CFA added services to help their communities, including free testing sites, increasing product offerings at the same price, and forgiving loan interest on amounts over $5,000.<\/em><\/p>\n

      About CFA: (four lines of press release-style boilerplate 411 info on the program, with one more mention of a new program implemented during COVID-19)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Hmm. A bit dull, no? The info was there, but can you see what the story is? Not easily. Seems this one had too many revisions or too few eyes on it.<\/p>\n

      Here it is, revised:<\/p>\n

      Dear Editor:<\/em><\/p>\n

      Many industries have had to revise their business operations amid the COVID-19 crisis. Jane Doe built an entire organization during a financial meltdown.<\/em><\/p>\n

      Doe is founder of Communities First Association (CFA), a provider of business products for the nonprofit sector. Her entire business was built on the idea that companies can be social enterprises first, businesses second.\u00a0 By combining a critical need with a community approach, Doe is able to bring stability to a segment of the market that was in desperate need.<\/em><\/p>\n

      We would like to propose a contributed, non-promotional article, Community First: how CFA has built a community-facing enterprise (and how you can, too). The article will offer Doe\u2019s insights on the following:<\/em><\/p>\n

      \n
      • Why social enterprises are critical, especially now<\/em><\/li>\n
      • How to create value first, product second and still succeed<\/em><\/li>\n
      • How that focus can help organizations pivot in rapidly changing environments<\/em><\/li>\n
      • How to make those changes smoothly<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        About CFA: (here there are two sentences on what the company is and its accomplishments).<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

        The info is still there, but what’s missing: the oversell. And now you can actually see what the story is without having to dig through wordiness.<\/p>\n

        \n
        • Gone was the over-selling of how great the company is. It is a great company, but the editor wants to know what the article is about, not about who’s writing it.<\/li>\n
        • The main article points were pulled out and put in a bulleted list.<\/li>\n
        • The first line of the actual article description now contained the words “non-promotional article” to drive the point home.<\/li>\n
        • More meat was added to the pitch itself to address what this magazine’s readers might like to see.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          This may not net any more of a response, but the information is now easier to find.<\/p>\n

          Look at your last LOI or magazine pitch. Using a highlighter, underline your main points. Now, using a pen, cross out phrases that add nothing.<\/p>\n

          What’s the result?<\/p>\n

          Writers, have you had success with revised pitches or LOIs?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
          \nHave you had the opposite result?<\/strong><\/em>
          \nHow often do you review your sales pitches?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Everyone and his uncle is in hoarding mode, and things are getting weird. So far, I’ve seen the following shortages: Toilet paper Tofu Live magnolias in pots taller than 2 feet Plain white t-shirts in my size (and under $85) While the tofu was a bit of a surprise, the white t-shirt was just madness….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[420,409],"tags":[56,8],"class_list":["post-7600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letter-of-introduction","category-marketing","tag-letter-of-introduction","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7600"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7603,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions\/7603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordsonpageblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}