• By Yuwanda Black
• Published 01/28/2012
• Article Writing

I’ve been a freelance writer since 1993 and an SEO writer since 2007. Hence, I receive a lot of questions from fellow freelancers about freelance writing – across various niches. One freelancer asked the following question recently regarding SEO writing. She emailed me, saying: I wanted to ask you a question regarding the response rate for reaching out to SEO companies. I have reached out to about 150 companies over the past 3 weeks, but I’ve only had 2 interested responses (and I’m working on converting these guys into clients). … Do you have any additional tips for hooking people on the initial e-mail? Email Marketing for SEO Writing Jobs: What Response Rate Should You Expect? This question is impossible to answer without knowing specifics like rate, quality of writing samples, turnaround time, niche, etc. But, it’s a good question because it gets to the heat of what so many freelancers want when they decide to step out on their own. What is this? In short, a guarantee – a guarantee of success. And, this simply is not possible. When I first started out as an SEO writer, I landed 14 jobs in one week. I might have sent out 50 to 100 emails. Many others have written that they sent out 5 emails and landed jobs. So, it just depends. Following are some guidelines to increase your chance of landing SEO writing jobs (and other freelance writing jobs) when you market via email.

1. Be Concise: As in, don’t overwhelm prospects with too much information in your initial email. Remember, your goal is to get them to take acti

on, eg, call you, email you, visit your SEO writing website, etc. So, keep this front and center when crafting your message. 2. Offer Benefits: As in, tell them how/why you can help them. Don’t write from a “give me a writing job perspective, but from a “here’s how hiring me to write your content can get you more visitors and increase your sales” perspective. 3. Get Around Being Accused of Spam: The way to beat the SPAM problem every time is to tailor your messages. Don’t send out a blanket email. When you’re finding contacts, especially via this method, you’re going to most likely find specific names. Use that in your email, and mention in your email that you did to find something of note to mention when you make contact, eg: Dear Ms. Jones: I visited your website and notice that it’s updated regularly and that you accept guest posts. I was wondering if you’d be interesting in hiring a ghost writer to contribute posts on a regular basis. This would cut down on the amount of writing you have to do, and increase your readership by putting out more content. I can provide in-depth, insightful posts like the one you did on “How to Become a Freelance Writer” (your 1/17/2012 post) on freelance writing, as my background is blah, blah, blah. See what I mean? Most business owners would not report someone like this for spam because they’ve obviously visited the prospect’s site, provided a WIIFM (what’s in it for me) benefit, and have the appropriate background. THIS is what separates likely-to-be-well-received emails from spam.

If you follow this advice when you market for freelance writing jobs via email, you significantly increase your chance of landing more of them.

Want to easily land more SEO writing jobs when you market via email? Learn exactly what to say in your marketing emails – and why to say it in “Marketing Emails that Land Freelance Writing Jobs.” Yuwanda Black, the author, says she landed 14 jobs in her first week as an SEO writer. And, all of these clients were contacted via email.

by Yuwanda Black