By Tamara Levit in Upwork — Jul 25, 2024

Perfect bid in a perfect world. Ideal scenario how to bid on Upwork.

Long story short - You should be fast and furious😄 I like my blog because I can decide what pics, memes, and tone of voice to use!

somewhere from google images

Long story short - You should be fast and furious😄 I like my blog because I can decide what pics, memes, and tone of voice to use!

Plan

Instruction
Anti-instruction
First line detailed explanation
Call to action detailed explanation
Manual or automated?

Okay, so here is my way of how the bid should look like. If you'd like to grow your conversion, then my scheme may help you.

Instruction:

Up to 1 hour freshness. Bid on fresh bids first. Yes, the Upwork algorithm is not about speed. However, in the first hour, most of the projects become private or candidates become shortlisted. My teams see a big difference in a view rate when they start bidding quickly (GR or manually)
First line. The first line is crucial as the client sees only it before he opens the whole cover letter. It's like a teaser. It should catch his/her attention.
Relevant experience. 1-2-3 links to similar projects you did before AND EXPLANATION why is it relevant. If you are just adding a portfolio link, I'll call it a lazy link. Your client doesn't deserve to spend his time going through all of your projects and understanding is something relevant.
The open question at the end. And your name. That's it.
Also don't forget to mirror your client's style. He uses emojis - you do. Short-short. Structured - structured. Hey dude! - Hey mate!

Anti-instruction.

DON'T DO THAT:

"Hello. My name is Tamara and I am a seasoned web developer with 20 years of experience." People like to read about them, not about you!
"Hello. I see you need the "title of the job post" and I ..." Copypaste is not an algorithm!
"Bonjour. I don't know French but bonjour." It was a creative idea earlier. Now, when I post a job 90% of people are writing Привіт (hello in Ukrainian). Seems like bots.
"Let's discuss job details." Did you get this phrase from school and can't live without it?
"Looking forward to your answer." Same
"Dear hiring manager" and "Dear sir/madam" and "Dear client".
using We instead of I. I don't mean you need to hide that you are an agency. Just it sounds strange.
Adding 100 links
ChatGPT-smelling jobs with the words "I am thrilled" etc

We had an amazing webinar with Dima about it and it was so funny <3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7V_sk9LV6g

It was his joke. If your bid would be a person

First line detailed explanation

People react on screaming names. Screaming names for us are our name, the name of our company, and our mom's name (btw, mine is also Tamara so double-win), competitors. However, it's not always available on the client's history.

What can we use in the first line instead?

name of the team
sphere-related names
search for the competitor in the same area
talk about trends in his country
pain points (time, money)

Don't talk about yourself. Talk about this client or his project.

Call to action detailed explanation

Every sales channel has its own best call to action. For example, would be strange if you wrote Let's discuss details in your postcards shop.

When we are in need of deciding what is the best call to action for the channel, the first question to ourselves will be "What should be the desired client's step?". On Upwork, it's an answer in a chat. Meaning our need is to force client to send us at least one message. That's why I suggest asking open questions at the end of the cover letter.

What is an open question? For example:

✅What is your killer feature?

❌Do you have a killer feature?

❌Do you have documentation?

✅What documentation do you have?

Psychologically people are skipping closed questions in their minds. That's why we need to put a mood in place to answer right away.

Manual or automated?

My opinion - manual for small teams(up to 5 people), manual, and Gigradar for bigger ones.

Just in both cases mind the time. Below is one of my design team's.

The first line is Gigradar with time up to 15 mins and the next one is lead gen manager. We found that time is the thing they need to improve. Also, it doesn't mean that manual bids are bad. Just slow in their case.