Your Upwork View Rate is Fine. How to improve your reply rate?
People started seeing you after you read my article? Niiiice. Sorry, but views don't pay your bills - clients do.
So people are looking at your bid, reading it, but don't answer. What to do?
NO to Walls of Text
Clients don’t have time to read your life story. Usually, we need to understand, that they came to Upwork because they don't have time to search for the dev in real life.
Make your bid short, I recommend up to 350 symbols. Answer the unspoken question: "Why should I care?".
Do not give the list of projects so they even don't know where to look at why. Give 1 or 2 specific examples and explain WHY IS IT RELEVANT?
End your cover letter with a question
Want a reply? Give them a reason to hit "Reply." A great way to do this is to include open-ended questions at the end of your proposal:
What is your timeline? Who is your main competitor? When would you like to set a call?
Avoid generic closings like "Looking forward to hearing from you." It's polite but passive. Take control of the conversation.
Show you are human (but professional)
People are tired of generic bids. Even if you are using bids generators - add prompts that will help with the humanist sound.
Use simple informal English. Don't generate bids in ChatGPT with those "I am thrilled to apply" etc🤮
And my favorite - A/B tests
If you have a lot of views - your first step is done! Now, in average 50% of these views should be replied. How to make A/B tests?
- 1st rule - changing part should be only one
- test general profile vs specialized one
- test 1st line differently
- test how you describe your relevant experience
- test the size of your cover letter
- test formal vs informal way
- many emojis vs no emojis
- different call to action at the end
Whenever one test works better - make it default and start the new test again!
It's an endless hobby - improving your rate😄
Hugs,
Tamara
