One of the most tedious parts of freelancing is trying to figure out the who’s who of marketing for every company that you could potentially work for. These days, even top-paid executives jump from one job to the next pretty quickly. So the marketing department head that you think you’re reaching out to with a freelance cold pitch letter, might be off to the next experience before your pitch letter even has a stamp on the envelope.
At Dina’s List, we want to make it easier for you (and me!) to find freelance gigs that pay well and give you a chance to flex your marketing muscle. Yes, we know that marketing jobs are posted regularly on LinkedIn. But have you ever watched what happens when a new one comes up?
Scads of writers (I’m saying writers because I am one), flock to the post like a pack of crazed pigeons. Everyone’s dropping the same comment, essentially “Pick me! Pick me!”… and now where are you in terms of being noticed?
That was why I thought that a freelance cold pitch might be a much more effective approach.
Instead of logging into LinkedIn to see a dizzying number of freelancers who all look the same flapping about on his job post, the marketing guy is sitting there at his desk, checking email and in comes your message. You’re the main event, the lone freelancer doing your solo tapdance for him. So much better than your voice being buried in throngs of desperadoes, am I right?
Not to mention, I’ve come across next-generation copywriters (I say this because I’m 52, so I’m not totally up with the social media times, you feel me?), who swear by the cold pitch to get your foot in whatever door you want.
One of them, whose name I cannot remember, also because I’m 52, explained it as such. The goal is to secure, say, 5 freelance clients and get them on a monthly retainer… and then work out $1K worth of services for each of them. Then once you have your clients and 5K of monthly income set up, you can check that stress off your list, hunker down and crank out copy like you’ve always dreamed of doing.
That’s not the first time I heard that advice recently from a marketing young’un. Rachel Pedersen said it someplace. Write it down: it’s the KEY to your freelancing success above all else.
And I think the VERY first person who put a plan along those lines into my head was Bob Bly, the Mac Daddy of all copywriters (he’s from NJ so he gets my vote for freelance top dog). I just know that his book, How to Make 85K as a Freelance Copywriter still lives in my collection, waiting to be rediscovered. I read that book cover to cover in 2002… and it STILL outranks many other freelance manuals I’ve come across.
(And it would STILL be pretty sweet to make 85K as a freelancer from home in 2025.)
So anyway, that list of contacts for you to cold pitch your services.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m building a list of company contacts. I wanted to give some momentum to this endeavor, so I made it a slow-growth effort. This way, people can find this blog and sign up while the list is being created. (But like I said, not TOO slow because marketers are on the MOVE.)
So far, as of May 9, I’m up to GEICO in my list. If I do the whole alphabet, with a few companies per letter, this will take me a long time. So I might divide the contact list in half, and then follow up with you guys and deliver TWO lists over the course of months.
That will give you plenty to consider, as far as what niche to focus on, and who you want to work for.
Remember also, that with the fast-movers in mind, you want to double check the contact names even after I send you the list. Something could change as soon as tomorrow. The company you approach will be impressed if you know who’s working where and can address important people by name before hitting send, or mailing out that letter.
So, you are welcome to have my list of freelance cold pitch contacts for free. I’ll be sending it out to my list soon.
Sign up here so I can send it to you. In the meantime, I have a different freebie that’s poised to land in your inbox right now. It’s a list of freelance job sites, like Legiit and ProBlogger. Get it now, and I’ll follow up with those contact for you, soon!
Why? Why would I do this? As I mention on the sign-up page, I’m a fed-up freelancer and I suspect I’m not alone in this!
See you on the freelance side,
Dina