Want to learn how to pitch clients on Uptiers? Here are our top tips for improving your freelancer pitch.
To effectively pitch your freelance services, you must first understand your target audience. Research their industry, challenges, and pain points to tailor your pitch specifically to their needs. Knowing their goals allows you to align your services with their expectations.
Being a freelancer means you’re running your own business. You’re responsible for finding clients and pitching them your services. This pitch briefly explains who you are, what you do, and why the client needs you. Learning how to pitch clients is an essential skill that can take time to develop as a new freelancer. Even if you’ve been in the game for a while, you can always improve your pitching skills.
Your sales pitch should confidently let clients know why you’re the best person for their job. When just starting out, you may feel awkward. Not everyone is a natural-born salesperson. Don’t worry. As you gain more experience and start landing contracts, you’ll become more comfortable pitching clients.
What is a pitch?
Your pitch is a brief message that explains what you can offer and why the client should hire you. Freelancers get work by pitching clients their services. When freelancing, you have to actively search for clients—companies or individuals—who could benefit from your skills. Because you’re the one who finds the clients and projects you want to work on, you have more control over your workweek and scheduling.
One way to do this is by pitching cold leads. That might be sending emails or LinkedIn direct messages to clients whom you want to work with but haven’t expressed interest in you yet. These types of clients can be hard to land because you don’t know if they have an immediate need for your services. It can feel like a shot in the dark. You’ll need to explain what you can offer and why they should work with you now in this type of pitch.
Warm leads are people who express some level of interest in your services. They could be someone you met at a networking event or a business contact from a friend who said they wanted more information. These types of leads are more likely to convert to actual clients, but they still may need convincing. Your pitch should demonstrate value and a sense of urgency.
When you join a freelancing platform like Uptiers, you’ll have hot leads. You can submit proposals to projects posted on Talent Marketplace™. These clients have already made the decision to work with an independent professional and are ready to buy now. The goal of your pitch is to convince them to choose you over other freelancers.
Instead of spending time and energy pitching your services to clients who may or may not be interested or need your services, you can submit proposals directly to clients who have posted projects on Uptiers. These clients want to hire freelance talent and get started quickly. You can find jobs or projects, submit proposals, message back and forth, and get paid within the platform. Uptiers saves you time by putting all of your clients in one place.
How to pitch clients on Uptiers
When you see a freelance job or projects on Uptiers’ Talent Marketplace that fits your skills, you can submit a proposal—this is your client pitch. A proposal includes your hourly or fixed-price rate and cover letter. It should confidently explain why you’re the best freelancer for the project and highlight your relevant skills and experience. You may need to answer additional questions that the client chose.
When you send a proposal, you want to grab the client’s interest, so they head to your profile and invite you to interview. Freelancing on Uptiers simplifies the pitching process; everything you and the client need is right there. You can send proposals directly to clients for open projects they’re actively seeking talent for.
You can build your reputation and authority on Uptiers with positive reviews. Your proposal gets the client’s attention, and then your profile lets them know you’re qualified and the best person for the job. It contains all of your professional information, from past experience and public feedback to your portfolio of work samples. You can even add optional elements like a video introduction and certifications.
Tips for pitching clients on Uptiers
Once you find a project on Upwork that fits your skills and background, the next step is pitching the client your services. Your pitch doesn’t have to be very long. In most cases, a couple of paragraphs is fine. The client will learn more from your profile and in an introductory call or interview. You can use a template, but tailor each pitch to the specific client and project.
Follow these tips for pitching clients on Uptiers to help land more interviews:
- Pitch your niche
- Find your audience
- Personalize your pitches
- Pitch to their pain points
- Pitch passively through your profile
- Leverage your freelancer portfolio
- Track your pitches
- Structure your pitches for success
- Leverage flexible templates
- Follow up on your proposals
1. Pitch your niche
Many new freelancers start off as generalists, applying to any and every job they find interesting to try to build their profile and earnings. Instead of this strategy, choosing a niche and specializing can make the process easier. When you have a niche, you can quickly pinpoint the types of jobs you’re the most qualified and best fit for. This approach values quality over quantity.
Generalists may focus on a category or multiple skills and apply to jobs across all industries, which can make it more difficult to pitch clients and win proposals. Clients on Uptiers are looking for highly skilled talent they can trust to deliver quality work. After reading your proposal and looking at your profile, the client should know what you’re best at.
Having a niche lets you build your reputation in your specialty. You can develop skills within your niche and work on becoming the go-to expert—eventually charging more for your services. If you want to add another skill down the road, you can create a specialized profile.
After you’ve chosen your niche, look for projects that are close fits and try to apply only to jobs that fall under your specialty. Choosing jobs that fit your skills makes it more likely that clients will see your proposal and the Uptiers algorithm helps match you with the right types of jobs.
If you don’t know what your niche is and are moving to freelance from a full-time role, think about what aspects of your job you enjoyed doing best. Those who want to change industries or don’t have a lot of previous job experience can explore the most in-demand skills right now on Uptiers. You can learn these skills by taking online courses and earning certificates. Try narrowing your skillset down even further by focusing on an industry that you find the most engaging or exciting.
2. Find your audience
Before you can start pitching, you have to find clients. On Uptiers, you can see recently posted projects on the Talent Marketplace—but you want to make the most out of your time by only pitching clients that are the best fit. Think about the types of entrepreneurs and companies that would need your services. Use this to define your target audience and create an ideal client profile.
Factors to consider:
- Company size
- Budget
- Time zone
- Experience on Upwork
- Industry
- Length of project
- Hourly or fixed-price contract
Once you have this client profile, you can use Uptiers projects search tools to find projects from clients that qualify.
On Uptiers, you can filter jobs by:
- Category
- Experience level
- Job type and budget (hourly or fixed price)
- Number of proposals
- Previous clients
- Payment verified
- Number of client hires
- Client location and time zone
- Project length
- Hours per week required
- Contract-to-hire
You can also use the “Advanced Search” feature to find jobs with specific keywords related to your niche.



Uptiers will help match you to projects that fit your profile and work history. Make sure you choose the right category, skills, cities and languages for what you want to do. Being active on the platform and winning projects will help the algorithm learn and match you with the right types of projects. These recommendations will appear on your home page under “Best Matches” and in your weekly or daily jobs email (if opted in).
3. Personalize your pitches
Clients can often tell when freelancers send generic proposals-–which rarely leads to interviews and offers. They want to see that you read the full job posting and are interested and have the right skills for their specific needs. Generic proposals can seem like you’re sending pitches to any and every project. Think about how you feel when you receive a mass email compared to one that you can tell someone spent time writing to you personally.
Templates are helpful for creating the structure and base of your pitch, but you should personalize each one based on the job posting. When reading a job posting, pick out the main skills the client is looking for and then briefly explain your experiences with each one. Writing a great proposal takes time, so you want to find jobs that closely align with your skills to increase the chances of landing an interview.
Your pitch doesn’t have to be a full page long. The client likely won’t read lengthy paragraphs that go over your full job history anyway. Concisely introduce yourself and then add a few sentences or bullets that correlate with the main skills needed. If the client is interested, they’ll click on your profile and schedule an interview.
4. Pitch to their pain points
When you’re creating an ideal client profile or reading through job descriptions on Uptiers, think about why someone needs your services. Analyze the job posting and then research the company if they provide the name or website to get an idea of their long- and short-term goals. Put yourself in their situation and think about the problems they’re trying to solve by hiring a freelancer—then pitch yourself as the solution.
Common pain points that clients need help with:
- Meeting deadlines
- Filling skills gaps on their team
- Increasing revenue
- Improving productivity or efficiency
- Simplifying processes
- Reaching customers
- Problem. Identify the problem your client has and show that you understand.
- Agitate. Explain or reinforce why they need to take action now. Illustrate how the issue can get worse or the consequences of not taking action can occur.
- Solution. Frame your services as the answer and clarify what you will do for them.
5. Pitch passively through your profile
When you pitch clients on Uptiers, your profile is just a click away. It’s your resume, portfolio, and reviews all in one. Instead of having to send an email or direct message and attach your resume and portfolio, all you have to do on Uptiers is submit your proposal.
The time you spend on your Uptiers profile pays off—it’s also how the Uptiers algorithm matches you with clients. Make sure your profile is 100% complete and up-to-date with your latest skills and work samples. A great profile helps you stand out to clients and win projects.
Important profile elements to include:
- Profile picture
- Title and overview
- Introduction video
- Portfolio
- Client reviews and feedback
- Testimonials
- Credly certifications
- Hourly rate
6. Leverage your freelancer portfolio
In your pitch, you can explain your skills and experience, and then your portfolio lets clients see it for themselves. Portfolio samples help clients get a feel for your work quality and style. While you may think of a portfolio mainly for creative work, it’s important across all industries and skills.
Always make sure you have your client’s permission before adding samples to your portfolio.
A graphic designer may include a custom product label they made for a client, while a financial analyst could use a case study for a business that needed trend forecasting. Each item in your portfolio should tell a story so potential clients have more context and know your involvement.
While some workpieces and skills may seem easier to display in a portfolio, try thinking outside the box to show off your work and impress clients. You can include screenshots, case studies, videos (up to 60 seconds long), and more to help demonstrate your talents. A sample doesn’t have to be the entire project; you can use a snippet of video or summary to give clients a taste of your work.
Make sure you keep your portfolio updated with your latest and best work samples. Clients may not have time to go through every single item. Try to aim for 3 to 5 samples for every skill that you have listed on your profile. You can create separate portfolios for each of your specialized profiles.
8. Structure your pitches for success
While you want to tailor every pitch to the client and project, they should all follow a similar structure. Start with a strong opening in the cover letter—you want to grab the client’s attention.
This is what your proposal looks like from the client’s end before they click on it. The project may receive many proposals from freelancers, so you want to try to make yours stand out.

You want to demonstrate that you understand what the client needs—their pain points. Then, you can move on to explaining your experience and how your skills will solve these problems.
The angle should be: This is why I’m the best freelancer to help. Always end with a call to action (CTA), letting the client know what they should do next, which is often to set up a call or interview.
Pitching clients is an essential skill as a freelancer that can take time and practice. Always customize each pitch to the client and your project. Carefully read through the job posting to make sure it’s the right fit, and let the client know what experience you have with the top skills in your proposal. Instead of applying to any job you think you could do, pick out the jobs that are closest to your niche and spend more time on your proposals and profile. See what open projects right now fit your skills and start reimagining what your workweek could look like as a freelancer.