How to approach potential clients by email?

[dpcdpc11]

Hi people... I'm relatively new to freelancing and I was wondering about some tips regarding the approach of potential clients by Email without looking spammy.

I found a bunch of local companies which have some 5 year old plain ugly website and I would like to approach them by email to offer my services to them by proposing them a new and up to date website.
So I've send a few email... one by one, not using Bcc or something but none of them ever replied back.

Could some of you experienced freelancers here give me some tips about what to consider and how should I express my self in email so that these companies would take my offer in consideration and not regard my email just like: "Oh no, another Spam got in my Inbox! Delete of course!"

I'm confident that you guys here can help me out with this!

Thanks in advanced,
Cristian

 

[Goldstar]

To be honest, I've had a few get to my e-mail and I almost always skip them over. If it's something with no "reply right away" importance, I usually put it at the end of my list and get back to it a week or two later. A lot of them get lost or not read because of that.

Regards,

 

[mrandrei]

Email marketing is all about making catchphrases that would attract readers, potential clients. Be direct to the point. To make sure your emails don’t get flagged as spam, avoid using words such as ‘Free’, Save’, ‘Discount’, etc., in both the subject and the content.

 

[ian]

That becomes borderline spam, best to optimise your site so that those people looking for a new design come to you when they do a google search. And also perhaps consider some sort of ppc advertising. But you will need an excellent portfolio first if you intend on converting leads to actual sales.

 

[justrobin]

Just write a good email. Explain why you sent it and what benefit your client would get.

Believe me, You just have to sent one... it works.

This is the critical point in email marketing. Writing a "good email". The subject of the email is important in email marketing for it catches the attention of the receiver. Does anyone have a strategy on this one?

 

[bermuda]

In most cases emails might not seem to be working very much and lots of emails may not even get read. This is one of the reasons even webmasters who are going to advertise their websites online prefer not investing in email marketing because they know that the chances of sales and clicks would be rare in most cases. Perhaps you would have better chances of success if you get in touch with the companies through phone or if they are in your area, personally visiting their offices.

A lot of big companies are in constant touch with freelancers worldwide, offering them extra jobs when the work loads are heavy based on calendar occasions or markets situations and they may not consider new emails, sometimes because they might be too busy handling the jobs. If they have dedicated sections, with forms and feedback information which would be studied by admins and owners of the businesses, in such cases your emails would be read with attention and examination.

 

[constanthosting]

I rarer ever read emails in my personal email account if I don't know who they are from. You may get better reactions by sending actual postal mail or a simple post card with a great deal on it these days. I rarely ever get postal "junk mail" anymore but I do tend to look through everything I get.

 

[computerGeek]

I always get baited when there are terms like "Get money right away", or "$50 is waiting for you", or "your check is ready".. hahaha..

 

[Trevor]

Years ago when i was starting out i went down that road and either i did it wrong or it was a waste of time. i have went through about every promotion that one can imagine. My most effective technique is to make clients happy and they refer you, i get 70% of my business through referrals. Second method is a real live sales person that goes to businesses, finding good sales people is hard but when you find a single good sales person get ready to hire help because you 1 good sales person will flood you with more work than you can handle.