There is a crap ton (yes, that’s my new favorite word) of information about writing letters of introduction (LOIs) on this blog. But it’s all in different places and can be difficult to find. When I talk to writers at conferences or in-person, they want a step-by-step guide to the LOI process. While I know that this is probably nothing new to regular readers, the goal is to have a post that I can point writers to and you can share with friends who ask for help. And, if you have been freelancing a while, it’s very possible there is a new idea in here for you as well.

All of this is to say that I think sending out cold LOIs is the second least effective way to get work. And in case you are wondering, the most ineffective way to look for work is by far applying to ads on a job board because these ads typically receive hundreds of responses, so your odds are super low of ever hearing back. I think that the most effective way to get work is through in-person networking and referrals from other writers and clients.

Here are few ways to increase the odds that your LOIs will land you some new work:

• Send LOIs to people you have something in common with. For example, a mutual friend, college, past employer. Other ideas include people who attended the same conference you did or belong to the same organization. The common point should be something that gives you some familiarity and credibility.
• Only send LOIs to clients whose needs are a match for your experience. It takes time to send a single LOI. You want to only send LOIs to clients who are going to look at your email say, “Wow, that’s exactly the type of writer I need.” By finding the clients that really need your experience and skills instead of sending to a wide net, you will greatly increase your odds of getting gig.
• Send to clients that likely don’t get a lot of LOIs. It’s the same concept as contacting trades instead of glossy consumers pubs. Odds are the director of marketing at Hilton hears from plenty of freelancers. But I know that the technology companies that make software that all the big hotels don’t get hardly any freelancers contacting them. Look for the less sexy clients and odds are your LOI will be one of the few that they have gotten that week or even that month.
• Make sure your website and LinkedIn support your case. If someone likes your LOI, the first thing that they will likely do is go to either your website or LinkedIn. And hopefully both. But you don’t want them to visit your website and not find clips that back up your claims. Or go to LinkedIn and not see the job experience you alluded to in the industry. Make sure both sites are up-to-date and that a potential client can easily find the information that they need hire you.
• Write a short LOI. I know, I know. I said it last week, but I will keep saying it because writers like to argue with me on this. Think of your LOI as a pickup line. And keep it to five sentences. Every time I hear someone ask an editor or client about LOIs, they also stress how shorter is better.

Take the time to visit the links in the steps below because I have blogged on each step extensively in the past. Here are seven steps to LOI success:

1. Create a list of potential clients. Start with my Audience First Method (previously called my Three-Step Method, but I changed it for more oomph) and go through all three steps to end up with a long list of potential direct business clients. Next make a list of content marketing agencies to contact. I recommend starting with local agencies as well as agencies specializing in your niche. Check out this post on finding content marketing agencies, although its a few years old, it’s up to date.
2. Write an LOI for the niche. Use my Five(ish) Sentence LOI template to get started and be sure to customize it for the specific niche. If it’s more than seven sentences, delete sentences until you get down to no more than seven. You don’t need to tell them everything you’ve ever done, just enough to get the conversation started.
3. Write a subject line that shouts that you are a freelancer. You don’t want the client to think you’re a spammer. Or a PR person. Or a salesperson. Many clients have told me to be sure to put the word ‘Freelancer’ in the subject line. Something that I do is use almost the same subject line for all LOI so when I am following up I can easily search my sent mail folder for original LOIs. I use the word ‘Experienced’ as the first word of my subject and that makes it easy to find. Check out this post on writing effective subject lines – even though it’s also older, I promise the information is totally still relevant.
4. Determine who contact at the client is the best person to contact. This is probably the second asked question (the first one is how do I find clients). Check out this post from earlier this week to figure out who to email.
5. Find the contact’s email address. I have never gotten a response from a general email with a company when I was looking for freelance work. I have a lot of success using the free email tool Hunter to find email addresses for individual contacts. But if that doesn’t work for your contact, then use this post for other ideas. If you can’t find an email, send a LinkedIn message. One writer told me that they send their LOI by LinkedIn and follow up by email, which I thought was especially smart.
6. Customize the LOI for the specific client. I used to spend a lot of time on this – looking up an article in a recent issue and writing a carefully crafted sentence about how much I liked it. But I don’t do that anymore. I honestly don’t think it matters that much at this stage, but more when you get on the phone for an intro call. However, I always put the contact’s first name in the email. I think that if you are a customer of the brand or in the target demographic then you should include that as well. For example, if you are contacting a company that sells technology to retail stores and you used to manage a retail store, then put it in. Or if you shop at the store, then put it in.
7. Follow up. If you do not follow-up then you are leaving money on the table. I really think that this is the biggest mistake freelancers make. If you don’t hear back from someone, it very often has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU. Check out this post on why people don’t respond. Here is a basic post on following up that includes a template email and another that gives some ideas of different ways to follow up. If you get any responses from LOI’s that say that they are interested, but not now – these are your bucket of gold. I would recommend following up with these clients every 2 to 3 months until the end of time or they hire you or tell you to go away, whichever comes first. As far as LOIs you don’t hear back from, I recommend following up after 3 weeks and then every 2 to 3 months for a year and then every year.

What is your experience sending out LOIs? Do you have any tips or ideas to add?