For the first time in at least three years, I dusted off my letter of introduction (LOI) recently and got to work doing cold outreach. I noticed many other writers posting about starting cold outreach after a long break as many of us saw a slow down this summer. So I decided to make sure that I was giving the best advice to you (and myself) so I conducted a Cold Outreach Survey to find out what is working right now. 

For the survey, I asked writers who’ve had success with cold outreach to respond so the results are only from writers who regularly get work with cold outreach. I define cold outreach as reaching out to a person or company that you’ve got no connection with and haven’t worked with in the past. For example, emailing local agencies or sending out LinkedIn requests to content marketing managers in your niche. 

I also think that cold outreach can be either email or LinkedIn. In the past, I defined it as emailing LOIs, but now it’s evolved to reaching out on social media as well, especially LinkedIn. And yes, I asked the question about which is more effective. 

Here are 15 questions I asked in the survey: 

1. Do you find LOIs are more effective over LinkedIn or email?

A majority (64.3%) of writers said email was more effective for LOIs. I was a bit surprised at this one, but am happy to know which way to focus my efforts. That said, I often do both since some people respond better to one over the other. 

2. If you send LinkedIn LOIs, do you send an Inmail or put the LOI in the connection request?

The good news about this is that you can do a connection request for free–no InMails or premium account required. The even better news is that sending cold outreach through connection requests makes you write a concise message due to its character limit. 

3. Have you had other employees forward or connect you with the right person if you send to the wrong person? 

This backs up my experience as well – if you are qualified and a good fit, then people will forward your email or message to the right person in an organization. 

4. What job title do you usually have best luck targeting?

Creative and even unusual job titles have been all the rage lately. But that makes it hard to figure out who to reach out to. Here are the titles that most writers have the best luck targeting. 

5. How do you qualify companies for cold outreach?

Here are comments from writers about qualifying:

• Check if they have a blog, if they post frequently, if they have a dedicated team for content (LI is helpful for this), and bonus points of their socials are up to date
• Look at three indicators: 1) whether the website has a modern design; 2) the type of content they publish; 3) whether they have a marketing manager (content marketing manager is even better) 
• Create a leads list via Crunchbase of startups and companies who’ve recently gotten series B funding in your niche! 
• I don’t worry about this too much. The way I write the LOI gives some indication about my experience and therefore rates expectation. The initial 15 min call does the rest. I’ve grown pretty good at turning initial assignments into further more specialized work. 
• Don’t spend too much time researching companies initially, as this is a numbers game. You’re fishing. Wait until you have a bite before putting the real work in.
• Research their business, check their LinkedIn and see what conversations they are having. You will be able to determine their personality, what their pain points are etc. Check for red flags (example their website looks outdated or bad customer reviews)
• Research their business, check their LinkedIn and see what conversations they are having. You will be able to determine their personality, what their pain points are etc. Check for red flags (example their website looks outdated or bad customer reviews)

6. Have you gotten work through using a general email address?

Most (80%) writers said using a general company email address does not work for cold outreach. This backs up the advice I’ve been giving for years. If you aren’t sure who to send to in an organization, pick the closest person over a general email box—so, anyone in marketing vs an “info@” type address or a contact form on the company website. 

7. How much personalization do you do for cold outreach?

 

Since the chart cut off the choices, here are the choices:

• Include name
• Include company 
• Include something about contact’s background
• Include reference to recent content 
• Personalized statement about how your background helps the company 
• Include past client names based on needs
• Customize clips based on needs

I added this question since I am often asked about how much to personalize cold outreach. And I struggle with the answer because I think the right answer is a bit different for each writer. The challenge is that personalizing is time consuming and makes the LOI longer (in many cases). But for some clients, personalizing makes a big difference. I personally lean towards light personalization of just the name, company, and clips. 

Here are some comments from writers about personalization from the survey:

• I used to lead with a reference to recent content they published, but I no longer do that. The most efficient parts to personalize are: personal experience, past clients, and clips
• I heavily personalize and almost always get a response. 
• Don’t waste loads of time personalizing. It’s more about getting your foot in the door of having a conversation.
• Heavy personalization ALWAYS gets the best results for me. No personalization is a waste of time. Light is good for roles adjacent (marketer, writer, copyeditor, etc.) to the person who I think is most likely to hire me (editor or manager)
• I don’t have time in this life for heavy personalization. I try to make the email relevant enough and then move on with my life. The more I fuss over LOIs, the more I hate them.
• I’m not convinced the time required for heavy personalization pays off enough—showing up in a person’s inbox at the right moment (impossible to plan for) seems to be the biggest factor in getting a response, in my experience. Curious to hear what the results show though!
• My LOIs are highly targeted and lightly personalized. Starting with the right contact at the right company is the winning combination, and there’s both careful research and some luck involved in finding that client.
• For higher volumes of LOIs like what I do (hundreds per month), light personalization is necessary. But I also do more targeted, personalized outreach to a handful of companies that seem like an incredible fit for my background, and that has a much higher success rate. Nearly all of those respond, so I have a decent chance of at least scheduling a call if it’s a really good fit.

8. What percentage of LOIs get a response?

For this question, I specified that any response counted – from hiring you on the spot to saying that they never wanted to hear from you. 

This backs up my own experience that the response rate is relatively low. The vast majority of writers (70%) get any response less than 25% of the time. And this reinforces my belief that cold outreach is a numbers game. However, that does not mean to just reach out to anyone and everyone, but instead I feel strongly that you need to carefully target companies that are not only likely to hire you, but where you are likely to be their favorite freelancer. 

Here are relevant comments from freelancers:

• From my experience, it’s the most effective method of getting clients especially if you’re a newbie, when you haven’t built a network or a reputation in your industry.
• I have found my best and highest-paying clients through cold outreach. One that I’ve been working with for three years now has given me over $500k worth of work in that time. 

9. What is your conversation rate to landing a client?

This question went a step further to determine what percentage of LOIs turn into actual paying work. 

  

These results further backed up my thoughts that cold outreach takes a lot of effort and actual outreach to turn into work.  While the numbers are low, writers are getting work through cold outreach. 

I also want to reiterate that I think cold outreach is actually one of the least effective ways to get work – and my May 2023 State of Freelancing Survey backed up it – although cold outreach is still ahead of job ads and inbound website inquiries. Connections (writers, clients, and nurturing connections on LinkedIn) are MUCH more effective. 

However, most writers, especially newer writers and those not coming from a full-time job often run out of personal connections before they build a self-sustaining business. So most writers do have to turn to cold outreach during their career. And even though it’s less effective than referrals and warm leads, it does work. And it works a lot better than sitting around waiting for work to come to you. 

Here are some related comments from writers:

• A lot of people don’t like it but it’s where I got 95% of my clients so… Definitely works! You will fail, that’s part of it. But then, if you do the work and keep improving, you’ll also nail it.
• It can often feel like shouting into the void, but in today’s current market it can really make a difference. Try to keep you head up, and don’t feel discouraged from no response or negative response. As many can attest, cold outreach when done carefully, and thoughtfully does work. 
• Absurdly high volume and persistence works, but it might not bring you your dream clients — those are rare (which is ok, because you’re only one person and you don’t need 100 dream clients!). I’ve found it’s a reliable way to get work eventually, even if not immediately, and once I have more income coming in and more demand I start becoming choosier. I had an empty calendar and started to panic this summer, but all the efforts of the last few months are starting to pay off. I’m getting work from people I followed up with who I originally contacted over a year ago. The important thing is to start now. Start with your outreach right now, whether through email or LinkedIn, and be prepared to follow up. Nearly all of my work comes from following up. Get a list of 1,000 companies together in your niche and dedicate yourself to reaching out to them and following up consistently. That first LOI is you starting a relationship, it’s not ‘one and done’.

10. How many times do you follow up?

If you are wondering whether you should follow up, then this question confirms my answer: ABSOLUTELY. Check out my posts on following up – You are Leaving Money on the Table if You Don’t Follow Up and 5 Unique Ways to Follow Up with Content Marketing Clients. 

Here are some comments from writers about following up:

• Keep it short, copy the original email (or parts of it) in the 2nd follow up to refresh their minds, and don’t feel like you’re an annoyance.
• Track it! Keep a tracking sheet of outreach and put the follow-up dates on your calendar. 
• If it’s a follow up to a cold email, then I use the “I forgot to include this clip” excuse. Avoid following up with “I wanted to make sure that you read my first email”. If I’m following up with a prospect that showed interest in the past (once a year or so), I’m usually more straightforward: “Just to let you know you that I’m still available for hire.” 
• I follow up up to 5 times. Follow up 1 = 2-4 weeks after initial connection, follow up 2= 4-12 weeks after follow up 1, follow up quarterly after that. 
• Just do it. You are not being annoying. People get a ton of email and they are perfectly capable of ignoring stuff that doesn’t interest them. Plus, needs change and can do so quickly. Not right now is no the same as not ever. 
• Following up is great but it doesn’t always work for me. That first contact is always the catch. 
• Be nice/helpful, set reminders for yourself for the next follow up, and don’t take anything personally! 
• I don’t really follow up. Companies that really need writers typically respond to my first outreach. 
• The people who schedule calls with me after repeated followup are always thanking me for following up. Many say they appreciate my patience and persistence; that they have a small team and so much going on that it’s the only way to get through. A lot of these folks get tons of spam email but persistent followup tells them this is really a person who’s trying to reach them.

11. How do you follow up?

I’m a fan of adding value when you follow up. Here are some ways that people add value during the follow up. Here are some ways that other writers follow up. 

12. At what point do you usually land work? 

Of all the questions in the survey, this was the most eye opening. And it confirmed what I’ve been saying for years – if you aren’t going to follow up then don’t bother with cold outreach. The percentage of people who landed a gig on the first email (22%) was a bit higher than I expected. I think this is the biggest takeaway from the survey – the vast majority of work from cold outreach is landed during a follow up. 

This makes a ton of sense to me. Most people aren’t going to hire someone on the spot that they don’t know (although it does happen). Instead the goal of cold outreach is to build a relationship so that when they have work, then you are no longer a cold connection, but someone they know and trust. 

 

13. What is the average time from first reaching out to getting an assignment?

Whenever I send out a batch of LOIs, I consider that I’m marketing for the entire year, meaning that I hope to get work from this effort over the course of the year, not the next week. And this answer backs up that mindset. Yes, it’s possible to get work quickly. But most writers get it over the course of 12 months. And with the majority getting work from 1 to 3 months later, this shows even more how important it is to follow up. 

Here are some related comments:

• It 100% works but can take months or even years to land something substantial.
• Like everyone says, you have to be persistent, it’s a numbers game. Your best bet is with businesses that you could do an especially good job writing for, for whatever reason. Also, sometimes I’ve gotten an interview and work from the first message. Other times it’s taken multiple follow ups and many months. You never know what will be the case with any given client, so – be prepared to follow up and be delighted when occasionally you don’t have to.

 

14. What length LOI do you find most effective?

This backs up everything clients have told me. And I’ve asked a crap ton of people this question who hires writers. And almost every single person says the shorter the better. Go short. It works. Editors are busy. Think of the LOI as the pickup line and not the first date – you just want to give them enough information to start the conversation. Check out my 5(ish) sentence LOI for a sample. 

15. Do you have a higher success rate with agencies or direct companies?

This surprised me since I have a higher success rate with agencies. But I think that’s because they are my ideal client. And I’m so glad I asked this question! 

My overall takeaways

All the results of this survey backed up what I’ve experienced and heard from other writers. LOIs do land work. But it takes time. I recently landed a gig with cold outreach, so I know it still works – more on that next week. 

It’s easy to take it personally and get discouraged when you don’t get as many responses as you hoped and don’t land new clients right away. But cold outreach really is a long game. And in my experience if you aren’t going to carefully target your outreach to clients likely to hire you and you aren’t going to follow up, then I don’t think it’s worth the time and effort. But if you are going to do these two things then it’s a great addition to other marketing, especially working on increasing inbound leads and working your network.  

And on that note I’ll leave you with my favorite comment from survey, which I thinks offers the best advice on cold outreach that I’ve run across: 

“Just do it. Be targeted, be warm and be patient. And invest as much emotion as you do when you ask someone if they would like a banana. It goes a lot easier that way.” 

 

How do these survey results compare to your experience with sending out LOIs for cold outreach? If you don’t already do cold outreach, does this convince you to start?