Adrienne Johnston, freelance designer, shares successful email template

At the end of 2017, Adrienne Johnston left her financial services job to pursue freelance design.
In her second year, she earned $200,000, thanks to going above and beyond for her clients and being authentic.
When starting out as a freelancer, she recommended taking easy jobs to get your foot in the door with clients.
She sends an email promising client participation in the design as a way to warm up to interested parties.
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Adrienne Johnston made a 360-degree career shift at the end of 2017. After almost three-and-a-half years in the financial services industry — most recently as vice president of operations at Buckhead Investment Partners — the then-Atlanta-based chemistry major let go of her stable, $130,000-a-year job to become a freelance presentation designer.

While she was paid well, the role left Johnston feeling "unfulfilled and drained."

"It wasn't the company or team's fault, I just wasn't in my zone of genius and I was constantly struggling against that angst of feeling unfulfilled," she said.

Johnston admitted that at the time, she had no idea what she wanted to do next — so she went into work and told her boss that she wanted to figure out a transition plan so that she could openly decide on her next steps.

With the cushion of a four-month transition window, Johnston began looking for new opportunities, but none of her leads panned out. Not wanting to be entirely without an income, she decided to try freelancing in an area she enjoyed: design.

"While I had no classical training, I had a passion for design," Johnston explained. "Working in smaller companies [in past roles], there was always a need for design work that I would take on simply because I liked it. And, as an introvert, I'd always loved the idea of working from home and making my own schedule."

In January 2018, Johnston hung out a shingle for her new business as a graphic designer, ultimately choosing to focus her services on freelance presentation and PowerPoint design. She went on to make just over $200,000 in 2019, her second year of freelancing.

Launching her business with no portfolio and no formal design experience was tough, but she was highly motivated to succeed. In the first four to six months of her new role, she used the global freelancing platform Upwork to rustle up projects and clients.

She shared with Business Insider the exact marketing email that she used to attract clients and quickly grow her client base, as well as some specific strategies she leveraged to achieve fast success.

The email template you can copy to attract tons of new customers

Hi there!

I'd love to help you design your [project type]. When is your deadline? Do you have a design style in mind? Or an existing website that you'd like to remain consistent with?

Enclosed is a link to my portfolio for your review: [URL].

In terms of process, I typically put together a creative direction, which I supply to you within [timeframe]. We can hop on a phone call and review what you like or don't, so that as I build out the remainder of the design it is in line with your expectations. I typically return a full first draft to you within [time] of project initiation. At your availability, we can schedule another call to tweak and finalize the design.

Please feel free to reach out if you'd like to discuss your needs in more detail.

Thanks for your consideration,

[Name]

How Johnston finds and keeps clients

In addition to sending out the above personalized email, here's what else she does to draw clients in — and keep them around.

Start with low-budget projects. When you start on the low-budget/low-risk end of the project pool, you can get your foot in the door with clients and move up quickly, according to Johnston. "It's tempting to think you'd start on Upwork and be able to take on large budget projects immediately," she said. "But the reality is that freelancers with more experience on the platform are going to be competing for those higher budget projects — and they have more social proof to make it less risky for the client." With this in mind, be willing to bid for the less lucrative assignments as you're getting your feet wet.
Go above and beyond. The freelance designer's very first project was designing a 15-slide PowerPoint for a college student. The student needed it completed within 24 hours and had a budget of only $20 to put toward Johnston's services. Despite the below-market pay, Johnston went above and beyond, which quickly led to bigger things. "She was thrilled — she left a great review and even a $5 tip," Johnston recalled. Johnston was then able to secure a slightly higher budget project the next day: two slides for $50 with a 24-hour turnaround. Again, Johnston delivered quickly and professionally and got another positive review, and the virtuous cycle continued.
Raise your hand for urgent requests. Johnston pointed out that while established freelancers tend to have less availability since they're already booked up with projects, newbies may have more time on their hands, which affords the chance to take on rush jobs. "Taking on clients who need help immediately, and being highly communicative, is a great way to build trust and social proof via good reviews," Johnston noted. "It also helps you build your profile reviews and reputation on the platform more quickly than larger and longer projects."
Create credibility through good reviews and a portfolio website. Upwork is highly competitive, with around 16 million freelancers on the site vying for opportunities. Johnston shared that employers who want to hire a freelancer via Upwork receive many "bids" in response to each project — "almost an overwhelming number," she said. Since the platform assists the employers in their search by sorting these numerous bids by freelancer ratings, those who have positive reviews are more likely to bubble to the top of the client's list — so it can pay off to do high quality work and garner good reviews. One other way that Johnston created credibility when she was just getting started was by creating her own portfolio website, instead of using PDFs and Upwork's platform. "This helps you feel more established to the client," she said.
Communicate authentically with prospective clients. "In spite of the fact we're living in a digital world, we all still want that human connection," Johnston said. To that end, she found that a little authenticity can go a long way. "Make sure to be a real person and not too formal or stuffy in your bids," she said. Johnston always starts out her bids with a friendly greeting — "Hi there!" — rather than using more generic language because she believes the former approach offers a more relatable feel. She then also customizes her response to each client's project, letting them know about her availability and time frame to work on their specific deliverables. She follows this up with a question to engage them immediately, before giving them her basic process, timeline, and portfolio link. "Offer to have phone calls," Johnston suggested. "Anything you can do to be perceived as a real, dependable person will help you stand out."