Cold Outreach: What Actually Works for Freelancers

Podcast Intro

About this podcast episode…

COLD OUTREACH ADVICE FOR FREELANCERS

Cold outreach can often get a freelance business started. 
But in this shorter episode I propose that even those of us years down the line shouldn’t give it the cold shoulder.

When you need to bring in clients, maybe a period of cold outreach, or even a consistent long term pattern of it, could be exactly what warms our business back up again.

In this compilation episode, you’ll hear how copywriter Adri Kopp refined her cold email process, worked out who she should actually be reaching out to, and set herself daily outreach targets - discovering that volume and timing mattered just as much as personalisation.

You’ll hear how fintech copywriter André Spiteri approached cold outreach as a simple, repeatable habit, deliberately avoiding emotional attachment to individual emails so he could keep momentum going.

Designer and illustrator Iancu Barbarasa shares how sending hundreds of emails wasn’t about asking for work, but about starting conversations - conversations that later led to some of the biggest projects of his career.

The episode also explores outreach beyond email. Sustainability copywriter Raymond Manzor talks about cold calling, sending physical letters with samples, and following up by phone. Standing out simply because hardly anyone else was doing it. Whilst visual storyteller Ashwin Chacko shares how self-publishing a book and proactively sharing it opened doors to workshops, conversations, and paid work.

Alongside the tactics, there’s plenty of honesty about rejection. Most people won’t reply. Some will say no. A few might tell you to get lost. And that’s all part of the process. The freelancers featured here talk candidly about learning not to take it personally, separating their identity from their work, and trusting that being in the right place at the right time often comes from showing up consistently.

What comes through most clearly is this:
Cold outreach doesn’t have to be spammy, pushy, or salesy.

And while outreach often becomes more selective as a business grows, it never completely goes away.

So even if your work mostly comes through referrals, word of mouth, or SEO, this episode is a gentle nudge to ask:
Is there still a place for cold outreach in your freelance business?

Featuring insights from these brilliant freelance guests, whose full episodes you should absolutely check out.

Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.

 
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Transcript

Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland reflecting on how freelancers have used cold emailing, cold calling and cold direct mail to win clients

Steve Folland: Hey, how you doing? I’m Steve Folland. Welcome to another short Being Freelance episode.

I thought we could talk about cold outreach.

Adri Kopp: To get my first clients, I just kind of reached out on, cold email and yeah, it, it was pretty wild actually

Steve Folland: That's copywriter Adri Kopp. We'll take a look at her tactics taming the wild world of cold emailing alonsgide many other guests I've spoken to over the years.

As Adri said - it got her business started. But that doesn't mean coldoutreach can't be something we try at any point of our career.

Particulalry if we feel work is drying up. Maybe it's time to get proactive again like the early days.. 

So in this episode, I want to reflect back on how different freelancers approach outreach. What worked for them, what could work for us.

For Adri the first step was realising who she should be reaching out to in the first place.

Adri Kopp: When I started I think I wasn't necessarily hitting the right audience . I was probably targeting businesses that were way too small to really hire out copy.

And so it took some refinement of like figuring out what businesses needed a copywriter. And being able to target them.

Steve Folland: If you find one company you like the look at - chances are, they're not the only one.

Adri Kopp: One thing that really helped me speed up the process. I would find one business that I thought, Ooh, I'd really like to work with them. This would be a great business. And then I would just search for other businesses that are really similar to them because there's very few businesses anymore that exist as the only business that does what they do. Right. So I would like find all the businesses that do what they did. And then I could use almost the same email and like tweak it just a little bit for each one and be able to send that to all of them. And. Make my emails go further, if that makes sense.

Steve Folland: She refined her process over time, so she wasn't always strarting from scratch.

Adri Kopp: I was constantly rewriting my cold email template. Being able to kind of keep a template, but still make it feel personal. And yeah, definitely I got faster and faster at it.

Steve Folland: And Adri didn't just send one or two a week and hope for the best.

Adri Kopp: I did get to where I was sending like 20 a day. And I think that that, like, I hear about people doing like really, really personal emails versus doing like spray and pray. They call it right.

And I think it was kind of finding that middle ground, but being able to get those numbers up where I was hitting some volume because it's also about being in the right place at the right time.

So yeah, being able to hit that volume was really where I started to like get a lot of client calls and consultations and stuff.

Steve Folland: 20 a day. That idea of setting a daily outreach goal came up again with fintech copywriter André Spiteri.

André Spiteri: 10 cold emails a day and I'm just gonna do that.

And I don't care if they reply or not. I'm just gonna do that and something eventually will happen.

Steve Folland: When designer & illustrator Iancu Barbarasa moved from Romania to London he did a huge amount of cold outreach to warm things up on his arrival.

Iancu Barbarasa: I spent all my time looking at okay, who's, who on the market, who's doing really interesting work and then trying to get in touch with those people.

So I sent I think over 500 or 600 emails to people.

Some of them, not many initially, replied and I went to, see them. One really good trick was that I didn't really ask, Hey, do you have any jobs? I was just asking, Hey, I'm doing this kind of work. I think your work is really great and I really like this project and that project. Would you have time to meet for a coffee or tea and have a chat?

Steve Folland: But those chats did turn into some work.

Iancu Barbarasa: One of them actually got me to work on quite a few big projects. Actually one of the largest projects that I've ever done, the ITV rebranding.

Steve Folland: ITV is one of our big channels here in the UK - a huge opportunity.

 

Steve Folland: Huge amounts of emails. For conservation illustrator Stefan Yngvi Peturrson it sounds slightly more doable alongside existing work.

Stefán Yngvi Pétursson: At least 10 outreach, cold outreach per week and then follow up.

Steve Folland: Ah yes, the follow up.

If you're going to do cold outreach it's best to have a system.

Stefán Yngvi Pétursson: So I have like a sheet where I say like, when did I send the first message? When am I gonna send the second? Yeah.

I try to have some kind of system there so I don't forget. And just to keep myself accountable

Steve Folland: Here's Adri again.

Adri Kopp: I have like a whole spreadsheet on Excel that I like keep up with who I've written, when, what email I sent it to specifically and everything like that, because then I do send usually one follow up. I try not to be, you know, annoying and send many, but.

Steve: Just bumping this back to the top of your inbox! For the eighth time!

Adri Kopp: It is amazing though, cause for a while I did not send follow ups and then I finally started sending just the one follow up and I got so many responses to the follow up compared to just having one. Yeah.

Steve Folland: Now, when we talk about cold outreach, most people immediately think of email.

But that's not the only way. I remember chatting to a photographer who would literally knock on doors of potential clients.

Here’s sustainability copywriter Raymond Manzor, talking about how he found his early work.

Raymond Manzor: Cold calling. I just picked up the phone, like, shaking. I could barely hold the phone to my mouth. I had to hold the phone with two hands to stop it from shaking. Of course, I couldn't stop my voice from shaking. I started ringing agencies, saying, Hello, my name is, I do this. Do you have any work? After about three cold calls, one of the agencies said, Yeah, here, you can have a job.

Steve Folland: And it didn't stop there.

Raymond Manzor: Cold calling and then cold mailing, literally mailing, not emailing.

Steve Folland: Yep. Actual snail mail.

Raymond Manzor: Typing up a letter, sending a letter, including a sample with the letter, a one page sample.

Steve Folland: And you've gone to all that effort - here comes the follow up again. With bonus tips on getting through here.

Raymond Manzor: Following up a week later with a phone call to say, just checking - I sent a letter to so and so. When you call, you have to get past the gatekeeper. The assistant or the PA or whoever, and they don't want you to talk to the person you want to talk to, so you say, no, they're expecting my call, and they say, oh, okay, so they put you through, and then the person answers, hello, the deep voice or the, the power voice, and you say, yeah, I sent you a letter about two weeks ago, I just want to make sure that you got it, and they say, yes, I got a letter, was that you?

And then you're away. Because no one sends letters.

Steve Folland: This was quite a few years ago, but think about it - how many letters do you get now? It's different.

Raymond Manzor: A few people told me to get lost.

They said, yeah, we're not interested. But most people were very surprised. And they just thought it showed that you were putting a bit of effort into it. Cause obviously an email, you just send it off.

If it's a letter, you know, you're taking time, you're going to print it, you make sure it comes out right and there's no spelling mistakes and there's no weird formatting issues or anything. Yeah, it just stood out.

Steve Folland: Visual storyteller Ashwin Chacko also had success with cold outreach, be it emails or again, putting something in the post.

Ashwin Chacko: I launched a personal project and that personal project was to self-publish my book. What Wonderous Shapes We Are. With the launch of the book. I reached out to as many people as I could on social media, emailed potential people to give it a review and that process then started getting my name into different people's inboxes. I got invited to do workshops for children through that process, and then it just started a snowball effect. You know, that one project then propelled other things that came forward the rest of the year.

Steve Folland: It's not the only time it's worked for him.

Ashwin Chacko: I emailed a bunch of art directors in Ireland and I said, Hey, I've got a new portfolio. Would you be interested in meeting? I'd love to show you my stuff.

And so I took the book around the physical book. They got a chance to look at it. They looked at all the other stuff I had on my website. And then I started getting hired to do typography work. And so sometimes you have to create the type of work, actually always you need to create the type of work that you want to get.

Steve Folland: Let's take a moment to acknowledge the rejection that Raymond would get.

Raymond Manzor: A few people told me to get lost.

Steve Folland: This is normal. If everyone was saying yes, Adri wouldn't have been sending 20 a day after all.

I asked how she coped with that side of it when people say no.

Adri Kopp: Well, it depends how they say it, you know, when people just kind of respond, like, stop messaging me or unsubscribe or something. It's like, oh man, okay. That one will hit you in the gut a little bit, but I think just getting like some of the, the positives also helped balance that out.

Also thinking like, it's not always you. That's the problem. Sometimes they're having a bad day and they're taking it out on you.

Steve Folland: Here's Iancu again - rememebr he sent up to 600 emails.

Iancu Barbarasa: Well, I wasn't expecting most of them to reply, to be honest.

Exactly. But still, how does he cope with the rejection?

When you're freelance, basically you have to get used to rejection.

You would just send a hundred and you would get 10 replies back at at best, but that's how it is.

Steve Folland: Remember to focus on the positives.

Adri Kopp: yeah, I got a lot of positive responses of even people who were rejecting me, but in a positive way saying oh, we really liked your email.

We just don't really need a copywriter right now. That gave me enough positive reinforcement to be like, okay, I'm doing the right things. I'm not, you know, always annoying people. It's just not the right time for them. And that's okay. That's why I need to send so many.

Steve Folland: At this point we really need to revisit Andre. Because received wisdom is follow up, have a system.

Andre took a different approach to managing expectations.

André Spiteri: you know how they suggest that you should follow up at least twice? I think the received knowledge is these days, so, yeah, so I, I disagree wholeheartedly with that approach.

The reason for that, especially when you're starting out, is that it can hold you back. If I send an email to somebody, right?

And in my mind I have this notion that I'm gonna follow up once or twice. I have a certain emotional attachment. Kind of what if they reply? Maybe if they reply, I'll get a job, so maybe I should wait. But if I approach this as, okay, I've sent them an email, maybe they'll reply, maybe they won't. Let me assume they won't and keep going.

Then suddenly, if they get back to me, great. If not, fine, I've kept going.

Steve Folland: You see where he's coming from? Not getting emotionally attached so it's more of a tick box exercise. Boom. We're on to the next one.

André Spiteri: So rather than get bogged down in maybes and hopes, 'cause you know when you're starting out, I think hopes, well not just when you're starting out, but I think in general I think hope can be a good thing, but also a very detrimental thing.

If you hang on to hope, it can put you in a comfort zone . You know? 'cause maybe this will happen so I don't need to hustle and work on other things. Whereas if I have done it, I'm just gonna assume that it's not gonna happen. And I keep going with other things. I'm not gonna get disappointed and I'm just gonna keep my forward momentum.

Steve Folland: It's worth a reminder that the balance between targeted and the sheer volume of cold outreach can only stack the odds in your favour.

When Adri started out she had limited interest until she got serious about the approach.

Adri Kopp: I really buckled down. I was like, okay, I'm, I'm doing this. I'm going to make this work. And I sent 200 cold emails within a two week period. And after that, I just had calls like trickling in constantly.

Steve Folland: She started after the summer and it picked up.

Adri Kopp: I was so busy creating proposals and things at that point that I really couldn't keep up that same amount. So that was like a two month period probably that I was really like onboarding clients . And by the end of November, I was able to fully support myself with my freelance work and yeah, so it definitely worked out.

Steve Folland: And these freelancers aren't neccasrily overly confident people or anything - they're doing this because they think or they know it'll work. And they want to work. Here's Stefan.

Stefán Yngvi Pétursson: Well, I always find it quite uncomfortable to self-promote and reach out to outreach, basically.

I don't know, it just feels a bit icky to do salesy stuff like that. But every time I do it, I never get anything negative, so I don't know why it's such a big, big deal. It's not.

Steve Folland: I asked Ashwin if he was naturally confident in reaching out to people...

Ashwin Chacko: It's definitely something you have to work at. So I think one really important step that you have to take is dis tangling your identity from your work.

Steve Folland: It might not feel it, but it's not personal.

Ashwin Chacko: There's growth and confidence in the ability that you get through that process.

Steve Folland: And me? I'm a freelancer podcast and video editor don't forget. Here's a couple of key times it's worked for me.

One, when I first left university. I literally knocked on the door of an audio production house in London with a CV, showreel on a CD... and they were so suprised that the Managing Director came out to meet me. When the time came, I freelanced with them for years.

Then when I went full-time freelance.. I emailed lots of companies, one of them was a business I would walk past every day with my son when we'd take a walk to wave at the trains of an afternoon.

That business became my biggest client ever. I still work them 12 years later.

I'm focussing on that one, rather than all of the non-replies or no thankyous because after all.

Adri Kopp: Going into it, knowing that you're going to get some negatives

Steve Folland: And also knowing that I was lucky my email was picked up by a friendly marekting manager who was open to what I was offering in that moment and willing to invite me in.

As Adri says,

Adri Kopp: it's also about being in the right place at the right time.

Steve Folland: But you do make your own luck right?

Cold outreach doesn’t have to be spammy.

Steve Folland: For the freelancers you’ve just heard from, outreach was mostly about starting conversation.

They built systems, were deliberate in their targeting and stuck with the plan. Even when it felt uncomfortable.

And over time, as their businesses grew, outreach changed. It softened. It became more selective. But it never completely went away.

So even if your business has got into a flow of leads coming through word of mouth, referrals and SEO. Maybe there's still a place to give cold outreach a go. Believe in the process, what do you have to lose?

Iancu Barbarasa: You know, you have to go through a lot of rejection and just be okay with it because that's how good things would eventually happen.

Steve Folland: And if you’re doing this whole freelance thing and thinking, “Is it just me who finds this stuff awkward?” — come and find us in the Being Freelance community.

You’re not alone being freelance.

Steve FollandComment