Many buyers don’t like cookie cutter bids. If they’re going to do business, they like to know who they’re going to be working with. A personal note or message can make the difference between your bid being noticed and only getting a glance.
There’s nothing wrong with cookie-cutter bids, though. Everyone is busy, and it takes time to write personal bids for each project, especially if you bid on many projects. If you’ve written your bid properly and covered all the details, that’s fine. You may only get a glance at first, but if your bid stands out from the rest, you’ll still be noticed. A serious buyer looks at all the bids from freelancers before settling on one.
One mistake is slapping up a bid that sounds like it gets posted everywhere. A cookie-cutter bid needs to leave the impression that it isn’t a template bid you slap up on all your jobs. Adding a sentence into the bid that mentions something specific about the project is a smart idea and lessens the template impression.
Another mistake is having a cookie-cutter bid that mentions something that wasn’t in the project description. For example, I read a bid that claimed the writer was familiar writing on the proposed topics for the project. Strange; there were no topics mentioned in the project description. Chances are, that freelancer won’t get the job.
If you have a template bid you use to save time, make sure that you’re writing one pertinent to the project that covers all the details requested. If you really want the job, send a personal note to the buyer. Even better, ask a question about the project. Be interested.
