Copy + paste this email to make sure you get the freelance resource you need this year

Looking for freelance support? Here’s the email template you’ve been looking for, to get the budget you need:

At the start of this year, I kicked off a series online all about how you can manage change (unexpected or otherwise). I rounded off the series with a draft email template you can steal, to help you get the freelance resource you / your department needs, to either keep the momentum going, or to manage a new change of direction.

So, if you’re a Marketing Manager or Head of Marketing, who’s feeling overwhelmed, feel free to copy, paste and edit the draft below to make sure get you the support you need.

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Subject: Request for freelance support to assist with [XX project]

Hi [Manager's Name],

I’d like to ask for some budget approval for some temporary freelance support to help the team and I in meeting [XYZ objective], in line with current targets and objectives.

Today’s email has been prompted following our recent discussion whereby we outlined [X problem or objective] and our need to do [X solution / strategic direction] by [X timeframe]. As previously mentioned, our ability to achieve this successfully will be largely dependent on [how quickly we can deliver it] and [by adopting a change of direction in our strategy].

Currently, however, the team is at risk of missing key milestones due to [capacity restraints] and a lack of [experience/expertise] in this area. I’m also concerned that if the department is stretched too thin, we may have quality trade-offs between [XX and XX] projects, as well as frustration from the team who won’t be able to deliver the high-quality outputs, I know they are capable of.

Given the situation, some ad-hoc freelance is a sensible way we can look to go about addressing these challenges without the need to sign up to any lengthy agency contracts. And to give you an idea of cost, a ballpark figure could be [£XX] to support with [XX] over the course of the next [3 months].

Practically, benefits to the department and the wider company will include:

- An injection of specialized skills to deliver a highly quality output. [XX freelancer] has a whole host of specialized skills in [content strategy, SEO/performance marketing, analytics reporting, creative production etc.] that we simply don’t have in-house. They can work on an ‘as-needed basis’, ensuring the best outputs but at a fraction of the cost an agency might charge. Furthermore, the team and I would benefit from a new perspective and some on the job training we can apply to future projects.

- With an extra pair of hands, we can task the freelancer with tackling a number of high-priority tasks (e.g., content creation, copywriting, video edits, campaign setup) to accelerate the delivery time of this project, while also keeping to our other existing project timelines, without sacrificing quality.

- And with greater budget efficiency, we’ll not only making our budget work harder, but we will also give ourselves greater flexibility, so that we can scale resources up or down based dependent on ongoing project load. This means a highly productive marketing department in the short and long-term, plus the avoidance of bottlenecks too.

Happy to share a short document to outline how roles and responsibilities could be scoped further, if that’s helpful? Or, if you’d like to discuss this in a bit more detail, please let me know when you’d like to catch up.

Thanks,

[Your Name]