How to save money on Premium tools through cold emailing

As a Freelancer, it’s common for them to use tools to increase their productivity, and enhance their work quality, and a lot of these tools have Paid features, that allow the user to do so much more than what they could in the Free version.

Examples –

1. Canva – The paid version allows access to millions of stock free images, fonts, and other design elements allowing a creator to do so much more with the Paid version.
2. Grammarly – The premium version allows the writer to set the tone of their writing, and provides detailed writing insights, which isn’t available in the Free tier

As a Freelancer, I too use a lot of paid tools to get my work done and the tools that I use are mostly paid on Monthly Subscriptions(which can get expensive if you add up all your subscriptions)

The first time I was looking to upgrade from the free tier to a paid version, I wasn’t sure about committing to pay $15 every month, and I thought to myself, what can I do to reduce this, so I thought to reach out to the team in hopes of getting a discount.

Since that email, I have shamelessly written emails to multiple companies in hopes of receiving special discounts, and Although sometimes it takes weeks before I get a response, I think the wait has been worth it.

Out of the 18 emails I have written to companies requesting a discount, 8 of them were returned with a positive response.

At the current stage, I am using 11 paid tools for different aspects, and purposes in life. If I were to add up the amount I would be paying, it’d total to around $1300 an annum, but with the email outreaches, I have been able to save almost $1000 in annual subscription payments.

Some of the tools that I use for my day to day work are as –

• Grammarly – This helps me enhance my writing by suggesting improvements
• Notion – I switched from Evernote to a paid version of Notion because of how awesome it is
• Yoast for SEO on WordPress
• Amazing Marvin – For my To-Do

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Being a freelancer is tough, and there are a lot of tools that have made life so much easier, but when we look at the costs, we can be surprised by how expensive it can get.

Attached are a few emails which I have sent out to people, and received some very generous discounts which were more than what I had initially expected.

Here are a few examples of emails I have sent out to people in hopes of getting an added discount, and the ones that have worked. In one of the emails, I reached out to the Founder directly, and she was really kind to offer me a staggering 80% discount on the annual package.

A lot of prominent companies like Hubspot, FreshSales, AWS, Google Cloud, etc offer customized programs for startups and small businesses, and this is also an indicator that brands are eager to establish relationships with people, even if it involves giving out a special discount if you ask for it.

Long story short – “Every company, not matter how big is looking for people who will continually use their services”

And there is no harm in asking for a discount, and if you genuinely love a product, and wish to use it but can’t afford it, you can always write an email or a tweet, and with my experiences, there are high chances that you will get a reply.

Here’s a sample template that you could follow to reach out to companies –

Subject - Writing in hopes to be considered for a special discount

Hello <Firstname>,

Greetings of the day, 

I am <YourName>, and I have been using your tool - <ToolName> for a while, my love for your product is so much that here I am writing an email to you in the hopes that I can be considered for a special discount that allows me to access the full-potential of what your product offers. 

I am a <EnterProfession>, and I really look forward to using the tool, and it'd be great if you could see to this special request of mine. 

Getting this discount or not, I have been referring this product to my friends, and colleagues, and I feel you guys are doing a terrific job. Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Warmest Regards, 
<< Your Name >> 
<Links to your website/social presence>

I hope this tip was of help, and you are able to save some money.