A freelancer’s guide to client ghosting

Find out why it happens, and get 7 proven steps to never be left hanging again.

Photo by Kevin Escate on Unsplash

Imagine, you’ve just sent off a killer proposal to your dream client—it’s got a crisp scope, a clear timeline, even a cheeky bit of personality tucked into the email. You picture them reading it, high-fiving their whole team because it’s so awesome. You’re riding to the rescue for their project! This is what they’re looking for isn’t it? And then… nothing.
Radio silence.
No thumbs-up emoji, no thank you, not even a we’ve decided to go in another direction. Just your inbox, staring at you.

I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. Last year, I spent a full day crafting a pitch for a client with lots of work, loads of growth potential and a good plan for getting there. I stayed up late and triple-checked every line. I hit send the following morning and … tumbleweed for ten days. Ten days! My confidence took a nosedive, I lost focus on some other projects, and my banking app was winking at me, and not in a good way.

That ghosting pissed me off to be honest. It chips away at our confidence and self-esteem, disrupts our financial flow, and left me—a seasoned freelancer—second-guessing every word in my follow-ups.

But here’s the good news. Client ghosting isn’t a mystical curse. It’s a breakdown in communication patterns and we can anticipate those patterns, design around them, and ultimately conquer it. In this post, I’ll tell you:

• The real reasons clients go dark (it’s rarely personal).

• 7 proven steps to keep the conversation alive that over a decade of freelancing has helped me uncover.

• Ready-to-use ‘ghost-repellent’ comms and tactics you can deploy today.

Are you ready to find out why it happens and what you can do to stop it?