oswebdesign.co.uk Blog

Your Portfolio Speaks Volumes

The Importance of Portfolios

It is important, for small businesses in particular, to portray their portfolios to impress their website visitors and prospective clients.   Portfolios are especially important for contractors, web designers and artists, and are an ideal tool for them to display the quality of their work. A portfolio should include examples of your best work, the work you are proud of, and the work that best demonstrates your skills.

What to Include
A great portfolio can transform website visitors into clients but you need to ensure that you only showcase your best work.

Before you start
Think about how you can answer your visitors’ questions.
Your online portfolio could be a blog or a website but either way, what you need to remember is that it should always answer the questions your potential clients are likely to have.
Your online portfolio is an important tool for people who are looking to hire specific services – they will want to check you out before making contact.
It’s also important that your site accurately represents what you’re offering because you may not necessarily have a tangible product to sell - it is therefore difficult to show clients what they’re paying for in advance.  If your clients are not impressed by your online presence, they won’t bother to make contact to make that initial enquiry.

The aim of your Portfolio
Your portfolio’s job is to impress and persuade potential clients. Simplicity is the key – people need to know why they should hire you over and above someone else, so if your portfolio is well laid out, clear and impactful, it will tell them what they want to know within seconds.

What to show
Think from your ideal client’s point of view and ask yourself what that person is going to be interested in seeing. You can then decide which of your work you want to display within your portfolio.
Choose a maximum of ten items to display.  It can be very tempting to include all the work you have done but in reality people are only going to have the time to view between five and ten before moving on to view something else.

Case Studies
Within your Portfolio, you should turn each project into a case study – detailing the client brief and how you created and fulfilled the project.
Each project should include a list of your skills and how they can be utilised.  It’s valuable to include client testimonials because, like your portfolio, these are very powerful in underlining your skills and value from others points of view.
Use items that made you feel excited - this way your enthusiasm will shine through when discussing your portfolio with potential clients.
A good way to build your reputation is to attach your portfolio to your blog – a simple way of giving your visitors the information they need to get to know the style and quality of your work.

Multiple Portfolios
If you work within more than one market, it’s an idea to create different portfolios, each representing an area of your work.  You will automatically know which portfolio is the best fit for the specific area of expertise you want to portray.

Give your visitors the answer they are looking for, as simply as you can, and remember, only the best will do!

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