When you're a freelancer, you can't cut corners on prospecting. You need to get as many clients as possible to offer them your products and services. To achieve such an ambitious goal, you must necessarily present your work through a freelance portfolio. If you are a beginner, you may have some difficulties in creating this tool. Discover in this article all the crucial tips to make your portfolio successful.
What are the advantages of a freelance portfolio?
The portfolio is a tool that gathers all the information related to your freelance activity. There are also other advantages to using it.
Presentation of experiences and works
A quality career path is very convincing and makes you credible in the eyes of clients. To present the essence of your skills, the portfolio is an excellent idea. It will serve as a channel for obtaining references on the missions you have had to accomplish. Through this solution, you will also present the best of your work to prospects.
Differentiation from the competition
Does your business require creative work? If so, the portfolio is the best tool to showcase your services. Whether you are a graphic designer or a web developer, it will help you to value your mastery of programming languages.
The possession of an effective communication medium
Finally, you necessarily need a communication medium to attract prospects. The portfolio fulfills this role perfectly. Depending on the option chosen for its creation, it will systematically convince customers.
What are the essential elements of a great freelance portfolio?
A freelance portfolio is a tool that you must personalize according to your experiences, your skills and your profession. However, regardless of your field of activity, there are some essential elements that must be included in your portfolio. Here are some of them.
The field of expertise
Your area of expertise represents the activity for which you are competent. If you want to get an assignment that fits you, you must inevitably mention it in your portfolio. All the elements you provide in your portfolio must be in line with your professional objectives.
For example, if you offer web design services, include this type of project first in your portfolio. Also consider deleting items that you do not want to repeat.
Professional qualifications
Appearing credible to your clients as a freelancer is important for the development of your business. This is why you should include your current experience and qualifications. Do not hesitate to present your training certificates and diplomas.
Has your work ever been profiled by a specialized press? Has one of your work been featured in a particular magazine? If so, consider creating a "press" section that gathers all this information.
In case you have participated in major professional events, make it known through your portfolio.
Successful projects
Your greatest achievements are undoubtedly what makes you proud. Also, you probably have projects that you wish to implement in the near or distant future. These are elements that will improve your credibility and confirm your reliability to prospects. To succeed in attracting them, you can resort to these solutions. Remember to describe your projects and explain the techniques used to make them a reality. Also talk about the key figures related to your achievements. This will have the effect of putting future clients at ease.
Customer comments
Do you have a profile on a freelance website? If so, you can embed its link on your portfolio. Don't forget to share testimonials and positive feedback from your past clients. These are things that serve as social proof to prospects. LinkedIn recommendations and references from your employer can also be used to add value to your portfolio.
Contact information
Do you want to be contacted by a potential client? If so, your contact information is a must in your freelance portfolio. So create a contact form and mention your email address, your Skype ID, your WhatsApp number and your social network profile.
With all of this contact information, your customer will be spoiled for choice when contacting you. If one of the solutions is not available, the others will be.
How to create a freelance portfolio?
As a freelancer, creating your portfolio is a must. To do so, you must perform many actions. Here are the essentials for the creation of your portfolio.
The creation of a website
If you are a website designer, the best way to prove your worth is to create one. Whether you use a WordPress site or a free portfolio template platform, designing your dedicated workspace will show your professionalism. It's a great idea to attract prospects and meticulously organize your projects.
Choosing an excellent domain name
If buying a domain name was expensive, the arrival of several providers has changed everything. You can now own your own domain name to give a professional dimension to your freelance activity. Although it is not necessary, it will increase your credibility.
With a few euros per year, you can reserve a good domain name. This will allow you to acquire an optimized URL, to create email addresses with your name and to professionalize your portfolio.
Highlighting essential information
As a reminder, Internet users do not read quickly when they are on the Internet. Also, they spend an average of 2 minutes on a website. If you can't create an "About" page that they won't waste time reading, you can summarize in a few lines what you will bring to your customer.
To do this, you can fill in the skills that will be useful to your target. In addition, the portfolio must be visually interesting. Therefore, you must illustrate it. If you are a graphic designer, this action even becomes a necessity. Besides, whatever your field of freelance activity, you must make your portfolio very pleasant. So don't hesitate to put pictures that reflect your personality.
Avoid using free image banks to illustrate your work. If possible, use a photographer to present the essence of your work and your personality in photos.
The development of a graphic charter
Your portfolio is an element that presents your entire professional universe. For it to impact prospects, you must have a powerful visual identity. Like your website, your portfolio must respect a graphic harmony.
Even if your projects are different and tailored to the different clients you've had, you need to bring your work together to create a beautiful consistency.
With your portfolio's graphic design, you will prove to your clients that you are organized and have an eye for detail.
The presentation of your best achievements
It's not just Internet users who skim through articles. Recruiters and clients also don't have enough time. So you have a few seconds or a minute to capture your prospect's attention. In order to maximize your chances, you must be very selective and you must retain the best of your achievements.
Indeed, if you make a book full of texts and visual contents, you will show your prospects that you work a lot. Unfortunately, this will not prove your value. In order not to bore the recruiter, you must choose your best projects and achievements that are more likely to seduce any client. To catch your interviewer's eye, place all these elements at the beginning of your portfolio.
Detailed explanation of your choice of projects
You must necessarily explain the context of each project you have completed. The idea here is to explain the importance of the achievement, its purpose and the process you had to go through to achieve the results. Of course, you should also mention the difficulties you encountered. This is a process that will have more effect than pictures. It will allow the client to understand your way of working and the different possibilities you offer.
The exhibition of unfinished projects
When you start your portfolio, you don't have a lot of professional experience. This is no reason to give up. You should put in your portfolio everything that makes you proud. Don't hesitate to include projects that you were not able to complete. This is a great way to show your client your commitment.
The creation of a specific portfolio for each target
A freelancer is an individual who does not have a fixed audience. He addresses several targets thanks to his way of working. As a mobile worker, you need to attract the attention of recruiters by offering compelling portfolios. That's the point of creating a portfolio specific to each audience.
Highlighting the opinions of former customers
You're probably wondering how your prospect can be sure that you're as effective as you claim to be. Well, there is no one way to do it. You must either satisfy them or show them the comments made by your former clients. Don't hesitate to include them in your portfolio to justify your expertise and skills. In case you have won any special awards, make note of them.
These are external elements that give credibility to your freelance activity and propel you forward.
Improving the experience of your potential customers
The objective being to seduce your prospect with your portfolio, you must work on the experience. To do this, you must act on two important elements.
First, you need to design a smooth and fast loading portfolio. Indeed, if its loading time is too long, the chances that your prospect will change provider are high. So avoid weighing down your portfolio with unnecessary photos and illustrations.
Second, you need to make it easy to get in touch. With some freelancers, contact information is not readily available. This is a drawback, as the recruiter will quickly move on to another freelancer. So, you need to make sure that the contact information is within reach of the potential client. This sets you apart from other service providers.
Creating an interactive portfolio
Contrary to what some people think, the portfolio is not just a space where you have to put all your beautiful creations. If you are a skilled graphic designer and illustrator, you can create an animated and interactive portfolio. Otherwise, you can always hire a professional to accomplish this task.
Remember to pay attention to the details as well as the transitions between the photos and the parts of your portfolio.
The choice of solutions for the creation of the portfolio
The creation of a quality portfolio depends on the solution used for its creation. To obtain a pleasant and convincing portfolio, you must take into account several parameters.
The type of solution
There are two main types of solutions that can be used to create your portfolio. First, there are CMS. These are tools that will allow you to create a site that will showcase the essence of your achievements and qualifications. Secondly, you can use software that offers portfolio templates.
Design possibilities
Whether you opt for WordPress or a software that provides portfolio templates, you need to think about the design. Indeed, by visually attracting your prospect, you will have succeeded in convincing her halfway. Opt for the solutions that offer you many possibilities in terms of aesthetics.
The free offer
Portfolio creation solutions are varied. On the internet, you will find free tools, paid tools and a compromise between these two offers. Often, free software is suitable for beginners and offers excellent functionality. Paid solutions are powerful and offer a lot of possibilities. The only weak point with these tools is the price, which is usually too high for the beginner freelancer.
Finally, there are mixed solutions that allow you to benefit from free features. To evolve and explore other possibilities, it is usually necessary to subscribe to a monthly or annual offer.
Online reviews
Whether for products, services or tools, online reviews are essential. They allow you to select the best service. These are the details you need to pay attention to in order to choose the right freelance portfolio creation solution.
Gifts to attract the customer
Did you know that you can offer gifts to your future clients to convince them to use your services? The goal being to attract them with your portfolio, you can show them a small part of your work for free. If you are a writer, you can for example write an article on a topic of your choice. An SEO audit tool is a great gift to give to recruiters when you are a webmaster.
Freelance portfolio SEO
In reality, it would be disastrous to create a quality portfolio and embellish it so that in the end, nobody sees it. That's what SEO is all about. When creating your portfolio, insert keywords related to your work in the pages and descriptions of your achievements. Also tag the images in your portfolio. With the right actions, you will succeed in making your portfolio appear among the first results of search engines for every query related to freelance search.
The multiplication of the portfolio supports
There are a multitude of portfolio media that you can use for your needs. Keep in mind, however, that each solution has its own advantages and disadvantages.
First, the digital format is the most used and requires the creation of a showcase site. By using this tool, you will be able to create an immersive, original and convincing portfolio. Over time, you will even be able to improve it or remove unnecessary elements. Note however that to show this portfolio to a recruiter during an interview, you will need a tablet.
Secondly, the PDF format does not require the creation of a website. Nevertheless, it allows you to have a digital portfolio. Depending on your needs, you will be able to print your portfolio easily. The disadvantage with this format is that you can't update it automatically. Also, you will have to create other documents.
Third, the paper format allows you to clearly display your work. During an interview, you can present it to the recruiter who can quickly appreciate your achievements. The weak point of the paper format is that you must constantly update it, which can cause avoidable costs.
Ultimately, the freelance portfolio is a great solution to attract clients. So consider designing it using the tips offered here. If you were to design your portfolio, what option would you consider?
