Your portfolio could be the difference in landing that job you’ve always dreamed of, or building your business to ensure it’s a massive success. With that being said, many portfolio website owners choose to overlook the basics and later regret it when they’ve missed out on big time opportunities. If you do have a portfolio and you’re looking for tips on how to improve it for the best chances of converting clients, take a look at some of the below tips that will help you do exactly that.
Keep it Simple
Your portfolio is all about trying to present your work to either gain new clients or impress potential future employers. What they don’t want when viewing your portfolio, however, is a cluttered mess. This means that keeping things simple is the best way forward, but also remembering to introduce your past projects in as much detail without being boring is just as important. Pictures speak a thousand words, but if clients are left wondering what complete service you provided to finish the project, you’re going to be left wondering why they didn’t contact you.
Your Failed Projects Should Be Presented
Everyone has some sort of pride in their work, which is why many people tend not to show the projects that went wrong. However, if you share your failures with your potential clients, you’re already building a foundation to build new relationships on. Bringing on new clients is getting them to trust you and, if they don’t trust you, there will be no relationship to begin with. Showing your failed projects not only builds trust, though, it also shows what you’ve learned and what you’ve done since to improve your work.
Keep Your Portfolio Updated
This is one of the most crucial aspects of managing a high converting portfolio website. If it’s not updated regularly and potential clients are seeing your latest projects from 2-3 years ago, they are going to lose interest very quickly. In fact, they probably won’t even think about contacting you because if you can’t be bothered to update your portfolio, they’ll think you can’t be bothered to respond to their messages.
Make Some Changes
A couple of changes to your portfolio website template could be all it takes to get more interest in your work. Even a simple feature addition like a sticky navigation bar could be the difference, so never stop looking at your portfolio to see where you can improve it. If you’re that stuck and you don’t necessarily have the capital available to go out and make such changes, it could be a wise idea to stick to a pay monthly service like Format portfolio to handle your needs. You can make simple alterations to your portfolio or base your pictures on a completely new theme altogether and, best of all, it’s quick and easy to achieve your desired outcome.
In with the New and Out with the Old
Although you should always keep some of your failed projects available to show potential customers, there’s nothing wrong with having a revamp with your showcase. Some of your old work might look a little outdated with new technology or techniques now in-play, so it’s always wise to go through it every few months to see what you can do to keep it looking fresh. The chances are, potential clients will have their eye on your work for a few months before they approach you, so giving them something fresh to look at on a regular basis is the way forward.
Give Credit Where It’s Due
If you have someone giving you a hand with certain projects, there’s certainly nothing wrong in giving them credit for it. This will show clients you have help during tougher assignments so it’s not going to be as hard. It could also give that person the feeling of gratitude and they might commit their future to you. Of course, you should consider taking most of the credit, but it’s worth doing so your clients can get to know about all the hard work behind it by other people.
Client Testimonials are Crucial
It’s important you seek feedback from your past clients so you can present it to your future opportunities. Future clients will always look at your past work and past relationships before they part with their money, so having it to display on your portfolio website is imperative.
Share Results
Whatever the result of previous projects, share them with your potential clients. It’s also a good idea to not show pictures of what the finished project looked like, but pictures of what the finished project looks like now (if possible). If you’re an artist and you drew a picture for someone international, try to get in contact with them to see if they will be willing to send a picture of it when it’s hanging on their wall. It’s a good way to not only show results, but a good way to show potential customers you still have a good relationship with your past ones.
Visitors Will Leave Quickly
Always bear in mind that people who visit your website will likely leave very quickly. This isn’t always your fault, it’s just the way the online world works. However, there are certain things you can do to keep them interested. Excellent visuals, a simple portfolio format, lots of pictures and great storytelling can always play a part in keeping them intrigued. Don’t hesitate to keep your website friendly with a couple of cartoon pictures, to show them there’s a face behind the business, and you’re not just going to treat them like a number, like many other businesses do to their customers.
Always Add Your Social Links
Social links will likely have no impact on gaining new clients at all, but it’s always worth doing to improve your fan base. If you are already present on the popular social media sites like Facebook, it’s important to keep building your followers. They make it very easy to promote to in the future, so if you can get just a few followers from your portfolio website, then it’s done its job. You can find many online tools that can help you do this just by entering some simple code behind the scenes.
Create a Blog Section
Creating a blog section on your site can play into your hands in many ways. Firstly, Google and the other popular search engines will praise you for it in their results pages. Secondly, your guests may not be potential customers at first, but if they like the content you provide, that can always change their mind. Thirdly, potential customers can see you’re serious about not only your work, but also when it comes to looking for new opportunities.
There’s plenty you can do to build a killer portfolio website, and you don’t just have to stop at the basics above. Improve your portfolio all the time by making simple alterations, updating regularly, and getting rid of old projects that you don’t feel are that valuable any more. The more time you spend managing your online portfolio, the more chance you’ll have of landing those big clients that could change your future for the better.
