If you are a freelance designer or developer, you probably know how important it is to have a good portfolio of work. A portfolio can serve as a powerful marketing and sales tool and increase your chances of getting hired if you build it right. That's why today, Qneksi wants to share with you tips on how you can create a good portfolio website or improve an existing one. But first, let Qneksi tell you why it's essential to have a portfolio website.
A. The Importance of Having a Good Portfolio
Having a good portfolio website will help you stand out from your competitors. According to industry statistics, 94% of online shoppers have used online research at some point before buying. This means that your prospect will likely do some research on you before they buy from you. And there's a better way to present yourself online than the portfolio website that you have complete control over.
Not only that, but you can also use your website to drive traffic and generate leads with content marketing and blogs. Some of the most successful freelancers use this strategy to grow their businesses. So what are the characteristics of a good portfolio? Let's see!
B. Have a Clear Offer
The portfolio site should be clear and centred around your ideal target market. You must understand the goals and difficulty points that your customers have and make an offer to help them solve the problem. Most developers and freelance designers make the same mistake of being too general and talking too much about themselves. It's not uncommon to see portfolio websites that only talk about the site owner and how good they are but fail to discuss the problems you solved and the benefits you provided.
Yes, your clients may want to have a new website, but that's not the reason why they feel they need a website. Sometimes they need a new website because their current website is not good enough at converting visitors into customers. Other times, they may need a new website because the existing website is complicated to maintain, and they waste a lot of time on it. Either way, it's your responsibility to determine your ideal client needs and state that on your site.
C. Add Personal Touch
Trust is one of the determining factors that determine whether prospects will hire you or not. It isn't very easy to build trust with your website visitors when it's the first time the client is introduced to you. You only have a few minutes at most until a user leaves and goes to your competitor's site.
So how do you build trust in minutes? By being yourself. There are tons of web developers and designers on the internet who don't have a photo of themselves on their website. On the one hand, it's terrible for them because their potential clients don't know how they look and what is expected of them. On the other hand, this can be a massive advantage for you. Adding a professional image of yourself on your website will help you stand out from the competition very quickly.
D. Know Your Ideal Customer
Understanding the client's needs is very important. This creates a personal touch with them. Apart from the basic requirements of the project, each client has specific conditions associated with the project. If you understand what the client likes and mention it in the conversation, 50% of you will probably get hired.
It's also essential to speak your client's language. Don't try to look fancy and use technical terms on your website if your clients don't use them and don't understand them. This will hurt your chances of getting hired. The more you can use the language your clients speak, the better. They will appreciate it better, and it will be easier for them to align and connect with you. And remember, if you can describe someone's problems and goals better than they can, they'll assume you have a solution.
E. Good writing
Behaviour is necessary when someone presents themselves online. While this is your portfolio website, and you may be tempted to talk too much about yourself, Qneksi urges you not to overdo it. If you're writing copy for your sales page, shift your focus away from writing about you and writing about your client's problems, goals and how your services can help them solve their problems.
Don't use long, complicated sentences or snippets of text that sounds like a robot. Instead, write as you speak. Use short sentences, dividing your copy into paragraphs and sections to make it easier to read. WordPress offers plugins like Yoast SEO that can be used to check the readability score of content. Plugins are handy tools for increasing site visibility. This will help the site perform better in Google rankings.
And last but not least, use graphics such as icons and images to help illustrate your point. It is much easier for people to consume information visually than just read it.
F. Share Your Work Process
One of the things that can help you stand out from the crowd is having a straightforward process that consistently delivers results. While most developers and designers have some work process in place, many can't articulate it or don't display it on their websites.
According to Qneksi, that was a big mistake. Part of the reason clients will hire you is that you have a successful process. Many of them don't even care about the years of experience you have or the technology you use. They want to make sure that you can deliver results to them. And having a good process that's proven to work will give you a massive advantage over other developers and designers.
Not only that, the client must understand your work process. This will help them become better clients and will make your life a lot easier.
G. Showcase Your Work
A portfolio site would not be a portfolio site without examples of previous work. The most important thing a potential client will want to see is a sample of past work that will reflect your skill level. If you've worked with large companies in the past, that's even better because it will help your potential clients realize that you're not cheap, but you deserve it.
That way, you don't have to display all your previous projects on your site. Usually, if you have between 3 to 6 good case studies, that's enough. If you want to show more, Qneksi recommends having a separate page for them and not showing them all on your homepage or service page.
H. Testimonials
It is essential to get reviews from your previous clients and add them to the website. These testimonials will help build trust and make you look like an expert in the eyes of clients. This is social proof that people have invested in your work and good feedback means that the work delivered meets their expectations.
It also answers the question of whether you offer the client's request. You write everything on the website other than testimonials. Therefore, having testimonials means that outsiders provide insight into your skills. Having good reviews means you follow a good work ethic, and there are few satisfied clients.
If you have a WordPress site, there are many testimonial WordPress plugins that you can choose from. For example, you can use free Strong Testimonials to add testimonials. These tools will make sharing testimonials very easy and provide a high degree of flexibility while adding testimonials. It imports reviews from Google and many other platforms automatically on your website.
I. Closing
To create a good portfolio website, you need three elements a clear offer that speaks directly to your ideal customer, have sufficient evidence that you did a good job (testimonials, case studies) and have a clear call to action. If you use the principles that Qneksi has explained in this article, Qneksi is sure that you will stand out from the crowd and get more projects.
