How to build a marketing / digital portfolio

Portfolios are the perfect way to arrange your work in one organised showcase to demonstrate your skill set. By collating your most effective campaigns you can communicate your ability to tell stories across multiple platforms, imperative for any modern marketing professional. 

When applying for positions in the marketing and digital industry it is essential that you can demonstrate your skill set and talents to prospective employers for them to feel confident investing in you. So, here are a few suggestions of how you can present your work in a portfolio.

Assemble your content

Before you begin to collate the examples you wish to showcase, try and make efforts to understand what you want others to see. You should be selective about what you include, ensuring that they best demonstrate your talent and experience. The work you choose to include should be representative of the kind of work you want to be hired to produce. Rank all of your work in terms of how impressive they are and select the very best projects, or choose a handful of projects that each show off a different service or skill. The work should support the qualifications listed elsewhere in your application and focus on what would appeal to the clients you want to work with. 

Research the company

Clarify your professional aspiration and then build your portfolio with a specific audience or position in mind. Familiarise yourself with the companies you would like to work with and make a note of their overall presence, including their website, social media channels, news coverage and audience demographics. This will help you adjust your portfolio to suit their interests, along with aiding you in bringing prospective ideas to the interview. 

Some of your work confidential?

Unable to share you work outside your client relationship? You can usually get around this obstacle by describing the project in generic terms. Refer to clients elusively with ‘B2B’ or ‘B2C’ terms and write up mock versions for visual evidence. If it was a particularly successful campaign, be sure to refer to the most impressive metrics, without revealing the identity of your client.

Show off your talents 

Showcase the work you are both proud of and feel the most confident in discussing. Show relevancy and curiosity tied to your talent, hard work and skill set. Develop samples so they appear stronger and more impressive to an outside viewer and approach your work with a critical eye. You want to be presenting yourself as their ideal candidate and being able to work constructively on your own work will prove your ability and strive to improve to higher standards as you become more qualified/ experienced. 

Tell your story

Employers want to see you demonstrate your ability to tell a story and interact online. Keep it simple, present your projects in a straightforward format, emphasising the visual so that the reader does not feel overwhelmed by information. Allow the reader to navigate easily from project to project, category to category. Categories demonstrate your range and differentiates say your written work from campaign successes, thus spotlighting your various capabilities. Incorporate your personality into the portfolio by providing a description about yourself that includes your background, how you work, your likes and interests. This will enable your employer to see you as a well rounded person rather than a set of skills.