The most important tool that you have to market your work is a portfolio website. With a portfolio website, potential clients from around the world can review your work, get to know your personality, and understand your services at their convenience.
There are three main goals of a successful portfolio website. First, it should help present your work in the best possible way while marketing explaining your services in a clear manner. Second, the website should enable you to get to know your customers and site visitors. And, third, it should act as a hub for all of your online and offline marketing activities. Let’s dive into the benefits of each of these three things in greater detail:
Attract the Right Clients
With the right artwork selection, branding, and marketing message, your ideal clients—the clients who you would LOVE to work with—will visit your portfolio website and feel at home. Your ideal client will immediately recognize themselves in your description, clearly understand your services, and feel confident that you are the perfect designer for their business. In my experience, most clients are not looking for a faceless, nameless brand to develop patterns and prepare work for production. Most clients are looking for a partner they can trust and work with for years to come.
Know Your Customers
One of the key benefits of having a portfolio website is that it allows you to have more direct contact with potential clients and visitors to your site. Free tools such as Google Analytics allow you to see where your website visitors are coming from, how they are finding you, and what parts of your website they are spending the most time on. If you have a password protected portfolio on your website, having clients fill out a brief password application offers you a wealth of information, such as what clients are drawn to your work, what pattern styles they are looking for, and what you can do to make their lives a little easier. Take advantage of this opportunity!
Your Marketing Hub
With so many different ways to sell and market your work, including online networks such as LinkedIn and physical networks, such as attending a print show or a conference, it’s imperative to make your website your marketing hub—the one place potential clients can go to learn more about you whether you are online or offline. Always direct people to your website! It’s the one area of your business that you have complete control over because your online portfolio is your home. It gives you the chance to tell your story. Furthermore, potential clients can find all the social media links they may need on your website.
Make Sure You Are Maximizing Your Potential
A portfolio website is so much more than a website where you present your work. Your website is your chance to tell your story and welcome new contacts and clients to your world. As you consider your next portfolio website redesign consider how you can develop a more inviting environment to new clients, how you can clearly explain your services, and how you can make their life a little bit easier. It’s a great business building strategy and wonderful way to develop lasting relationships with clients you LOVE!
Don’t know what you need to include in your portfolio website? Download our free Portfolio Website Checklist!
