If there were to be a phrase that best qualifies the nature of today’s job market, it would be ‘survival of the fittest’. Every day, new talents appear in the job market, each vying for available positions. Globally, only 14% of job applicants make it to the interview process for businesses with 500 employees or less. It’s that competitive.
Whether you are aspiring to land your first digital marketing job or want to advance your career, your resume and cover letter may not be enough. With so many talent pools, how do you stand out to employers? What sets you apart from applicants with similar backgrounds?
It’s having a digital marketing portfolio in your arsenal. It simply allows you to showcase your marketing skills, experience, and achievements in a way that resonates with the specific needs of the available job role. So how do you build a digital marketing portfolio?
Keep in mind that there may be other equally qualified candidates who have also taken the time to present a portfolio. Your goal is to beat them at their own game. Here, we’ll give practical tips for creating a professional digital marketing portfolio. Shall we?
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The concept of creating a digital marketing portfolio
A digital marketing portfolio can be a website or compilation of materials that highlight the best aspects of your professional background. It gives in-depth information about your abilities, work experience, and accomplishments as a digital marketer.
So, why do you need a marketing portfolio? The idea is to catch the employer’s attention.
Your CV and cover letter may not fully showcase your capabilities, but a visually appealing portfolio makes your application hard to miss. In addition to demonstrating your strengths and potential, it gives you an air of competence, increasing your chances of getting the job.
With that said, it’s high time you check out our step-by-step guide on showcasing your marketing skills in a portfolio.
How to create a digital marketing portfolio that stands out
If you want your portfolio to be conspicuous, then you must be willing to do something differently. You need to know what employers look for in a digital marketing portfolio.
Start by including all the necessary materials that exemplify your qualifications, such as your resume, cover letter, work samples, career summary, and other relevant materials.
Choose a reliable resume builder
Since your resume is a critical aspect of your digital marketing portfolio, it must be professional and eye-catching.
To do that, you can simply use a resume generator to create a masterpiece. You don’t have to worry if your design and writing skills are mediocre, resume generators grant you access to various templates and suggested texts that suit your specific needs.
That’s not all. Rather than using the same resume content each time you intend to apply for a new marketing role, resume generators can optimize your content to align with industry best practices and the job you’re applying for within minutes.
In addition to content optimization, you can store and manage different resume versions as you progress in your career. This makes it easier to routinely update your work experience and personalize your applications each time you vie for a new digital marketing role.
Choose a trusted hosting platform
If you do not have necessary coding skills to develop a custom marketing portfolio website, you can use a user-friendly platform like Wix. It’s quite responsive and easy to navigate, plus it offers an array of customizable templates, allowing you to create and polish your portfolio easily.
Besides, Wix cookie banner can set you apart as an individual who values the privacy of others. Usually, when an employer or client visits your portfolio website, they expect that their rights and privacy are well protected. They need to know that they have control over their data.
Cookie banners typically appear as popups when an employer visits your site. They provide information on how you use cookies, ask for consent, and give the employer option of choosing the data they wish to share.
This speaks volumes on how much you prioritize privacy-first marketing tactics and casts a lasting impression in the minds of your employer.
Sketch out your site map
Designing your marketing portfolio from scratch can be daunting. You could be staring at your white screen for hours thinking of what to include and where to place key elements. To avoid wasting time, you need to outline your site’s layout.
The layout should contain the content and elements intended for each page, such as the best work samples that showcase successful projects, testimonials from satisfied clients and previous managers, case studies that demonstrate your achievements, and an “About” page to introduce yourself to potential employers.
Once you’ve successfully created a sketch, it becomes easier to create a well thought out marketing portfolio that does justice to your true potential. Employers can accurately analyze your skills, experience, and accomplishments, and how you are the best fit for the open role.
Create your content
If you want to grab the attention of your prospective employer, you must position yourself as an irresistible candidate using captivating and engaging content. One easy way to do that is to use a story-telling format to highlight your skills, success stories and past projects.
Since the introductory aspect is usually the first point of contact with the employer, you only get one shot at casting a lasting impression of yourself. So, ensure you don’t blow it. Create a compelling brief that demonstrates your capabilities and achievements. Avoid waffles, be brief, use active verbs, and don’t use adverbs and hyperbole.
Your portfolio should tell a story about you. It shouldn’t just be a compilation of work samples; rather, it should be well curated and organized so that anyone who encounters it can understand how skilled you are, how much experience you’ve gathered, and how tactical you are in the digital marketing field.
Choose your best work samples
Don’t be eager to showcase all the projects and campaigns you’ve ever done. Only focus on the most outstanding ones. Your best work samples should demonstrate your proficiency, versatility, and creativity as a digital marketer.
For every successful marketing campaign you include, provide a brief explanation of the projects, objectives, tactics used, tools implemented, and outcomes.
Also, emphasize your problem-solving skills and how you overcame obstacles. You can back up your claims with data and visuals or simply use testimonials and reviews from clients and former employers to add credibility to your accomplishments.
Incorporate high-quality visuals
Visuals are essential elements of a portfolio website, capable of telling stories in ways that written words can’t. They can captivate and help people understand and retain information within a short time frame. On the contrary, texts often require time and effort to read and understand the intent of the message.
When adding visuals to your digital marketing portfolio, give preferences to pictures and images that align with your marketing field. Use only high-quality visuals as they make your portfolio more appealing to employers. Low-quality images can dent your reputation and cause employers to doubt your professionalism.
Finally, visuals are not limited to pictures and images, they could be charts, drawings, figures, captions, or a piece of film capable of passing a message.
Keep your portfolio updated
Now to the final step. Just like you update your resume each time you have a career progression, your digital marketing portfolio also requires regular updates each time you complete a new project or campaign. This keeps it fresh and relevant.
With time, you get to remove outdated projects that no longer portray your true potential and add new ones. This recurrent activity demonstrates your keenness for growth and shows your potential employer that you’re flexible, foresighted, and passionate about improvement in the digital marketing field.
Your dream job awaits you
Every day, more and more job seekers appear in the labor market to compete for available job openings. Each one possesses varying levels of professionalism and yet, no one wants out of the game.
As a digital marketer looking to break into the job market or on the quest for new opportunities, you need a lot more than your skillset and expertise. You must be able to sell yourself to clients and potential employers.
During job hunts, you may come across other candidates with a better skillset. That doesn’t mean you can’t get the job ahead of them. What sets you apart is how you create your digital marketing portfolio. It’s your best bet at beating other equally qualified candidates.
By putting this article to good use, you stand a chance of landing that job that has always eluded you.
Rilwan Kazeem is a creative writer and art lover. He has worked in social media, content marketing, and SEO for four years. He has covered topics including digital marketing, HR, emerging technologies, and their intersection with business. At his leisure, he loves to meditate and spend time with his family.
