When applying for jobs in marketing, most job seekers forget to prepare a professional portfolio to showcase their marketing work. While a basic resume or LinkedIn profile is a good resource, they do not offer an at-a-glance view of your visual work. Most importantly, many hiring managers report only selecting candidates who have a marketing portfolio that is easily accessible. Don’t make this small mistake and miss your chance to be hired by your dream company. You can stand out by preparing a professional marketing portfolio before starting your job search. 

Let me share some steps you can take to create an impressive marketing portfolio and help you win more interview opportunities.

What Should Your Marketing Portfolio Include?

Your marketing portfolio should be a nice mix of professional information and relevant work samples. When potential employers look at your portfolio, they should quickly get a great idea of who you are and the work that you are capable of doing.

An “About You” Section

While it is not necessary to provide every detail of your personal life, your portfolio should include an “About You” section. In this portion of your portfolio, it is a good idea to let your future employer know a little bit about you, your marketing background, your passion for specific marketing strategies, and any relevant education you may have.

This is also a great place to discuss your creative process and provide a purpose statement. While working on your “About You” section, be sure to only include information that can benefit your professional persona and make you a better candidate for the job.

Ally Chung, a previous 1:1 consultation client, provides a great example of a succinct “About” section on her website. Within the short two-paragraph section, Ally discusses her marketing philosophy, past clients, and actionable items that she can bring to other companies.

Work Samples

The primary goal of your portfolio is to show potential employers the skills and experiences you possess. This is done through a collection of work samples you have done for other clients. When choosing which of your past work samples to highlight, you must select previous work that establishes your credibility and skillset for the target role.

Highlighting clients with great brand recognition is a great way to build trust with future employers. If a potential client sees that you have worked with recognizable brands in the past, they may be more likely to trust your work.

If you have not yet had the opportunity to work with easily recognizable clients, that’s okay. Highlight previous work that shows a wide variety of your abilities. Megan McDonough, an expert creative producer and project manager, shows a selection of six clients that showcase her range of skills and abilities.  Each entry includes the visual work completed, the goals set by the company, and the actions the creator took while completing the project. These additional details show employers how you apply your philosophy and creative process to each job, highlighting how you can help them reach their marketing goals.

Steps to Creating a Marketing Portfolio That Stands Out

Figure Out Your Format

How you present your portfolio is just as important as what you present in your portfolio. As a marketing professional, you must show potential employers that you understand how to present audiences with information in the most efficient method possible. Whether you create a visually captivating website like this Graphic Designer (see one of his awesome works below) or produce engaging video content like this Video Marketer, your format will show potential employers that you understand how to pitch your most important product: Yourself!

Website builders like Squarespace, WordPress, and WIX are a great place to start. These platforms provide you with many tools to create a visually captivating marketing portfolio. You can purchase your domain name to ensure your digital portfolio is consistent for your audience’s entire experience.

Present a Project with Measurable Results

It is essential to present previous projects with clear and measurable goals in your portfolio. The projects you showcase in your portfolio should include a project objective, marketing strategies that you implement, your actions, and how the result impacts the business.

• Project Objective: This should highlight what the client wanted you to achieve with the project.

• Marketing Strategy: This should highlight the plan you designed to meet the project objectives. This should also include the actions you took to bring this marketing strategy to life.

• Measurable Results: The results should include what happened for the client or company as a direct result of the actions you completed as part of your marketing strategy. Your results prove your capabilities as a professional marketer, and results with strong numerical metrics will make you a stronger candidate for your target role.

Whatever project you present in your portfolio, be sure to present a visually appealing account of how you met the project objective with easily measurable results.

Tell a Visual Story

In a field as creative as marketing, your portfolio needs to stand out as a visually captivating capsule of your professional ability. Every detail of your portfolio should work to construct the story of who you are and what you believe as a marketing professional. Each piece of text, background image, and visual detail should work in concert to tell the story of who you are and what you can do.

Sawhorse is a marketing firm whose digital portfolio exemplifies how to tell a detail-oriented visual story. Throughout their digital portfolio, Sawhorse puts their creative ability front and center with captivating visuals. The design of each page works in concert to build trust with their audience. Simple page headings displayed boldly at the top of the page direct potential clients to the information they care about most. Sawhorse presents a cohesive story of strong human-centered creative design with bold elements that aren’t afraid to break away from tradition.

Keep it Simple

Simplicity can help make your portfolio easy to navigate and understand for any potential employer. It is important to understand that simple doesn’t mean easy and it certainly doesn’t mean boring. Your portfolio should be easy to navigate with purposeful pages that direct your audience to the critical information.

Let’s Awaken Your Power!

You only have one chance to make a first impression. Your portfolio may be the only glimpse potential employers get of you during your job search. That is why creating a marketing portfolio that stands out from the crowd is so important.

The job market can be a tumultuous place to travel alone. If you are looking for more guidance toward your dream career in marketing, my 1:1 marketing career coaching program can help you create a roadmap to success.

Consider starting with a marketing career exploration call with me to clarify your job search goal and gain valuable information about your current job search challenges. Let’s awaken your power and help you succeed in your marketing job search!