What Your Portfolio Lacks | 126
Mar 22, 2024Today I want to tackle a common pitfall that many photographers and videographers fall into.
Your portfolio needs improvement.
Now relax. I’m not going to attack your work. Your work is great. You’ve got great photos and beautiful videos, and clients love that.
But there is a part of your portfolio that no one really talks about.
🌟 The Dream Outcome
From this point on, when I say “portfolio,” I’m talking about your website. How you present your service to the world.
Your website shouldn’t be purely creative assets.
Our portfolio largely exists for one reason. To get us clients.
The issue is that most creatives make their portfolio for themselves or for other creatives. They don’t make it for their clients.
Let’s start by asking us the question: What do clients want to see from our portfolio?
When a potential client goes on your website, they’re asking themselves “How likely is it that this creative will get me what I want?”
Whether you realize it or not, they’re trying to figure out if you’re the right person for the job. And pretty pictures just aren’t going to cut it. We need more. So let’s dive into a potential client’s mind.
🛒 Shopping around
Imagine you’re online shopping for a new widget. You have an idea of what you want, but there are a lot of options out there.
You start by looking at photos and videos of the widget. It seems to fit your needs exactly.
Next, you turn to look at the reviews.
There are none.
You move onto the next website selling the same type of widget.
This one has photos that look great PLUS it’s got a bunch of reviews.
In addition, there’s even text on the website that highlights the product's benefits, talks about how it will improve your life and shows real-world examples of people using it.
You’re sold.
🤔 What clients actually want
This is what clients are doing when they’re looking for a creative. They don’t just want a pretty portfolio. Anyone can build that.
They want to be reassured that by working with you, they’ll get their desired result.
We can start by adding copy to our website that shows the benefits of working with us.
Maybe you have crazy fast turnaround times. 48 hours for all photos and videos.
Sounds too good to be true. So we back up these claims with reviews from our past clients. We ask old clients to leave us testimonials so we can have social proof on our website.
We have other people vouching on our behalf saying that we do what we say we do.
We throw together some case studies of how our services have helped other clients.
Now our website has a beautiful portfolio AND proof that we deliver results.
Potential clients know that we are great service providers because of all the reviews we have. We make it easy for them to choose to work with us because of our credibility.
💪 Actions items
- Put yourself in the client’s shoes
- Ask yourself what they would want when choosing a creative to work with
- Design your website around that