Portfolio problems – we’ve all been there! We’ve all done some great work and made a great post about it. We’ve shown everything that makes the project awesome and proves why it should be in the portfolio. Then we sit back and focus on the rest of tasks to keep our website running…
Then one day you realise your portfolio looks wrong? Nothing changed and it’s still the great work you did, but it doesn’t seem…right? Let’s see how we can fix your portfolio problems:
Did you leave your portfolio for too long?
The first of your portfolio problems is sitting back for too long after you’ve finished. Having an outdated portfolio can be a detriment to the other great work you’ve done. If it’s truly outdated it may make your viewers and future clients think you’ve not done anything better recently. This obviously isn’t true, in fact it quite the opposite! You’ve been so busy doing fantastic projects for your clients you’ve had no time to spend on your own site.
To sort this out you should set some key and strict scheduling for reviewing your portfolio, archiving older projects, and seeing which of the new ones would be great to talk about. It could be that one of your past projects got to a phase 2 or 3 that shows the work in a much better light.
One great trick to keeping your content fresh is to go back to your client and get some stats on how things have improved. This can show how much of a difference you’ve made.
Your projects are too similar, is this why you have portfolio problems?
In isolation, each one of your projects look great. But as an ensemble…are they too similar? There could be some limiting factors as to why your projects follow a similar look and feel, if you’re a mechanic and you service a car, after a while the pictures of this are going to start to feel samey.
Once your portfolio has been out in the wild for a bit, you should take a step back, try and see how your clients see the site. With this new gained insight either change the type of projects you have on show or, if you’re stuck like we said, maybe a bit of creative tinkering is in order?
You could in these cases use a different page layout? Maybe change how you document each project and take pictures in a different way (even just a different point of view!). If you’re really stuck give us a shout!
Show the effects of your work
Mentioned in the first point but the proof is in the pudding, or project in this case. Although your portfolio looks great maybe as time has gone by the tone of the project has changed. Rather than being something that is going to make a difference maybe it has already?
This is a great opportunity to talk to your client, ask them for some feedback; how have things improved since you did the project? Are there any statistics or figures you could use on your site to show how successfully your work was? Or is it more qualitative, how has the work improved since your help?
Invite your client to give you some info, a quote or testimonial and put it on the site. Even invite them to write a guest blog if its appropriate. The key is to retain a live connection, keeping your content valid.
It’s just not looking as great as I want it – my portfolio problems still exist!
Sometimes you can do everything right; you have written excellent content, kept it up to date, reviewed and adjusted as time has gone on. You’ve contacted your client, they’ve written a guest blog, they’ve provided some figures and a great testimonial…but it’s still not right? Your portfolio problems still exist and you’re stuck.
At this stage, this is where we suggest you get in touch with us! We can take a look at your site and give you advice on what to do next. Maybe your site’s features aren’t showing your content off, maybe your brand identity needs a tweak to get it to shine. We are happy to have a call to go through this, why not get in touch and we’ll give you a call back?
Wants some inspiration? Here are some great example portfolios!
