How to Create a Copywriting Portfolio
A guide to showing off your long-form copy without being wordy
Challenge
I write long-form content including blog posts, technical guides, scripts, CRM emails and magazine articles.
When I first created my portfolio on WordPress, I would just post images of what I wrote.
Having all that text on my portfolio made it dense, unreadable and unengaging.
I realized I needed to make my copywriting portfolio more like a design portfolio. I needed to present my work better by keeping it minimal and visually interesting.
Maybe you’ve realized your portfolio needs to be reorganized as well. Below are 7 ways you can accomplish this.
1. Cut, cut, cut
What’s true for writing is true for organizing your portfolio:
Kill your darlings.
In other words, only show off your best work.
If you’re just starting out and don’t have a lot of samples, then keep them all up there. But as time goes on, it’s a good idea to remove older work in order to keep the word count down.
2. Focus on images
When people arrive at your portfolio, they should see more images than words.
This keeps the information at a manageable level and intrigues viewers to discover more.
Protip
If you can’t find any images that you like, just Google the brand you worked for and use their logo.
3. Explain your copy, but keep it short
A portfolio needs to give viewers some idea of what your copy did, but it can’t get too wordy.
When it comes to explaining a campaign, only highlight 3 key aspects:
- Insight
The insight is often a question, problem, prompt or goal that your campaign addressed. - Big Idea
A one-sentence summary of how your copy solved the problem. - Credits
Your team.
Example
John Axtell does a great job of doing this on his portfolio.
4. Get a subscription to Adobe Creative Suite
One of the best parts of having an Adobe subscription is accessing all of their portfolio templates.
They’re intuitive, minimal, they focus on images and they still offer you the flexibility to show off your unique brand.
5. Use mockups to present your copy
Another common rule in writing is:
Show. Don’t tell.
Mockups allow you to do exactly that.
They’re blank images which allow you to paste your copy onto any surface whether it’s small-format surfaces like packages, business cards, phones or mugs.
Or large-format surfaces like signage, billboards and other large scale surfaces.
This may sound more like a tip for designers, but they’re important for copywriters to use because they give your copy far more value by turning it into a more compelling and stylized image.
For example…
Below, you’ll see how mockups drastically improved the presentation of an article I wrote.
Without mockup
With mockup
Check out this great tutorial to learn more about mockups.
6. Create separate, mini-portfolios with Issuu
Issuu is a publishing site which takes the PDFs you upload and turns them into an online magazine.
Before using Issuu
As I mentioned above, I used to just post images of my long-form copy on my portfolio. It doesn’t look terrible, but it’s just a lot of copy all at once.
This is how I used to organize my work from my internship at Biola.
After Issuu
Step 1
Now, they click on the page for my Biola internship (top right tile).
Step 2
They’re taken to a page with a quick overview of my role.
Step 3
Then they’re taken to the Issuu magazine where they can flip through samples from my internship.
In my experience, this prevents people from being inundated with information and keeps everything at a manageable level.
7. Or create separate, mini-portfolios with Medium
Using a Medium blog to present each project is another great way to show your work for a few reasons.
- It’s free.
- Medium’s layout and formatting options keep everything scannable
- You can create a new account with your work email to separate your musings and professional work.
- If you’re really desperate to create a portfolio, you don’t even need a domain name or website. Just create an account, create a new story and then upload your work.
Here’s how I use Medium:
Step 1
People click on the page for my Mariners work (top left tile)
Step 2
They’re taken to a page with a quick overview of my role and examples for each.
Step 3
If they select a campaign, they’re taken to a Medium profile I’ve created specifically for my copywriting.
Examples of great copywriting portfolios
Those are my seven tips to keeping your portfolio minimal and manageable.
I’ve included a list of some of my favorite copywriting portfolios which I used as guides when creating my own, and I think they’ll be useful to you as well.
John Axtell
Minimal yet still combines his personal work with his professional work.
Josh Fell
What I aspire to turn my portfolio into.
Caleb Fils-Aime
Love the intro at the beginning. Already shows you his personality.
Kate Toon
How to show off your copywriting course as well as your portfolio.
Belinda Weaver
Another great example of how to catch people’s attention and sell your product.
Neville Medhora
Less of a portfolio and more of a really good resource for copywriters. His YouTube Channel, Kopywriting Kourse is also helpful.
If you have a useful tip about copywriting portfolios please feel free to reach out and leave a comment!
