If you're a creative individual, an online portfolio website can have massive benefits for you.
The biggest hurdles creative individuals face are expanding their audience and making people aware that their work exists. There are so many authors, artists, photographers, musicians etc, out there, that anything new a creative person produces risks getting lost in the crowd. One of the main ways creative people tend to showcase their work is through social media. This is a fantastic (and free) platform to market themselves, but this comes with some drawbacks. The biggest disadvantage to this is that you are reliant on your followers engaging in the post and essentially helping you to market it. What creative people tend to overlook, is the massive benefits a portfolio website can have.
There are lots of benefits of an online portfolio website, all of which will help you to increase your audience and maximise your sales. These benefits include:
When you market your creativity through social media, you usually have to choose one piece of work to focus on promoting. With an online portfolio website, you can have all your work in one place and share your website instead.
You can include links to all your social media and any other platforms you use to show your creativity. This will help your audience to follow and support you across all your platforms, increasing your popularity online.
Sharing links for your work and directing people to a place where they can actually buy your work will help you to boost your sales.
A popular figure connects with their audience. They are relatable to their audience, they are a person, not just a brand or the work that they produce. The more you connect with your audience, the more they will support you and your work, and the more they will share it.
There are lots of benefits to gaining an online presence. A strong online presence can:
Competition for creativeness is fierce and sadly, it is usually the individuals with a strong reputation that tend to get noticed the most. The best way you can make sure your current and future work gets the attention it deserves is by building a strong reputation for yourself. To make yourself known in your field, for your work. You can achieve this through an online portfolio.
How much (or how little) you want to include in your portfolio website is completely up to you. But the more you include, the more successful your website will be in terms of promoting your work and boosting your followers and support.
The problem with social media is that to have an impact, you have to share one piece of work at a time. You then have to rely on other people engaging on your posts to make your work visible. Although this shows people what you do, it doesn’t show them everything you do. A portfolio website, on the other hand, can include your entire portfolio, to show your audience just how amazing you are. How you display your work will depend on what it is you create. For example, you can embed a ‘look inside’ for books, and a short sample for things like music.
It is important to remember to copyright things like photographs so nobody is able to use them. However, you will often be covered under copyright law once you’ve published your work on your site.
As well as displaying your work, you should also link to the places people can buy/see/listen/stream your work from. If you’re selling your work through your website, link to the ecommerce section of your site. Authors can link to the bookstores selling their books. Musicians can link to their Spotify profile etc. This will help you to maximise your sales.
If you have any work in progress, share some information about it. Get people excited about its release before it’s even been released, and start collecting pre-orders (if this is an option). This will encourage people to keep coming back to your site and generate more interest in your future as you become “one to watch”.
Most creative individuals have had reviews and/or feedback about their work. Sharing these reviews with your audience is a fantastic way to encourage them to buy/invest in your work. Reviews from third parties validate your work. One of the most effective and longstanding marketing tools has always been word-of-mouth advertising, reviews are an extension of this.
Sharing any interviews and media mentions you have had is another excellent way to establish your reputation and encourage people to pay attention to your work.
People want to know about the person behind the work. Don’t be afraid to share your story and your journey so far. Getting personal with your audience will help to create trust and loyalty, in turn enhancing the support you receive.
Give your audience (and more importantly, your fans) a way of contacting you. Sharing your contact information makes you appear open and receptive to establishing relationships with the people who support you. It also allows individuals to contact you with opportunities that could advance your creative journey.
In addition to all these fantastic benefits, a portfolio website can also have a massive personal benefit to you. As a creative person, there will be times when you wonder if you’re wasting your time if you should quit, and if your work is good enough to compare to other creatives in your field. But when you look through your portfolio (and things like media mentions), you’ll be reminded of everything you have accomplished so far and this will drive your creativity.
