LESSON 4: YOUR PORTFOLIO Your portfolio is going to be the gleaming example of all your work. It's one of the first things, after reading your email, that people are going to look at Whenever you approach an agency or a local business, you should have examples of your work to back your email up. Let’s go through it step by step: 1. WHAT MEDIUM TO CREATE YOUR PORTFOLIO ON You have a number of options here. + A Google Doc. This will be a fairly straightforward portfolio, on one A4 page (try to keep it to that) + Beautifully designed as a PDE. This is where you can ask a low-cost designer to help you out. Either pay, or you can do a “swapsie” for some copy. + An online portfolio platform. There's an ever-increasing number of fantastic portfolio platforms out there. They allow you to quickly create an impressive collection of your work with minimal headaches. There are loads of platforms to choose from, so look for those that are geared towards writers ~ and that ideally offer a free basic package. Top writer portfolio platforms include Contently, Clippings.me and Carbonmade. Most give you the option to either upload a PDF file or link to a URL. Some will even let you embed videos, audio files and other multimedia formats. 2. THE HEADER Your portfolio header should follow the same rules as instant clarity headlines. You will need to tell them that it’s your portfolio so they know exactly what they're looking at and what to expect. You should also include your name or company name. Remember that agencies and businesses will look at a ton of CVs and portfolios, so make sure it's clear and memorable. 3. INTRO COPY You know by now how much we love intro copy. It gives you the chance to sell yourself and what you can do. One thing to remember: it needs to be punchy. Don’t go long- winded, even if you weave in storytelling. Your intro copy could include the following: + An edited version of your UVP + An edited, digital version of your elevator pitch + Your speciality/niche * Abit about you and what makes you tick 4, WRITING SAMPLES The piece de resistance, your writing samples need to speak for themselves. It’s up to you (and your designer if you have one) how you showcase these. The important bits to include: + Who the client is * What the job entailed + Akey highlight of the job, such as ‘a 5% increase in conversions’, or ‘an 82% ramp-up in social media engagement’ + Choose samples that showcase your best work. You can be selective, don’t feel obliged to include everything to make an impression. It’s quality over quantity. Leave the in-depth analysis for the case studies (which we're moving onto next). The writing sample copy should be supporting, the real evidence is in the sample itself. 5. CASE STUDIES If your writing samples SHOW the world how great your work is, case studies are a great way to TELL the world. Here’s some key tips: + Write about someone your customer can relate to. Choose a similar industry or job type, or preferably both. You want the customer to know that you're comfortable in their industry and easily capable of handling the job they need doing. Tell the story from start to finish. People love a good story and case studies are the perfect chance to do this. Make sure you include this in the story: Who is the customer and what do they do? What were the customer’s goals? What were the customer's needs? How did you satisfy those needs and help the customer meet their goals? Make sure it’s easy to read. Stick to the same rules with scannability. Don't feel tempted to retum to prose style, text-book writing. Copywriting rules will still apply and could even be the deal-breaker. Include stats where possible. Stats are always far more appealing that just empty numbers. Try not to say ‘doubled sign-ups’, but instead say ‘we increased sign-ups from 100 to 200 in a day? Always ask your customer for approval. Make sure this is in writing. Better to be safe, than sorry. ACASE STUDY STRUCTURE Atypical case study structure will look like this: + ATTENTION-GRABBING HEADER: Use the most impressive thing about your case study + THE CLIENT: Who it was + THEIR CHALLENGE: Why they came to you + THE SOLUTION: How you tackled it + THE RESULT: How you changed everything for them (for the better) Take a look at how we approach case studies with our Adidas case story (below). We've taken storytelling to a whole new level and weaved it into the headers of the case study. PS. It doesn’t make sense to copy our style. Remember, you should have your own values, UVP, USPs, tone of voice and style. If your clients think you've just ‘copied and pasted’ the exact way that we - or another agency or competitor - have done it, it won’t look good. Feel free to grab ideas from experts in the field, but always give them your own unique spin. [ call this the “Copy & Twist” method. It's a great way to succeed in life and business! Here's our Adidas case story example: 1. THE HEADER -10 ‘nuois 399 You can see that we've included an attention-grabbing header that announces the hero part of the story. Smaller, we have the client name and a summary of the story. 2. THE SNAPSHOT THE SNAPSHOT f® ADVERTS, WEB COPY, LANDING PAGES AND SALES A wrswrocenciccrvumieosus = A AM AUSSINGREASEIMOVERALL ALES ©) rovowurscross soci neon cuwwers Next we have a section that’s in the spirit of scannability. It shows the reader at a glance what they can expect from the case study. 3. THE CHALLENGE AND THE SOLUTION SECTIONS ONCE UPON A TIME tind of vray hat cd pred their band weceage ice wile though the gob outdeer spor'scomenunity HELP WAS AT HAND. dart eaen rd wing of tho Ludwig Agency Group. ner for the aidan whi would then be sponsored Wy adidas ad feliowed ‘Wes he one and rented copy for each sage of he t the dobalse We put a different spin on the traditional ‘THE CHALLENGE’ and “THE SOLUTION’ sections to spice it up a bit. You can definitely experiment with this too, as it’s a differentiator, but make sure it’s still easily understandable and not too abstract. Or just copying the way we do it! 4. ‘THE RESULT’ — THE DAY WAS SAVED + with ad copy + Product descriptions «+ Website copy + Copy for landing pages & sales emails — AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER + with 600 applications to the contest from extreme sports athletes around the world. + A massive increase in engagement actoss social channels. + Awhopping 14% increase in sales during the campaign. We broke this traditional section into two sections: we wanted to highlight the specific deliverables again in a clear way, then move on to specific results. 5. THE SAMPLES CHECK IT OUT Lastly, it's time to see the work itself in action. You can see here that we included 4 images in total. Make sure you pick the best parts of the project to display. IMPORTANT NOTE: see Marketing Yourself and Portfolio Masterclasses at the end of this course to learn more about creating your portfolio. And the Tone of Voice Materclass video 1 (Course 4 Interlude) to learn more about creating a unique tone of voice for yourself. PORTFOLIO TASK Now it's time to create the skeleton for your own portfolio. You can use an online tool or design it yourself - but do make sure it's appealing While you may not have any case studies or many samples of copy yet, you can already write your header and intro. And prepare the rest as a skeleton for when you have a bit more meat to go in there. When you're done make sure to save it to your 'marketing' folder, and of course, share with us on the Community. We're particularly excited about this task. Next up we have a quiz and we're also going to be wrapping up the course. So stay tuned!