10 Copywriting Portfolio Examples + How to Build the Perfect Copywriting Portfolio

Hello copywriter, how's it going?

I assume you're here because you're wondering how to create a copywriter portfolio that every potential client will become obsessed with.

And that's exactly what I'll try to help you achieve with this article.

The best way to become the best at anything is to look at what the current "bests" are up to. Therefore, I'll start this article with 10 best copywriting portfolios that really showcase what excellence looks like, in this domain. After that, I'll take you through a few quick tips for putting together an amazing portfolio page or portfolio website.

Last but definitely not least, I'll introduce you (quickly) to a tool that can help you put together your writing portfolio in literal minutes. Yes, minutes.

10 copywriting portfolios that demonstrate how to best showcase your writing samples to potential clients

Elizabeth Smith

Elizabeth Smith is a former college professor and wine club manager who has now taken to copywriting and award-winning journalism. She is a full-time copywriter at Naked Wines USA, an award-winning wine journalist, and a wine competition and writing judge.

In 2017, she won the Born Digital Wine Award for Best Tourism Content with a Focus on Wine for her story, “Lodi: Beyond the Zinfandel.”

She was also a category winner in the 2022 Hungarian Web Wine Writing Competition for "2018 Wetzer Furmint, Tokaj, Hungary." Additionally, Elizabeth is also a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International Sacramento and Sonoma chapters, the Circle of Wine Writers, and the International Food, Wine, and Travel Writers Association.

Maggie Kim

Maggie Kim is a writer, editor, copywriter, content, and brand strategist with over twenty years of experience in print, digital and social media. She has been a staff writer for national magazines and works with both established and startup companies to curate brand voice, refine storytelling, and optimize content strategy in the beauty, fashion, food, entertainment, health, and wellness space.

You can get a clear sense of Maggie's experience and expertise on her portfolio site.

Susan Fletcher

Susan Fletcher is a public historian, writer, and artist. She is passionate about sharing the unfolding story of Colorado, and the history of toys and play.

Susan is the author of "Exploring the History of Childhood and Play Through Fifty Historic Treasures," the co-author of "The Glen Eyrie Story," and the co-editor of "Dawson Trotman in His Own Words."

In addition to her academic scholarship, she writes about visual and performing arts in "Springs Magazine" and "The Colorado Collective." When she isn’t doing mental time travel, Susan enjoys photography, drawing, painting, and hiking.

Libby Plummer

Libby Plummer is a London-based journalist, editor, copywriter, and consultant.

She has been the UK Assistant Science and Technology Editor at MailOnline and has been published in Wired, Yahoo News UK, Mirror Online, Wareable, Metro, Total Film, Stuff, All About Space, and The Huffington Post UK.

Though she specializes in tech, science, and space, Libby also writes about film, photography, and lifestyle. She writes news, features, and reviews for a wide variety of publications.

Additionally, Libby provides freelance copywriting services for several contract publishers, ad firms, and agencies. She has written for Intel, Dolby, Twitter, Elsevier, and the Institute of Physics.

Hadji Williams

Hadji Williams is an award-winning copywriter with over $700 million in billing wins and retentions (according to his website). His approach to copywriting is both poetic and powerful, "If you can listen, you can sell. If you can write, you can sell a lot. So I started writing. Poetry. Rap. Songs. Stories... Then headlines. Then body copy... then taglines... and strategies... and brands... and scripts, events... "

Needless to say, his clients are illustrious entities. A few names he has worked with are Absolut, Aleve, Allied Domecq, Auxilio, Inc., AT+T, Bayer, Bailey’s Cream, Bank Of America, Cleveland Clinic, Charter Communications, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Dominick’s Finer Foods, Ford Motors, Gillette, Glaxo-Smith Kline, Kraft Finer Foods, and so many more.

Angela Black

Angela Black has had a varied career. She has written web copy for the Carbonmade website, and also created and edited marketing campaigns for the same brand.

She has worked for BIMM Direct & Digital on campaigns for Telus, Audi, and Shoppers Drug Mart. She has also written and managed online marketing campaigns for CBC, Chapters/Indigo, and SIRIUS Canada.

Angela is currently working on voice & tone guides, written hero copy to improve conversions, and edited design blog copy for publication. She is especially experienced in working together with developers and designers to achieve results.

Stephen Marsh

Stephen Marsh is a freelance copywriter based in the UK. His copywriter website may look too business-like, but his playful language softens the "cold corporate" vibe it could otherwise have stumbled into.

He works with practically all forms of digital copywriting — web copy, email copy, blogs, product copy, etc.

His clients are a diverse set — ad agencies, charities, small businesses, tech firms, and more. Some of them include In Kind Direct, Red Bull Sound Select, Vitabiotics, Rhino Stationery, and NICE.

Ashlyn Carter

Ashlyn Carter isn't just a copywriter; she is also a teacher of the craft itself. She has served 100+ clients and 8000+ students. She has appeared in profiles and features by Forbes, Southern Living, SELF, Style Me Pretty, and similar publications. She has also been on the Creative Live stage.

Her clients include Amy Porterfield, Jenna Kutcher, Katelyn James, and similar creative powerhouses. In fact, she has led and managed million-dollar launches as a conversion copywriter, and brand and launch strategist.

Her copywriting website is THE perfect example of how a true industry giant does it all.

Emily from EST Creative

Emily's portfolio shows that you don't need an online portfolio to look like it won several design awards. A solid professional design still goes a long way.

Having earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Emily swerved into marketing, advertising, and product writing. She started with content writing and strategy around 2005, her first client being the University of Wisconsin Health. She is especially good at writing delightful, SEO-friendly content and building websites.

In her decade-long career, Emily has emails, blog articles, white papers, sales sheets, website content, social media posts, press releases, pitch decks, video scripts, podcasts, and more. You name the media. I’ve probably done it.

Her clients span across a range of industries — education, healthcare, pharma, non-profit, insurance, technology, and more.

Ashley Hockney

Ashley Hockney runs Hockney Marketing — a micro agency aimed at helping startups meet their conversion goals by optimizing the customer funnel (instead of paying for ads). On her website, she says,

Forget pouring money into paid. Until you have a funnel that converts, nothing else works. We’ll analyze your customers, optimize your content (landing pages, emails, UX copy), and monitor results infinitely.

She has worked with Teachable, Zapier, and Codecademy before focusing on revenue as the Marketing Director at Buffer. She has also consulted with teams at Major League Hacking, Plaid, and Mixpanel.

Kayla from The Literary Co

Kayla from The Literary Co is a freelance copywriter, brand messaging strategist, and coach. She has an MA in English Lit and turned down a PhD program to take chances with a copywriting career. Her portfolio is a great example of using so-called "unemployable" skills (seriously, everyone I know, including myself, with an English degree is extremely well employed) to run a massive business in which she has served over 150 clients.

Her clients include Ava & the Bee, With Grace & Gold, Schematic Design Co., Family Time Capsules, The Wild Fleur Co., and more.

How to create a copywriting portfolio that will get your client's attention

I'm not going to go over pointers that you already know: add your name, contact page, bio, case studies, a testimonial or two, etc. The essential elements of a copywriter portfolio website are obvious, and easy to find online if you need some help.

In this section, I'll focus on certain best practices that truly make a "great copywriting portfolio"... one that clients look at, explore, and contact.

Showcase ALL or a majority of copywriting samples

Generally, copywriters are encouraged to include only their best copywriting examples in their portfolio. And that works... as long as you have a LOT of the "best."

Modern employers want someone who can churn out quality work consistently. You may create a Pulitzer-winning article once in three months, but that won't help run a business for your client. If you include all (or most) of your work, employers can see that you generate high-quality content consistently and are likelier to engage with you and your work.

Additionally, clients might be more interested in you if you show a series of pieces that chart your growth as a copywriter... which is the main job of a copywriter's portfolio.

Try to include all or most of your copywriting work on your copywriter's website. That's what it's for; it's in the name.

Create personalized portfolios when pitching to clients

What if you could send a personalized portfolio to every client/employer you're pitching to?

So, for example, you’re pitching to a new client who runs a very well-known beauty & fitness blog. They want someone to write about sustainable beauty products that are accessible and affordable for regular customers.

This is perfect for you because you've spent a lot of time writing about this exact niche. So you send them your portfolio comprising your life’s work — everything from beauty to AI to financial advice. Your prospective client will have to pick out and read the relevant article/web copy, i.e., ones related to sustainable beauty.

This is quite an annoyance, but that's how it usually goes, right? Sure. But what if you could send them a portfolio with ONLY writing on beauty? It would improve the chances of securing the gig because not only are you showing quality work, but also putting in effort to make it convenient for the client to hire you.

Whenever you can, consider sending personalized portfolios to possible employers and recruiters. It sets you apart at first sight.

Use fake clients

If you don't have a portfolio because you're just starting out, chances are that you probably don't have that many clients either. I hope you're not like me, though — I didn't put together a proper portfolio until 2021 because I was always in long-term work.

Or, maybe you want to change careers? You have a wealth of experience in law since you've been to law school and practiced for a year, but you've never done any copywriting.

So, if you don't have clients, where will you get work samples?

Try using a website like Fake Clients to create fake "client briefs." Basically, the site generates briefs similar to what actual clients would give you if you were writing for them.

Go to the site, select "writing" from the homepage dropdown, and the system will give you a brief, something like,

I am Anthony. I need a writer as soon as possible. I want to have a script for a scene which ends with a cliffhanger. Can you help us out?

Once you're done, you can feed your work into the system to get feedback. You can also use this work as a "sample" on your portfolio. Just be upfront with employers about the fact that you wrote this content based on machine-generated briefs.

Sites like these are super useful to build a copywriting portfolio for the first time, or when you have no or few clients.

Include as much variety as possible

Good copywriting portfolio websites showcase skills... and versatility. Every employer's dream is a multi-faceted candidate who is both Jack and Master of all trades.

So, if you have done different formats of copywriting, be sure to show that up when you create a portfolio. Even though a client might be looking for website copy, include ad copy, email copy, blogs, SEO writing, campaign writing, sales page, copy, and if possible, a case study page in your portfolio. Ensure that your portfolio features projects depicting you as someone who is good at many aspects of the profession in question.

In particular, if you've worked with content formats outside texts, such as writing video scripts or podcast intros, you should absolutely put them up, front and center. Including content in multiple formats, be it long-form content or otherwise, is the easiest way to stand out to prospective clients. Who doesn't want to hire an all-rounder?

Make your portfolio easy to navigate

If you want clients to look through your portfolio in some detail, and actually take the time to find relevant copywriting work that really speaks about your skills, then you must make it easy for them to do so. Additionally, don't forget that convenience makes a great first impression.

If you want people to do something, make it convenient for them. This is exactly How Google Got Its Employees to Eat Their Vegetables.

Leverage this behavioral pattern wired in the human brain when you sit down to build your portfolio. Choose a tool or website builder that allows you to create an intuitive, easy-to-search website copywriter portfolio. For example, all portfolios created with Authory come with an in-built search and filter functionality. Anyone visiting your copywriter portfolio can type in certain keywords into the search bar, and find relevant pieces.

They can also filter your work based on date, time, publication, and other parameters.

Ensure that your clients know your writing is AI-free

Look, I love AI tools like ChatGPT and BingAI. They are great for research, and with the right prompts, they substantially help with ideation and brainstorming. But since we cannot ever have nice things in this world, certain individuals have begun to use these tools to write actual content for publication.

… there is scope to use these tools for writing assistance. The ability to quickly develop cost-efficient draft articles is enticing, especially when AI tools can help you overcome writer's block and spark creative ideas.

However, be careful not to become overly reliant on such tools for content generation. Use it to source content suggestions, help paraphrasing short passages, check grammar and spelling, and support your research. **

— James Hare

Needless to say, clients are not happy. You will not find takers for "AI copy on a client's website." To filter out such writing, numerous publications and even product blog managers use AI detectors to ensure they are accepting human-written words.

Unfortunately, these hastily built AI detectors aren't always up to the mark. Sometimes, they are harbingers of absolute disasters. Have a look at how writer Michael Berben (not his real name), a freelancer for the past three years with bylines on 200 articles in his career, was FIRED for using AI writing... even though he did not.

It is a real possibility that the same may happen to you, fellow copywriter. Therefore, why not consider a tool that can establish, beyond doubt, that you do not use AI tools to generate your copy?

Once again, may I suggest Authory?

Authory is a portfolio-building tool that helps you build a professional, future-ready portfolio with a couple of clicks. It finds and collects copies of all your bylined work online. If you enter the URL of the site(s) where your work is published (with a byline), Authory will automatically import a copy of every existing piece, as well as any piece published (with the byline) in the future.

Once your Authory database is updated, it can use this content repository to prove that your content is, in fact, created by a human writer.

Authory’s big advantage is that it stores and maintains an archive of every customer’s content. Instead of looking at their writing in isolation, the AI-detection algorithm looks at the writer’s ENTIRE publication history. This allows it to recognize, internalize, and judge each writer’s personal writing style closely, almost without inaccuracy.

Can Authory help you create the ideal copywriting portfolio?

Yes. But I'd say that, wouldn't I?

So, let's talk about what you get when you sign up for a FREE Authory account:

Auto-updating portfolio

Given that you should, ideally, look to add ALL your content to your portfolio to showcase the breadth and depth of your work, an automatic portfolio builder like Authory is a blessing. There's no need to keep updating your portfolio because Authory will do that for you.

Collections

With collections, you can organize ALL your content into public and/or private sections to share with specific clients. In fact, you can build a collection for each gig application if you so choose!

Content backup

Websites go down, content gets re-bylined, and people constantly lose access to their work. With Authory, that'll never be an issue because it backs up all your content in their original formats — no measly screenshots here — so your work is safeguarded forever.

Sign up for your free trial

There's a lot, LOT more, but I can't write about all of it without bloating this article to an unreadable standard. Instead, why not try Authory's free 14-day trial? Build your portfolio in about 3 minutes, and see if it makes your professional life easier and more manageable.

(Or, get in touch if you have any questions. We love talking about portfolios and professions.)