Your copywriter portfolio has to convey your expertise, wit, work experience, and dependability in one go. This isn't an easy task; setting up such a portfolio often requires some help.
Whether you are a freelance copywriter or running a copywriting service with employees, potential clients expect to be convinced of your excellence within a few minutes of exploring your portfolio. Therefore, not only do you have to show your best copywriting, but you must do so in a way that catches the eye and conveys the depth of your writing skills.
In this article, I'll (hopefully) help you create a portfolio that does all of the above and requires minimal time and effort to put together. I'll be doing so via a tool called Authory that does most of the actual portfolio building automatically. All you do is paste some URLs and move around some content.
More on that in a bit. First, let's talk about what goes into the "best copywriting portfolio."
• How do you create an incredible copywriting portfolio? You start with knowing about the elements of such a portfolio — a great bio, writing samples, a tagline to describe yourself, your contact info, etc.
• Next, you find a portfolio-building template that is easy to set up, navigate, responsive, customizable, and utilize. Ideally, you should be able to set up your entire portfolio in minutes.
• Authory lets you do exactly that. Sign up for a free account, take the 14-day trial, and follow the tutorial in this article. You should be able to add your web copy in a couple of clicks.
• But don’t forget to look at the copywriter portfolio examples in this article. They have been created and are maintained by veteran professionals in their fields, so they are the benchmark.
• Last but not least, how about a quick look-through of Authory’s feature before closing off the article? It imports your content from the internet, saves it forever, proves that you do not use AI to write, provides analytics data for your content, and so much more.
Elements of a great copywriter portfolio
A Bio that shows off the best of you: Your homepage has only a few minutes to make a good first impression, and your bio is the first thing that prospective employers will see. Give potential clients a true picture of your work experience, educational background, and accomplishments in this section.
If the portfolio builder allows you to do so, start with a tagline under your name so that people know what your core skills are at a single glance. For example, on my portfolio, the tagline at the top of the page goes:
Freelance writer & editor for B2B & B2C SaaS across tech & non-tech domains - BrowserStack | Authory | Sprinklr | TestRail by Gurock & more
Writing samples to showcase your skills: This is the meat of the matter. Taking center stage in your portfolio, these are examples of published work authored by you (long-form articles, website copy, email copy, etc.) for past or existing clients.
You can create a separate page for your samples, or you can use Authory to place everything in a single page, sleek online portfolio that does not require clients to click around too much.
If you're worried about having to copy/paste or upload too many work samples (because it is best to have as many samples as possible), Authory can actually automatically import your content from any URL you specify.
- Your contact information: This part is self-explanatory but must be mentioned. You could have a separate contact page or just place your contact information right underneath your bio on your portfolio page. Don't forget to add your public social media accounts, especially your LinkedIn.
Features of the ideal portfolio template
- Easy to set up: The best portfolio templates let you put together an industry-best portfolio that clients will love within minutes.
For example, if you sign up for a free Authory account and take the 14-day trial, you'll be able to see that it is possible to import all your published content (with bylines) by simply pasting the URL of the website carrying said content.
In other words, if you want to import and showcase your bylined articles on The New York Times, you simply have to paste the NYT website URL into Authory. The tool will do the rest, and you'll have all your bylined articles at your fingertips within Authory's database. - Easy to navigate: Ideally, your portfolio should be searchable and carry filters. Again, Authory portfolios offer both — clients can search for specific terms or keywords and can also filter content by date, type, and source (their original publication URL).
- Responsive and visually appealing: While a copywriting portfolio doesn't have to feature award-winning visual templates, it does need to look good. No one wants to browse through bland or visually busy portfolio websites
- Multiple options for customization: You should be able to have a reasonable amount of control over the site when you create a copywriting portfolio. The portfolio maker should offer multiple layout options for most elements on your portfolio website, at the very least. You should also be able to change text alignment, how your work will appear (list format, icons, thumbnails, etc.), and more.
How to create the best copywriting portfolio in minutes
Step 1: Sign Up for Authory (for free)
- Create an account on Authory for free using this signup link.
Step 2: Add your content
- Click on "Add collection" on your dashboard. Then click "Create New."
- Name your collection. I'm calling it "Web Copy." The collection will be automatically added to your portfolio.
- Click "Add Content."
- Click "Import or upload new content."
- Choose "Websites & Emails" since you are importing web copy.
- Click "Website."
- Copy and paste the URL of the site where your web copy exists. For this tutorial, I am using https://authory.com/ as an example. None of the web copy on this page is authored by me. You can also take screenshots yourself and upload them at this stage. Click "Continue."
- Add a Title and description to your imported web copy. Don't forget to add a new "source" — the site on which the copy is originally published. I'll name the source "Authory." Click "Continue."
- And that's it. Your web copy sample will instantly appear on your portfolio, ready to be viewed by potential recruiters and employers.
Copywriting portfolio examples
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. 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).
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.
Rebecca Parsley
Rebecca Parsley is a writer, editor, proofreader, blogger, media coach, and journalist.
On her LinkedIn, she calls herself:
… an experienced content writer & editor who keeps a foot in the journalism camp. My goal is to help businesses communicate more effectively - both externally and internally.
Her clients include Global Fortune 500 paint and coatings giant AkzoNobel, Vodafone, AXA, Costa, and Sainsbury's.
She specializes in helping international businesses develop relationships with English-speaking countries through written communications — web copy to blogs, brochures, company reports, or internal newsletters. Rebecca also offers one-to-one coaching, in-house training, and online training in the same domain.
Why use Authory to create a copywriting portfolio?
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!
Assurance that your writing is AI-free
Authory offers, by default, a Human Writer Certificate. The tool stores and maintains an archive of every customer’s content. Instead of looking at their writing in isolation, Authory’s 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.
By doing so, this portfolio builder can also definitively state that you do not use any AI tools or editors to generate content. If you're curious about knowing more, check out the video below.
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 let's take it from there.
