When it comes to an industry as creative as marketing and design, an impressive digital portfolio can be that extra boost that makes an application stand out (assuming you have the right work experience first of course). Especially for those trying to enter the marketing profession for the first time, a portfolio will showcase that you not only have learned how to do different aspects of marketing, but it also shows your work product cababilities.
Creating that stunning digital portfolio can seem impossible. Where do you start? There are countless websites that claim to have high level tools to aid you in your creative process. While many of them do, there are a few that truly work wonders in creating portfolios for marketers and designers alike.
Below we will show 7 of the best portfolio websites available so you can jump right in and make a stellar digital marketing portfolio if you want that extra bump for your application!
1. Adobe Portfolio
Adobe Portfolio lets you make a single-page website or a full-fledged showcase of your work. You can create a sleek and personalized portfolio in minutes with Adobe Portfolio, and all of the platform’s themes are automatically optimized for any device.
The platform also includes a free Creative Cloud membership as part of the bundle, as well as the option to link with Behance to import your creations for additional exposure.
Pricing: Part of Creative Cloud Bundle
Skill Level: Basic to Intermediate
Why We Love It: Adobe Portfolio allows you to get started at virtually any level and has the flexibility to integrate with a larger platform like Behance to further develop the visibility of your creations
2. Behance
What makes Bēhance so powerful is its functionality in growing the audience of its creators. Bēhance acts as somewhat of a social media platform for portfolios. Projects get views and impressions through a data point called “appreciations.”
One aspect of Bēhance to note is that it is a very visual platform. If your content involves more of a literary or analytic theme, look to other platforms for service. Bēhance is perfect for designers, illustrators, and creative marketers.
Pricing: Free
Skill Level: Basic
Why We Love It: Bēhance is THE platform to get your content out as a portfolio creator. Whether you are looking for the attention of digital marketing hiring managers, or that of agencies, Bēhance is a great way for new marketers to show off their skills.
3. Squarespace
Over time, Squarespace has become the leading name in online design due to its simple and intuitive interface for creatives. Anyone with basic technological abilities should be able to come up with a portfolio that showcases their creative and digital prowess.
One piece of Squarespace that truly distinguishes the platform is its abundance of templates to choose from. There are various categories to choose from and many industries are represented in the template options. Note though, just like Adobe and Bēhance, Squarespace prides itself on its visual capabilities.
Pricing: $12 to $40 per month (50% off for students)
Skill Level: Basic
Why We Love It: Squarespace gives you everything you need to create a strong portfolio to show marketing and design managers. There are templates for every industry.
4. WordPress
WordPress, a popular content management system, allows you to start a blog for free. This one is great for literary or analytic portfolios. While WordPress isn’t especially designed for freelance writers, it does have a number of outstanding responsive themes that may help you create a distinctive site and display your work.
Additionally, if you want to display your writing alongside other abilities — for example, if you want a page for writing and another for your creative ad imagery — WordPress offers a choice of themes and is versatile enough to allow you to demonstrate multiple kinds of creative work.
Pricing: Depends on the Web Page template chosen
Skill Level: Basic to Advanced
Why We Love It: WordPress is a prime name when it comes to literary portfolio creation. Blogs have been created on WordPress for years, and new ones come out daily. WordPress also has comprehensive templates for new bloggers to get their start!
5. Wix
Wix is known to be one of the best free options when it comes to portfolio creation. Wix uses a sort of drag and drop tool that makes it infinitely more simple to produce what the marketer wants.
The platform is also known to be very flexible in its functionality. Wix also ensures to allow as much usability as possible without requiring any coding knowledge.
Pricing: Free
Skill Level: Basic to Intermediate
Why We Love It: Whether you are looking for a very simple choice or a more techy and professional outlet, Wix gives you the flexibility you want when starting out.
6. Flickr
Flickr is another well-known portfolio site, with billions of images and millions of users. It’s a great place to display your own work, interact with other designers, and get ideas for future projects.
Flickr’s community-oriented platform can however make it tough to show off your finest work since the site is heavily used to exchange photos with friends and family. As a result, several designers recommend building a more professional portfolio website and connecting to it from Flickr.
Pricing: Free with possible upgrade
Skill Level: Intermediate
Why We Love It: Flickr has created a large community of creatives that are open to feedback, portfolio engagement, and images from other users. Flickr is also great for ideas and collaboration on projects.
7. Format
Format is a website builder with many themes to choose from for any type of creative. Though focused on photographers, the platform is really meant for any designer or even marketer looking to showcase his or her work. The templates help create a certain ambiance for each webpage that many of the other platforms do not offer.
Format is also integratable with other creative tools such as Lightroom so your work can move from the design phase to the marketing phase with ease! There are many ways for any professional to make use of Format in their day to day creative work.
Pricing: $7.00 per feature per month (with other increases)
Skill Level: Intermediate
Why We Love It: Format is great mainly due to its integration with other tools. This ease of content travel allows for a one-stop-shop feel that is very hard to find otherwise. On top of that, the unique templates on the platform make it a must see.
Bonus: Pixpa
Pixpa is an all-in-one, DIY website builder platform that helps photographers, creative professionals and business owners build beautiful, professional websites without touching a single line of code.
Pixpa is perfect for online portfolio websites, including marketing portfolios. The platform offers a range of pixel-perfect, mobile-friendly and responsive templates which can be fully customized as per your needs. With multiple gallery options, blogging tools, e-commerce features and a full-featured SEO and marketing toolkit, Pixpa can help you showcase, share, sell and promote your work online seamlessly and without hassle. A stand out feature is the 24×7 customer support with an average response time of under 3 minutes! So, if you want a comprehensive, affordable and reliable website builder for your marketing portfolio website, then Pixpa is the clear frontrunner.
Pricing: Starting at $3/month to $16/month
Skill Level: Basic
Why We Love It: Pixpa brings together accessibility, affordability and ease of use to create a complete and professional platform to help you manage your online presence all in one place.
There you have it. If you’re looking to create a digital marketing portfolio, I suggest using one of these sites to help you build it. A digital marketing portfolio is by no means a requirement to have when trying to get your first full-time marketing job. It’s just something that some entry-level applicants like to add as a cherry on top. What matters much more to hiring managers is that you have the right work experience on your resume that hiring managers want and that you’re able to pitch strong marketing strategies in your interviews. If you’d like any help launching your marketing career, check out JobPrepped as we’ve helped 3,000+ people get marketing jobs and 94.3% of JobPrepped students get marketing interviews or job offers within 3 weeks.
Good luck out there!
By Guest Writer,
Aditya A.