How to Build Your Portfolio as a Digital Marketer
Reading Time: ~5 Mins | By: Marissa Mok & Raelyn Pearson
Your portfolio shows your connections and employers what you have to offer as a Digital Marketer. First impressions are vital. An opinion is formed within a matter of seconds; therefore, putting your best foot forward with a strong portfolio is key to landing your dream job. There are various platforms you can use to build your portfolio, such as LinkedIn or a personal website. Let’s dive into what skills and knowledge you should include in your portfolio when you set up a LinkedIn profile.
Profile Photo, Headline and Summary
The first thing people see on LinkedIn is your profile picture and headline. As it’s the first glimpse people will get of you, make sure it represents you well. Ensure your profile picture is a professional headshot that isn’t more than a few years old, and keep your headline up to date with your current job title or profession and place of employment.
Your summary should be short and sweet, providing a quick overview of who you are professionally. You can include descriptions of your experience in the digital marketing industry, your specialization, or your relevant educational background. Ensure it’s unique to you and reflects who you are as a digital marketing professional.
Work Experience
List your most recent and relevant work experience including details about projects, duties, skills and any significant outcomes. Be detailed in your descriptions to emphasize your accomplishments. For example, you could have managed the social media accounts for a small business and increased engagement by 27% over 30 days. If you don’t have a lot of relevant work experience in digital marketing, you can place more emphasis on your skills and education.
Education
On your profile, include your educational background, whether it’s a college degree or a certificate from a bootcamp. In digital marketing, it’s crucial that you stay up to date with the latest knowledge and skills required by employers. Therefore, you can continue to learn and strengthen your portfolio by taking micro-credentials and certifications throughout your career.
Skills, Licenses and Certifications
List your relevant digital marketing skills such as social media marketing, content creation, SEO, data analytics, digital ads management etc. Add any supporting certifications or micro-credentials that show that you have obtained these skills. Moreover, don’t forget to list your soft skills! These are important to any job in any industry. Some valuable soft skills include communication, time management and critical thinking.
LinkedIn Recommendations
Another powerful feature on your LinkedIn profile is the Recommendations section. You can request a recommendation from LinkedIn connections you have worked with or currently work with. This goes the same way for peers with whom you may have gone to school. Your connections can also write you a recommendation, and you will be notified via a message to review and accept the recommendation. Peer reviews are a great way to showcase your skills and who you are as a team member, whether in an academic or job environment. This gives potential employers a more personal look into your past experience and how you operate on a peer/colleague level.
Resumé
Lastly, make sure to update your resumé with your most recent work experience, education, certifications and skills. Your resumé and LinkedIn profile should mirror each other, highlighting the same strengths and skills that you have to offer to an employer. You can use resumé templates from Canva, Google, Microsoft Office or other platforms to easily build and structure your resumé. Keep it succinct and brief by removing jobs that are irrelevant to the position you are applying for. If you’re applying for a broad range of jobs, you may wish to update your resumé each time you submit your application, tailoring your resumé to perfectly suit each position.
Cover Letter
A cover letter is an opportunity to showcase who you are and how your personality will fit with the company you are applying for. Think of the cover letter as a summary of your most relevant skills and experience on your resumé. With a cover letter, you want to highlight why you’re right for the particular job you’re applying for and how your experience pertains to the position. For every position you apply for, you should tailor your cover letter. A tip for tailoring is to review the job description and pull out keywords to sprinkle throughout your letter. If there are any specific duties or responsibilities of the role, speak to that in your cover letter. The more customized you make it, the more likely the hiring manager will want to learn more about you.
Instead of addressing the letter “To Whom It May Concern,” or as “Dear Hiring Manager,” try to find out the hiring manager's name. You can do this by looking at the job posting or the company website or by finding the company on LinkedIn and searching through the employees. In the event you can’t find their name, you could opt to use “Dear XYZ Team Manager.” Personalization in your cover letter will make all of the difference!
Website
To boost your online presence even further, you can build your own portfolio website using a no-code required website platform builder like Wix, Squarespace or WordPress. Moreover, if you have visual projects that you would like to share, such as graphics you designed or a video you filmed, this is a great place to showcase them. Make sure to highlight key successes or KPIs from campaigns you ran in a previous role. This could look like visual data, before and after comparisons or small written excerpts of the results you garnered from a specific project. If you have yet to work on any digital marketing projects in a formal setting, share examples from your schooling or freelance work.
With your LinkedIn profile, resumé, cover letter, and website up and running, you’re all set! Now you can start searching for and applying to your dream job.
