Having a portfolio website for consultants is necessary to show key prospects your capabilities and the great work you can do for them.
Some people choose to avoid creating one, but having a way to showcase your work as a consultant can help you secure more clients and easily show others what you can do. Although you may wonder what the best portfolio websites for consultants are, you should start with the basics.
What is a Portfolio Website?
A portfolio website is an easy way to showcase your work in one place for clients to see. Unlike a resume or traditional portfolio, this medium will allow you to inject your personality into your portfolio.
How Do You Build a Portfolio Website?
Building this site is made less complicated with the variety of tools and user-friendly website builders on the market.
What Does a Portfolio Website Include?
Your portfolio website will include the best samples of your work, including current projects, to show that you are still working in your industry. It should be built with a specific audience, precisely the types of individuals or companies you want to work with in the future. It is also an excellent way to grow your brand and business, creating a name or brand recognition for yourself.
In this article, you will also learn the following:
- Why you need a portfolio website.
- The benefits of having a portfolio website.
- The differences between a regular website, a blog, and a portfolio website.
- How to build yours, including picking the right website builder, why people love using OneMob, and how to add some personality to your website.
Why Portfolio Websites for Consultants are Necessary?
Understanding the best portfolio websites for consultants includes why a consultant should have a portfolio website. There are many valid reasons why every consultant should prioritize creating this type of website, promoting it, and keeping it up to date.
A Portfolio is an Extension of your Resume
A resume or CV is a concise document that lists work experience and skills, but it cannot demonstrate fully what a consultant is capable of. A portfolio not only lists past jobs, accomplishments, and awards, but it can showcase what those work experiences entailed. This allows potential clients to see your work, access your skills, and determine if you are a good fit for the role they offer.
A Put-Together Portfolio Can Make A Consultant Stand Out
There are many different aspects of being a consultant. However, one that needs to be discussed more is the ability to market yourself. A portfolio website will make this job much easier. With your accomplishments, skill sets, and concrete examples of your work in one place, potential clients can see what you can do. These websites can also show consultants as people with personalities that others gravitate towards – making them stand out.
Portfolios Can Build Credibility
The internet is a useful place where people can connect and learn. However, not everyone is honest. Most companies (potential clients) have had at least one bad experience with an employee or a consultant not living up to their promises. A portfolio can help you build credibility by showing who you are, what skills you say you have, and the work to prove it.
How OneMob is Ideal for Consulting Portfolios
When discussing the best portfolio websites for consultants, the conversation would only be complete with discussing OneMob. OneMob is a marketing and video sales platform that helps marketers and consultants to add a personal touch to their videos and other marketing content.
OneMob allows users to record videos from any device and edit them within the software. They even have a teleprompter function you can use, so memorization is not needed! This service allows users to create videos, send out emails, and create landing pages to connect with leads and prospects.
This service allows people to have the best of both worlds – text, and video. This is important as 59% of executives believe that when text and video are both available, most consumers are more likely to watch the video.
With video marketing and OneMob, you can create micro-video sites to help raise conversions and keep people on your website longer. One of the ways search engines judge a website is how long each visitor spends on the website. Adding more videos improves the website’s SEO because the page has a higher quality score with more dynamic content, and people stay on the page longer to watch videos.
Video marketing can boost website owners’ SEO, which can raise their rankings, which equals more eyeballs on their pages. If you are not already using video marketing, now is the time to start.
The Benefits of Using OneMob as a Portfolio “Microsite”
When trying to figure out the best portfolio websites for consultants, the cost of each product and service is a big deal to many people. With all the different website builders and web services on the market, it is easy for costs to add up fast.
The initial benefit for most users of OneMob is that they can sign up for a free plan, allowing them to try the service without spending any money or having a specific commitment to this service. OneMob has three plans:
- Forever Free – Cost $0
- Pro – Cost $30.00 a month paid monthly, $25.00 a month paid annually
- Enterprise – Cost – Contact the sales team for pricing.
Everyone can start with the free plan, which includes the ability to record and edit videos, create a landing page, generate video sales email campaigns, upload in multiple content formats and upload up to 1000 items. If you upgrade to Pro, you can remove OneMob branding and access more analytics, and your uploads will be unlimited. Enterprise includes integrating CRM, having teams, creating subdomains, and having an account manager.
OneMob gives consultants the ability to use the virtual world to build relationships. Of course, there are many other benefits. OneMob can be integrated with Zoom, Gmail, and Office 365, and videos can be watermarked. You can also use animated thumbnails and video trimming and take advantage of their new powerful and fast webcam recorder.
What are the Benefits of Consultants Showing Their Work?
Having an online portfolio can close the gaps that a traditional resume or other forms of promotion do not cover. There are many questions related to the best portfolio websites for consultants, and one of those questions is why.
Why should a consultant have an online portfolio? What benefits can only be found with this new website?
Create an online portfolio to highlight your best work. You can showcase some or all of your work with a portfolio. However, if you have a few pieces you are particularly proud of, you can use this portfolio to put those front and center.
This can also allow you to showcase your skills or show the type of work you have done, which can lead to the most profitable jobs or projects you would be most interested in working on.
An online portfolio can also serve as a beacon to clients by increasing your online presence. The more you get out there, the more people will see you. This includes other things you may already do, such as having a presence on job boards, LinkedIn, industry websites and message boards, and social media.
However, a portfolio is a highly professional way to showcase your work and introduce you and your talents to more people.
A portfolio gives you more control. By creating a portfolio, you will have control over your website in many ways. This includes what pages you want to be indexed, what content you post, which content you highlight, and how you communicate with people through this Medium.
You will also be able to add or delete pages as your skills increase or your professional interests change.
How Digital Portfolios Differ from Blog Websites?
When deciding which of the best portfolio websites for consultants you want to use, you might think of traditional websites and blogs. However, it is essential to note that there are differences between websites, blogs, and portfolios, which can change the products and services you choose to use for this project.
A website is a generic term for anything on the internet with a URL. A website could include a portfolio or a blog, but it could also be a social media site or an e-commerce site.
A blog is a specific type of website. This site is content-based, often entertaining, educating, or sharing something with a broader audience. A blog is one of the most common websites on the internet. It seems like everyone has one.
A digital portfolio is different.
Where a blog is usually informal and meant to inform and educate, a portfolio’s primary goal is to promote an individual or company formally and professionally. There are many other differences besides the intent.
For instance, blogs typically allow readers to comment and sometimes add user-written content outside blog posts. They are also usually updated frequently, and people can subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed to stay up to date. Portfolios are the opposite.
As a professional website, comments are not open; they are more static than a blog, and RSS feeds do not exist on portfolios.
How to Craft an Excellent Portfolio Website
When designing your portfolio website, you will first want to decide the goal or purpose of this website. Are you looking to find clients in a specific sector, or do you want to showcase everything you can do?
Once you have a goal, you must determine the best portfolio websites for consultants and choose the provider that best fits your needs. You will need to choose between free and paid coding, a website builder, or a microsite like OneMob.
Once you make the basic decisions, it will be time to start building your website. Here are some steps you will need to take:
- Design your website through brainstorming first. Before making any pages, you should have an idea of what you want it to look like.
- Build basic pages such as about me, privacy policy, and your homepage.
- Showcase your best work.
- Have a way for potential clients to contact you.
- Sell your services (which includes selling you). Why are you the right consultant? What makes you stand taller than the rest?
- Consider creating a logo or working towards turning yourself into a brand.
Portfolio websites allow people to showcase all their work to clients in a clean, crisp portfolio. Clients can see skills, work samples, and the website owner’s personality quickly and efficiently. Keep this in mind as your final goal when designing your portfolio website.
How to Make Your Portfolio Website Convert Better
When creating your portfolio, it is essential to balance all aspects of the website. A good portfolio website will include a landing page and videos showcasing your work and your personality characteristics.
When looking for the best portfolio websites for consultants, how will you have all these elements and make them work together seamlessly?
Start with your landing page. A landing page is a page that is designed for one specific purpose. It has a single CTA (call-to-action). For a portfolio website, this might be to contact you to offer a contract position. It will also have a main headline, a hero image, a well-written copy, and a lead form.
There is no navigation on this page; as you want everyone to read it, stay on it and follow the CTA.
Your portfolio website should also include videos. Videos are a great way to introduce yourself, build relationships, and show your personality.
While doing all those things in the background, you will also create memorable and positive first impressions, showcase your work, and show your passion and commitment to your projects.
Both of these aspects of your portfolio are critical for your success. Landing pages can garner a lot of leads and potential clients based on what you are trying to sell.
However, videos can entice people with your personality and ability to be authentic and genuine. Videos can also be used outside of your website for video emails and other types of marketing.
How to Pick the Right Portfolio Website Builder
Now that you are ready to start your portfolio, it is time to learn about the best portfolio websites for consultants.
There are many questions to consider, including your budget and what you are comfortable spending. Different website providers and builders charge different amounts (typically $5.00 – 40.00 per month), and there are a few free website options.
Of course, there may be considerations outside of cost. Some of these factors may include the following:
- Customer support
- Ease of use
- Features available
- Design
- Data Ownership
- Portability of your website
Your decision may also be based on your familiarity with a specific website builder or your technical IQ. For instance, if you have ever had a website or a blog before, chances are that you are already familiar with and comfortable working with WordPress.
WordPress has free and paid options, and it also integrates with tons of apps and designs. However, suppose you are not technically savvy. There is a steep learning curve with designing your website and running it from the backend.
Wix is one of the newer options on the market for people who do not want to deal with the backend. Wix is a fully hosted platform, so you will not have to pay for hosting as it is already included.
It is also built as an intuitive and drag-and-drop site builder so that anyone can make a website with this provider. However, if you use Wix, you will also have to see Wix ads on your website, which may be viewed as unprofessional.
If you prefer a choice between WordPress and Wix, you might like HostGator. Like Wix, it is an online website builder with a gully hosted platform.
The pricing is affordable, but there is no free plan to try out before committing.
Final Thoughts on Portfolio Websites
There are many choices when looking for the best portfolio websites for consultants. However, before you make any decisions, it is a good idea to sign up for the free version of OneMob.
The free version will allow you to make videos, create video marketing email campaigns and create a landing page. This is a great way to start a portfolio website without making financial commitments.
Even if you decide not to try OneMob, you should consider starting a portfolio website soon. Portfolio websites will allow you to highlight your best work while boosting your online presence. Portfolios can also help consultants build credibility, and portfolios are scalable from a one-page website to as many pages as the owner needs.
A scalable website can also help someone showcase multiple talents or varying interests. There are many reasons that portfolios can work for different consultants.
Take the time to think about how a portfolio will work best for you today. At the point you are in your consultant career—brainstorm on how to make it to the best portfolio for your right now and start building.
Remember that as your career or interests change, you can always change and alter your portfolio to match your career trajectory.
