Did you know that people decide if you are trustworthy, smart, and charismatic within seconds of meeting you? (Yes, before you even open your mouth!)
Fair or not, how you present yourself to the world matters. And it affects who you attract.
If how you appear seems incongruent with who you are it can send a mixed message that turns people away and makes them feel that you can’t be trusted.
Is your CV Portfolio sending the right message? Is it attracting your ideal clients?
Working online you don’t always have the chance to create an impression about who you are personally but your CV Portfolio can act as the representative of your work and who you are as a freelancer.
What if you could use your CV Portfolio to create an authentic picture that brings in clients who become fans because they know who you are and what to expect from you? You can.
Let’s have a look at how to put your best work forward to attract your ideal clients. You can create your CV Portfolio for free on ClearVoice.
The Talent Network
Before we dive into CV Portfolio tips, let’s get an understanding of how potential clients choose freelancers within the ClearVoice Talent Network.
Similar to the three tabs on the ClearVoice Talent Network main website page — in the ClearVoice platform, clients can search for and filter freelancers based on three main verticals:
Categories
Roles
Content Types
Categories are the topic or industry that you work in: for example, travel, beauty, or business. The role could be editor, copywriter, or ghostwriter. The content type could be white papers, social media posts, website content, and more.
It is important to have an understanding of how potential clients can search for you in order to optimize your CV. Now on to what to do…
3 CV Portfolio tips that’ll land you more gigs:
1. Start with a great bio and tagline.
To start, you are going to want to write your bio. I know it is not the most pleasant task. But don’t leave this post and forget the whole thing. It’s important.
Open that post in a new tab and have a look. And remember that even if you are talking about yourself, you need to make sure it is relevant and focuses on the benefits to your ideal client.
When putting in your personal information, also include a relevant tagline and your content types and content roles. Remember, these data points are important for potential clients to find you in the ClearVoice Talent Network. Think about who you want to work with and what they will be looking for in a freelancer. You could even include a call to action in your tagline or description.
Add your work-related social media profiles and headshot.
2. Add your best work.
When you create your CV and add your website and/or your social profiles, ClearVoice will automatically find work that you can include. This automatic generation is awesome, but let’s not stop there. To maximize your efforts we need to customize.
Think about the kind of work that you want to attract and add, take away, and organize accordingly. You do not have to include everything you have ever done.
As ClearVoice’s Head of Content Marketing, Justin McKinley, advises:
Your portfolio should not just be a resume or a dump-file with all the work you’ve done. It should be a representation of your best work and the value you have brought to clients.
Sometimes less is more. Focus on your best work and the work that will attract ideal clients for where you want to be now. But try to have at least six quality pieces to start. The key is to be strategic.
It does not have to be paid work. If you are just getting started, you can include your practice samples or even create content targeted to your ideal client. You can link your online work, but you can also upload documents, PDFs, magazine articles, and more if you have those samples.
Simply click the green button in the bottom right corner that says “Add Content” and choose between pasting a URL or uploading your content.
When you copy and paste your URL or upload your content, a box will appear allowing you to add more info. Don’t skip this step. It’s a game of both show and tell. You need to add all the details to increase your chances of getting found.
If you have a personal blog, you can include that too by creating a section for it, more on sections later, and linking those posts.
When filling out the category and description, think about what your ideal client will be searching for when looking for a writer or editor in their industry. Meet that with how your piece of content is relevant. You could even do some keyword research.
If you do not like the image that comes up for your work, you can customize that too.
3. Organize your work with sections.
If you work in more than one role or topic, sections are a great feature to optimize your CV. You can categorize your work by industry, content type, or even publication.
This organizational bonus helps potential clients quickly find the section of your work that is relevant to them, making it more likely for them to hire you. For my CV Portfolio, I have sections for topics that I write for, like social media and technology. But I have also separated some of my work by publications like Forbes, Foundr Magazine, and ClearVoice as I know some clients are just interested in what I have written for certain brands.
You can decide how to make sections most beneficial to you, but again think about how your ideal client would be searching.
You can move sections up or down as needed to feature your most recent or most important work at the top.
Bonus: landing more jobs with your CV
Now, ClearVoice has added a new vetted leads feature to your CV Portfolio page. Another reason why filling out your portfolio thoroughly, accurately, and with top keywords is so important. Review your portfolio and make sure your best work is presented and that your description and tagline are in line with what you currently do.
Keep your CV current. When you have fresh work, be sure to add it.
Check for errors. Are there any links that no longer work? I once had a link that no longer went to my content. The brand I had worked for rerouted that particular URL to someone else’s work. So review from time to time.
Share everywhere you can. Once your CV Portfolio is all set up, make sure you get your custom URL. Add that URL to your email signature, social media accounts, website and more. You could even have your URL printed on your business cards to share at networking events and conferences.
Do these steps take time and work? Yes, but the CV Portfolio is super easy to use, free and can help you replace those not-so-ideal clients with your dream clients. Take the time to work on yours now and know that you have a great online space to introduce yourself with the right message and impression. Awkward online introductions no more.Sometimes less is more. Set up your ClearVoice CV Portfolio to focus on your best work and the work that will attract ideal clients for where you want to be now. #freelancing #writing Click To Tweet
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