For those of you who follow me on social media, you may have noticed that I’ve been working on an online portfolio for a while now. It’s been a real odyssey, and I’ve learned a lot in the process. Let me walk you through my process of creating an online portfolio for a marketing manager’s career.

The Journey So Far

If you’re reading this, I assume you’re either a) a marketing manager considering an online portfolio, or b) a marketing manager who has one and wants to share the process. If my hunch is right, you’re in the right place. Let’s dive in.

Taking A Step Back

Before we begin, let’s take a step back and examine why you want to create an online portfolio. What is your goal in creating this? Is it to showcase your existing work to attract potential employers? Is it to build a platform to publish future work? Is it to share your creative work with the world? These are all great uses for an online portfolio, but they require a different approach than the one we’ll take.

Get Inspired

If your goal is to attract potential employers, the first thing you need to do is find a way to show the world your talents. The most effective way to do this is by getting inspired. In my case, I wanted to create a platform to showcase my marketing knowledge and experience. To do this, I looked to my strengths and passions and found a way to weave these together into a story that would inspire others.

Make A Plan

Once you’ve found your inspiration, it’s time to craft your plan. Simply put, a plan is a roadmap for your project. It should contain everything from the objective of the project to the detailed steps necessary to reach that objective. For example, my plan for the Marketing Portfolio is as follows:

• To create an online platform to showcase my marketing knowledge and experience
• To do this, I’ll use Squarespace
• I’ll populate the platform with content including case studies, blog posts, and interviews
• To engage with the audience, I’ll use several platforms including Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram.

Choose A Name

After you’ve decided what your plan is, it’s time to choose a name for your project. If you go digital with a website, you’ll need a domain name. Otherwise, you can use a free platform like Squarespace or WordPress to create a named blog. Don’t worry — you can always change the name once your project is live. It’s a great way to add a little bit of personality to your project.

Find A Niche

Once you’ve picked a name for your project, it’s time to find a niche. This is a term used in marketing to describe the audience you’re targeting with your content. For example, if you’re creating a website to promote a luxury brand, you’ll want to target audiences who have a high disposable income and live in large cities.

Choose A Hosting Service

Now that you have a domain name and inspiration, it’s time to choose a hosting service. If you’re on a tight budget, consider using a free service like Bluehost or Google Cloud. Otherwise, you can choose a paid service such as WordPress or Squarespace. Remember — you can always upgrade your service anytime you like. If you decide WordPress is the best fit for your needs, you can sign up for a free account on WordPress.com.

Create Your Blog (Optional)

If you’re using WordPress, creating a blog is a piece of cake. Just log into your dashboard and you’ll see a green button labeled ‘New Post’ located at the top of the page. Click this button and you’ll see a form greeting you with your new post’s title and a few paragraphs of writing. With your new post created, it’s time to populate it with content.

Add Blog Content

Now that you have a blog, it’s time to add content to it. To create content, you can use any of the following:

• Case studies
• Blogs
• Infographics
• Interviews
• Articles

Don’t worry — you don’t need to be an expert in all of these areas to produce engaging content. You just need to find a way to make your content stand out. Start small and work your way up. In my case, I use a free blog platform like WordPress to create my blog posts. Then, I use a tool like HubSpot to curate my content and get my blog posts shared with the right audiences.

Get Inspired

Once you have content in your blog, it’s time to get inspired. You can visit your blog’s homepage and see your latest content. Alternatively, you can visit the archives and find older content you can rework and repurpose. Look for themes, words, and images that you can use to inspire your next blog post.

Plan Your Future Content

When you’re completely satisfied with your blog post, it’s time to plan your future content. This is where things can get a little bit tricky. You now have a rough draft of content that has the potential to become engaging material. But what about the future? What will you be writing about next?

If you follow me on social media, you may have seen the hashtag #portfoliobootcamp where I share weekly content planning topics and corresponding assignments. These topics range from SEO to copywriting and cover a variety of marketing disciplines. For example, last week’s topic was “Email Marketing: Why B2C Marketers Should Care.”

As you can see, my assignments for the week were to write an email marketing plan and pitch a brand ambassador program for a toy company. Needless to say, this was rather taxing. But it was also a great exercise. Looking back on the process, I can see how much it helped me break out of my comfort zone and develop new skills.

Publish Your Blog Post

Finally, it’s time to publish your blog post. Before you put your content out there, however, you need to take a few minutes to plan your post’s promotion. If you’ve followed me up until now, you may have noticed that I share a lot of tips and tricks for bloggers. As a marketing manager, you may be the one responsible for compiling and disseminating content within the organization. To do this, you’ll need to learn how to use several platforms and tools to share your content.

Use Digital Marketing Boards To Promote Your Blog

While social media is a valuable tool for marketing, offline marketing is just as important. As a digital marketer, you know that creating an engaging physical presence is an essential part of attracting and retaining customers.

To do this, visit your city’s directories and look up digital marketing agencies. Most firms will have specialist teams who can help you reach your targeted audience via mail, email, and social media. It’s important to find a company with extensive experience in marketing across all platforms.

Build Your Brand

Now that you have a blog, it’s time to build your brand. The term ‘brand’ has several meanings, but for our purposes, it simply means the overall identity of your product or service. To build your brand, first create a persona. This is a type of character that you’ll use to embody your brand. With a persona in place, you can craft the kind of voice you’ll use when talking about your brand. Finally, find your unique selling point (USP). This is the one quality that you have that sets you apart from others in your niche. Think of something that will make your product or service special. This is the quality that will make people want to learn more about you and consider you when making purchasing decisions.