Escapee Speaks: An Effective Portfolio Website Part 4 – The Testimonial

This article is part 4 of the series entitled 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website, which aims to encourage Illustrators to consider some crucial features when building or refining their portfolio websites. You can find the rest of the series here.

In previous parts of this series, we’ve focused on how to make the most of your website design, image gallery, and About page.  Now that you’ve impressed them with your work and told them about who you are, how do you prove that you’re not just fancy pictures and big talk?

The Testimonial

As you probably know, working as a professional Illustrator is more than just drawing pretty pictures.

Nurturing a project from concept to completion requires listening, understanding, collaborating, conceptualizing, revising, communicating, re-revising, and long hours of hard work.  A potential client needs some sort of sign that you’ve done this before.  After all, you’re asking them to pay for a service that they’ve never seen in action and a product that doesn’t yet exist.  A portfolio full of stunning work doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve created work for anyone besides yourself, and sometimes an Art Director needs a little more proof before they decide that you’re worth their valuable time.  As I mentioned in previous parts of this series, Art Directors look at a lot of portfolio websites everyday, and they need to have certain requirements met in their mind before taking things to the next level.

Two Forms of Proof

In order to instill confidence in your visitor that you’re the right person for the job, it can be extremely helpful to show them either a list of recent projects, client testimonials, or both.  I’m grouping these two forms of proof into one article because they are both good ways to show a record of successful projects that you have completed for other clients.

Record of Success

The easiest way to prove some level of experience is to include a list of recent projects or clients.  This shows that it’s not your first time around the block, and it’s also a good opportunity to brag about any well-known clients you may have worked for.  It might even be a good idea to briefly describe the types of projects, such as book cover, logo design, T-shirt design, etc.  If you’re just starting out with your Illustration career, it’s probably not a good idea to have a list of recent projects that is only two or three items long, unless of course you have worked with some big name clients.  This only has the opposite effect of highlighting your inexperience, so it’s better to wait until you’ve got something to talk about. Until then, you can focus on making the most of the other areas of your site.

Social Proof

An even more impressive form of validation is a list of client testimonials.  If multiple clients were pleased enough with your results to give positive testimonials, placing them on your site suggests that the next project will be equally successful.  The power of “social proof” can help you to gain the trust of many future clients.  You can say whatever you want about yourself, but having other people say it for you is much more effective because they have nothing to gain by recommending you.  Have you ever been convinced to buy a product or service online by reading the positive reviews left by other people?  You have no idea who those people are, but their words probably played a big part in nudging you past the tipping point.  You can use this same concept to add some clout to your own services, and unlike the list of recent projects, it only takes one or two testimonials to have a positive effect.

How Do You Ask for Testimonials?

I read too many articles and listen to too many podcasts on Illustration and Freelance Business to remember where I came across the following approach, but it’s a brilliant way to get testimonials without having to ask for them outright, which can be uncomfortable for both you and your clients.

After a project is completed, send an email to request feedback on your client’s experience of working with you, in order to help you to improve your services in the future.  Most satisfied clients will be happy to do this, especially after they’ve got the finished product in their hands.  If they’ve got some wonderful things to say in their response, simply ask if they wouldn’t mind if you quote them in a testimonial for your website.

It’s that easy.

The obvious benefit of this approach is that instead of putting them on the spot by asking for a recommendation, you are inviting them to share their true feelings.  By requesting it via email, you are giving them the time and space to consider their feedback, rather than interrogating them face to face in your final meeting.

I must admit that I’m late to the game on this one, but I’m finally beginning to compile a list of testimonials to post on my own site.

Now What?

There is no hard and fast rule regarding where to place your testimonials, or list of recent projects, on your portfolio website.  The most effective places are on their own page or included in your About page. The important thing is that you include them somewhere on your site, and that the potential client finds them without thinking to look.  Showing proof of a record of success can help to tip the scale in your favor and encourage an uncertain client to contact you instead of someone else.

Read Part 5 of the series – The Blog

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