Have you got a online tradesperson portfolio?
Keeping an online tradesperson portfolio of your work can be vital in helping you reach more customers
As a tradesperson, having an online presence helps you ensure many potential customers are seeing and liking examples of your work.
Whether you have your own website, a Google My Business account, or just use social media, having images of your work visible online is immensely valuable to you.
Chances are you wouldn’t use a subcontractor on merit of word of mouth alone. You might want to see what other work they’ve done. So it follows that your customers likely won’t hire a tradesperson solely based on such either.
Providing your customer with evidence of your workmanship will help persuade them to choose you as their tradesperson.
However, if your portfolio is poorly presented – think bad camera angles, underexposed pictures or blurry shots – this may be to your detriment.
As a tradesperson, your online presence provides a professional face to your business. If your virtual portfolio is badly designed, it may drag down a customer’s idea of your professionalism.
So how do you design an online tradesman portfolio that will draw in your customers?
- Showcase a broad range of examples of your work
- Include images of you working on projects
- Make sure any images you include are professional examples
- Ensure your portfolio is well organised
- Keep your portfolio current!
1) Showcase a broad range of examples of your work:
Sometimes customers know what they’re looking for. Sometimes they don’t. Often, they want to know whoever they’re hiring has a range of experience.
This means that as a tradesperson, your portfolio shouldn’t just showcase your most creative work (though these should be the headline pieces). Your portfolio should also feature your smaller projects, showing your potential customer that you can tackle all jobs.
2) Include images of you working on projects
If you’re a self employed tradesperson, you are your own brand. Giving your customers an idea of who you are and your passion for your work gives a good personal touch to your portfolio, immediately making you more accessible.
Similarly if you’re employed as part of a larger company, customers like to see friendly faces that they can match up with your branding – especially if these are people they’re going to be letting into their homes.
3) Make sure any images you include are professional examples
You don’t necessarily need a professional to take pictures of your work for you, but you do need to make sure that any you’re taking yourself are proficient images.
Unless you have a smartphone with a good camera, aim to take pictures on a DSLR. If possible, use a tripod to reduce blur – it’s important that your customer knows what they’re looking at when they see your portfolio!
As well as reducing blur, make sure your images are well lit. Anything too dark, or underexposed should not be included in your portfolio.
Take your pictures from a distance and angle that displays the work well. If you’re taking close-ups of joinery for instance, ensure you include pictures taken at a greater distance, to provide context for the work.
You could consider using a professional who knows what they’re doing if you’re struggling to take good photos, or you want to step your portfolio up a notch. Use a photographer who specialises in construction and trade, such as Sarah Toon for best results.
4) Ensure your portfolio is well organised
If you’re hosting your portfolio on your website, try to make sure it’s search engine optimised.
Name the individual photo files with what they are examples of. If your customer is going to be searching for ‘wooden garden decking’, name the photos ‘wooden garden decking’.
When it comes to your website, aim to have different pages for the different services you provide. Upload the examples of your work to the relevant pages. This is also a beneficial thing to do if you are considering using Google Ads to drive traffic to your website.
If you’re using Facebook, organise your photos into albums.
On all mediums, make sure your portfolio is well explained. Your online portfolio is only beneficial to your business if your customers understand what they’re looking at.
5) Ensure your portfolio is up to date
We may have liberally sprinkled the word professionalism throughout this article… but we’re going to use it again. An up to date portfolio is far more professional than one your customer can see hasn’t been updated in years.
An up to date portfolio shows how you have progressed as a tradesperson, keeps you current and shows that you care. These are all things that matter to your potential customer
The start of your online journey with Shake & Speare
Hopefully, we’ve demonstrated to you the value of keeping an online tradesperson portfolio.
If you’re interested in learning more then, we recommend checking out our websites for trades page.
We’re always open to a chat, and if you’d like to meet up then consider the beers on us!
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