Tips to Showcase Your Work: Useful Tips For Creative Professionals

TGR Staff - 09/20/2021

Creative professionals are often faced with the dilemma of how to showcase their work. There are many ways to do this, but it is important to find the right balance between showcasing your work and being too self-promotional. In this blog post, you will learn about six focus areas for showcasing your creative professional services online in a way that is both informative and engaging.

Invest In Quality Photography And Video Equipment

Camera

One of the most important things you can do to showcase your work is to shoot it with a high-quality camera. Content creations are becoming more and more competitive, and it is harder to be noticed without professional-looking content that competes with other top creators.

DSLR cameras offer high-quality photos for a reasonable price. In addition, a good quality DSLR allows you to take pictures and videos from further away with better resolution, which will give your work more space and make it look less crowded. This is especially important if the service or product that you are showcasing takes up most of the frame.

Make sure to research your options when making decisions, such as opting for a mirrorless camera over a DSLR camera, as each one has its own pros and cons. Mirrorless technology is also much more compact, which allows you to take the camera everywhere without having to carry a bulky DSLR.

Tripods And Stabilizers

If you are taking photos of small products, it is important to make sure that they stay perfectly still. This can be very difficult without a tripod or stabilizer. Tripods are also useful for videos as you will not need someone else there holding the camera while recording, which could lead to them moving partway through filming. For creators currently using a smartphone to create content, accessories like the DJI OM 5 is perfect for creating interesting angles and framing your shot with ease. This accessory is also perfect for setting-up behind-the-scenes footage shots or taking time lapses on your smartphone.

Lighting & Filters

A good quality DSLR should have some options when it comes to lighting and filters built into the camera itself, but this does not mean that they cannot be improved upon with external equipment such as lights and lenses etc... Lighting has a huge effect on how polished something looks, so it is essential to make sure that you are investing in the right equipment.

Remote Triggers

Remote triggers are helpful for taking photos of both products and people. They essentially allow you to take the picture without pressing the button on your camera, which reduces any small movements that can be caused by pushing down. A remote trigger allows you to trigger the camera shutter from your position in the shot frame through a small handheld wireless remote controller.

Backup Batteries & Memory Cards

It is always important to have backup batteries and memory cards when you are taking photos, especially if your shoot takes several hours or longer. Running out of battery power at an inopportune time can be incredibly frustrating, so it is best not to risk this happening by only bringing one set of backup equipment. Memory cards should also be purchased according to the size of images that will need saving, as having a card with insufficient storage space could cause issues too.

Learn How To Use Editing Software

Learning how to use editing software is a great way of creating professional-looking images and videos for free. Learning the basics will allow you to customize your content in ways that are not possible with just using an app on your phone or tablet.

Photoshop, GIMP & Lightroom are all examples of some popular options available if you want to learn more about post-processing workflows.

Build A Website

Building a website is one of the best ways to showcase your work. Having your own personal online space allows you to connect with clients and customers in an interactive way, which will help them get to know about you, what you do, and why they should hire or buy from you over someone else.

If setting up a website seems like too much for right now, then it is perfectly fine to start off by having a blog on another platform such as WordPress until you feel ready enough to take this step towards becoming more professional in how people see & interact with your content.

Many people underestimate what a website could mean for your business, especially if you are working freelance, but it is something that should be planned for and budgeted to avoid any big issues later on down the line.

Include A Work Portfolio On Your Website

You should make sure that you have a portfolio section on your website where potential clients or customers can see examples of what you do. Many people want to be able to view previous work before they hire someone, so it is important that this information is easily accessible for them within the site itself.

Ensure That Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

It has been known for Google search results now favor mobile-friendly websites over ones that are not as useful when using a smartphone or tablet. This means that if your current site does not look good on smaller devices, then it could actually lose traffic and rankings in search engine listings due to being penalized because of how poorly optimized the pages are visual.

This tip will help ensure more visits from future users who are searching for things related to what you do.

Use Local SEO and Site Maps

Using local SEO is a great way of getting your business or website out to the public. It works in much the same way as traditional search engine optimization does, but it focuses on increasing rankings for locations instead of keywords, which can make all the difference if you are working within one city or even region only.

Site maps are also useful because they tell Google about every page that exists on your site, and this allows them to crawl each page so that they become visible when users perform searches related to what you offer. Implementing features such as these will help get your content is seen by more people online, which means increased exposure & opportunities!

Network On Social Media

Networking on social media is a great way to meet other creatives and share your work with them. By helping each other out and engaging in conversations, you can make connections that will last far beyond the time it takes for someone else to like one of your posts or retweet what you have said.

Creating content itself is only half of the battle; if no one sees it, then how good does that really make it? The more creative people who see your work, come into contact with you, and become aware of what you do, the better off your business will be as they are potential customers too!

Make sure to market your service or products to the right audience through social media marketing strategies such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Youtube.

Organize Workshops And Seminars

By organizing workshops or seminars, you are essentially sharing what you know with others. This is great for networking and getting your name out there, as well as learning more about how other creative professionals work too! Through hosting one of these events in a public place, it will also be an opportunity to make new connections with strangers who may want to come along and see what you have on offer.

Taking the time to properly plan everything that goes into running a successful business can seem like quite a daunting task at first, but this does not need to stop anyone from beginning their journey towards becoming self-employed.

Offer Free Extras With Your Work

If you are trying to sell your creative services, offering free extras can go a long way in showing that you value the client's business. For example, if you create graphic designs for clients, offer them some extra graphic elements or fonts at no charge with their purchase of one of your graphics packages. If someone loves what they see online from your work, then having something else they can use will help seal the deal while also increasing trust between yourself and potential future customers. Always keep an eye out for new trends so that when people ask about how to get started using specific types of media on social networks like Pinterest or Instagram, you know exactly how to respond.

The more ways that you can show others what you do and how they too can benefit from working with you, the better off your business will be, as this is essentially free marketing for yourself! By investing in some equipment or software now, it will make things easier down the line when people want to hire your services & products over someone else who does the same thing as you.