Copywriting Portfolio: What to Include, How to Build One With No Clients, and Mistakes to Avoid

A copywriting portfolio is a small, curated set of samples that shows a potential client or employer you can write the kind of copy they need. It is not an archive of everything you’ve written. The person reviewing it usually has one question: can this writer do my project? A good portfolio answers that within a minute.

Most portfolio advice focuses on design. Design matters less than you’d think. What gets writers hired is relevance (samples that match the job), context (what the piece had to do), and evidence (what happened after it went live, if you know).

What to include

Five to ten of your best, most relevant samples

Fewer, better samples beat a long list. A reviewer will read two or three pieces at most, so the ones at the top have to be strong and close to the work you want. If you want more email projects, lead with email. If you want SaaS website work, lead with a SaaS homepage.

Cover the main formats clients hire for in your niche. A balanced set for a generalist might include:

A website page (homepage, product or service page)
A landing page
An email sequence or a single campaign email
Ad copy (a small set of search or social ads)
A longer piece: a sales page, case study or long-form article

Context for every sample

A sample on its own shows how you write. A sample with context shows how you think. For each piece, add a short note covering:

The client or brief: who it was for (or “spec piece” if it wasn’t commissioned).
The goal: what the copy needed to achieve.
The audience: who would read it and what they cared about.
Your role: did you write it all, write it with a team, or edit someone else’s draft?
The result, only if you know it and are allowed to share it.

An illustrative example of a sample note, written for this article (the brand is fictional):

Welcome email sequence, Kettlewick Tea (spec piece). Kettlewick is a fictional loose-leaf tea subscription. The brief I set myself: rewrite a generic three-email welcome sequence so it explains how the subscription works and gets first-time buyers to pick their flavour preferences. Audience: people who bought a single tin as a gift and are unsure about subscribing. I wrote all three emails and the subject lines.

That note is honest about being spec work and still shows judgement.

A short introduction

Two or three sentences at the top: what you write, who you write for, and how to contact you. “I write website and email copy for B2B software companies” helps a reviewer more than a paragraph about loving words.

Testimonials

A line or two from real clients, attributed with name and role (with their permission). Never write testimonials yourself or attribute quotes to people who didn’t say them.

Contact details and a clear next step

An email address or a contact form, and a line on what to send (“Tell me about the project, the deadline and a link to your site”).

Building a portfolio with no clients

Every working copywriter started with zero client samples. There are honest ways to get past that.

Spec work, clearly labelled

Spec (speculative) work is copy you write without being commissioned, to show what you can do. It is fine to include in a portfolio as long as it is clearly labelled. Two common approaches:

Fictional brands. Invent a company and write its homepage, launch email and ads. This avoids any confusion about whether a real company hired you. Check that the name you invent isn’t an existing business in that market.
Rewrites of real pages. Take a real company’s page, show the original, and show your rewrite with a note explaining your choices. Label it “unsolicited rewrite, not commissioned by” followed by the company name. Don’t present it as if the company hired you, and don’t use their logo in a way that suggests endorsement.

The labelling matters. A reviewer who discovers that a “client project” was never commissioned will stop trusting everything else in the portfolio.

Volunteer and low-stakes projects

Local nonprofits, community groups, friends’ small businesses and student organisations often need copy. These are real projects with real briefs, and sometimes real results you can report. Treat them like client work: agree on the scope, get feedback, and ask permission before publishing the samples.

Your own projects

A newsletter you write, a product you sell, a landing page for your own services. Your own portfolio site is itself a copywriting sample, so write it as carefully as client work.

Before-and-after edits

Editing is a separate, valuable skill. Show a weak draft (your own early draft or a public example) next to your edited version, with a few notes on what you changed and why. Our guide to copywriting skills includes before-and-after examples of exactly this kind.

Formats and hosting

There is no single right platform. Choose based on how much control you want and how much time you have.

Option	Strengths	Weaknesses
Your own website	Full control, your domain, doubles as a sample	Takes time to set up and maintain
Portfolio platforms built for writers	Quick to set up, designed for clips	Less control over design and structure
Shared document or PDF	Fast, easy to tailor per pitch	Easy to forget to update; links can break
Professional profiles (LinkedIn Featured, marketplace profiles)	Where some clients already look	Limited formatting; platform owns the page

Many freelancers use two: a website as the main home, plus a short PDF or document they tailor for specific pitches with only the three or four most relevant samples.

A few practical points regardless of platform:

Show the copy in context where possible. A screenshot of the live page or email next to the plain text helps reviewers see it as a reader would.
Keep text readable. If you use screenshots, also include the text, or at least make sure the image is legible on a phone.
Archive live work. Websites change. Save a PDF or screenshot of each published piece when it goes live so it doesn’t disappear from your portfolio when the client redesigns.
Respect confidentiality. If you’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement or written ghostwritten work, ask before including it. Some clients will agree if you remove identifying details.

Organising the portfolio

Organise by what the reader is looking for. Two structures work well:

By format (Websites, Email, Ads, Long-form) if you serve a range of industries.
By industry (SaaS, Ecommerce, Healthcare) if you specialise and clients care most about sector knowledge.

Put your best, most relevant pieces first in each section. If you pitch different types of clients, it’s worth keeping a few versions of the page or PDF in different orders.

For more on what good copy in each format looks like, see our guides to landing page copywriting, web copywriting and copywriting email examples.

Common mistakes

Including everything. Twenty-five samples tell a reviewer you can’t choose. Cut to the best and most relevant.

No context. A wall of screenshots without a note on the goal or audience leaves the reviewer guessing what you were trying to do.

Unlabelled spec work. Presenting a rewrite or fictional brand as a real commission is misleading, and easy to discover.

Invented or unverifiable results. Only claim outcomes you know and are allowed to share. “The client reported more demo requests after launch” is fine if they told you that. A precise percentage you can’t support is not.

Only showing one format. If you want varied work, show varied work.

Outdated samples. Replace early pieces as better ones come in. Your portfolio should reflect how you write now.

Broken links. Check every link every few months. Dead links to client pages are common once sites are redesigned.

Copy errors on the portfolio itself. A typo on a copywriter’s own site is noticed more than anywhere else. Read it aloud before publishing.

Hiding the contact details. Make it easy to hire you from every page.

Keeping it current

Set a reminder to review your portfolio every quarter. Add new work, remove weaker or outdated pieces, refresh testimonials, and check links. When you finish a project you’re proud of, ask the client right away for permission to include it and for a testimonial, while the work is fresh in their mind.

A portfolio is also only one part of getting hired. Our guide to finding freelance copywriting work covers the channels, pitches and pipeline habits that put the portfolio in front of the right people.