Ask Freddy: Is My Copywriting Portfolio Too Long?

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Former Copywriter…

Q: Dear Freddy:

What’s a good length for my copywriting portfolio? Right now it’s 20 pages, which feels long, but it’s 6 writing samples, and most are multiple pages. Is that too long?

– K in L.A.

A: Dear K:

Not too long for a real marketer to read.

Back when I was a junior copywriter, I interviewed with a so-called marketing exec who merely flipped through my portfolio.  She glanced at the headlines and photos before handing it back to me. I felt sucker-punched – was my writing that bad?

Fortunately, I didn’t rip my book apart, since it scored me a great job later. I also later learned that the marketing exec never did hire a copywriter. In fact, she got fired for lying on her resume — she wasn’t really a marketer.

So if a creative director or marketing exec thinks your portfolio is too long, you wouldn’t want to work for them.

Even if they’re not faking it, they’re out of touch, since a lot of marketing media today consists of long-form digital content (blogs, branded articles, website copy, even ebooks). In addition, clients and bosses are now using AI to write the short stuff; they still need humans to at least draft and edit the long copy, especially if they’re seeking a wildly creative voice.

So when I hire writers, I want to read as much of their work as possible, with samples in different voices for different clients. While many writers can pen a clever headline, their true talent shows in whether they can keep a reader’s interest over hundreds of words.

Gone are the days when copywriting portfolios could feature a mere dozen print ads and storyboards. A few hotshot traditional agency types can get away with just the short stuff, but they also tend to have video reels.

Provided that your portfolio contains only your best work, 20 pages sounds fine. In short, go long.

— Cheers! Freddy

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