Young writer on a sofa near the kitchenette

I wanted to know exactly what an effective copywriting portfolio looks like in 2025. I had success with mine back in 2021, when I pivoted from retail to writing. But things aren’t like they were in the early stages of the pandemic. What worked for me then may not work now. Without a real copywriting authority out there to set the record straight, there aren’t any definitive answers—just a lot of opinions or portfolio template brands claiming they’ve got the magic bullet. And neither option provided the answers I needed.

I spent the better part of an afternoon scouring job boards to figure out what brands are hiring writers for—the content formats and the skills. I clipped and reviewed as many jobs as possible to develop insights founded in today’s super-competitive job market. And I’m sharing what I found with you—the major trends and insights that’ll make your portfolio stand out.

Trends in copywriting job posts in 2025

Job posts are a treasure trove of information if you know where to look. Of course, there’s the obvious stuff like job requirements. But if you read more closely, you’ll also pick up on what kinds of challenges or goals the company wants to address. I collected 34 live job posts for content and copywriter roles. Here’s what I found.

7 themes in copywriting job descriptions

Here are the patterns I noticed across the data set, covering content requirements, skill set, and work style.

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Email is hot right now. ≈70% of openings mentioned email writing in their job requirements, in all sorts of styles and usages. Plus, optimization strategies.
Brands want highly skilled writers. They’re asking for a lot right now. Gone are the days of true entry-level jobs. Brands need you to know multiple formats, channels, marketing strategy, and content optimization.
Inbound marketing is super desirable. Out of the four most in-demand content types, blogs, webpages, and social media are all inbound/attraction-type marketing. Even email is inbound marketing, though you can use it for outbound marketing, too.
Cross-functional collaboration. Brands want writers who can work with designers, web developers, marketing, product, sales, and client experience teams. And do it across time zones, in hybrid or totally remote structures.
Turn-key expertise. Brands want to hire a writer who already has a handle on their craft. So they’re looking for writers who prioritise continued education, have a solid portfolio, and don’t make rookie mistakes.
Temporary or freelance positions. One of three job openings was either just for a specific project or freelance, not full-time-with-benefits kind of jobs. The gig economy is on the rise—in part because of worker preferences and in part because it’s less costly for brands to hire this kind of worker.
Writing perfection. Brands expect error-free, proofed, and ready-to-publish content and copy. This applies to your content samples, resumes, cover letters, personal blogs or websites, LinkedIn, and so on.

3 takeaways to apply to your portfolio

It’s good to know what’s important to brands because we can reverse engineer those findings into our portfolio (and resume, etc.). And, yes, this is a heavy list to tackle, but we can boil it all down to three simple takeaways:

Portfolios need to work for both freelance and in-house roles to give you flexibility to pursue either.
Add variety to your portfolio writing samples.
Be strategic with your portfolio—samples and setup. (+Add more about YOU and your skill set).

Let’s talk about how to apply these near-real-time job market insights to your portfolio so you can position yourself as a capable and worthy writer to interview.

Portfolio components

Your portfolio needs to pull double duty. Of course, you need writing samples. But you also need to explain your skill set, work style, and process. That means your portfolio needs a robust writer’s bio alongside a section for your samples.

Example of a writer's bio housed in the Portfolio Dashboard template available in Roadmap to Writer

Your writer bio

Brands want to know they’re hiring a competent writer. While you might think, Surely, my resume covers that? I’d argue no. Your resume has very limited space. You can’t really embellish or provide your “story” there. But you have no such limitations in your portfolio.

So the portfolio becomes the perfect place to fill in the gaps. Plus, it gives them a peek into a long list of relevant skills and culture-fit questions they’ll still have, even after skimming your resume. That’s where your bio comes in. This short paragraph or two allows them to understand your background, credentials, and work style.

Here are a few things to consider for your bio section:

Writing process
Research approach
Brand voice and voice adaptations
Project management and collaboration style
Editing and proofreading

“Rich” writing samples

Too often, writers provide writing samples that are ONLY the content itself. No brief. No explanation. Nothing to help the recruiter understand what they’re looking at. They’re looking at a piece of content without any idea about the role you played in creating it.

Did you just write it?

Or did you come up with the strategy and topic?

Conduct a survey?

Perform keyword research?

Collaborate with the sales team?

Pull photo suggestions?

You might think it’s obvious, but there are so many other things writers do besides writing. If you’re only including a bunch of links to your work without any explanation, you’re completely hiding your value from a gatekeeper you need to win over.

Remember, recruiters have no idea who you are, what your typical scope of work includes, or what you’re really good at.

That’s why you need to turn your writing samples into “rich” samples. Include a brief describing exactly what the project was, what the challenge or goal is, your role, and any results (if you have them). This pushes your writing samples—and your professional image—to the next level.

Finishing touches

With your bio and rich samples down, now it’s time for finishing touches. Here are the rest of your portfolio elements to polish off this essential asset before you apply to your next role.

Testimonials. Any kind words—about your work ethic or writing acumen—go a long way to boost your credibility.

Contact details. Make sure they don’t have to dig through a portal or email to track down your email or phone number. Just include it somewhere in your portfolio. The last page is a great spot or right below your name on the bio page.

If you’ve gotten to this point and you’re thinking, That all sounds great, but I don’t have any writing samples and I can’t even get clients because I don’t have writing samples, then this next part is especially for you.

Creating Demo Projects

Most beginners don’t realize that demo projects solve this no portfolio catch-22. And no shade—I was oblivious about this option for years. I thought your portfolio needed to be exclusively paid jobs and big names that people would recognize. But neither of those is a real requirement.

Demo projects are powerful proof of one very important thing—that you can write. That’s the whole point of your portfolio. The quality of your work doesn’t depend on whether or not you were paid. You can use a great demo project as a stepping stone to your first paid gig.

You’ve got the power

You can create your own demo projects. No need to cold call brands, wait forever to hear back, or negotiate your rates. You can write something now to start your attention-grabbing portfolio. All you need to do is…

Pick a content type (blog, social media, or email, for example)
Select or invent a brand or organization
Identify or define the target audience—who are you writing for?
Set a goal for the copy—do you want the reader to click, comment, or sign up?
Write the content!

The idea of creating a brand and assignment from scratch may really excite you. But if you’d like to just open an assignment without having to invent a whole backstory or write a content brief, then you can meet your first (demo) client and get your first demo assignment in Roadmap to Writer.

Inside is a 90-day roadmap to setting up your portfolio, improving your writing skills, and getting ready for the real job hunt. And yes, that means there is a real writing assignment included to kick off your writing portfolio.

Let me introduce you to your first “client.” This is a brand I invented for demo writing projects for new writers just like you. Talking On Air Studios is a content creators’ dream, with magazine-worthy studios to record in, equipment to rent, and a monthly rooftop mingle for their creators. And they need a writer to develop some kick-ass social media content for them.

Get guidebook

Click on this button inside Roadmap to Writer to access your assignment. You’ll get a content brief that mimics real-world project briefs along with the brand copy style guidelines.

Your assignment is social media, in this case, Instagram content. And it’s a great first project. First of all, it’s one of our top 4 in-demand content types, so you’re building something super relevant for your portfolio. And second, it’s a great way to practice your hooks, SEO, and short-form storytelling.

There are even portfolio setup instructions included so you can share your portfolio proudly, once that content is complete.

Grab your first assignment inside Roadmap to Writer linked in the description of this video.

Copywriter portfolios need to show your range and turn-key expertise

Prove you’ve got the writing chops to handle any writing assignment with a range of writing projects. Set a welcoming and impressive tone with a tight writer’s bio that shares who you are and what you do. Then give the recruiter a reason to be impressed with your work with rich writing samples that explain the project and your role in bringing it to life.

Where do you go from here? Download Roadmap to Writer for your free, practical, no fluff, step-by-step guide to building a portfolio that’s ready for today’s job hunt.

Ultimate copywriter career pivot guide | Part 2 of 3: The portfolio