If there’s one thing freelancing taught me, it’s this: clients want to feel seen.
And nothing makes someone feel seen like speaking their language — literally.
A few years ago, I pitched to a European design agency. I loved their aesthetic, sent in my portfolio (all English, of course) and… crickets. Weeks later, a friend inside the company told me:
“Honestly, your portfolio was good. But we’re a French-speaking agency, and you didn’t even mention you knew French. The team worried about communication.”
Ouch. That gig would have paid for three months of rent. And I lost it not because of skills — but because my portfolio didn’t talk to them.
Language = Trust
When I finally updated my portfolio with French and Spanish versions of my About page, I noticed something incredible: inquiries started coming from places I’d never worked with before — Paris, Madrid, Montreal.
One Spanish client actually wrote, “We chose you because your site felt like it was made for us.”
That’s the magic of a multilingual portfolio. It doesn’t just widen your audience — it makes people feel like you understand them, which is the first step to trust.
Don’t Overthink It
You don’t need to translate every blog post or case study. Start small:
- Translate your About section
- Add a line about which languages you work in
- Offer downloadable rate cards in multiple languages
Even partial translations work. The point is to show you’re ready to collaborate across borders.
The Shortcut
If tech overwhelms you (it overwhelmed me at first), use a platform that supports multilingual sites out of the box.
VisitFolio.com lets you add languages with a couple of clicks — no developer, no messy plugins.
Trust me, I wish I had done this earlier. Because in a global world, a single-language portfolio is like having half your shop lights turned off.
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