If you’re anything like us, getting that e-mail notification from our photographer letting us know that our most recent project photos are ready to view feels a lot like Christmas morning. It never gets old seeing something you pieced together in your mind finished and on film. 

As you scroll through your photos, you will feel an overwhelming urge to share every single one of them immediately, but in the world of content creation and marketing campaigns, you need a plan to get the most out of your gorgeous new photos. With that in mind, here are the seven fool-proof steps to go through (in order) every time you get a new batch of project photos in: 

 

 

 

What to Do When You Get Your Project Photos Back

 

 

Get Organized

Download and rename all your images as soon as you receive them, then organize them so they’re easy to navigate. If you don’t have an organizational system in place, check out our process here.

 

Pitch to Publications

Select your top three images to pitch to publications and remember to pitch one media outlet at a time (for more tips on getting your project images published, read our best tips in this post). This is important to do second because many publications are more likely to publish your images if they haven’t already been seen by your entire social media following. 

 

Interior Design: Kaemingk Design | Photography: Alyssa Rosenheck

 

Update your portfolio on your website

Yes, it’s okay to publish your work on your site, but hold off from including it in your Instagram feed for now. You always want your latest/greatest work front and center on your site for potential clients. Don’t forget to optimize your portfolio images for Pinterest when you upload them (find our tutorial here). 

 

Preview on Instagram

Test one single image on your Instagram Stories, with a follow-up story on how you problem solved for your client. This is an excellent teaser that will also provide a little background before you share more. 

 

Craft a Newsletter Sneak Peek

Send an e-mail newsletter with a sneak peek of your project (but no more than three images) describing the particulars + how excited you are to share the upcoming reveal. A little anticipation never hurt. 

 

Interior Design: Kaemingk Design | Photography: Alyssa Rosenheck

 

Share the Full Project on Your Blog

Once your project has been published (repeat step two if you didn’t hear back from the first publication), write a blog post linking to the published article, but including all the project images on your own blog as well. If you don’t hear back from any publications after two weeks (from last e-mail), go ahead and proceed with sharing the images on your blog. 

 

Pin Portfolio Images

Pin all of the images from your portfolio page onto all appropriate boards (your boards might be sorted by style, room, or project), making sure they link back to your site. Use an app like Tailwind to schedule your portfolio images to automatically pin again in a month. More useful apps like Tailwind on our list here. 

 

Interior Design: Kaemingk Design | Photography: Alyssa Rosenheck

 

Once your images have been shared by both a publication and on your own blog, you are free to share them on social media. Even still, you don’t want to overshare. New reveal photos should be mixed in with older content. Putting some space between the project images creates more evergreen content for the future and maintains follower interest. Our super-secret (not so secret) Instagram scheduling ratio is two new project images for every five images in our grid. Following that, new reveal photos can easily last more than three months, giving you time to roll out a new reveal or two to throw into the mix. 

As always, we recommend using the same photographer for all of your project shoots and leaning on their expertise and great lighting instead of heavy edits. For more of our tips for the perfect interior design shoot, check out this post and for more info on creative business strategy, be sure to check out:

 

• How to Prep for a Photoshoot
• Why Your Interior Design Brand Needs a Media Kit
• Optimizing your Interior Design Portfolio for Pinterest
• Hiring: Who to Hire First + How to Afford It

 

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The Identité Collective is a full-service creative studio for interior designers and boutique lifestyle brands. Offering bespoke branding, web design and social media content creation, we help brands built around beautiful living elevate their digital presence to represent the physical spaces they design. Want to work together? Shoot us an inquiry here.