How to Get The Most Out of Your Architectural Photographs
I am an architectural photographer and videographer and I’m also a Marketing Professional with 18 years of international experience in marketing, so I would like to share a few things you could and should do to leverage the full potential of your beautiful architectural images.
Be warned, we are going to cover a lot.
That’s why I created a handy CHECKLIST that you can use every time you have completed a project.
Please click on the image to download it.
1. Architectural Photography on Social Media
Instagram is the most obvious choice, and indeed most architects, builders and designers post their images on Instagram.
Without going into strategy and hashtag details, let me just give you one tip here.
Reach out to curated Instagram accounts and send them your images.
Make sure you include the name and Instagram handle of the photographer as well.
These accounts rely on photographers and architects, builders and designers sending them their project images and descriptions.
Yes, for sure they get a lot of images sent to them, but they also post several times a day, so they go through projects quite quickly.
If they pick up your images that’s great exposure for your business, and it certainly doesn’t take much effort to reach out and ask about the terms and conditions to be featured.
Here are just a few aggregator accounts to get you started:
@architecturewesternaustralia
@design_wa
@habitusliving
@australian_architecture
@restless.arch
Send these accounts a DM but keep your message short, polite and enticing.
About 90% of the practices have a Facebook business page, but about the same % doesn’t use it regularly.
Did you know that you can post from Instagram to Facebook automatically? All you need to do is link the two accounts. Here’s how:
Log in to your Instagram account on your phone or tablet.
Go to Settings.
Go to Account -> Linked accounts and select Facebook.
Enter your login details.
Tap “Share to” and select the page that you manage; otherwise Instagram will post the photos to your personal Facebook profile.
Change your cover image to a new, favourite one regularly. The new cover image always gets more exposure because it gets pushed out to more people, giving you more impressions and likes.
Sadly, you can’t post to LinkedIn automatically.
Still, it’s worth taking the extra time and effort to put together a post featuring a beautiful image with an enticing, short description of the project AND a longer article with more photos and explanations about the design intent, what you did and why you chose certain materials, shapes or colours.
If it’s possible and your client is okay with it, make this article more enticing by talking about your client and how you met their needs.
YouTube
Even if you don’t have a professional walk-through video done or a video interview with you about the project, you can still use your photographs to create a video to put on YouTube.
A nicely edited slideshow video with a few curated words over the photos is a wonderfully engaging tool you can use in your marketing.
Instead of sending your potential client to your portfolio page on your website, you could email them a much more enticing video. A tastefully edited video will reveal more about the project and will show images in a logical sequence, leaving your potential client immersed and more involved in your world.
You can then use these slideshow videos at events and exhibitions and if you have one, on the big screen in the waiting area in your showroom/office.
2. How to use your architectural photographs for better ranking on Google
Yes, this section is about search engine optimisation but no, don’t skip it.
The best and cheapest form of marketing is word of mouth, - referrals -, and that’s where you will want most of your clients to come from.
I have a detailed blueprint coming up on how to achieve that.
But what about those people who don’t have friends who have worked with architects, builders and designers? Or those people that after asking around, will do their own research too.
As you can see, a large number of your potential clients will ask Google instead of, or as well as their friends. And when that happens, you want them to find you.
I can talk about SEO for hours and hours, but I’ll try to keep it short here, focusing only on how images can boost your SEO.
Here are the main points to keep in mind when uploading new project photos to your website:
File size. Ask your photographer to send you web-optimised images together with high-res and print-optimised photos. Never upload files that are larger than 500 kB. It will slow down your website, and Google doesn’t like slow-loading pages.
Name your files. Make sure the name of the file includes your keywords: your name, activity type, location, type of project, and divide the words with a hyphen. E.g., john-smith-architect-perth-residential-interior-design-smith-residence-1.jpg
Yes, AI is starting to be able to understand images, but until then, stay on the safe side and name your photographs according to SEO best practices. Also, if your platform offers the option to include a description of the image, use it.
Change the URL slug of the image as well. By default, some of the website platforms will display a random name for your image in a gallery. E.g., www.yourwebsite.com.au/portfolio/r9u5smz1867m478glaphh070zkdypf
Make sure you change the part after the portfolio/… to meaningful words. I would use the same words as the name of the file, full of keywords that are relevant to you.
3. Use your architectural photographs in your case studies, blog posts and articles
If you thought blogs are dead, think again.
Blogs (you may call them Articles, Journal, Case Studies, etc.) are still the most critical factor in search engine optimisation.
You need to provide content for your audience but also for Google to understand what you do, what you stand for, how you’re different and what your style is.
You may think that nobody will ever read your case studies and you’re right.
Not a lot of people will.
But those who are seriously considering engaging you, those who are desperately looking for reassurance that you are the right choice, will read everything they can find to learn as much as they can about you.
Use your beautiful images throughout the article to entice the reader.
Walk them through the project with your own description and explanation.
Let them get a feel of your style and way of thinking.
You should definitely include the videos you have about the project.
A video interview with you talking about the project is best as it doesn’t just show the project, but the viewer will get to see you, hear you and gauge you. That’s how you build an instant rapport, connection and trust - all of those are critical for a prospect to choose you.
A walk-through video is also fantastic as it shows the flow of your design. A well-produced walk-through video is dynamic, engaging and short enough to keep the viewer’s attention.
If you don’t have a purposely produced project video, then - as mentioned before - create a beautiful slideshow video edited to music with text overlay.
So, to summarise it:
Why you definitely want to include a video in your blog posts:
For better engagement and to keep your viewer’s attention. To stand out. To entice while educating.
To boost your ranking on Google!
Embed the video from YouTube so they can watch it within your article, but also make sure you add the link to the video in the text as well. The words you highlight and turn into a link are called anchor text, and these should be your keywords. E.g., new home design in Perth.
If this all sounded Greek to you, don’t worry, I created a 40-second explainer video on How to embed a video and create anchor text in Squarespace. I hope it will make more sense after you’ve watched it:
4. Frame it!
Surely you have a favourite image from the photoshoot.
Have it printed, matted (ask your photographer to help you with it), frame it and put it on your wall in your studio.
Photographs shouldn’t exist only in the online world. Use your own beautiful work you’re proud of to decorate your studio or office. Your prospects will surely ask about them.
Next Level Tips
Okay, these tips are truly next-level marketing tips that I hardly ever see used out there. Plus, the truth is, you may have to engage another photographer and a videographer as well unless your architectural photographer is capable and equipped to do them all.
5. Get a powerful video testimonial from your client
If your client has already occupied the home/office/venue you have designed or built, I usually liaise with them directly.
When I talk to them over the phone, I always ask about how the project went, and they are always more than happy to tell me their honest opinion, usually raving about the practice or the company.
What they tell me is marketing GOLD.
That’s a lead-in for me to ask if they wanted to give the architect or the builder a pleasant surprise and repeat the same words on camera on the day I’m photographing the house/venue.
Since the house/office/venue will be absolutely spotless for the photography, it really doesn’t take much more effort to shoot their testimonial video and round it up with some beautiful footage of the project.
In case your client is not comfortable speaking on camera, I could still record just the audio which you can transcribe and use as a written testimonial on your website.
How many testimonials do you have on your website?
6. A picture that will tell a thousand words
Imagine your office/studio that has a wall full of beautiful framed images of your amazing projects.
That’s already a lovely image and is kind of expected to find in an architect’s, designer’s or builder’s office.
But image your other wall, which is full of happy, smiling photographs of you with your clients, outside or in front of the finished project - whether it’s a home, interiors or landscape design.
How would you feel going into your office every day, being greeted by your smiling, satisfied clients?
How do you think your prospects will feel about you when they see all those past clients who have clearly loved working with you and are probably still your friends?
All it takes is one press of a button.
7. The perfect house-warming gift from you
Do you have a project completion gift you give your clients?
Well, here’s an idea I’m happy for you to steal:
Gift them a framed family portrait.
No, I don’t mean your family’s portrait, but a photoshoot that you will arrange for them, and they will get to pick their favourite photograph that you will have printed, matted and framed, ready to go on their new home wall or mantelpiece.
I haven’t heard of anyone gifting a family or couple’s portrait to their clients in WA. So I hope you will be the first one!
If the project was an office fit-out or otherwise business-related, you could gift them a framed team photograph.
And the best person to shoot the family photo is your architectural photographer because your clients already know, like and trust her/him. Therefore they will be much more comfortable and excited to have her/him back to take their soon-to-be-cherished-forever family portrait.
And who will they think of every time they look at the portrait? …
What will they tell their friends about the story of the portrait? …
So there you have it.
Seven new ideas to start implementing straight away to leverage your architectural photographs, gain more visibility through visual marketing and grow your business.
If you haven’t yet, please click here to download the CHECKLIST that you can use every time you have completed a project.
Print it out, laminate it and keep it somewhere handy.
With every project you finish, try to tick off as many items as you possibly can to maximise your exposure.
Please click on the image to download it.
I hope it serves you.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.