Why Professional Photography is Critical for Growing Your Interior Design Business
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WRITTEN FEBRUARY 2022 | UPDATED JANUARY 2025
Interior designers always want to know:
“WHAT’S THE ONE THING I CAN DO TO BOOK BETTER PROJECTS?”
My answer to this question is the same every time. It's also the one thing my multi-million-dollar design business clients all did right from the start before they hit the seven-figure mark.
What is it?
Professionally photograph your projects & share your work online where your ideal clients are.
Okay, so technically, this is two things:
01 | Professionally photograph your projects.
02 | Share your work where your ideal clients hang out.
But they absolutely go hand in hand. If you have a beautiful portfolio, but you're too busy to add images to your website or too nervous to share on Instagram because you don't know what caption to write, then no one is going to see the power of your work.
And if you rarely photograph your projects, then you have to be really selective about the photos you do share online to ensure they attract the high-end clients you want (you know, the clients with big budgets who are ready to trust you with their home).
Let’s dive into both of these!
PROFESSIONALLY PHOTOGRAPH YOUR PROJECTS
Before you can invest in professional photography, you’ll want to make sure you have a contract term in your design contract that allows photos. Check out my full service interior design contract here.
Then, invest in professional photography. This is an absolute must. You are selling a transformation, an idea, and usually something a client cannot visualize.
When you have a body of work to show what you can do, THEN your clients can beging to understand how you can help them and why they need you.
Also, how can you expect a client to invest $10,000, $20,000, $100,000 in your company when you won’t invest in a photo shoot?
HOW can a client feel good about giving you large sums of money if they don’t know what the end result might be?
For example, if I’m going to commission an artist to paint a piece of art for my home, and someone wants to charge me $10,000 for a piece of art but has no professional photos showing me any of their finished work, I’m likely going to have major reservations.
But if another artist wants to charge me $10,000 and has a beautiful portfolio of the art they’ve painted for clients, I’ll likely feel much more confident investing in a piece with them because I know I’ll receive the high-quality I’m looking for.
This same thing applies to your projects: if you want clients to trust the process and give you carte blanche, you have to show them all the amazing things you can do with that trust.
So find a few local photographers whose work you love, gather information on their pricing, minimums, copyright and usage policies, and schedule a time to chat with them.
Some photographers charge a half-day or a full-day rate. Some photographers charge hourly. Some photographers have stylists they will bring along (some will include that in their fee, some will charge extra). If getting published is a priority to you, look to see where the photographers have had their work published most recently.
Make sure you fully understand how many photos you’ll receive, what kind of edits they’ll do (just a light refresh and brighten, or will they remove outlet covers, grates, cords, etc.), and how you can use the photos. If a certain amount of edits are included, be sure to understand what the charge is beyond that if you need revisions beyond the included amount.
The photos will belong to your photographer, not you, so you want to make sure you understand how you can use them. On the flip side, if someone ever uses your photos without your permission, your photographer will handle it. Be sure to understand the copyright and licensing terms in your agreement with a photographer.
While it’s good to have a few photographers in your arsenal of resources, I recommend doing most of your shoots with the same photographer so your portfolio has the same look and feel, even if your projects are completely different in style. And if you have more than one photographer you work with, make sure they both have similar editing styles so your finished photos have the same vibe.
In addition, maybe you have a photographer who will also send the pictures out to different publications because they want to get published, too. In this case, they’ll likely charge more than other photographers. Be sure to allocate your photography budget properly and pull out the “big dog” for those really amazing projects you hope will get published.
Save your photography budget for the projects you LOVED and want more just like. The projects that really showcase your style. The projects that have a high likeliness of being published.
SHARE YOUR WORK WHERE YOUR IDEAL CLIENTS HANG OUT
The second part of this equation for booking more dream clients is to share your work where your ideal clients are. This is easy to identify if you actively tracking your lead sources (you can do this with your website contact form or with a CRM like HoneyBook) and have a full understanding of where your ideal clients are coming from.
Tip: track your lead source on your contact form. Make it a drop-down option with a list of platforms you market on so potential clients can check how they heard about you. Your referral source list could include Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linked In, Client Referral, Vendor Referral, and any specific places where you advertise.
Review your inquiries and see where the ideal leads are coming from. Then double down on that platform. So if you are getting a TON of inquiries from Instagram, and they are great, then invest time/energy/money into that platform so you can get more of those great inquiries in. You get the idea.
When you share your photos, tell the story of the transformation. Give potential clients a peek behind the scenes at what inspired you, what the client wanted, and any snafus that happened along the way. Full service design often comes across as unattainable, so sharing these glimpses into the process will make you and your company feel more approachable (it’s not all perfection over here, right!?).
While I don't have actual numbers on this, I know my clients who share pro photos of their work online where their ideal clients hang out make their investment back in spades.
There are obviously additional steps to getting better projects, BUT investing in professional photography and getting your work in front of your ideal clients is absolutely number one.
And don’t miss this article from interior design photographer Linda Pordon for her three best tips for interior designers who are considering hiring a photographer or this post, where PR Expert Alex Abramian shares what editors look for when considering what projects to publish.
