Real estate photo delivery portal: how to deliver a shoot

What a real estate photo delivery portal is

A delivery portal is a private gallery page for one shoot, opened from a link minted for that delivery alone, carrying your name, your logo and your colors. It renders the same brand your booking form uses, so the client books and downloads through one look.

Every delivery shows the same zones in the same order, so a client who has received three shoots from you knows exactly where to find everything on the fourth:

• Header: your studio identity and the photo count
• Welcome: a heading and a message in your own words
• Downloads: the count, a Download all button that fetches a ZIP, and the unedited originals listed under the edits
• Gallery: every finished photo, each with its own download
• Rebooking: a button that sends the client back to your storefront, where they can book
• Footer note: a closing line, your terms, or nothing at all

Step 1: set your delivery defaults once

Open any shoot's client delivery panel and follow the Your defaults link to the Client delivery settings page. Here you decide how every shoot goes out unless you change it for a particular job. Seven settings, with defaults that suit most studios: email on, text off, the link opens the portal, preview photos on, Download all on, your brand on, and send automatically when you deliver.

Two deserve a moment's thought. The link setting chooses what the client's link opens: the portal, or a direct ZIP download of every photo. Pick the portal unless a client has told you they only want files. Send automatically decides whether the email leaves the moment you approve the delivery or waits until you press Send; turn it off if you like to read the gallery once more before the client does.

A text goes only to a number you have attested the client agreed to receive texts on. With both email and text off, nothing is sent and you share the portal link yourself.

Step 2: shape the portal in the builder

The portal is one of the three surfaces the storefront builder edits, beside the storefront and the booking form. Open the builder, pick the delivery portal, and click a zone in the Sections pane to open its controls.

The builder offers only what a delivered gallery honours, so the preview stays truthful. You can write the welcome heading and message, choose a grid or filmstrip gallery at two to four columns, turn watermarked previews on or off, set the rebooking button's label and message, and write the footer note. The brand is already applied.

On a free workspace you edit the content and the design stays in the default theme; a paid plan unlocks full brand control. Colors and type are set in Store settings, and the logo you set in the builder's Site tab reaches the storefront, the booking form and the portal, so one upload lands on all three.

Step 3: tie the client to the shoot

On the shoot, pick the client from your Clients list or create one with the CRM's own form, so there is only ever one record for that agent. A shoot booked with a client attached already uses that client; change it only if the photos are going to someone else.

The client's email and mobile number come from their CRM record. If either is wrong, fix it on the client, not on the shoot, and every future delivery is right too. If this shoot should go out differently from your defaults, switch off Use my defaults and change only what this job needs.

Step 4: approve and deliver

Deliver from wherever you are working: the Deliver drawer in the desktop Studio, the order page on the web, or the phone after you have reviewed the set. All three run the same delivery.

With send-automatically on, the email leaves once, as part of the delivery. The shoot then shows a delivery log: what went where, when, and whether anything failed. If a client says the email never arrived, press Send again; a resend mints a fresh link and never breaks one the client already has.

What the client receives

The email arrives from your studio's name, and replies go to you. The built-in subject reads "Your photos of {address} are ready", and you can rewrite the subject, greeting, message and sign-off in your email design using merge fields for the client's first name, the address, the photo count, your name, your studio's name and the link's expiry date.

The email shows the property, a lead photo and up to four more previews, a View the gallery button, and a second Download all button if you left that on. With your brand on, the email carries the storefront's logo and colors as your plan allows; with it off, a plain layout signed with your studio's name.

The gallery button opens the portal, where the client can view every photo, download one at a time, fetch the whole set as a ZIP, and pick up the unedited originals, listed under the edits exactly as uploaded.

Downloads and the 30-day link

Every delivery link works for 30 days from the send. It is hidden from search engines, and anyone holding it can open the gallery and download the photos, which is why the email tells the client to share it only with people they trust. After 30 days the link stops working: instead of the gallery, the client sees a short message that the link has expired.

The expiry is deliberate. Old galleries stop floating around the internet, and a client who comes back after a month contacts you, which is a conversation worth having. Press Send again and they get a fresh 30-day link for the same photos.

Two habits keep this painless: say in your welcome message that the link lasts 30 days and the full set downloads in one click, and for a client who insists on files only, set that shoot's link to direct download so the email button fetches the ZIP.

Turn the handoff into the next booking

The rebooking zone is the reason to deliver through a portal rather than a folder. The button's default label is Book another shoot, and it sends the client to your storefront to book the next job; it shows only when your storefront is published and you have saved a rebooking message. Write that message as a real invitation: the next listing, a twilight add-on, whatever you actually want them to book.

Every delivery also lands on the client's timeline in the CRM, beside their bookings and invoices, so when they next email you can see what they shot, when, and what they paid. The reconnect filter surfaces clients who have gone quiet, and the cheapest booking you will ever win is a past client you did not forget.

The delivery checklist

Before you approve the first shoot through the portal, run through this once:

• Delivery defaults set on the Client delivery settings page (Your defaults in the shoot's delivery panel), with the link opening the portal
• Welcome heading and message written in your own voice, with the 30-day note
• Gallery layout and columns chosen, watermarked previews decided
• Rebooking button label and message pointing at the next job
• Email design subject, greeting and sign-off reviewed with a test send to yourself
• Client tied to the shoot, with their email checked on the CRM record