← Back to Blog

How Landscapers Can Turn Before-and-After Photos Into a Month of Posts

One finished landscaping job, photographed properly, is about a month of social media posts.
Shoot nine things on site: a wide before and after from the same spot, a close-up before and after, a process shot, a detail shot, the service you performed, the general area, and one maintenance tip that came out of the job.
Then spread those across four weeks where each week has a different job to do: week one proves the work, week two answers the questions a homeowner asks before calling, week three shows how your crew operates, and week four points at the next season.
The photographs are the easy part.
The reason most landscapers run out of content is that every post is trying to do the same thing, which is say "look what we did".

Shoot the raw material before the crew starts

The before photograph is the only one you cannot go back for.
Take it from a spot you can stand in again, because a before and after that were shot from different angles do not compare, and a reader can feel that even if they cannot say why.

For one project, collect:

  1. Wide before, shot from a fixed spot you can find again
  2. Wide after, from that same spot
  3. Close-up before of the worst detail: the overgrowth, the bare patch, the broken edge
  4. Close-up after of that same detail
  5. A process shot with a crew member and equipment in it
  6. A detail shot of whatever you are proud of, whether that is edging, gravel, turf, planting, or irrigation
  7. The service performed, written down in one plain sentence
  8. The general area, at the level you would say out loud to a neighbor
  9. One maintenance tip that came out of this specific yard

Number seven and nine matter more than people expect.
"Full cleanup and reset on an overgrown side yard" is a different post from "cleanup", and a tip that came from a real yard reads differently from a tip you found online.

Who does the work

Turning photographs into posts is a real job, and it is worth deciding out loud who does it before you decide what to spend.

Who does the workWhat you still doWhat it costs
You, on your phone at the end of the dayShoot, write every caption, post to every channelNothing in money, roughly an hour a week if you stay on it
You shoot, Boomp writes, you publish (Packs)Shoot, publish ten finished posts yourself, nothing connected$9 a month
You shoot, Boomp writes and publishes (Core)Shoot, approve each post in the app, about ten minutes a week$39 a month
Boomp's founder approves on your behalfShoot, and nothing else. You never open the app$275 a month
A freelancer or a local agencyShoot, brief them, review, and manage the relationshipTypically $500 to $1,500 a month, which is a common range rather than a surveyed figure

The honest read: if you will genuinely spend an hour a week on this, the first row is the best value on the list, and none of the others will beat your own knowledge of the yard.
The rows below it exist because most crews do not spend that hour, and an empty page is worse than a paid one.

No Boomp plan includes ads, replying to comments and messages, photo shoots, or strategy calls.
The photographs are always yours to take.

The month, with a job for each week

Thirty captions with no structure is just thirty captions.
What makes a month hold together is that each week is trying to move the reader one step, so somebody who has been watching for four weeks has been walked from "that looks nice" to "I should call before it gets worse".

Week 1: prove that the work is real

The job this week is evidence.
Nothing here teaches, sells, or asks for anything much.

  1. Wide before, alone: "This side yard had not been touched in about three seasons."
  2. Wide after, alone, posted the next day so the before has time to land
  3. The pair side by side: name the starting problem, the work, the result, in that order
  4. The close-up pair, on the one detail that bothered the homeowner most
  5. Process shot: what the first two hours of a reset actually look like
  6. The detail you are proud of, with one sentence on why it was the right call for this yard
  7. Local post: recent work in [city or neighborhood, which you fill in]

Week 2: answer what they ask before they call

The job this week is to remove the reasons somebody does not call.
Every post here should be an answer to a question you have genuinely been asked on a driveway.

  1. "How do I know if my yard needs a cleanup or just a mow?"
  2. "What does overgrowth actually cost you if you leave it another season?"
  3. "How long does a yard this size take?" with the honest answer that it depends on access and debris
  4. "What affects the price of a cleanup?" naming the real drivers: size, access, how much leaves, how much haul-away
  5. "Do I have to be home?" and what you need from them if they are not
  6. "What happens to the green waste?"
  7. One seasonal call: what to do before [the season you are heading into, which you fill in]

Post 11 is the one most landscapers skip, and it is the one that gets saved.
You do not have to publish a price to answer a pricing question.
Naming what drives the number is more useful than a number, because the number is different for every yard.

Week 3: show how the crew works

The job this week is to make hiring you feel low risk.
A homeowner is letting strangers onto their property with loud equipment, and quietly that is the thing they are weighing.

  1. What you check before you call a job complete
  2. How you protect existing plants and irrigation during a cleanup
  3. What you do when you find something unexpected, and who decides
  4. A customer review, posted as text with the reviewer's permission
  5. Who is on the crew and how long they have been doing this
  6. Service area, said plainly: the towns and neighborhoods you actually reach
  7. Another look at the finished yard, a week on, so it is clear the result held

Week 4: point at the next job

The job this week is timing.
Landscaping is seasonal, and the reason somebody does not call is almost never price, it is that this week did not feel like the week.

  1. "Why maintenance is cheaper than another reset" with the before photo back as the reminder
  2. What keeping this result looks like: how often, and what it involves
  3. When to book for [the next season, which you fill in], and how far out you are
  4. What you are seeing in yards around [city or neighborhood, which you fill in] this month
  5. One thing to ask any landscaper before hiring, including the ones who are not you
  6. The detail shot again, now framed as what regular maintenance protects
  7. The before and after pair one more time, for everyone who missed week one
  8. What you are booking right now
  9. A direct ask: how to get on the schedule, and what happens after they call

The placeholders in square brackets are yours to fill in.
Leaving them in a published post reads exactly as badly as you would expect.

What makes a caption work

A weak caption describes the photograph.
A strong caption tells the reader what it means for their yard.

The pattern that holds up:

  • Line one: the starting problem, named specifically
  • Line two: what the crew did
  • Line three: what the homeowner gets now, and what keeping it takes

Three lines is usually the whole thing.
Write "the side gate had not opened in two years" rather than "major transformation", because the specific detail is the part a reader recognizes from their own yard.

Two things to keep out unless they are true for this exact job: a timeline and a price.
A reader treats both as a quote, and a quote you did not mean to give is a hard conversation later.

What stays with you

Boomp writes from what your public website says.
The judgment below is yours, on every post, and no software takes it off you.

Permission, in writing, before you post.
A yard is attached to someone's home.
Ask before you shoot and again before you post, and keep the yes as a text or an email rather than a memory of something said on the driveway.
If you are posting a review, that is a second permission, not the same one.

Do not make a house identifiable without a yes.
House numbers, plates, the street sign at the corner, a distinctive door: any of them can locate a property even when you never write the address.
Shoot tighter, or crop.
A wide before shot of a neglected yard is a statement about the people who live there, and they have to be comfortable with it being public.

Plant and pricing claims change by season and by region.
What to plant in April is not advice, it is advice for your zone, this year.
Say where and when you mean.
The same goes for cost: what drives a price is stable, what a price is changes with fuel, haul-away, and how bad the season has been.

A before and after can read as a promise.
A dramatic pair invites a reader to expect the same result on a yard you have not seen.
Say what was specific about this one: the access, the condition, how long it took, what the homeowner had already done.
If a result depended on the homeowner keeping it watered afterwards, say that too, because it is the difference between proof and a promise you did not make.

Three ways to get this done

You have the photographs and you know the yards, so the only question left is who writes and publishes.

On Packs, $9 a month, you get ten finished posts by email link and publish them yourself.
Nothing is connected to your accounts.

On Core, $39 a month, you get 20 posts, one carousel, and one short video, published to your connected channels after you approve each one.
That is about ten minutes a week, and there are larger plans above it if you want more volume.

On done-for-you, $275 a month, it is the same content, and Kathleen approves every post on your behalf.
You never open the app.
See done-for-you.

There is no contract on any plan.

See ten finished posts made from your website, free

Frequently asked questions

What should landscapers post on social media?

Post proof of finished work, answers to the questions homeowners ask before they call, and plain notes about the season you are in. A useful month is mostly photographs of real yards with captions that explain the starting problem, what changed, and what it costs the homeowner to keep. Reviews, service-area notes, and maintenance reminders fill the rest. Tips with no photograph behind them are the weakest thing you can post.

How many social media posts can one landscaping job produce?

One finished project with nine pieces of raw material can carry about thirty posts across four weeks, as long as each post has a different job. A post that shows the result and a post that answers what a cleanup costs are different posts, even from the same yard. The limit is not photographs, it is angles. When you run out of jobs for the post to do, stop and shoot the next project.

Do I need permission to post a customer's yard?

Ask before you shoot and again before you post, and get the yes in writing by text or email. A yard is attached to someone's home, and a wide shot can make the house identifiable even when you never write the address. Keep house numbers, plates, and the street sign out of frame unless the homeowner has specifically agreed. A verbal yes on the job site is easy to misremember later.

Do landscaping businesses need professional photography?

No. Clear phone photographs of real work are enough, and they read as more honest than a styled shoot. What matters is shooting the before from the same spot as the after, so the pair actually compares. Wipe the lens, shoot in the same light if you can, and take more frames than you think you need. You cannot go back for a before photo once the crew has started.

How do you write a caption for a before-and-after photo?

Name the starting problem in the first line, say what the crew did, then say what the homeowner gets now and what keeping it will take. That last part is what separates a useful caption from a brag. Avoid a timeline or a price unless it is true for this specific job, because a reader will treat both as a quote. Two or three short sentences is usually the whole caption.

Should landscapers post the same project more than once?

Yes, as long as each post does a different job. Nobody sees every post, and a project that appears as proof in week one, as an answer to a pricing question in week two, and as a maintenance reminder in week four reads as three separate posts to the person scrolling. It becomes repetitive only when the same photograph carries the same message twice.

How often should a landscaping business post?

Daily is a fine target if the posts come from real work, and three or four times a week is a better target than daily filler. One finished project shot properly covers a month at roughly one post a day. If shooting one project a month is realistic and shooting four is not, build the month around one and let the others contribute a single photograph each.

See what Boomp would say about your business

Ten finished posts, made from your website. No account or card.

Make my free posts

Rather not do this yourself? Start with what done-for-you social media should handle or affordable social media management, compared.

Save this to Pinterest

How Landscapers Can Turn Before-and-After Photos Into a Month of Posts
KC

Written by Kathleen Celmins

Founder of Boomp. Helping local businesses stay visible on social media without doing the work themselves.