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00:00:01
How to Make Mini Sessions Actually Work for You
107 Plays11 days ago
Episode Summary:
Mini sessions: love them or hate them, they’re one of the most debated topics in the photography industry. In this episode, I’m breaking down why I don’t hate mini sessions and exactly how I structure mine to sell out every time and bring in serious profit. Whether you’ve tried minis before or you’re considering them for the first time, this bite-sized episode will help you avoid common mistakes and use mini sessions to grow your business and your email list.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why mini sessions should never be a regular part of your pricing page
- How to create scarcity and structure mini session events for maximum success
- My personal strategies for selling out sessions and boosting your email list in the process
Links & Resources:
Download my Simple Pricing Worksheet!
Connect With Me:
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Visit my Website for More!
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Transcript
Introduction to Mini Sessions
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey, hey, empowered listener. I am excited to bring this little bite-sized piece of information to you today about something that everyone loves to talk about in our industry. People have a very polarizing, um have polarizing opinions, I should say, when it comes to mini sessions.
How to Successfully Conduct Mini Sessions?
00:00:20
Speaker
And I think that people think that I hate them. And I want to tell you that I don't hate them. I do not hate mini sessions. I just want you to do them right. And here is exactly how I book out my fine art mini sessions of ah session session events excuse me and how I make big money in the process.
00:00:41
Speaker
So first off, mini sessions cannot be a regular offer that you have listed on your price page. That's probably one of the biggest mistakes that photographers make when they are going to offer mini sessions is that they have it be a regular thing that people can book year round.
00:00:55
Speaker
If you are doing that, that is not a mini session. That's just a cheaper version of your full session.
Creating Scarcity and Urgency
00:01:01
Speaker
so a mini session can only be offered occasionally and as a special offer so most people that have profitable mini sessions will do them either seasonally like once or twice a year um or maybe up once a quarter or something like that it has to be a special event it has to be something that has a scarce number as well So each session has to or each mini session event has to have only a certain amount, and when that books up, it books up.
00:01:31
Speaker
So for you for example, for us, when we do our fine art mini sessions, we offer 20 spots, and when those are gone, they're gone. And so people have to hop on a wait list and wait for us to offer them again.
Defining Mini Sessions
00:01:42
Speaker
So your mini session event has to be also planned to be an actual mini session. Each session should be 15 minutes or less.
00:01:52
Speaker
um Ours are around five minutes because we do five fine art mini sessions. But if I was going to do family mini sessions, I would say 15 minutes or less or else it is not actually a mini session.
Booking and Pricing Strategies
00:02:03
Speaker
you want to make it super easy for your clients to book their time slot so you'll use a calendar booking system that allows them to select the date while also putting it on your calendar there's lots of free options for this you want to make sure that you price your mini sessions at a no-brainer buy-in price and leave room for upsells after the session has been completed
00:02:24
Speaker
So a no-brainer buy-in means that they book that mini session for like $150, let's say, and then after you will upsell them on extra digital files, boutique products, prints, etc.
Building Your Email List
00:02:38
Speaker
You want to use the opportunity of marketing your emails your um excuse me marketing your mini session as a way to grow your email list. So what we will say right before we are going to open up slots for a mini session is first dibs is going to go to the email list. So you want to make sure that you get on my email list so that you have first dibs on the mini session event that we're having.
00:03:00
Speaker
And for us, this is a huge reason to get on our email list because we only have one to two mini session events per year. So people really want to be on that VIP list so that they are getting that first opportunity to book because they do book up very quickly.
Promoting on Social Media
00:03:16
Speaker
If you don't sell out your mini sessions to your mailing list first, then you can take to social media by sharing how many slots you have left and dropping the booking link in stories and link in bio. Stories is more effective than link in bio these days, statistically and anecdotally. Like when we are booking something, if we say link in bio, nobody ever goes to it.
00:03:35
Speaker
But if you leave a link in stories, it is actually pretty effective.
Engaging with Local Audience
00:03:39
Speaker
next after that if i still hadn't booked up i would share on my personal facebook page about the mini session event my personal page works better for local things like this because it is mostly local people on my personal page and i'm sharing that because i think a lot of people forget to share um mini session events on or any kind of photography event on their personal page they only think about their business page and i think it's underutilized
00:04:08
Speaker
So I just wanted to share that.
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
00:04:10
Speaker
It's actually not that complicated. Mini sessions are not all bad. I just want to make sure you're doing them right. So here to recap, you want to make sure that it is a scarce offer that only happens on special occasions.
00:04:22
Speaker
It cannot be on your website on the main pricing page. and you want to really use it as a way to boost your email list, next, really make sure that you're actually doing a mini session.
00:04:36
Speaker
Do not do a full session at a mini session price. so you want to keep it short and sweet. All right, go out there, make some money, book those mini sessions, let me know how it goes.