Fall is a busy but rewarding season for photographers. Fall colors make for great photo backdrops, which makes fall mini-sessions a popular option. Hosting fall mini-sessions is a great way to keep your clients engaged with your business and keeps them coming back for more!
Are you a wedding photographer looking for ways to generate income creatively? A mini photo session is a great way to grow your business as a photographer and provide an alternative to the same old thing your competitors are doing.
Find out how you can effectively market mini-sessions, what time is allotted for marketing, and much more!
What is a Photography Mini-Session?
A mini-session is a smaller, more affordable version of a portrait photography session.
They’re perfect for busy families who want to capture all the most important people in their lives but can’t fit in a full-size portrait shoot. They’re also perfect for those who are just starting out with their families or don’t have the budget for an entire session yet.
The main reason for doing a photography mini-session is to save money on photography services. By booking a group of people together, you can get more photos taken than if you booked an individual session.
You also don’t have to find other people who want to do a photoshoot with you at the same time as your friend or family member’s session.
By offering relevant mini-sessions, one may be able to generate demand in different photography niches. Photographers may decide for themselves whom to offer mini-sessions to.
For example,
- Individuals
- Families
- Kids
Families are increasingly choosing mini-sessions over traditional portraits. Mini sessions are a quick, affordable way of getting professional portraits quickly—and they’re perfect for families who want to capture the fun and spontaneity of their lives together.
They are a quick, affordable option for getting professional portraits for:
- Holiday cards
- Anniversaries/ milestones
- Family announcements
- Photos to share with friends, etc.
One way to make a steady income from mini-sessions is to fill multiple event slots and charge a higher rate. If you do this, your income will stay steady, and you won’t burn out as easily.
Photographers should consider the cost of production when providing their services, and this is a way of ensuring that the business is profitable.
Don’t set your prices so high that you drive away potential clients. Consider offering a discount for mini-sessions since these sessions are shorter and don’t require as much prep work on your part.
Why Should You Offer Mini-Sessions?
Mini sessions are a great investment because you can get so much out of them. If you run them correctly, mini-sessions have the potential to be very profitable.
If you offer 20-minute mini sessions with a limit of five images per session at $250 and shoot from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, you’ll earn $4500 for six hours of shooting- but that’s not including any add-ons!
The appeal of immediate income is obvious, but let’s focus on the long-term benefits.
1. Less Expensive
You’re allowing potential clients to become acquainted with you and your work by offering a free consultation. This can lead to them purchasing more expensive session packages, and people are more apt to try something new at a lower price.
This is a great way to increase your client base without devaluing your brand.
2. Cash The Season
As the holiday season approaches, many people struggle to fit all of their tasks into a busy schedule. Instead of turning away clients or losing potential business, consider adding mini-sessions to your schedule.
Mini sessions are a great time-saving option for taking portraits and will allow you to work with more clients than you may have time for during regular portrait sessions.
Mini sessions are great for both you and your clients. They offer you the opportunity to create themed holiday content that would be too difficult to put together for a single shoot. They give your clients a fun, unique experience between their regularly scheduled full sessions.
3. Build Partnerships
By partnering with different local vendors, you can create a win-win relationship. You’ll save money and gain access to a variety of products, while your partners will enjoy increased exposure and a steady stream of new customers.
How Do Your Advertise Your Mini-Sessions Using Digital Marketing?
If you are a photographer and offer mini-sessions, you are in for a treat! This is one of the most effective ways to promote your business and ensure that you get many inquiries from interested clients.
The best thing about mini-sessions is that they can be done any time of the year. They are also great for photographers who have just started their businesses because they help build up your portfolio and get some experience under your belt before moving on to bigger things.
Here are the seven tips for how to promote mini-sessions:
1. Check Your Competition
Before you start any marketing campaign, the first thing you should do is benchmark your competition. Before planning your own Mini-Session, visit other photographers’ websites and find out what they are doing.
If you want to stay competitive in the photography market, you need to know what other photographers charge for their services and how they promote themselves.
If you want to come up with a list of competitors, you can use the tool SimilarWeb.com. Just enter your website address in the top box and click on “Competitors & Similar Sites” in the left sidebar.
This tool will show you a list of similar websites and their traffic sources, which will help you find out more about the photography industry.
2. Create an Attractive Landing Page
As you plan to post something on social media or elsewhere, remember to link it to something so that people will be able to follow up on it. That’s why you should create a Landing Page – an easy-to-access place where people can take advantage of your offer.
There are many possible solutions to this problem that you might consider implementing.
Your landing page is a blog post or a dedicated subpage on your website, and it should have a mobile-friendly form that people can use to book a Mini-Session. If you want to get customers, make it as easy as possible for them to contact you.
If you are not a web design expert, you can use free software and templates to create a landing page that will be pleasing to the eye and practical at the same time.
When designing a landing page, consider the needs of potential customers who are likely to come from Facebook ads. Most of these people will be visiting your site on their smartphones. Therefore, you can create a mobile version of your landing page first and then create a desktop version after that.
To prove that you are trustworthy, it’s best to include testimonials from previous customers about your Mini-Sessions.
3. Create an Event on your Facebook Page
It’s easy to let your Facebook fans know that the Mini-Session season has started by posting a status update. You can also use this page to post updates about your studio. For example, you can post photos of your new decorations under the “Discussion” section.
4. Add a Promo Pop-Up to Your Website
When it comes to booking appointments at a Pop-Up location, you may feel like you’re working on an ugly, repulsive business. But we can guarantee that Pop-Ups actually work and can get you new bookings.
If you make your landing pages beautiful, user-friendly, and optimized for search engines, they can help you get new leads. If you want to get people’s attention, try a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a marketing method where you give an exclusive offer and require something in return.
You can grow your customer base by creating a promo code for your Mini-Sessions. But in order to get it, customers have to fill out a form in which they provide an e-mail address that you can use for a newsletter.
By providing a bonus for people who sign up, you’ll have a double win: new potential bookings and an increase in your newsletter database.
It’s easy to create a second pop-up module on your website if you already have a pop-up module in place. If you don’t have this kind of feature, however, you can use additional plugins or free software that offers a bunch of design ideas and functionalities.
5. E-mail your Previous Clients
For every professional photographer, it’s crucial to have a database of past customers. If you update them about your current offers and new blog posts, you can guarantee an income on two levels:
- They can book new appointments.
- They can refer you to their friends.
So, we do recommend creating a dedicated email to your previous clients about mini-sessions. However, because your previous clients have already used your services before, you can include a special promotional voucher or additional photo product after the session.
Make sure to put it in the email’s title and the main infographics as well, because it will catch their attention.
6. Show What you Offer
Visualization can help you succeed in sales. Try using visual language when you talk to customers about your products, whether over the phone or in person. It has been proven to be more effective than just describing the product itself.
You can now show them mockups of your photos of actual products, giving them a better sense of what the final product will be like. By using mockups, you can add an image of your product to your website or social media page, as well as place it on your landing page, in emails, and in advertisements.
7. Run Facebook Ads to Promote your Mini-Sessions
It’s no secret that Facebook ads can be expensive. But if you have the right audience and a clear call to action, they can effectively drive traffic to your mini-sessions.
Here are some tips for running successful Facebook ads:
- Use images that are eye-catching and relevant to your niche. For example, show off some of your best shots if you’re a landscape photographer.
- Use the right targeting options. You can target users based on their interests and demographics, including location, gender, and age.
- Create a custom ad set with relevant targeting options. For example, if you’re promoting a wedding mini-session promotion, target people who have been married in the last five years or whose status updates include words like “wedding” or “bride.” If you’re promoting a family mini-session promotion, target people with children under 18 living at home or whose status updates include words like “kids” or “family.”
- Set a budget for each ad campaign. This will help you track how much money you’re spending on each campaign and ensure your ads aren’t costing too much.
- Test different images and copy (the text in your ad). You might think one image would work best, but testing different ones could give you better results. The same goes for copy — sometimes, different words will do better than others when describing what your business offers.
- Make sure your landing page matches the offer in your ad as closely as possible, so people don’t get confused when they click through to visit your website or find out more about what you have to offer them.
- Use the right copy and call to action in your ad copy. Make sure it’s clear what people will get by clicking on your ad and encourage them to do so by using strong language like “free” or “offer ends soon!”
- Create multiple ads with different images and text. You never know which one will work best until you test them out!
- Make sure your copy is compelling and easy to read — don’t use too many words or phrases that might be difficult for people to understand.
- Use images of happy families and kids playing together or posing for pictures in front of beautiful backdrops (and ask clients if they will use their own photos). The goal here is to show people what an amazing experience they can expect when they book a mini-session with you!
How do you use social media for advertising your mini sessions?
- Post daily stories.
- Go live and talk about your packages; it’s all about being personal.
- Show photos from previous mini-sessions. People need to see your editing/shooting style.
- Use graphics. We recommend you to try Canva for easy customization.
- Reviews! Let your previous clients do the talking for you.
Wrapping Up,
If you’re looking to make photography mini-sessions the next big thing for your business, you have to start with an advertisement. Find a place where you know people will see it and choose the right words to persuade people that your session is worth the money.
It’s all about calls to action and giving clients what they want. Successful advertising doesn’t happen overnight; you need to tweak your advertising efforts and gather client feedback continually.
Photography mini-sessions have a long history of success. If you can give potential clients everything they want, such as convenience, ease of use, and a great customer experience, then you’re doing something right.