BREAKING INTO MINI SESSION PHOTOGRAPHY MEGAN BREUKELMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
SHOULD YOU BE DOING MINI SESSIONS AT ALL? Since the concept of mini sessions became really popularized by a lot of photography hobbyists or beginners online, there’s been a lot of people who look down on them. The argument is basically that mini sessions devalue the work of actual family photography professionals. I don’t think that’s necessarily the case, though, and I’d even argue that mini sessions are an awesome way for professionals and hobbyists alike to continue building on their photography business at many different levels. So, let’s start with why I think mini sessions can be valuable for photographers. If you’re a family photographer and you’re worried about losing business to photographers who are doing mini sessions, the clients that are booking minis are not your clients. Your work is not devalued just because those particular clients chose to go with something quick and simple. As a family photographer, it’s likely that you put a lot of time, effort and love into each and every one of your family shoots. When it comes to mini sessions, everything is typically set up and ready to go for you. There’s usually propping and styling involved, and every family tends to sit in on the same set. If a client wants something completely original and unique for their family, they’re going to go for a personalized, formal family session. Not all families want that, however. Some of them just want something cute to send to their family for the holidays, or post on Instagram for their circle of friends. Many families with babies and toddlers can’t even get their child to keep from crying in a longer timespan than 20 minutes. A mini session is perfect for those people who don’t want the hassle of having to have their family take an hour or two of their day and go to multiple locations or sit in a studio. Kids can get restless, and parents know that. A lot of parents prefer mini sessions for that reason. Not every client is going to be the client for you as a family photographer. Some families may not even value your price tag when they can take great photos now with their phone or their personal cameras themselves, and that’s not your fault and not your problem as a photographer. If you’re worried about mini sessions scooping up your clients, you need to map out what your ideal client really looks like, their behaviors and spending habits, and cater to those families. Now, for photographers who actually love mini sessions or are looking to break into them, this one’s for you. You know mini sessions can be valuable for a number of different reasons to photographers. Whether you’re first starting out or you’re a seasoned professional, it’s worth at least considering adding mini sessions to your offerings. So, let’s start with a majorly important point: getting work into your calendar.
FILL YOUR CALENDAR If you’re a wedding photographer, or a photographer whose work is pretty seasonal, it’s likely that your calendar isn’t totally packed in the off season. Many wedding photographers, at least in North America, are most busy during wedding season which can range anywhere from March or April to September or October. Then there’s the long haul of winter that photographers need to make it through. Winter is a great time for blogging, catching up on administrative work, marketing planning and editing. But it’s also a great time to squeeze in some extra sessions for additional income. That’s why mini sessions can be super valuable to seasonal photographers! Adding mini sessions to your schedule for seasonal or monthly occasions can generate additional revenue for your business and keep you shooting, blogging, active on social, and making connections. Doing mini sessions for families connects you not only to their network of family and friends, but
GENERATE EXTRA INCOME
BRING IN REPEAT CLIENTS
If you have a small setup in a local park, backyard, home studio or so on, it only costs you time to put on a set of mini sessions. If you take one day, open up eight half hour time slots, and charge something like 200 dollars per session, you’ve just generated 1600 dollars for 4 hours of shooting. That’s a pretty solid day that you weren’t otherwise booked for, or making any direct photography revenue from. Some photographers choose to charge per photo for download, others offer a certain number of digital downloads before the client has to pay. I personally don’t do this and instead give our mini session clients access to all of their high res files for download with the option to print directly from the gallery. I know it’s extra income we could be making, but we made the decision across the board in our business that we weren’t going to keep images from our clients. We have no reason to hold onto their images, and would prefer that they stay happy, advocating clients as opposed to feeling ripped off or bait-and-switched. A lot of our clients have made the comment to us on how appreciative they are of this gesture, and it’s generated a lot more repeat business and referrals because of it.
Providing a great client experience for your mini session clients will generate repeat clients. These are people who are willing to pay for your services on a repeat basis, and people who are willing to go to bat for your business. They’re sharing your work, they’re telling their friends where to find you, and they are an awesome organic marketing network you’ve created with just 30 minutes of shooting. Their network becomes aware of your work and either becomes a part of your mini session network or for even bigger jobs like events and weddings. There’s also the chance their family is still growing and that gives you the opportunity to continue to work with them and create memories as they grow together. Plus, a lot of clients are more than happy to oblige when asked if their images can be used in your marketing materials like social, blog, and email.
CREATE MARKETING MATERIALS Mini sessions make for great seasonal marketing materials. Not just shots of families, but the details of your setups as well. Take photos of any details you’re using like pumpkins, pine trees, apples, or whatever seasonal goods you’re using when you do mini sessions. Those can make great backdrops for blog posts and filler social posts. Develop a more seasonal approach to your marketing with the content you generate from your mini sessions. Just make sure you get permission like a model release from your families before using images of them for your marketing materials.
HOW DO I BREAK INTO THE MINI SESSIONS MARKET? Let's go over the resources you can use to start shooting mini sessions in your photography business.
QUICK TIP: COLLECT PAYMENT UP FRONT Collect your payments UP FRONT. Make it a requirement to pay in advance to reserve the mini session slot. There’s always going to be a family who has to back out at the last minute. Offer them the chance to use the payment for a future mini session in the next six months or something like that. Families have a million reasons to have to back out of a 30 minute photography session at the last minute.
QUICK TIP: OFFER PRINTED PHOTOS Not every photographer who does mini sessions offers printing, but photo prints are really important to a lot of families. Many people have their houses decked out with prints of their family. Moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas LOVE having the option to choose their favorite images from their session and have prints sent directly to them. All we do is allow the printing option and collect payments once the orders are all set.
LOCAL MOM ORGANIZATIONS AND GROUPS Start by aligning yourself with local groups where there are a lot of parents. When we first started doing mini sessions, we had connected with a local fitness group for moms to take photos of a couple of their classes for their social media. They liked us so much that when mini session offers came up, they were determined to help us fill every single slot–– and then some! Day cares, fitness groups, and localized activity clubs are great connectors to get in with a ton of parent connections. Offer up local businesses catering to parents some free or discounted photos for their social media channels. Start getting your work in front of their audience in an organic way like this, instead of just sending out promotional materials. Pull them in, don’t push your services.
LOCALIZED FACEBOOK GROUPS Are you a part of any Facebook Groups in your community? If not, start finding localized Facebook Groups you can build a rapport in. Building a trust within your community both offline and online can create a lot of opportunities in your photography business. When mini session seasons come around, post a first-to-know or exclusive offering to that community.
FACEBOOK PAGE GIVEAWAYS Your Facebook page is a great opportunity to generate some buzz about your mini sessions. Instead of just pushing the info out to your audience that mini sessions are opening up, give them incentive to engage with a Facebook page giveaway. Offer a free mini session to one family if they do X Y and Z, for example like, comment and share the post. This gets your work shared amongst their communities and brings others in, to discover your work. Plus, getting that spike in engagement will tell Facebook’s algorithm “Wow, this post is really popular! Let’s get it in front of more people.” which helps your overall page. Plus, for anyone who didn’t receive the free mini session giveaway, there’s always the opportunity for them to book your session since they’re already interested. Send them your booking information for your session in case they want to go for it anyways!
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