5 Ways To Set Up Your Christmas Mini Sessions For A Win || CopperRed Photography

So you see all the other photogs offering up Christmas Mini Sessions and it totally sparks your interest. You love the idea of shooting multiple people in the same day, back to back but have struggled in the past to either get it going or to get people to actually book. Let me give you some of the tips I’ve found to be the ingredients for creating successful Christmas Mini Sessions.

#1 - Location

These are Christmas Mini Sessions so make sure that you choose a location that has all the christmas feels or as much as possible. Secondly ensure it is accessible. Free or at least easy parking are always an added bonus. When families and couples are shopping around for their mini sessions one of the factors in their decision making will be how easy the process is.

How do I know that? Because that’s how I would do it. As a mum of 3 boys myself I know that if you put 3 options in front of me, the first being downtown Toronto where I’ll have the hassle of finding my own parking and horrendous traffic, the second being an hour and a half away at a beautiful, famous Christmas Farm or a local GTA Christmas Tree Farm outside of the city, with abundant free parking, guess which option I’m going for? Ding ding ding, number 3! Simply because I want less stress.

So make the location easy for your clients, aim to create less work for them, less stress and more enjoyment.

#2 Retainers

Okay now this one gets me all soap boxy and wanting to shout from the rooftops lol. If there’s one thing I can guarantee will help you not only with your Christmas Mini’s but with all your sessions is the must do step of taking a retainer at the time of booking.

If you have found that people have booked up a spot initially but then bailed last minute or even worse the day of, or even worse again just not showed up this will stop that in it’s tracks. I promise. When I first started out with my business 5 years ago I did not do this and guess what happened, I had clients cancelling left, right and centre. It was super frustrating. Once I switched to a two step booking process (retainer and contract) I have never had a single cancellation or no show, yup you heard that right, not one!

#3 Get the word out!

It’s all great that you’ve done your research, found an incredible christmas tree farm or other dreamy spot, arranged the dates with the farmer, come up with your package but no one knows but your mum, your sister and her best friend. Don’t get me wrong word of mouth is the #1 way I now get clients BUT it’s not the only way.

You need to also develop a marketing plan, an advertising strategy. I know, who knew when you stepped out into being a photographer that taking and editing photos would become one of the smallest portions of your work.

The best thing is that you don’t even need to spend money if you don’t want to because there are so many awesome free platforms for you to utilize. I would recommend creating an Instagram Story Train (not sure if thats a real term, if not I’m making it one lol). What I mean is not just one image you post to your IG stories with all the Mini Session info. No, no, no. You need to make it super engaging and beautiful. Try to put together at least 4-5 slides to tell about your mini sessions. This way you can break up the info, share more of your stunning work that you want them to fall in love with and cause them to book up with you.

Then you have to share it frequently. I know you may feel shy to post it to your stories again because you just did it yesterday or a couple of days ago and you figure, ‘oh everyones seen it, they don’t want to see it again’, lies! Not everyone saw it and even if they did research shows that we need to be exposed to something anywhere from 5 to 12 times before we take action. So share, share and share.

If you have an email list this is 100% one of the times you send it out. Reach out to all your past and soon to be clients, that’s why you created your email list in the first place, to serve them.

#4 Stand out

You need to come up with something that makes you different and it’s not price! Please don’t let the differenciating factor of your sessions versus those around you be that yours are the cheapest. You are neither serving yourself or doing anything for gaining respect and traction for our profession.

For me I offer a super fast turn around time on my Christmas Mini Sessions. This is for a couple of reasons. #1 because who doesn’t love to get their photos back super fast, whilst they are still on a high from the shoot itself. #2 Because, at least for me living in North America christmas cards are a huge thing and the majority of my christmas mini sessions clients are using the images for that or as christmas presents for grandparents etc. So with a crazy quick turn around time they know they have time to order up this years cards, get prints arranged and framed for gifts and any other exciting projects they have planned for them.

Other ideas:

- Incredibly unique location
- Multiple dates
- More images

#5 Communication

You have to communicate well and this is something you should get all set up during the planning phase of your christmas mini’s. Design an email template that has all the package info, the location, dates, times, cost, booking process, as well as saying hi and how much you are looking forward to working with them and what to expect from their experience.

If you are like me you genuinely love your clients and care about their overall experience. Not just the shoot itself but the overall experience with CopperRed. I want all my families to feel important and thought of because it’s coming from a genuine place.

So when people inquire you are all set to go. You are able to send over all the details they need with just one click. Remember to have a great response time. I’m not saying your are at your inboxes beckon call but make sure that you reply within a max of 24hrs.

One they have booked up don’t quit the communication there. Be sure to send a thank you/confirmation of booking email. Updates on weather as the date get’s closer. Maybe prep a blog post on tips for what to wear or how the session will go and you can forward that over. Then of course pop them an email 24 hours before their session date to say hi, remind them it’s all a go and that you cannot wait to capture them.

Customer care matters but it has to be genuine.

I hope you got some nuggets of knowledge or at least one new tip/insight for planning your next round of mini sessions. Remember that you are capable, you are worthy of success and you can do it. Set yourself up well and I promise you will see and change in how your mini sessions play out.

Please let me know if you found this useful and if there are any other topics you would like me to get real and honest about. I want to help you to see your business grow, thrive and succeed. If I can do it you can!

You can join the CopperRed family and get all the tips and tricks I share right here. Just click the button and join the tribe. I’d love to serve you with helpful, tangible advice you can use to push your photography business forwards!