Selling Out Your Mini Portrait Sessions

I see a lot of posts these days about people being unable to sell out their mini sessions, so I thought I’d write a little article and things you can do to increase the number of mini sessions you sell.

So many photographers are offering mini sessions these days so the market is crowded. That’s true. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t booking mini sessions. In fact, I believe more people are looking for mini session these days, especially when it comes to holidays. There’s an incredible opportunity to sell these if you market them properly.

So how can you get yours sold out? To do this we want to tap into some selling psychology secrets.

The first thing we want to do is get our current clients to feel like they are part of the process. People are more likely to buy into something they helped create. They are also more likely to participate in things when they feel part of a community. How can you do this? Start with your email list. Send pictures of two different mini session ideas or backdrops that you are considering. And say something like this.

“I’m working hard on designing my Christmas mini sets for the fall/Christmas/Easter/whatever, and since I consider you part of the Suzie Smith Photography inner circle/family, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Can you please do me a favor? I’m trying to decide which one of these backdrops to use for my Christmas minis.

Would you mind taking 30 seconds to hit that reply button and let me know which background you prefer? I’d appreciate it so much!”

It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. You’re letting your client know that something is coming. This helps build up a sense of anticipation and gets them thinking about their own need for updated portraits.

This also makes them feel special, in-the-know, part of your inner circle or family. That’s a BIG deal in getting people to engage and participate, and in building brand loyalty for the long haul.

Once you are ready to start booking your mini sessions, send a pre-launch invitation to those who answered your first email about which background they preferred.

Thank them, and say something like, “Hey, since you were so kind to take a moment to let me know which backdrop you preferred, I wanted to do something nice for you. Tomorrow, I’m sending out an email to all my clients about my Christmas minis. But I wanted to give you a chance today to grab your spot on my calendar before it officially opens.”

Then tell them what they need to do to book.

What this does is remind these people that they’re special, that this is something they helped create, and it also introduces scarcity and urgency into the marketing process.

Scarcity and urgency are two marketing techniques that move people to act faster than anything. I actually don’t like the word “tactic” because that makes it sounds sneaky and underhanded. But it’s not! If you truly are offering the sessions to your email list tomorrow, and you truly do have a limited number of sessions available, your clients need to know that!

When we let our clients know that they might not be able to have something we are offering, the value of what we are offering goes up. And let’s face it, most photographers don’t have an unlimited supply of mini session spots. So we need to do a good job of conveying to our clients that these spots are limited and will fill up quickly. Let them know that, even though they might want one of these, not everyone who wants one will be able to book one.

Once you’ve given that early-bird booking opportunity to those who answered the email, now it’s time to offer it to the rest of your inner circle/family - your full email list. Again, you want to let them know that they are special, that they are getting a chance to book before everyone else, that supply is limited - they might not be able to get one, and that there is a deadline. Make it a short deadline, say 48 hours. Ideally you want your mini sessions almost completely booked up before you release them to the public.

You also want to give them a deadline by which they must book it. I would recommend offering it to your newsletter subscribers first and giving them 48 hours to grab their spots before you post it on social media. And you absolutely must tell them that you are doing this. Get that sense of scarcity and urgency working to encourage them to take action now before it’s too late.

Another thing you can do to encourage your subscribers to look quickly is to offer a fast action bonus. For instance, maybe you open up your mini schedule to your followers and subscribers for eight hours before the general public. But you also offer a special gift to those who cut their session within 24 hours. Again this creates another level of urgency.

If you do all this, there’s a good chance that by the time you’re ready to post on social media, most of your spots will be taken, and you’ll be able to use that fact to once again introduce more scarcity to those who see your posts.

One final thing you can do to help build your email list for future launches is to include a line like this in your social media posts:

“My newsletter subscribers got first dibs on session times. Want an early-bird shot next time around? Subscribe to my newsletter here and join the inner circle/family to get first dibs on specials, minis, and other fun stuff.”