If you have read the blog post on how I grew my photography business, the you might already know how crucial mini sessions can be for your early business model. Minis provide a huge opportunity to grow your clientele while also building your confidence behind the camera (and laptop... aka editing)! However, they can be tough to plan if you truly do not know where to start. This blog will breakdown my process for planning and even marketing mini sessions. If you use this process and build off of it as you find what works for your business, you'll be selling out mini sessions in no time!
But first, what is a mini session?
Mini sessions are back-to-back sessions of shorter intervals (ex: 15 minutes) that take place on a specific day at a specific location with a specific theme. Typically, mini sessions are designed to catch the interest of potential/returning clients that wish to have photos to celebrate a specific holiday or an itch to partake in a specific trend. A great example would be Christmas minis for Christmas cards! Here's a short list of a few mini session themes -
Cap and Gown minis: Scheduled for spring or fall for high school/college seniors getting ready to graduate.
Motherhood minis: Scheduled in early spring for mamas to get photos with their little ones before Mother's Day/Easter.
Branding minis: Scheduled early in the year so businesses can grab new headshots to kick off the new year.
Tulip minis: Or honestly any other type of farm in your area, such as pumpkins, lavender, and orchards. Tons of clients will already be in the area to enjoy the festivities that come with farms opening up for the season. You might as well take advantage of it!
Boudoir minis: Getting a little spicy with this one! Schedule boudoir minis for January so your clients can have their photos back before Valentine's Day. Giving them plenty of time to print and gift their photos to their partner.
Mini sessions are the perfect opportunity to work with a ton of clients in a short window while also turning a huge profit. So, let's dive into the process!
Step One on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Choosing a Theme and Ideal Client
I already touched on this slightly! Based on the time of the year, there's only a few mini sessions that make sense. As a rule of thumb, you should give your self 6 weeks to market for your sessions and 3 weeks to edit. I almost recommend sitting down during first quarter and plan out all the minis you want to execute for that calendar year. Yes, I even mean picking your Christmas Mini session date before you have even payed taxes for the previous year! That way you can prepare deadlines way in advance so nothing sneaks up on you.
After choosing a theme that you have ample time to plan and execute, let's put together some inspiration. Inspiration will be what you fall back on as you're planning out all the details for your mini sessions. Things will obviously evolve as you continue to mark items off the to-do list. However, having a mood board will allow your marketing and vision to be concise with your location, props, and product.
Personally, I use Pinterest to create my mood boards. I do this both for mini sessions and general sessions. When it comes to mini sessions, my Pinterest mood board energizes me with creativity while supplying my clients with an understanding on the direction of the mini sessions. As you create your board, revisit it every once in a while to unpin posts that are no longer consistent with the overall vision. Being concise will help eliminate any confusion for both you and your clients.
After you finalize your board, think to yourself - what type of clients am I noticing throughout this mood board? Are they families with small children? High school seniors? Expecting mothers? Couples? Although some mini sessions can open up your ideal clients to be just about anyone, this might hurt you more than help you. Having a specific type of ideal client for your minis allow you to zone in on those interests and book more effectively. Knowing who your ideal client is will provide you with more direction throughout this process.
Step Two on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Choosing a Date
Going back to that last section, make sure you're choosing a date that is 6-8 weeks out in advance (if possible)! That way you have plenty of time to etch out all the final details and market for your sessions. When choosing a date, here's a list of things to keep in mind:
Is the date you're looking at on a major holiday?
Are they on a work day? When does the sun set that day? Do your clients have enough time to get off work and make it to their session while also having enough sunlight (depending on who your ideal clients are).
Partially skipping a step here... but the location you want to have the minis at, are they open? What do their hours look like?
How about spring breaks? Fall breaks? Any reason why your ideal client might already have an obligation for your date?
If you've narrowed it down to a few dates, it may be the best strategy to poll for your date! Since you already have your mood board, you can share it with your potential/current clients and allow them the opportunity to partake in the planning of the mini sessions by polling for a date. I personally like to do this because A) someone might inform me of something happening that day that I might have no awareness of and B) it grows early interest for your mini sessions.
After you have a date, then it's time to....
Step Three on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Booking a Location
Now this is typically the first "oh we're doing this" step depending on where you plan to host your mini sessions. Why? You might ask? It's the step where you'll start investing into your mini sessions. Unless your mini session are in an open field or a community garden, you most likely will need to pay a photography fee or book a location for your mini sessions. Sure, you could do it the sketchy way and start booking for your mini sessions before actually booking the location. With this game plan, you run the risk of your location getting booked before you have the chance to finalize.
Truly, I recommend bitting the bullet and booking your location prior to taking bookings for your sessions. This way you have the built-in confidence prior to marketing your sessions by knowing your location is already a signed deal. This will also put a little bit of a fire under your a** to book out your mini sessions since you've already invested into them. Oh and before I forget to mention it... If your location is booked by the hour, I would advise booking at least 3 hours! This will give you plenty of time to set up and tear down while also taking several time slots.
When you're about to officially mark this step off the to-do list, it's time to take a visit back to your mood board. Does your location fit the vibes you're portraying in your mood board? If so, great! But if not, why not? Is it because the location in your Pinterest board isn't obtainable or is your vision changing? Both answers are totally fine! If your location looks drastically different from your inspiration, let's add and remove items from your mood board to portray your new vision.
If your new board is now representing a new ideal client, we might need to revisit Step Two before finalizing that booking. Double check that your date doesn't conflict with your ideal client's lifestyle. If everything now looks good, still take a small pause on finalizing your booking until you get through Step Five!
But before Step Five, we have...
Step Four on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Putting Together a Prop List
Time to look back at your inspiration for your mini sessions for the zillionth time! Do you need props for your minis? For example, you're putting together In-Home Mini Sessions that are curated to candidly capture families with young ones as they bake cookies together and cuddle on the couch. It sounds like you'll need flour, cookie cutters, a bowl, a blanket, maybe even already baked cookies? Scrolling back through your mood board will help you both identify and brainstorm props you might need.
As you think of props, start jotting them all down! Once your list is mostly complete, start researching how much and where to buy these items. Are some as easily obtainable as making a Target Run, or do you need to complete an online order on Amazon? If you have to order online, is the estimated arrival time before your session date? What if you ordered the items a few weeks from now (aka, after clients start booking)?
Using that prop list, calculate a rough total cost because it's now time to...
Step Five on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Pricing and Time Slots
Now we've made it to the exciting step - how many clients are we potentially booking, and how much income will that provide? Up until this point, we've put together a mood board, decided on a date, scouted out a location, and listed the props we'll need. The numbers we're working with up until now include the cost of the rental and props. Add those numbers together to get a rough estimate of your overall expenses. With the estimated expense amount, we can now determine our estimated profit. There's two ways to look at your potential profit - worst case and best case.
Worst case scenario, you only book one or two mini slots. This can definitely put a damper on things, but let's still try to breakeven so we're not making a bad situation worse by going into the negative. What should your mini session slots cost so that one or two booking will wipe out all your expenses? Say the rental is $300 and the props are $50, I would recommend that your mini session slots cost at the very least $200 each. This way it takes two bookings to turn a profit instead of three or four. Your minis should always break even or turn a profit by two bookings. If the time slots are outrageously expensive for your ideal client based on this rule, we might need to revisit A) the location, B) the prop list, or C) who our ideal client is. I recommend approaching A and B before entertaining C.
Now, how many sessions can we squeeze in our rental time? If you're booking a space by the hour, make sure you book at least 3. If you've booked a location that you have all day access (such as a farm or an Airbnb), how much time do you have between your ideal starting time/access and sunset? Here are a few examples on brainstorming time slots:
Scenario 1: I booked a studio for 4 hours and want to try turn a profit of $1000. My ideal client are high school and college graduates, and my original idea is that each session is will only be 15 minutes long since they're Cap and Gown Minis. There won't be a ton of clean up between sessions, so I will put 5 minutes between each time slot. I also don't need a ton of set up or tear down time since I won't be bringing in any props into the studio. My studio booking is from 1pm to 5pm, so I will put my first booking at 1:20pm. With the 20 minute intervals, I will have time slots for 1:20pm, 1:40pm, 2:00pm, 2:20pm, 2:40pm, 3:00pm, 3:20pm, 3:40pm, 4:00pm, and 4:20pm. My last session will end at 4:40pm, which gives me plenty of time to clean up the studio and leave. With a total of 10 sessions at $200 each, my gross profit is $2000. The studio cost $100 per hour, which puts my expenses at $400 since I don't need to purchase any additional props. Evaluating my gross income and expenses, that leaves my net profit at $1600. That's more than I was originally aiming for, so I can do one of two things - A) adjust my booking to 3 hours with 7 clients, providing a profit of $1100 or B) continue with 10 potential slots so I have a higher likelihood of earning a profit $1000 even if 3 slots don't fill. Either way, I will breakeven after two bookings.
Scenario 2: I booked an Airbnb for Motherhood Minis. I gain access to the Airbnb at 1pm and the sunsets at 6pm, which gives me 5 hours of good operational time. Since my ideal client is families with young children, my time slots should be a bit longer to allow the children to warm up to a new environment. Therefore, my time slots will be 30 minutes. Also these minis are designed to be more candid and fun, so I do have plenty of props. I should add 10 minutes between sessions to freshen up the space between clients. With all of that being said, My first booking should be at 2pm and my last session should end around 5:30pm to give me plenty of time to set up and tear down. With 40 intervals, that gives me six total time slots. The Airbnb cost $250, the props cost me $50, and I would like to turn a profit of $1000. Therefore, I would need to make a total of $1300 to reach that outcome. $1300 divided amongst six sessions is $216 and some change. Let's round up to $250 per time slot. If my minis sell out, I will make a profit of $1200. Otherwise, I will make close to $1000 with only five bookings, and I will definitely break even after two bookings.
Deciding on a price and the amount of time slots can be a tricky four way tango between your location, your props, your ideal profit, and your ideal client. The two big takeaways I want for you from this section is to aim to breakeven by one to two bookings and set your time slot cost to reach your ideal profit without booking out.
Step Six on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Setting Up the Booking Software
Now that we know what time our slots are for, let's put together the software that allows our clients to book!
I recommend using the Client Management System (CMS) you currently use for your business! Either that's Honeybook, Pixieset, Unscripted, or an Excel Spreadsheet. No matter what you use, my best advise is to require a deposit at the time of booking a slot. Simply "inquiring" for a time slot as a way of marking off it's availability isn't effective. You need your clients to show that they're seriously interested by investing money into their session. I would of course include the statement that the deposit Is non-refundable on both your graphics and mini session description while booking. The contract and final payment can be emailed out later.
Step Seven on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Marketing
This is personally my favorite part! Marketing for your mini sessions include sharing all the details for your sessions, but it should also include building excitement and exclusivity. Excitement and exclusivity are the two approaches that will allow your mini sessions to sell out within days or even hours of launching. If you made it this far, fantastic because I'm really about to give y'all my best kept secrets so listen up...
Let's talk about excitement! Excitement is building up interest in your mini sessions before you start accepting bookings. Building that interest for your mini sessions is extremely important because it puts the date of your minis out there early for your potential clients to mark it down on their calendars. You're not going to just market your mini sessions once on your instagram story before hard launching the sign up link... No, you're going to post on your story every other day starting a week or two before the link goes live. Put the story graphics as a highlight on your profile so potential clients can get to the information quickly. If you decide to make a grid post, make sure you pin that bad boy to the top for the same affect. But with every good announcement should be paired with a great a action...
Let's make things exclusive! When you make those early advertisements, let's pair it with an action! I recommend encouraging your audience to either join an email list or early bird list to receive the incentive of either early access, a discount, or both! Early access builds the aura that your sessions are a hot commodity that could sell out fast. You should serve this short list of potential clients as if they're inquiries. If they don't book within a few days of receiving early access, follow up! Clients shouldn't have early access for more than 2-3 days before the public. If they have early access for too long, the power might flip from you to the potential clients. Think through it with me. If your early bird list didn't book out most of the sessions after a week of having access, your non-early bird clients might not see the rush to book quickly either. However, if your early birds sell out half your spots after having access for 24 hours, then your non-early bird clients might notice the high demand and book as soon as the link becomes available to everyone.
Don't fret if you don't sell out within a week of hard launching your mini sessions. Continue to be consistent by sharing information via social media and email lists. Consistency is key! If you're approaching a week or so out from your minis and still haven't booked as much as you'd like, you can jump onto two other marking strategies, discounts and advertising. Offer a discount or flash sale for your remaining spots. If you want to keep the slots at the same cost but are fine with spending a bit more (adding to your expenses), you could always advertise via Meta or Google. I would give you advise on how to make the most of your online ads, but to be honest... the algorithm changes so often that by the time you read this blog, my strategy might be worthless. Check out either youtube videos or marketing content creators to seek advice for this one!
Here's a few other strategies for marketing your mini sessions:
Instagram Reels and TikToks Is a great way to reach an audience that doesn't already follow you.
Giveaway a time slot on social media by having the entry be either to follow you or join your email list. This strategy can have long term benefits since you're adding to your follower count!
A referral program that either removes a certain amount off the clients final balance or adding an incentive such as prints, more edits, or film.
A raffle for those that do book a time slot. Either they get a goodie basket of items or a one night stay at the Airbnb you already rented for the mini sessions.
Step Eight on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Preparing for your Minis
As bookings start to flow in, It's now time to start finalizing all the details for your mini sessions. What I'm mostly referring to is purchasing all the props you'll need! Are there sales between now and your minis that you can take advantage of such as Presidents, Memorial, Fourth of July, Labor, or Black Friday Day? Do you need to order anything that has a long lead time?
As items start to arrive, organize everything into boxes and totes so they can easily be loaded and unloaded on the big day! If you have a ton of props, it might be efficient to have a list of all the items you need. That way you can physically mark off the items as you organize them. That way If you're missing anything, you can run to the store the days leading up to your sessions. As an extra thank you to yourself, I recommend load your car up with all my props the night before so you're not rushed the day of.
Also leading up to your mini session day, mentally game plan how you're going to set up for the minis. Did you give yourself enough time to set up by yourself now that you're looking at all your props? Do you need extra hands? While you're thinking through this timeline, also plan a departure time that allows you to arrive at your mini session location 15-30 minutes before you're scheduled to set up. If things aren't going according to plan, you'll be thanking yourself for this extra time. If things are going swimmingly, then make a quick stop for a coffee on the way or jam out to music in the car while scrolling your mood board to get in the right head space. Your mental state stepping into your first mini session is crucial for how the whole day is going to go.
Step Nine on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Doing the Dang Things!
It's time for you to do what you do best! I mentioned at the beginning that your mini sessions will help build confidence in both your shooting and editing style. As you shoot each mini, you'll find a flow of either poses, prompts, or specific locations from session to session. Each new time slot is a chance to reset both your energy and creativity. Around the halfway point of your mini sessions, the process of taking photos should start to feel more natural and consistent. For me, this is when my creativity starts to open up and I have grown confidence to try something new or dig deeper into my client experience. If you're a client reading this blog post to get insight into the photographer's process for mini sessions, here's something you can takeaway - Try to book a time slot towards the middle. This is when your photographer is most likely to be the most creative without being exhausted.
Once the day is over with, the editing should be the easiest step! Your settings from mini time slot to mini time slot should be fairly similar. This can either allow you to breeze through your editing or give you the opportunity to learn more about your editing style with it comes to skin tones, color theory, waves, and histograms. Understanding your editing style thoroughly will absolutely build your confidence as a photographer in general! When you flip your final galleries to your clients, don't forget to kindly ask them to tag you when they post on social media, and provide a link for them to leave you a review. Word of mouth is one of the best growth strategies for a business! In this digital age, word of mouth consists of tagging in instagram posts and sharing google reviews online.
Step Ten on Planning Your Mini Sessions: Reflecting
This is honestly the most important step when it comes to your business and it's future with mini sessions. Either it's on the drive home at the end of the day or the morning after delivering all the galleries, set aside time to truly reflect on how everything went! Here are a list of questions to kick off this final step:
Did I give myself enough time? Did I feel rushed? If so, how did that effect my creativity and my client experience?
Did I reach my ideal clients? What could I have done different if I didn't? If I did reach my ideal client, what techniques did I learn when it comes to photographing them?
Now that I have an understanding on how to plan and execute mini sessions, how can I build on my client experience? Provide a "How to Dress" guide, have gifts waiting for them on session day, or play music throughout the session?
What did I learn about my shooting style in general? What lenses did I gravitate towards? Which lenses did I wish I used more often?
How do I feel about my editing? Does it look consistent from session to session?
Did I reach a net profit that I was looking for? Which expenses jumped out at the last minute?
How was the session length? Too long or not enough time? If it was longer, did I enjoy the extra reset time? If it was too short, how did that affect my day?
Which props did I wish I had? Which props didn't get used?
What are my clients saying about their session? Are they raving about their galleries? Are they sharing their photos?
Which mini sessions are you going to do next??
Thank you so much for visiting my blog and reading this post! Connecting with other photographers and clients by sharing my thoughts and feelings is such a nice way for me to break up my busy week! If you had any feedback, I would love to hear it! You can email me at info@kaleighmadison.com
Other than that, let's be friends on socials!
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