Tips and ideas to promote your mini sessions
Mini sessions are very popular nowadays, they are comfortable for photographers and clients, it's an easy way to get known by new customers and a great opportunity to develop loyal clients and progressively arrange full sessions.
Here we have a few ideas on how to get the word out about mini sessions, not limiting yourself to just posts on Facebook. There is more than that to achieve a successful mini session campaign.
PREPARE YOURSELF ON TIME
Have a calendar with the holidays or seasons you want to promote for Mini Sessions and settle a reminder 7-10 weeks before the holiday to begin planning and promoting your sessions. This time frame depends on how much time you need to edit and retouch the photos to deliver before a specific holiday or before the end of the season.
DO IT SPECIAL
Don’t let your mini sessions be as simple as a cheap short session. Make it special for you and your clients. Let your customers know to bring a special prop or you can surprise them yourself by providing it accordingly to the mini session theme. It can be as simple as to choose a fresh location for summer mini sessions or bring a summer thematic background to your studio. You can apply the same rule for any themed mini session. Clients will love to have something special and you will create portfolio and blogging material.
DESIGN YOUR MARKETING IMAGES
Let your clients know all the details about your mini sessions, and do it with style. Specify the time, location, dates, pricing and don’t forget to include a couple of sample pictures accordingly to the theme you are promoting, new clients would like to know your style before contacting you. Choose pictures that attract your customers at the first glance. Nice pictures and a lovely design will settle your style and allow you to attract the right clients.
Save time using our photoshop templates, Birdesign offers a wide variety of premade marketing templates for all occasion and seasons.
GET THE WORD OUT
1. Post on Facebook of course, but don’t limit yourself to it. Remember that if your image/design is appealing, it will naturally get more likes and exposure among fans.
2. Create a new timeline cover to let your clients know you are booking, due Facebook policies you can’t communicate sales, promotions or discount codes on your timeline covers, however you can make something easy like adding a new photo related to the mini session theme and add an overlay saying “It’s booking time” or ” Now booking”. That will refresh your fanpage and your clients will know about it. Remember that having an updated page is essential to keep your clients interested and engaged with your brand.
3. Blog about it! Post on your blog the promo image you already have and include a little collage with some pictures related with the theme you are promoting for your mini session. Don’t hesitate to blog about your promos, potential clients are everywhere, more blogging will bring more traffic and clients to your studio. If you have your post done, Pin it!
4. Tweet it! Not much to say here, include an image if you can.
5. Instagram it! if you don’t have an Instagram account yet, this is the time to do it, create your community and invite your clients to follow you. Instagram is getting very popular among small and big companies, is not just about taking a blurry picture with your iPhone, you can upload professional pictures to your icloud and post them from your mobile device. For mini sessions you can post the promo image or something simpler like a related image with an overlay saying “Booking” and including a couple of details on the comments.
6. Send out a newsletter. This is a MUST. Social networks are great to promote your work, however several of your posts will be missed between so much social media noise. Go ahead and send out the details to your old clients via email. If you don’t have a contact list it’s time to do it. Send a promo image with clear details about the mini sessions. Don’t write too much on the body, your images and pictures will speak for you. Don’t get stuck sending messages one by one, Mailchimp is a great tool to send out your digital campaigns, you can even open an account for free and keep it that way if you don’t have more than 2.000 subscribers.
GIVE A SPECIAL VALUE
You love surprises and free things, clients too! Give them a special Facebook timeline, or a special board for them to post at their facebook pages.
You don’t have to invest big money on printing things. A small treat can bring up your customers' mood, they will be happier and willing to share the nice experience in your studio with family and friends.
GET CREATIVE
Thank God for the Holidays! We are always surrounded by them, which gives you a great opportunity to create marketing themed material. However, you can take a step out of the ordinary mini sessions and do something unique, totally uncommon. Something like: “Me and my pet mini sessions” , “Me and my favorite toy”, “Best friends mini sessions”, there are many options you can think of, just get creative!!
You can begin with Daddy & Me and 4th of July sessions :) Have fun!