Hey, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Business Journey podcast. I'm Rebecca, and I'm just so excited to be here with you today. I feel like I start out all my podcast saying that, but it's so true. I really love getting to come on here. And even though I can't see you, I know that you're tuning in. And so I love getting to just, you know, pour into you and your business so truly from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for being here and just, you know, supporting us in this way. I'm excited about today's topic. Of course, anything about mini sessions like really gets my heart going so I could talk about it all day. But today, we're talking about three tips for booking out your mini sessions. Right now, we're at the beginning of September and it is prime mini session season. If you aren't advertising mini's and booking him yet, you absolutely 100 percent should be, because now is like the prime of fall mini sessions. And so I want to give some tips, some very practical things that you can be doing to book out those mini sessions now. And before I get too far, I wanted to mention if you're wanting to dive like super deep into all things mini sessions, I do have a free class available to you where I talk all about marketing, monetizing, maximizing your profits with mini sessions. And so you can check that class out at Rebeccaricephoto.com/minis-class. It's completely free. Go check it out. And we talk about all things minis dive super deep into, especially marketing. So I think you'll find it really helpful. So let's dive in to our three tips for booking out your mini sessions. Tip number one is to start with your email list. Now, if you don't have an email list, I highly suggest starting an email list. I call my email list my VIP list, which consists of past clients or potential clients, anybody that wants to work with me. They have agreed to give me their email in exchange for receiving updates and priority access to our bookings. So they're the first to know when my mini sessions go live and all the things. I'm a huge believer in your email list because your email list or your VIP's, that is your warmest audience. Usually those are people that you've either worked with in the past or they have been to your website. They've checked out your social media and they are excited to potentially work with you at some point. They have chosen to give you their email so they can be updated. So that's your warmest audience and they are absolutely ready to book. So by starting that email list and advertising to them first, that is how you're going to get your easiest bookings. I can attest to this. I opened up bookings for my red truck Christmas minis at the beginning of July. We did like Christmas in July sale. And I never even went public with my spots because I booked out all my spots with just my email list. I was like, cool. I never had to post on Facebook or Instagram or whatever, because we booked out all our spots just with my email list. So that was a huge perk, because I do believe that there's power in social media marketing. Obviously, I talk about that a lot in my mini sessions course. But if you can book out your spots before having to do that, man, it's a timesaver. It's an energy saver. It's just those people are so ready to book with you. They're so excited. So that's the number one place I would start for sure. Now, in episode 12 of this podcast, we talked all about email lists and why you should start an email list and how to start an email list. So if you're wanting to know more about, email us. Go check out episode 12. I know that it'll be helpful for you, but that's tip number one is always start with your email list because they are your warmest audience. Tip number two for booking at your minis is be smart when you market to the public. OK, so after you've marketed to your email list and it's time to go public on Facebook groups, on your Instagram, partnering with local businesses, whatever it is you're doing, when you start marketing to the public, you want to be really smart in the way that you do that. So what does that look like? Well, first and foremost, I highly suggest creating scarcity and demand with the way that you market. So I talk about in my free class, here's like a little glimpse of it. I highly suggest only opening one date at a time for your minis. Let's say you're wanting to do three dates of fall family mini sessions instead of opening all three dates and giving people all of these choices. I suggest opening one at a time. And then when the first date fills, then you can open up the next day. And then when that date fills open up the next date. This does a few things for one. It helps minimize the holes in your book. So let's say you didn't book all your spots. Wouldn't it be so much better to have a full day, you know, two full days and then a few open spots on the third day rather than, you know, holes. You know, you've got a random like 30 minutes here in a random 15 minutes here that just are not booked because you had them so spread out. So by opening one day at a time, you're minimizing those like random holes. Another thing that it does by opening one date at a time is it creates scarcity. So when we talk about supply and demand, remember back to like middle school economics class, when supply goes up, meaning there's more available, demand goes down?
Less people are needing it. When supply goes down, demand goes up. So think about like the housing market right now. Obviously, that supply is down, right? There are not very many houses available. Demand goes way up and then prices shoot through the roof. So and you get into bidding wars and all this stuff, like people are going crazy over the housing market. So the same concept can be translated into your many sessions if you have you know, let's say you're doing eight minutes on each date, so you have 24 minutes total over your three days. Which one sounds better? Hey, guys, I have 24 spots available. Come book your mini or. Hey, guys, I only have eight spots left. I'm so excited. Blah, blah, blah. And then once you book those eight saying, wow, I am so excited. We booked all of our minis in the first 24 hours that I had to open up a second date. Your clients are potential clients don't have to know that you always intended to have three dates, right. You can phrase it in a way that says, man, our demand was so high, I had to open up a second date. It's all about the way that you use your words to create that scarcity and create that demand. So you want to be really smart in the way that you market. And if you liked that tip, go watch our free minis class again. Rebeccaricephoto.com/mini-class, because we dive super deep into other marketing tactics that you can use to be smart when you market. So definitely go get that a watch. And then tip number three for booking out your mini sessions is to stick with it. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with photographers that get super discouraged once they you know, they've been advertising for, you know, a week or two weeks. And they're like, I don't know why my beneath our booking. And the thing I want to remind you is that good marketing takes time. OK, so that's why I highly suggest giving yourself like six to eight weeks to market, because sometimes it takes six to eight weeks to fill all of your spots. Maybe you're in a dead zone. I know. Like that one or two weeks before school starts in August is a dead zone. And so many photographers are flooding mediums like Rebecca. Why are my mini's not booking? I'm like, relax, like school just started. Parents are not thinking about booking fall photos right now. They're thinking about trying to make sure that their kid gets to school. They're in a new morning routine. They're signing a million papers and trying to get things going for back to school. They are not thinking about fall photos right now. So you have to give them that space, allow them to be in the current season. Back to school and then bookings will pick up once they're settled. It happens every single year. But that's why we give ourselves plenty of time to advertise, because you're going to hit some dead zones. And when you hit that dead zone, sit in it, relax, take a deep breath, give it a week or two and then start again in your marketing. You know, the same thing kind of happened with our Christmas money. So we always do a Christmas in July push. So my minis booked out super quick and my associate minis booked out super quick. But then we were trying to book or I guess their red truck minis booked out really quick. Then they were trying to book studio like indoor studio Christmas minis towards the end of July, and we were just not getting any bites at all. And so we're like, oh, my gosh, what is happening? Well, we found that, yes, it was still July, but it wasn't, you know, prime Christmas in July time, because really that first week in July is the perfect timing to hit people with Christmas in July. And then after that, they're just not ready for it. And so we put a pause on our Christmas minis and we'll pick it back up here in a little bit. But it just we reached a dead zone and dead zones happen. The biggest thing that I want to say to you is stick with it, OK? If you're minis, do not bug automatically in the first 48 hours or whatever. Stick with it. There's a reason that we give ourselves six to eight weeks, because sometimes it takes that much time to actually fill all of your spots. So don't get discouraged, OK? Take a deep breath and know that you're going to be OK and. If you're, in my opinion, see 2.0, of course, profitable mini sessions, course 2.0. Then I have a whole module in there about troubleshooting and like what to do when you're minis or not booking. And there are few things that we look at. And one of those is timing and just seasons of life, like what is going on in the world right now that may be preventing people from booking. And so don't panic. Don't throw the towel in. Don't completely give up. Stick with it. Because I can tell you, out of all my students who have been the most successful with mini sessions, they are the ones who have persevered and kept going when it got hard. Because here's the truth, friends. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it right. It's not that easy. There are some hard parts. You know, marketing takes a lot of time and a lot of energy while good marketing. I keep saying that because there's also bad marketing. And so good marketing takes a lot of time and energy to do it well. And if it were easy, everybody would be doing it. And so stick with it. I'm telling you, if you can just trust the process, trust yourself that you have a product that is bookable, that is awesome. Then I'm telling you, you will see success from it. If you you are like panicking and wanting to see if anybody else is in the same like slow season, then you can, you know, post. We have a student Facebook group for anybody that is, you know, in my behind the lines membership or in any of my courses. We have a student Facebook group post in there and ask around, because I think you'll be reassured that typically when you are having trouble booking, other people are, too. And it's a trend. We had that back in the end of July, early August in our group, where people are like, am I the only on? I'm just not booking right now. And my team was able to jump in my lead of our associate team. She jumped in and was like, no, it's not just you like. It's a trend we're seeing right now. It's OK. We aren't alone. Lots of us are booking. And it was really reassuring even to us who I've done this for years and years and years. It was still reassuring to hear like other people were having a slow couple of weeks and that it would pick back up. And you guys. It did. It always does. This is how the seasons of photography work. So stick with it. Don't give up, because that perseverance is what is going to keep you going to book out those minis so short and sweet episode for you. Three quick tips for booking out your mini is just to recap. Start with your email list. And if you don't have an email list listen to episode 12 and I talk about more reasons why you should have on and how to start one. Number two is to be smart when you market publicly. And the number three. Stick with it, because I'm telling you, it will be fine. Don't give up. If you have any questions at all, I am always available in DMs. You can find me at Rebecca Rice photography. It's been so fun because I've had people reach out. They're like, OK, you always say if I have any questions Dm you so here I am DMing you. It like makes me so excited because I truly do love having these conversations with you guys. And it's really me. Yes, I do have a team of people, but my team does not, you know, Dms that is truly me. So anytime you do me, you will get a response from me. So if you have any questions at all, I would love to help you. And then don't forget to check out our free class Rebeccaricephoto.com/mini-class for a deep dive into mini sessions marketing for free. So I hope this is helpful, friends, and I can't wait to see how your minis are going. So. Have an awesome week. We'll see next time.
Episode Transcript
