Running a small business is no easy task. It's messy and thrilling and terrifying all at the same time. But no matter what, it's definitely a journey worth taking. As a mom of two littles, I know the daily struggles, and I'm here to walk this journey with you. If you're ready to feel empowered, encouraged and on fire for the things you truly love, then you're in the right place. I'm Rebecca Rice, a pizza loving hot chocolate drinking family photographer and educator. And this is the business Journey podcast.
Hello, friends, welcome back to another episode of the business Journey podcast. I'm your host, Rebecca rice. And today, we're getting into the five reasons that you should do a Christmas in July mini sessions promotion. And if you're not sure what that is, I will talk you through it. I'll explain it, don't worry. But before we get too far, I wanted to let you know about something that I feel like is going to be super helpful for you and your business. When it comes to many sessions. Here we're headed into fall season. And that is my free mini sessions class where I walk through the main marketing tips that you need to be able to finally fully book your mini sessions. So if you have never fully booked your minis, and you're like this is the year I'm telling you this free class, it's only about an hour long is for you that it walks you through keys to marketing that you're going to need to make sure are covered this fall to make sure that your mini sessions get fully booked. And I know that they absolutely can. So go check out that class, you can sign up for a time that works best for you. It's at Rebecca rice photo.com/minis-class. So I would love to see you there. Let's get into Christmas in July. Now I have to explain because usually when I say Christmas in July mini sessions promotion, people automatically think that means shooting Christmas minis in July. And that's not what I'm talking about here. I am not talking about actually getting out your camera and shooting your minis in July because I don't know where you live. But where I'm from born and raised as a Texas girl, our July's were brutal, so hot and miserable. Nobody wanted to shoot in July. You don't have to do that. That is not what this promotion is about. What a Christmas in July promotion is, is basically it's you know, kind of playing off of this Christmas in July trend. And using it as an opportunity to start booking your Christmas minis early. And so typically what this looks like for us is we are doing our red truck Christmas minis every year. We do red truck Christmas minis in October. And then we do some kind of indoor studio Christmas mini in November. And so we do host both. But in our Christmas in July campaign, we are only advertising our red truck Christmas minis because those are by far the most popular mini sessions we do every year. Last year, my associate team in Dallas, I think they fully booked eight dates of three hours of mini sessions back to back every 10 minutes for red truck minis. And after those eight dates were fully booked, they still were getting inquiries like it was absolutely insane. And so our red truck minis are by far the most popular. Basically, we just have like a vintage red truck that we put some Christmas decor we put like a Christmas trees and pillows and presents blanket. And people love them. And so because it's our most popular, that's the one that we use to do our Christmas in July campaign. And so next week, I'm going to talk about like tips to how for how to, you know make this campaign go really, really smoothly. But today, I'm gonna give the five reasons why you should consider doing a Christmas in July campaign. And like I said, we usually shoot these in October. And the first question I often get from people is like, do people actually book in July for a session that's in October? The answer is 1,000%. Yes, they will. Because the demand is just so high. And it's inevitable. They're they want to book they're ready to book and they get really excited about it. And so the five reasons that you should at least consider doing Christmas in July campaign. The first is that allows you to get in front of the competition or get ahead of the competition, because most people most photographers, who are not students of mine Most photographers don't start advertising their Christmas minis until the fall. And that's like a normal time to advertise Christmas minis is like September after school starts, you know all that. But by doing a Christmas in July campaign you're getting in front of or ahead of so many other photographers that when you start advertising yours in July, they haven't even thought about Christmas minis yet. And so automatically, you're the first one to get in front of your clients before anybody else has the chance. The second reason that you should think about doing a Christmas in July campaign is that it allows you to get ahead of demand from your clients. So I remember the first year I was doing minis, I was kind of in this cycle of you know, I didn't plan ahead. And I would wait until I saw somebody asking about a type of minis in mom Facebook groups, and then I'd say, oh, yeah, I'm doing mine. And I'd start advertising. So I did this for you know, Easter minis the minute somebody started asking about Easter bunnies, I was like, oh, yeah, I'm doing easter bunnies, and I like threw something together. And then I would did the same thing for fall and Christmas and all the things. And that was a great way to constantly stay behind. And I did not reach my fullest booking potential that first year, I booked out the dates that I had set, but I could have booked way more had I planned ahead. And so by running a Christmas in July campaign, you're able to present your Christmas minis before your clients have even started asking you about them. And so you are the first one to be in front of them, the first one to even mention that you're doing them and your clients will be excited and thankful. And they will want to book with you. Especially let's say your client is one of those that kind of works with multiple photographers, if you're the first one to present it to them and get ahead of the demand, then you're the one they're going to end up booking with. And so it's a great opportunity to, you know, present it to your client before they're even, you know, worrying about it. And it helps them feel like they are ahead and all the things. Third reason to do a Christmas in July campaign is it's a great way to get yourself to start early. One of the biggest things that I see, or the biggest mistakes I see photographers make just in general with their mini sessions is they don't give themselves enough time to market well. Good marketing takes time. And typically that looks like at least six to eight weeks. And if you commit to doing a Christmas in July campaign, you're gonna be way ahead with your, your marketing for your Christmas minis. And so it's a great way to finally get ahead because you have this sort of unofficial deadline with the Christmas in July campaign because you can't do Christmas in July, in August. And so it kind of gives you a reason or like a push point to get your button gear and make it happen. And anytime my students have committed to doing a Christmas in July campaign, they feel so much better. Even if all their spots don't book in July, then they at least are ahead. And so I will say out of our eight dates of red truck minis that my team did last year in Dallas. I think they booked three of them over our Christmas in July campaign, which usually runs about two weeks. And I'll break all this down in our next episode and a couple of weeks. But I they don't book all eight in July. That's a lot. So usually book about three. And then the other five dates get booked in the fall when it's closer to the season. And so I just want to make sure that your expectations are right that you're not going to book out, you know, millions and millions of mini sessions in July, but you will book out a good handful if you start early. So it gives you a great reason or it gives yourself an early headstart. Another reason. The fourth reason to do a Christmas in July campaign is it's a great way to give yourself a quick influx of cash during a slow season, and that is from collecting retainers, I highly suggest at least collecting a 50% retainer upon booking, if not the whole payment, we do 50% That goes really well we take the rest of it, you know just before the session. And it's nice because most people are not booking out a ton of sessions in July or you're not shooting a ton of sessions in July. And so it's naturally just a slower season in family photography. And so what this does is it gives you that quick little influx of cash during the slow season so that it can kind of help carry you until you know true busy season hits in the fall and this time has always been really nice. Like I said, we don't book out all our Christmas minis in our Christmas in July, but we took a book out a good handful. And collecting all those retainers, it is such a nice way to just see cash coming in the bank, because it can be really discouraging, you know, seeing slower seasons and thinking like,
oh my gosh, like is this thing going to survive which I've been in the game long enough that I just know that we naturally have busy seasons in the spring in the fall and naturally have slower seasons in the summer in the winter. And so I don't panic as much now. But it's still nice to see the influx of cash during a naturally slower season, because you start booking those sessions really, really early. So that is a wonderful reason. And then the fifth reason that I want to mention that you may want to think about running a Christmas in July campaign is that it helps give you a better estimate of what your fall is going to look like. So for one, you already know how much money to expect in the fall just from the second half of your payments from the many sessions that you do book. So it's nice to you know, kind of have some guaranteed money already coming in to say, okay, I can breathe a little easier. I already know I'm getting X amount, you know, in October when I shoot these, but it also kind of gives you a gauge on what your fall is going to look like. Because people will start kind of letting you know you'll have a handful of people that are like I don't want to do Christmas in July. But I do you want to book a fall session. And so we tend to book a good handful of fall minis during this time to just because people are starting to think that way. Once they see Christmas minis they're like, Oh, I maybe I don't want red truck. But I do want some fall minis. And so you kind of get to start gauging interest there. It also allows you to like really prepare your audience and start priming them for Fall season because even if they're not ready to book with you in July, it gives them you know, a month or two to really get in the right mindset where they've already seen you booking on you know, Instagram or whatever you're posting about, you know, your bookings, you're sending emails to your email list. So you're staying top of mind. And it's really priming them well, so that when you get to ready to book out your phone, minis, those people are super ready. So it kind of acts as like a two fold benefit, where you get to get an estimate of how your fall is gonna go. Also, you're priming your audience so that they're super ready. If they're not quite ready in July. They're super ready come August, September to book out their fall sessions. So if that hasn't convinced you, I don't know what Well, I am such a huge proponent for Christmas in July campaigns. I've been doing them for years and years, and they just go so well every year. And so if you've never tried it, maybe this is the year that you give it a try. If you haven't started yet, start now, because July is coming quick. It's only a couple weeks away, I cannot believe that you can start your planning now. And here in a couple of weeks, I'm going to give you some extra tips to make sure that those are ready to go. So be sure to tune in to that episode. But in the meantime, if you have any questions about Christmas in July, or how we do this kind of stuff, let me know you can shoot me a DM at Rebecca rice photography on Instagram. And I'd love to chat with you there and see how I can help. But I'm telling you Christmas in July is such a great opportunity to really start your bookings early this year. And I think that you'll be pleasantly surprised with how well it goes. So with that I'll go ahead and close out for today. This episode was short and sweet. But I hope it gets your wheels turning because that's my main goal here is to get you really thinking and you know dreaming and strategizing of what your following Christmas can look like and how you can start that as early as possible. Ideally, a Christmas in July campaign. So let me know if you have questions. And we'll see you back here in a couple of weeks to talk a little bit more dive deeper into Christmas in July. We'll see you then. Bye guys.
