Rock Your Christmas Mini Sessions
It’s that time of year again! Christmas mini season. It’s a popular time for families to dress festively and get that perfect picture for this year’s Christmas card they’ll send out to all of their friends and family.
Our natural light photography studio proudly supports our photographers for these sessions every year. We provide you with a clean, DRY, warm indoor location (bonus, it also has a bathroom! how many times have you been on location with no bathroom? I know I have!). Not only will you be dry and warm, but we also bring in several Christmas specialty props to help you create your perfect styled setting and WOW your clients.
In addition to our beautiful photography studio and carefully curated props, there are a few things you can do to really hit it out of the park for your clients! Today I’m going to offer my top tips for creating the best experience for your clients that will have them raving and ensuring you have wonderful word of mouth referrals which should keep your future books more and more full! Yes! Right?!
Tip 1: Communication
This post doesn’t go heavily into the “marketing” of your session and assumes your sessions are already booked. If you’d like more info on “marketing”, stay tuned for a future post! Once your client has booked, it’s increasingly important to make sure you’re communicating with them. If you use Honeybook and/or Flodesk or a handful of others, you can actually automate a series of e-mails that will have your clients eagerly awaiting their session and excited for when the date finally arrives. If you do not have automations yet, you can still send out manual emails. I would send out a sequence of e-mails with subject lines and content that look something like this:
Congratulations on booking your Christmas mini with (your photography name here)! This e-mail would ensure your client knows exactly where, when, and what to expect. It should also tell them to look forward to a “style guide” or “outfit planning guide” you’ll be sending out shortly!
Still trying to figure out what to wear? I’m here to help: This is such a fabulous bonus to offer your clients, plus it will help you get the best photos because you’ve prepped your clients on what to wear given the setting and location. The reason I would send this in a second email is because it preps your audience for being excited to receive emails from you (especially if you’re wanting to start nurturing an e-mail list (which we HIGHLY recommend you do!!)), It creates a lot of excitement for your client to get an email solely dedicated to what they should wear. They’ll lean on you for this more than you know. You can suggest colors and styles that work best with a pdf graphic you’ve created in Canva, or send a Pinterest board you’ve specifically created for these minis, or there are even services, such as Style and Select that you can subscribe to and create a shoppable list for your clients.
You’re session is just around the Corner! Send them a reminder email about their session, where, when, what to expect. Let them know how excited you are to see them all dressed up and create images that they will LOVE and that they can share with their friends and family.
Tip 2: Jazz it up
In what ways can you add value to these mini sessions? Something that works really well is having a small gift for them at the session. Maybe you’ve brought a plate of yummy cookies they can snack from on their way out? Or a hand written card thanking them for participating in your mini day? Perhaps it’s a little gift card to buy a coffee? It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, but taking the time to add that little extra bonus goes a long way in the client experience.
Tip 3: End it with a small bonus and a big thank you
Wow your clients with a hand written thank you card. Often times I have adjusted my mini pricing to compensate for a small ornament gift at the end. I make sure to take into account shipping costs. Once I’ve delivered their gallery I ask them to share with me their favorite photo from the session. Then I order that photo as a low cost ($2-$5) ornament from my pro-lab and ship that to my client with a hand written note. It’s a small investment, but has huge impact.
I hope these tips help you as you prep for your upcoming Christmas mini sessions. We want to see you thrive this year and every year from here on out! You’ve got this.