I’m going to hazard a guess that most of you know what a mini session is. Some of you may have held your own or considered planning one; some of you may even have several — or many — under your belt.
Today we’re talking to Erin Hession-Wooton, an Indiana photographer, who’s a pro at mini sessions!
She was inspired by BP4U’s own fall mini session templates and, since she had an open date due to a canceled wedding, decided to host a mini session on a whim. The result? She sold 18 mini sessions at $150 a pop in no time flat and had a blast.
Before we get into the details, let me first tell you a little about Erin.
In her own words: I started my company in 1994 and we specialize in weddings. I would say that our style is a blend of fun candids, fashionable fine art & artistic photojournalism. We like to have fun with our couples and really capture the essence of their wedding day and who they are as a couple.
Mini Session Q&A with Erin:
Is this the first time you’ve offered mini sessions?
Yep! It kind of happened by accident for us. We were supposed to have a wedding that day, but there was a huge downtown event going on in Indy and our couple had to change their wedding date. We weren’t open on their new date and we never did re-book their original date, so when I received an email from BP4U advertising their mini session templates, it gave me the idea to do a Fall mini session day on the day that we still had open! It worked out great!
How did you market your mini sessions?
We used the BP4U template and marketed it on my personal Facebook page first. Then we posted it on our business page for our fans to see. After that, we sent the promo out to our database of clients and within a few days, all of our sessions were sold out.
What was the response?
The response was huge! I had clients booking sessions left and right. Some people said they were interested, but weren’t available for the day that we initially chose, so we ended up choosing a second date and marketed it specifically to that group of people.
How many did you end up booking?
We ended up booking 18 sessions at $150 each for a 15 minute mini shoot with the CD included.
How did you keep all the sessions organized?
I created an Excel spread sheet with each client’s name, names of everyone coming with them, their email address, mailing address, phone number, what color and type of car they’d be driving that day (so that my assistant could be on the look out for them) and a comment about what each client was hoping to get out of their session. I created a time table of sessions with a five minute break between time slots, then included a few breaks in there for us, and then filled in the info as I received it. Once I received their information, I’d send them the link to pay online and then they were confirmed at that point. We did two group emails prior to the session that had additional information with directions, a map, parking info, what to wear, who to call that day in case they needed to reach us, etc.
Once the big day arrived, how did your sessions go?
The day went GREAT! Every single client arrived early or on time, they all respected the 15 minute time limit that they had and I showed them some sample images on the back of my camera before they all left and they loved them!
What were you worried about ahead of time?
About 48 hours before our mini session day, one of my clients went down to the area where we were planning on shooting (she’s a photographer and she had a session in the area) and she mentioned that roads were being closed and that it was Butler’s homecoming weekend with lots of campus events being planned for that whole weekend. I had an initial freak out moment, but then decided that we just had to roll with it the best we could. I downloaded the schedule of events for the weekend, tried to make sure that the times and parade route wouldn’t effect the route our clients would be taking down to the garden area and then I sent out an email to the mini session clients to explain the situation and remind them to be on time (or early) to account for additional traffic and possible road closures.
The other thing we were worried about was the leaves! Everything was still pretty green down in the garden area, so we went to a local hardware store early that morning and picked up a bale of hay, some mums and pumpkins to give it a Fall look. Everything worked out perfectly and my clients appreciated the gesture.
What is some advice you would give to someone who is thinking about trying to offer mini sessions?
I would say go for it if you’re super organized! I would definitely price your time well because even though you’re only shooting for 15 minutes, there will still be a lot of extra coordination, emails and editing afterwards.
If you had to do it all over again what would you change?
I honestly wouldn’t have changed much, I think I would have checked the Butler event schedule ahead of time but we shoot there so often and have never run into that issue before so it hadn’t even crossed my mind. We’re actually doing another mini session day soon and we’re even thinking of adding on a few more mini session days throughout the year for other holidays and seasons. We learned that the parents loved being able to get great, updated photos of their kiddos at a good price and the kids loved it because the shoot was quick and painless!
Shop BP4U’s mini-session products here.
Find Erin on the Web:
Website / Facebook / Twitter / Blog / Pinterest
