EP 91: How to Build a Marketing Plan for Mini Sessions

Ep 91 How to Build a Marketing Plan for Minis
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[00:00:00]

Melissa Arlena: Hey guys. Welcome back to the podcast. This week we are talking about how to build a marketing plan for your mini sessions. So this is something that is more of like a system that you can repeat over and over again and making sure you have all the steps so you know exactly what to do the next time you are planning your next round of mini sessions.

Alison: Yes, and absolutely. So more than just many sessions, we should all be doing this for all of our content all year long because marketing is really just messaging and positioning you as the expert, um, to, to be booked up, right? So if you have never done this before or you feel like you need to do this for everything I do have a markup map out your marketing workshop recording.

We did it back in February. It is available in the shop, and of course it applies too. All kinds of events, all kinds of genres. Um, if you’re going back and forth between different types of genres for your photography, like you’ve got a senior season and you got a branding season, then a family season, um, you really need to be planning that [00:01:00] out, um, and setting yourself up as the expert.

Um, so yeah, so hit the link in the show notes for that. Um, okay, so marketing for many sessions, um, many sessions are different, right? Like, I guess, let me start with a story. Um. I figured out how important this was back in Virginia when it was January, new year, super cold. You can’t be shooting outside.

Everything’s dead and ugly anyway, and I had nothing on the calendar. It was like absolute crickets. And so I kind of panicked and I was like, oh, I have this great location right here in Virginia Beach. I can rent it out and I can do indoor branding sessions. This, this place was, it’s called The Annex.

It’s no longer open, but, um. It was, it had like three different areas. It had like a little couch area, it had a desk area. It had this like big old workshop area and I was able to even set up a whole backdrop and do like a very studio based, um. You know, white drop kind of standard stuff so I could get three stations plus like a [00:02:00] green room with like refreshments and like all this really great stuff.

I thought of this very last minute in me as a family photographer, decided to push forward and do this in February with like maybe six weeks lead, lead time. While it was fun, I got a whopping two bookings out of it. It was not profitable because I didn’t have a plan. I panicked. I threw something on the calendar way too short of notice, did not have the audience warmed up for it, did not set myself up as a expert or consistent brand photographer and just pulled something outta thin air.

And that was fun and I would totally repeat it if, if I was still there, that place was still open, like, and probably build something up out of it. But. It wasn’t profitable because I didn’t market it well. So we don’t want that to happen to you guys. We want you to have very profitable, very full booking system for your many sessions and your regular sessions.

So, um, so yeah. So Melissa, [00:03:00] have you had any stories like that where things didn’t plan out the way you intended for them to go?

Melissa Arlena: sessions and stuff, I don’t, don’t know that I ever had anything like that. I always relied on my email list for mini sessions, like, and that’s where my bookings would come. Um, and because I didn’t offer ’em very often, um. I think that they, they, I didn’t really have an issue with it, so, but I also usually try to plan out ahead of time and again, I am hitting like a very warm audience of people who have worked with me before and maybe didn’t wanna spend the money on a full session so they were ready to book a mini session.

But I definitely think even with having that warm email list and stuff, I still needed to have a plan. And there were ways I got people on my email list, so I was nurturing it all year. So like I definitely, I think, came from the planning aspect of like, way ahead of time.

Alison: Yeah, so proof in the proof, proof aim point, right? Right there. So why, why are mini sessions, so the different types of mini sessions, right? So it, it really applies to any kind of event. So we’re calling minis [00:04:00] could be. Valentine’s mini motherhood event. Heirloom portraits that you’re, anytime you’re putting, picking a single date, putting a bunch of people in a, in a short amount of time.

Um, it’s a different approach, right? Like there are all kinds of things you need, we all need to be thinking about, like client needs time to prep their family for what’s gonna happen, right? Like even if it’s just mom and a couple kids and dad doesn’t even have to be there. Like she needs time to coordinate outfits.

She needs time to like book off the calendar. Like, are the kids gonna be available with their sporting events? And you need to think about that time for your clients to prep.

Melissa Arlena: Yeah. That’s

Alison: Um,

Melissa Arlena: San

Alison: so that

Melissa Arlena: start booking in July. opening up way

Alison: Right. Exactly.

Melissa Arlena: the calendar

Alison: Exactly.

Melissa Arlena: event scheduling parties and all of that stuff are happening. Like if you’re on the mom’s calendar four to six months out, it’s a lot harder to get bumped.

Alison: It really is. And if you’re trying to do this like I did within six weeks, like there’s commitments already made. We’re not [00:05:00] really willing to, to move and rearrange our own calendar just to do this one thing. Right. Um, because you’re not really committed. So that’s, that’s why this is different. And some of the same psychology can apply to like.

To other, um, your normal year round stuff, but you wanna think about the budget, the timeline. Mom needs to get this ready and their own calendar. Um, you wanna get on their calendar really early. So what’s the plan for this? Um, the plan really starts. Germal, it really starts three months out, y’all. That’s 12 weeks.

So I was, with my branding sessions, I was at half of that, half of that without the warm audience. So it was dead on arrival for sure. So 12 weeks out, you definitely wanna be picking your date, your location, your where, where are you gonna do this? Are you gonna do this in multiple places? One place, indoor, outdoor, the price, what’s it gonna include?

Of course. All those details, you know, need to be decided well before you even start talking about it. Um, and you need to put it on your calendar. Um, if you don’t have a calendar [00:06:00] for the year, for the six months, whether it be paper or digital, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot, right? Um, what we wanna do is get all this stuff out, get it on the calendar, and then reverse engineer your timeline so that you know what to do to position yourself as the expert and to make these mini sessions desirable.

Um, and also speaking of that email list, you wanna make sure you’re giving your email list that VIP treatment like. Telling them that what’s available, what’s coming before you even have all the details, like, Hey, I’m thinking about doing this. Maybe even take a poll and see what location they would be most interested in.

Like, serve your clients, serve the people that are already on your wait list that are already in your orbit, and see what they want.

Melissa Arlena: for

Alison: but once you’ve got good.

Melissa Arlena: sure that like you are blogging,

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: to gonna work for that session, you know, for. That whatever that event is and stuff, you wanna have, um, posts that are coming out ahead of time so that you can reference those in your emails as you warm up that list and build them up to like, okay, hey, now this is open.

And then [00:07:00] there’s also just the whole general thing of fomo, of like just cashing in on the like.

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: excited, getting, you know, dropping hints here and there. This is gonna be happening soon. That kind of thing. And if you’re, if you wait until two weeks before your, your date to, of the session to start talking about it, like there’s no time to create any of that word of mouth, any of that fomo, get people

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: Now it’s just a last minute, oh, do we wanna do this? Versus if you’ve been teasing it for a while, then people are like, yes, I want on that list that I wanna do this. And they prioritize it, I think a little bit more versus a last minute, Hey, we’ve got this on Saturday.

Alison: Absolutely, absolutely. They pri prioritize it a bit more. And that blog, um, I’m glad you mentioned that, ’cause that blog becomes the basis for all your content, right? Like we’ve said before, we have a whole episode on it. We’ll need to. Dig that episode number up, but turning that blog and repurposing it into all your email, um, sorry, all your content from email to social media posts.

Um, and so, so yeah, so use your VIP list, give them the, the first dibs on what’s coming, and also first [00:08:00] dibs on announcing it and, and access to booking before, um, everybody else has it. So speaking of that teaser and build section, so like eight to 12, a little, oh my gosh, eight to 12 weeks out. So two to three months out.

You are not quite selling yet, but you definitely want to pre-sell. You want to share what’s available, what’s coming, what’s the end goal with these photos, right? Is it to have them in frames to sell artwork? Are they just wanting digital files? Like you really want to just share the behind the scenes.

Like if you’re doing a motherhood event and you’re designing a floral arrangement, share that. Take your, take your social media to the florist with you and all the options, like show ’em the potential. Um. Uh, arrangements that you’re looking for, the color combinations you’re looking for, constantly share and tease.

Like, this is what’s coming. This is what’s coming. Maybe even do some voting on it.

Melissa Arlena: too, in this beginning stage, you know, when you’re three months out, you wanna have some kind of way to get them onto your email list. Even just a simple signup form. Um, if

Alison: [00:09:00] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: the time. And I will just segment it off to an audience of like fall min.

I mean, I think if I go through mine right now, I’ll find Fall Minis or red truck minis, like those lists

Alison: Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: blossoms. Um, but you can easily create like an email signup list. Get on the VIP list. We’re announcing this. Soon and you wanna start sharing that and you wanna be sharing that, you know, before you actually are like, okay, hey, it’s live.

You wanna get people onto that list as soon as possible. And I mean, I people do this not just for many sessions, guys, this is just general marketing. Like I’m

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: now for all of our services where I went through my calendar and I mapped out when we wanna sell certain things, when we wanna push ’em.

And then I backdated that of like, okay, when do I need to start getting people onto my email list? You know, when do I need to have lead map? You know, like, so. This is not just for many sessions and photographers. These are full on marketing plans that people use for everything, so, but we don’t use them.

Alison: Every industry, every service. Yeah, every product. Exactly. We’re just, we’re just making it, [00:10:00] we’re making it specific to a mini session. Right, because they’re, they’re gonna come like three months from the time this is recording, like you need to be talking about fall. Right. Like look at that like gut check, like it’s not even quite summer yet, and it’s, it’s time to put your fall dates on the calendar.

Right? So going back to your blog example in, in that FOMO and building that list, I actually had a blog post for my red track mini sessions that I did, I think I did on two or three years in Virginia Beach. Um, and then when it was closed, I had a, that email form. Up and I think I had it up here in Hawaii.

And somebody got on that, wait, they found me. They dug deep, they dug deep, found the blog post and got on my wait list. And I, I felt so bad. I was like, they have no idea. I’m never doing that again. ’cause I don’t even live in Virginia anymore. And I had to go find, and I, that blog post wasn’t getting traction anymore, so I went ahead and archived it.

But exactly like, build the blog, the, the blog post, put an email form, um, and collect, um, collect those [00:11:00] email addresses even outside the season for when you’re. When you’re doing these sessions

Melissa Arlena: fill

Alison: or these seasonal things

Melissa Arlena: that I would just, the first year I decide to do it,

Alison: mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: I did this plan type thing and then I left that form up for the rest of the year. So anybody during the rest of the year who was searching cherry blossom stuff ended up would sign up for that list.

And so then I was capturing traffic all year long that was ready for me to market to the next year when it was ready.

Alison: Exactly, look at that warm audience. Um, okay, so launch time. We’re looking eight to six weeks out for this. And I would actually even say sooner. I would say around that two month mark, two to three months, you wanna go ahead and launch this publicly, so you would’ve already launched it to your VIP list, but you wanna make it.

You wanna put that notification bar on your every page of your website, on your blog post. You want to have that blog post live. You want booking available. Um, you wanna be mul, uh, posting on social media several times a week. You know, the things you’ve already been doing. Rehash that blog post. What should they wear for this?

What should dad wear for that? Where’s this gonna be? What are the things [00:12:00] they should consider? What are some FAQs about? Many sessions? What’s gonna be included? Why you love these? Um, and of course, previous sessions. And if you don’t have. Like photos from a previous motherhood mini event or Valentine’s Day, like really consider, well before launching this, doing a sample shoot if you can, so that you have content to share.

So that’s really important.

Melissa Arlena: the photos the other day in one of my folders. I did that for Red Truck Minis. I was getting a red truck from my neighbor, and so I just went over to her house. Um, a couple, you know, before I got started with launching and I was like, Hey, can I take

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: my kids in the back of the truck?

She just pulled it literally out into the cul-de-sac so that I had some in. Spot. I told her for some good light, I brought my decor some, some of it, not even all of it. And I threw my kids up there and we took pictures of them and then I used those and like that was super simple and I booked it out.

Alison: Perfect. Perfect. I think the first time I did. I call ’em Red Truck Minis, but my truck was green before I did my, oh, [00:13:00] I think I called ’em Christmas Truck Minis. Um, I took pictures. We went and met with people that owned the, the truck. And I did something similar. I, it wasn’t even, it was phone, phone shots. Uh, my then 6-year-old sitting on the truck and then pictures of the truck from different angles in the driveway.

They didn’t even move it. Um, and I just used that. I didn’t even deck it out, um, to try to pre-sell it.

Melissa Arlena: for like people

Alison: But, um, so you,

Melissa Arlena: Minis and stuff like that where they will book with Santa

Alison: mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: because they do find that sometimes clients are

Alison: Mm. Smart.

Melissa Arlena: does the Santa look like? What is it? I don’t think Allison and I, we’ve never done

Alison: That’s,

Melissa Arlena: and, but we have a friend that

Alison: I haven’t

Melissa Arlena: a special custom suit.

Like y’all, some of you photographers really get into

Alison: $10,000. It’s crazy. It’s, that is, that is a, that is a genre niche that I am not familiar with.

Melissa Arlena: kind of

Alison: Um.

Melissa Arlena: big thing, I guess we’ll make this caveat too, do not use other people’s stuff and say for inspiration in any

Alison: Oh,

Melissa Arlena: do not grab somebody else’s photo and say, oh, this is

Alison: nope.

Melissa Arlena: No. Like that is somebody else’s work.

Alison: No.

Melissa Arlena: be [00:14:00] profiting off of it.

Alison: God word. Thank you. Please what she said. Um, and then, you know, make sure you’re emailing your list. Keep your list up to date. Stay in front of them via email as the booking goes public, as the as spots fill up. Um, you know. Usually on Instagram or any social media, if you feel like you’re talking too much, you’re really not.

So

Melissa Arlena: of the

Alison: just, just keep going

Melissa Arlena: I’m like, I

Alison: all the things.

Melissa Arlena: never on Instagram. Allison knows this. If I post a

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: what

Alison: It’s true.

Melissa Arlena: So if you’re posting

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: but you’re not sharing on your email list, I’m not gonna see it. And it might be vice versa that if you’re on,

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: on your email

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: doesn’t see that, but she sees your Instagram story, but she didn’t see your post or she didn’t see your, like, there’s so many things guys that like, we feel like, well, I posted in.

15 places today, and then you’re like, yeah, but you have at least 10, 15 cust 10 customers that are like, well, I only saw it in one. So even though it feels awkward for us, I

Alison: Yeah,

Melissa Arlena: you no one is seeing it as many times as you were posting [00:15:00] it. Like there’s no one who’s right there unless it’s your mom, maybe.

Alison: a hundred percent. A hundred percent. And if you wanna fast track all that posting and exposure ads,

Melissa Arlena: Well,

Alison: ads. I used to way before. Go ahead.

Melissa Arlena: I recommend, um, I really recommend retargeting ads. And so that me, that’s the ones

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: already gone out to you, set it up so they’ve already gone out to your email list or they’ve interacted with your website, um, you know, all of that kind of stuff. And now you’re just sending an ad to that audience.

You can also run an ad to a cold audience. You know, I would say if you’re doing that, do that very early

Alison: It’s harder.

Melissa Arlena: what Allison’s saying, like you need to be doing that 10 weeks, 12 weeks

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: thing. If you can start running that ad to a cold audience, even to just get them on your VIP list as like a traffic ad or something. But then once you’re. Cart is open. Running a retargeting ad can be really helpful. We had, um, I had a girl in the blogging club that she, were just chatting and she was saying that she was having a hard time booking her, her getting her Christmas photo, um, studio sessions booked up. And I was like, she and I had to [00:16:00] tell her, I promise you’re not posting enough.

You’re not talking about it enough. I told

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: I was like, run a retargeting ad. And I, I just gave her a quick explanation on how to do it, and she set it up and then she messaged me like two weeks later. She was like, I booked them out. And I was like, see, told you, you weren’t talking about it enough.

Alison: Yep. Even before retargeting ads, the megapixel and all that, I was doing Google ads for cherry blossoms and mini sessions in general. Just, um, gosh, I can’t even remember. Probably in Okinawa and Alabama, I was doing Google ads and actually helped my SEO. I swear. I don’t think that Google would’ve admitted it, but I swear it helped my SEO and my organic reach.

Um. But that, I mean, again, to your point, like that’s when people are looking for it. They’re looking for many sessions. They’re looking for family photographers and to be the top of Google. Then this was 10 years ago, y’all.

Melissa Arlena: also keep in

Alison: It was helpful.

Melissa Arlena: on. Like, Hey, this is what you should do for marketing. You may have to start, start

Alison: Mm-hmm.

Melissa Arlena: next one, your next mini session event,

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: next, [00:17:00] whatever you’re doing may just be okay. I’m gonna get a signup list set up, and then on the next one it’s like, okay,

Alison: Yeah.

Melissa Arlena: making sure I blog once a week.

Like it may take some time. Ads may be something that

Alison: Yep.

Melissa Arlena: to get to, but the good thing is, is like. Once you slowly build up this system and you have it all, and like once you get Facebook ads set up, then you just start duplicating guys. Like you can duplicate that, that

Alison: Yep.

Melissa Arlena: You can duplicate that page.

You can duplicate you. I wouldn’t duplicate blog, blog posts, but you know, you can duplicate, um, your ads and just update them. And then that way all the settings are there. So some of this has a little bit of a lift on the front end of like getting it all set up, but then once you’ve got it set up, then it’s an easy, repeatable process.

Alison: Absolutely. So, um, once you get into that six week mark, you’re really kind of sustaining your marketing efforts and messaging. This is where consistency is a big deal, but also, um, setting yourself up as the. And you do that one by a consistent sharing of information, but also casting that vision of what’s the point of these minis?

How are they gonna be used? What’s the [00:18:00] end goal of all these things? What should people wear? How should we think about this? Um, like, you know, when people come out to Hawaii wanna do photos, like they don’t think about the wind. I am not rescheduling for 17 mile an hour sustained winds. That’s normal here.

You know what I mean? That, that we’re not, I mean, maybe if we get some gale force, like we’ll consider rescheduling or we’ll move to the other side of the island. But you’ve got to know that ruffles on your shirt and your hair is going to be a problem in that wind. And so that’s one of the things I educate.

Those are the kinds of things you need to be posting about, right? What are the idiosyncrasies with your session, your place, your color, your theme, your what have you, right? The more you can share and. The more you’re gonna be trustworthy, the more people are gonna see you as that expert and the more bookings ultimately you’re gonna get.

Right. That’s the goal with marketing, is setting up your messaging. Um, so, you know, as things are booking, I would even say, um, as things are booking, um, share, like how, you know, how many spots are left, what’s going on, create that fomo like Melissa was saying. Um, one of the tricks I do, especially [00:19:00] early on is even if I have.

Six spots open on a single day. I’ll, um, I would do this on youth session, uh, a youth session, on session. They do this really well. I would reserve a few spots so that they never looked like they were totally open. So I may have not have booked a whole, uh, I may may not have booked any sessions, but it looked at least like two of ’em were booked by reserving them.

Melissa Arlena: Release the spots. Yeah.

Alison: Then you open them up. And I would also, and when it came to my, um, Christmas truck minis when they were really, when they were really popular before we moved from Virginia Beach, I would only open up three hours at a time. I didn’t want to have my first hour and my last hour completely booked and have this massive gap in the middle.

And so I would only open up the first three hours, two and a half hours. Um. Get that solidly booked, maybe a break or two in there, and then open up more as they were. And I would even say, Hey, more are coming. Like, that’s more stuff to communicate. But um, just think about that, that helps create that [00:20:00] fomo and scarcity if it looks like you’re booking up, even if you’re not.

Um, and again, weekly email and that launch, like when you’re launching, so you’re launching something when you have many sessions, right when it’s coming. Like you need to be doing a weekly email from. A month and a half out, two months out, like this is what’s going on. Um, and then if you need to, hopefully ideal, ideal situation within the final two weeks before your mini session, you’re booked up, right?

That’s the ultimate goal. But maybe if it’s your first round doing something, that’s not gonna be the case. So create that urgency. How many spots are left? Um, do the last call for email and posting and social media and messaging. Um, maybe getting, even get it in on some of the Facebook groups. Um. I know Facebook is dying a lot of people, but in the military spouse world, it is as

Melissa Arlena: I’m on

Alison: fire as it ever was.

Melissa Arlena: I am

Alison: Uh, um,

Melissa Arlena: on Facebook. Oh.

Alison: yeah. Um, and yeah, so those last two weeks create some urgency if you need to. Um, hopefully you’re booked [00:21:00] up, but, um, you may not be so. That’s the whole, that’s your whole thing. That’s the whole marketing mix. So to uh, review, you wanna start three to four months out. You wanna write that blog post.

You wanna get that stuff done and out to your VIP list first. And you wanna create that FOMO and urgency, um, and share everything. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Maybe do some ads. Um. So you wanna do the locking the details three to four months out. You wanna tease and build, you know, two to three months out, have a long strong launch, sharing all your stuff in all the places, and then.

Keep sustaining that momentum as you launch. And then in the end, if you need to, with that last call, the final two week push, um, to fill up your remaining spots. That’s how it’ll work. Um, so again, if this felt like a verbal fire hose, there is a whole hour long workshop. In my shop, um, map out your marketing.

It is available and how you can apply this to all your events regardless of what they are, different [00:22:00] types of seasons and genres of photography. Um, there is a content planning cheat sheet. There is a marketing runway that’s gonna walk through all these things and more, um, to help you reverse engineer that timeline to book out as much as possible.

So check out the show notes for that.