How to Prepare for Spring Mini Sessions

February is almost over and you know what that means? Spring mini sessions are right around the corner! Mini sessions are one of my favorite things to teach photographers. Not only do you have the potential to make thousands of dollars in a day (which is reason enough…), but you also get to stretch your creative juices.

But a lot of people struggle to plan profitable mini sessions. Not a problem. This blog is for you! If you haven’t started planning your Spring mini sessions yet, or you’re new to mini sessions, keep reading. I’m going to share 4 of my top tips to prepare for spring mini sessions.

4 Tips to Prepare for Spring Mini Sessions For Photographers

1. Choose Your Spring Session Theme & Location

One of the best things about mini sessions are the fun themes! Spring has so many great themes to choose from! From holidays to beautiful flowers – take your pick. I recommend you choose a theme that best compliments your regular photography. Meaning, if you’re a family photographer, you may do mommy and me sessions for Mother’s Day rather than an engagement-themed session.

Once you know what your mini session theme is, you can choose the best location. I have a whole article about choosing your perfect mini session location to help you.

2. Focus On The Financials

One of the most common questions I get is how to price your mini session. Obviously, you charge whatever you want. However, I teach my students to consider their costs. You won’t make much money selling $100 mini sessions, which kind of defeats the purpose of using minis to boost your cashflow!

So, price your Spring mini sessions so it’s fair to you. People want to get photos and they’ll be willing to pay as long as it’s still less than your full session pricing. Don’t be afraid to charge what you know you’re worth just because the word “mini” is in the name.

3. Map Out Your Client Experience

The hardest part about hosting mini sessions is maintaining a great customer experience. Not only do you need to manage a lot more clients at once then you’re used to (on top of your full session clients), but you also need to manage your time and sales. 

Trust me, it’s easy to get delayed during your session or forget to send a reminder if you’re doing everything off-the-cusp. I teach all my students to automate what you can and plan on hiring an assistant to help. 

Sit down and map out what you need to do before, during and after each session. Plan each client touchpoint. Decide how long your mini sessions will take. Above all else, map out how you’ll create a memorable experience for your clients. 

4. Start Marketing!

Once you’ve planned all the details, you’ll want to start creating your marketing assets ASAP. Mini sessions are typically sold weeks in advance so people can mark that date on their calendar. This means you’ll need to be prepared to start marketing long before you announce your sessions.

I recommend you have all your marketing ready to launch 6-8 weeks beforehand. You’ll need to have social media posts ready, emails ready, and how people can sign up and pay. Because you’ll be selling minis and your full sessions at the same time, you may want to pre-schedule all your posts during your marketing campaign. This will help you visualize what you’re promoting each day so you don’t only promote your minis or worse – forget to promote them at all!

Plan Your Spring Mini Sessions Now

Spring mini sessions are a great way to boost your cash flow and get introduced to new clients. Many of my photography students get rebooked for full sessions from clients they met doing minis.

If you’re new to mini sessions or haven’t been able to book out your sessions, check out my course Mini Session Like a Pro. In 2 hours, I’ll teach you all my secrets to preparing, marketing, pricing, and running a profitable mini session. Plus, you can also snag all my mini session client email templates from the shop – from pre-sale to gallery delivery – to save you even more time.