It’s what so many photographers are aiming for- making money while you sleep! The easiest way that I’ve found to do this has been offering Upsells to my clients! So, can you upsell your Minis or do you think that’s only for other photographers? Ones that are more experienced than you, and have a bigger client base?
Let me tell you right now- that is NOT the case!
You can offer Upsells to your clients & make hundreds to thousands of dollars, even without a large client base!
We as business owners talk so much about your Ideal Client, we actually make a mock person with interests, opinions, and a name! If you’re not a business owner you might think this is crazy, but it’s really not. Since this isn’t a deep dive into your Ideal Client we’ll just skim the top of that for now!
Your Ideal Client should find value in your work, and your skill- they should be willing on paying your prices.
If you missed it, check out my last blog post about using The Mini Sessions Calculator. This will help you find the right price tag to give to your Mini Sessions & a calculator to do so. It takes into account CODB (Cost of doing business) and your financial goal. Now, I will warn you- this may seem a bit daunting when you first see that number. I’ve had my students tell me that it’s intimidating because they don’t want to charge that much.
You’re not alone. My goal as an educator is to get you to where you want to be. That sometimes means feeling uncomfortable to get there. When you use the methods & the education that I offer you’re going to feel 10 times more confident charging these new prices, but I digress!
What do you need to do in order to Upsell Your Minis?
Include This Information on Your Landing Page
What information? The cost of each upsell, or at least your most popular ones. I’m not saying, “Let’s send out a price list for each of your prints!” But, offering a starting point for your Print Package isn’t going to hurt anyone! In fact allows your families to properly budget for the Album, Print, etc.!
Show Off What You’ve Got
At my Christmas Minis I’ve offered prints, canvases, and Albums, and because I’ve spent so much time researching them I know better than my couples what it means to have these physical copies of their portraits in their home. I know that it means they’ll be looking back on these in 4 years, with tears in their eyes, reminiscing about this day.
They may not know about all the benefits of it, and end up reading about this offer in an email that I send them and think- “Oh that’s nice!” and they probably don’t think about it much more after that.
But, if you purchase an album yourself (don’t forget- that’s a write-off!) using the portraits from your Model Call you can actually show them what their family might look like in an album. They flip the pages, feel the cover, the quality, and your chances of making a sale just jumped up by 300%, and that’s only in my personal experience. The difference here is that this is a physical product that they can touch, they can envision their family in this album, and they hold it themselves.
Gift Them Something To Promote That Purchase
This year I bought each of my clients a picture frame, an 8×10 that would match the Christmas theme, since these were Christmas Minis. It was a last minute decision, and I spent about $100 for the wrapping, the frames themselves, and the bags that they went in.
At the end of their session my assistant (and husband!) gifted them their bags after he gave them his spiel about the Upsells. Included was a small piece of paper that included the details that I had on my website: The cost of the full gallery, the individual prints, the album, and the cost for The Print Package (basically, all the info to upsell your Minis). They might end up throwing it away, in fact I know that’s where it will end up at the end of the day, but it’s another reminder and a gentle push to purchase an upsell.
Email Follow Ups
I use ShootProof as my gallery delivery site, and I love it! I’ll have to create an entire post dedicated to everything that ShootProof can do, but for now I’ll summarize! This gallery delivery site can be used to download images, upsell prints, canvases, and now an entire NEW shop. (We’ll go into that in another post, though).
They also offer campaigns for emails- you can assign a campaign to the gallery that you’re hosting. Let’s say “Eorio Christmas Minis 2021”, I would apply my Christmas Minis 2021 email templates and this includes things like discounts & reminders. These are more gentle pushes to show that their gallery is expiring, and it’s time to order their prints, downloads, and canvases! It encourages them to purchase, and helps you Upsell your Minis.
It’s hard if you don’t know where to start, or what to write, and that’s why I’ve created full Email Templates for you (that include gallery upselling!) Copy & Paste to get those BIG Upselling sales!
Offer Diversity in Their Gallery
Last, but certainly not least! We’re going to want to offer diversity in their gallery. They don’t want to see the same picture 5 times. That’s overwhelming, and it’s not getting the point across. You want these to scream, “This is a one of a kind photo, and you have to have it.” I have to cull these galleries twice, even! In Bridge I take the gallery & make a Keep folder then Trash folder, then I have to go back through the Keep folder & create the Final Gallery folder so that I know what to edit. I’ll create another post for this, but that’s the very basic overview!
Giving them diversity in their gallery means that there will be more photos that you’re offering that they’ll want. They’ll end up purchasing more than what comes in your gallery, and they’ll be thrilled with the outcome! As I’m writing this right now, I just got an email from another client that said, “Wow! Can’t believe these turned out SO great with Piper’s mood
Cannot decide! We want them all!!” and then not an hour later was this gallery in her cart for purchase!
So let’s recap:
Post your prices on your website
Show off what you offer
Gift your client something that will encourage sales
Give them diversity in their gallery
If you can do those 5 things, you’re sure to Upsell your Minis!
