154: Adding $150k In Revenue With A Micro Offer

 Welcome to the Shoot at Straight podcast, where honesty meets heart and real talk actually means something. I’m your host, Sabrina Gebhart, and each week we get vulnerable, practical, and just a little bit bold so you can feel seen, supported, and ready to take the next step in your photography journey.

Let’s go. Welcome back to the Shoot Straight podcast my friends. Today I am doing a very off the cuff. I think it’s gonna be a short and sweet episode. I want to share about how I have added a small micro offer to serve my photography clients and the impact that it has had on my business. Because I’ve been in business for 14 years and I made one of these changes 12 years ago.

One of them I made seven or eight years ago. And over time the compound of these changes is actually incredible, and it’s something that I teach the women in my mastermind, the women that I coach. I’m, I’m an open book. I’m happy to answer any questions, but what I want you to hear is that. Not everything is about your full large offers.

It’s not all about your biggest branding package or your, you know, heirloom newborn session or your full length documentary sessions. There is room for you to add unique micro offers to your business that can have a massive, massive revenue impact. While also helping you grow your ideal clients. And so I’m gonna tell you my story.

I’m gonna give you actual numbers of what this has looked like. I’m gonna tell you why it works, some important things to consider. And I’m just gonna kind of riff on this topic. So this is a very raw episode. I do not have a script. I have a few notes. I have some numbers that I ran and jotted down so that I could give you real time information.

But it’s gonna be raw, so maybe a little clunky. So hang with me. Okay, so about 12 years ago, at that point, I had been in business two years, almost three years. I decided that I wanted to add a small offer into my business as a way to serve my existing clients. But also bring in new clients. And at that point, my bread and butter was newborn sessions and family sessions both were full length, and I did have like the fall mini session situation going on.

But I had this really big hole that I did not have a way to continue serving specifically my newborn clients. I, at the time, the the rage was first year plans. And, you know, trying to get people in from, you know, bump to first year, so to speak. A lot of people had packages where it locked people in to booking all of those sessions in one lump sum.

That didn’t sit with me for a number of reasons. I’m not going to get into that, but because I did not have that, I was photographing these newborn clients and then basically sending them on their way until they came back to book a family session or a mini session with me. So I was looking for a way to solve that problem.

So I introduced what I call Simply Baby sessions. These are just milestone sessions. They are just milestone sessions. But I created a very unique format for these sessions, and I’m gonna tell you what that is, but I want you to hear this right off the bat. This is something that I do one day a month, and it’s only for two hours.

I have four time slots and they are 20 minutes a piece, and there’s a little 10 minute gap in there. So it is four 20 minute sessions back to back. Okay? So two hours, a two hour window, one day a month. In the past 12 years, that has added almost $121,000 to my revenue, 120,975 in revenue. Okay? I’m not including sales tax, that’s just revenue.

That’s a ginormous number. Yes, it is small over the year to year basis, but the impact is massive. And I’m gonna tell you about another offer in just a minute, but why? Why did this work so well? Here’s why it worked. Number one, it was adding away for my existing clients to work with me outside of their family session, outside of their newborn session.

So it was a, a repeatable way for these people to come see me again and again, because I offer these milestone sessions one day a month. They could book as much as they wanted, as many times as they wanted. Yes. It’s typical that most clients come at the six month, the 12 month, and the 18 month mark. But I have plenty of clients who have come on in-between marks, right?

They’ve come at the seven month, nine month, 12 month, 15 month, right? It’s, it can be whenever, and I. Also created this offer so that I would serve littles up to three years old. So you can come in and book this session with me up to three years old after three you, you know, are moving into something else.

But this allowed me a way to serve, to capture all of those milestones in the first three years. Okay. And there’s a lot, right? Yes. We think about six month, 12 month, 18 month. But then there’s also, you know, learning to walk, learning to crawl, learning to sit up. First teeth, losing teeth, like learning to play with things, having imaginary like favorite toys.

And so there’s all kinds of stuff that I’ve captured over the years in this three and under crowd. So that was one of the reasons it worked because it was a way for me to serve those existing clients. In addition to their regular family session or their regular newborn session. Okay. Also, it also worked because it was a way for those newborn clients to continue working with me in lieu of having that baby plan contract thing, and it was also a new way or a way for new clients to test out working with me at a lower price point.

And this has been really surprising because I did not expect this to happen with this offer. I have always been higher price than a lot of my competitors. You know, over the years we’ve all gone up with inflation and all of that. But even back in the beginning, this is a way for people who couldn’t quite swallow the price of a full newborn session with me or a family session with me.

And this was a way for them to like test the waters. See what all the fuss is about. See if, if they thought I was quote unquote, worth it for a really low and expensive price point. A lot of those people convert to full paying clients later down the road. Some of them don’t, and that’s okay. Some of these clients I photographed for these milestone sessions, and then when their kid ages out, I don’t see them again, and that’s okay.

That’s totally okay. It served this purpose for not only bringing in new people, but also continuing to serve the clients that I had. Hey, friend, real talk. Do you know your marketing personality? Because if you’re feeling stuck, burned out, or like you’re throwing spaghetti at the wall, when it comes to your marketing, this is your next step.

I created a totally free quiz called What’s Your Marketing Personality? And it’s going to help you figure out what you’re naturally good at. What might be tripping you up and how to market your business in a way that actually works for you and not against you. It’s quick, it’s fun, and best of all, you’ll walk away with a personalized strategy to help you attract more of the right clients without doing all the things or losing your mind.

So if you’re ready to finally feel confident in your marketing, head to sabrina gehart.com/marketing-quiz and take the quiz, and I can’t wait to hear what your results are. Now back to the episode. This also works for several other reasons. Number one, it was easy to fit into my schedule on a regular basis because I set the dates a year in advance.

It is one morning a month for two hours. So I am able to have it scheduled really far in advance it so I can build the rest of my schedule around it. And it’s just, it feels really easy. People can book one at the last minute if there’s an opening because the time slot is there. And I also have the whole process automated.

I, I let my clients book this through the session app so that they pick their time, slot and pay and everything, all on their own. I just share the link and it’s really, really, really simple. Another reason this works is because I have very firm parameters around what qualifies as a milestone and what isn’t, in addition to what they get and what they don’t.

And I’m going to talk about that a little bit more. So these sessions, they started as $200 and then now they are $300. ’cause you know, inflation. But hear me say this, it’s 20 minutes and there are five images that are included. They also have the option to upgrade to purchase an entire gallery for an additional a hundred dollars.

And I never put more than 20 or 25 images in their full gallery. Okay. I’m a very good color. Uh, that whole process on the backend, on the delivery end is automated, so they can choose their five and download them immediately, or they can pay the upgrade fee and download all of them immediately. It’s very, very simple.

It’s all fully, fully automated, so I don’t have to have my hands in any of it. But the way that I have developed these sessions is that I also put the parameter in place that, number one, I am only photographing that particular child and mom. There are no siblings. There are no dads. This is not family.

This is not anything like that. It is this child and mom. The reason I have mom in the photos is twofold. Number one, I found after I knew this from working with kids before, sometimes you get littles that just need their mom, okay? They just, they wanna be held. They’re shy, they’re stranger danger, they’re not sure about new situations, and these sessions are only 20 minutes.

We don’t have a whole lot of time to warm up. So I prepare my clients and tell them, you are going to be in the photos, so come dressed and ready so that you feel good about getting in the photos. If your child is fine and they don’t need you, cool, I will use less of, less of you, but you may be holding your baby the entire time and that’s okay.

I know how to work around that. I know how to get a dynamic, diverse gallery, even if you’re holding your baby the whole time. So I prepare my clients that way. But then the other reason why I tell mom to be there is because personally, I want mom in the photos. I have always been a lifestyle driven photographer, and there’s not a whole lot more lifestyle than having a baby in your arms.

So this gave me the artistic ability to make sure that I had those beautiful motherhood images built into every gallery in addition to the, you know, more traditional milestone type portraits. Okay. What that does, because I have such variety in a gallery. I’ve got baby, I’ve got mom and baby. I’ve got different poses of both.

I’m using light in different ways. I’m close up, I’m pulled back. There’s a huge variety that happens in 20 minutes, and because of that, more than 75% of my clients in the last 12 years have chosen that upgrade option to purchase all the images. Okay. They just all do. And so that has been really great because I priced it to be a no-brainer.

I want everybody to upgrade. That’s the point. And most of them do. And so that has been really great. So those are the reasons why adding in this monthly milestone, this simply baby session, has been so incredibly impactful and why it works. If you are going to create an offer like this, I think there’s three really important things that you have to do.

Number one, you have to have, like I said before, extremely clear boundaries on what these are and what these are not. These are not family photos. These are not sibling photos. I do not include either of those things in these milestones ever unless they’re twins, because I don’t want to cannibalize my session, my family sessions, and if I’m taking the quote unquote, just the kids photo.

Or full family photos at this milestone. They’re not going to book me for a full session because why? So I’m very clear that these are baby and mom only. I’m also very firm with culling and deliverables. Like I said, five images is what they are guaranteed and if they per, if they purchase an upgrade, it is maybe 20, maybe 25.

Most the times I’m around the 18 mark for a full gallery, so I call way down. I do not go overboard because I need to make sure that I am spending as little time editing as possible so that these sessions are extremely profitable. Sure it’s two hours a month of shooting time, but if I’m spending a ton of hours calling and editing too many images, I, I’m shooting myself in the foot, right?

Defeats the whole purpose. So making sure that you are really firm in your calling and your editing with the deliverables. And then again, the having a no-brainer price as the entry point and also the upgrade point. That’s what makes it profitable. It’s profitable before the upgrade, but I really want the extra cushion of that upgrade for every single one, and so I can count on everybody paying $400, so that’s $1,600 for two hours of work once a month.

It’s easy. It’s super duper easy. My way of doing this, my milestone session is not the only way to do this. So if you’ve been listening to this and you’re like, this is great. I’m so happy for you, but I don’t photograph newborns or babies, that’s fine. There is a way for you to do this for your clients.

That makes sense. Whatever your clients are, whether they’re seniors, whether it’s branding, whether it’s pets, I don’t care. I don’t care what it is. You have a way to do something like this for your clients. You need to think outside of the box. Okay? Here’s another example. So I’ve been doing the Simply Baby Sessions for about 12 years, and about seven or eight years ago, I came up with the idea for personality portraits.

Same kind of thing. It’s really the same kind of thing. It’s just another micro offer. I used the same type of quote unquote, blueprint to make that offer in that I had very clear boundaries on what they were and what they weren’t. I have very firm culling and editing deliverables. I have a no-brainer price and an upgrade.

I have it scheduled in a very easy way, like I set it up with the same formula. The difference is that my personality portraits I only do once a year, and they’re open to all ages instead of just littles. Okay? So the details are slightly different, but it’s the same blueprint. It’s the same way that I creatively added that offer in, and I’ve hosted those for seven years in a row, and I make anywhere between three and $5,000 for like three and a half hours of work.

Again, it’s very, very simple. So since I’ve created those, I’ve made an additional $28,000 in revenue for three hours one day a year. It’s super easy and the deliverables for the personality portraits are even less so the editing time basically doesn’t exist. And the deliverables are super short because these are five minute sessions, so they’re getting less images, and it’s just an easy way to serve my clients outside of full sessions that adds revenue to my business without complicating things.

Without cannibalizing other offers. Because what I see photographers do so often when they think of, I need a new offer, I need a revenue generating something or other. They just bust out more mini sessions, like more family mini sessions, and I don’t care if they’re pool sessions or Popsicle sessions or Wildflower sessions or Fall family sessions or Christmas Tree Farm Minis.

Those are all the same thing. Sure, the setting is different, but they’re all family sessions and there’s really no reason for somebody to book more than one of those with you in one year. I want you to think about how you can add an offer in which they will book in addition to their regular session with you, not instead of, so if you are interested in this personality portrait, specifically, that concept, I do wanna mention that I have a mini course.

It’s called the Personality Portrait Blueprint. It’s less than $200. You can find it at sabrina gehart.com/personality. The link will be in the show notes. I just had to throw that in there. But I do, I wanna create, I want you to create an opportunity for you to do this. I want you to get creative and think outside of the box you have more to offer your clients than just family sessions or mini sessions.

How can you create a micro offer that will serve your clients and make sense for you? That is repeatable year after year. Again, these two offers have added almost $150,000 in revenue to my business for very easy, easy work. I want that for you. I want that for you. So get creative. And I would love to hear from you if you listened to this episode and it resonated with you.

If you’ve got questions, if you wanna know more, if you wanna share your story, if you have added an offer like this to your business and it’s been going well, I would love to hear from you. Come send me a DM on Instagram at Sabrina Gohar Photography, and that’s it for today, my friends. We’ll see you next time.

Thanks so much for listening to the Shoot at Straight podcast. You can find all the full show notes and details from today’s episode@sabrinagehart.com slash podcast. Come find me and connect over on the gram at Sabrina Gehart Photography. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be honored if you hit that subscribe button and leave me a review.

Until next time, my friends shoot it straight.