#1 Simplest Way To Boost Profits NOW w/o Adding More Clients

In this week's episode, I dive into the powerful strategy of increasing revenue through your current client base. It's a game changer, especially when you're swamped with busy season!

Too often, we focus on attracting new clients when the real profit lies with those who already know and love us. In fact, did you know that returning customers spend 67% more than new ones? 🎉

Here's the key takeaway from this episode:

*You don’t need to overbook yourself or launch new offers.* Instead, a simple mini-session event—exclusively for existing clients—can bring in significant revenue without the added stress.

📈 Give this a try: Identify your favorite clients, and offer them a bite-sized mini session experience. It’s a win-win for everyone!


Ready for the fast pass? Skip the set-up struggles (or fix a broken mini, even if you've already launched) with my Quick Start Kit - now 50% off. But hurry, the sale ends September 30!!

Successful Creatives make the world brighter. Follow @theewingsstudio on instagram for weekly tips and tricks to uplevel your bookings and increase profits so that you can accomplish all of the goals on your heart.

Transcript

 This episode was originally going to be a totally different topic, but I was listening to a podcast episode this week and the host was talking about, she was talking to business owners and she was talking about working in your business versus on your business. And I wanted to talk to you about this today, because if you were in the Northern hemisphere, then you're probably in busy season right now, right?

If you're in the U S Canada, um, Europe, you are likely like, this is the time of year where everybody comes out of the woodworks for everything. Especially if you're a photographer, if you shoot weddings, it's busy wedding season. If you photograph portraits, it's busy portrait season. If you're a brand photographer.

Everybody is sort of back to work after the summer and once updated branding for Q4, we are just totally swamped with the day to day. So I know that my day right now is really filled with a lot of editing and I use, I definitely use AI tools. I recommend Imagen. I've started using that this summer and I so far really like it.

I haven't figured anything out for culling yet, so if you have the secret sauce for culling, I'm using narrative and I like it well enough, but it still is a pretty manual process. Um, but that was a side tangent. Um, but anyways, so editing, responding to emails, Serving clients all of the things that we love to do in our day to day.

Well, I don't love emails, which is why I outsourced most of mine, but these are the things that keep us bogged down when it comes to time, right? Because if you are A business owner and you want to run a successful business that continues to grow. You also really have to focus on not just, you know, working in your business.

So the day to day of, of the sessions and the bookings and, and that, but you also have to work on working on your business. So what are your larger goals? What is your profit plan for, you know, the next. Three, six, 12 months. What does your revenues look like for the, for the off season right now? And these are things that it's really important to think about in September.

So that when you hit January, February, March, April, when it is our slow season, you can know that you've got enough money coming in, or you have a nest egg that's going to carry you through the winter months. And so I wanted to talk to you today. about, um, how you can increase profits in your business. And then I really want, I'm going to dive into one of the strategies and give you some tips on how you can implement this in your business right now, without taking on a whole bunch of new book bookings, or, you know, really putting a ton more work on your plate.

Let's go back to the basics. So when it comes to creating revenue in your business, there are only three strategies to create more revenue in your business. You have to either a book more clients. So take on more bookings. You have to be increase your prices. So you can maintain the same number of bookings and raise your prices and earn more profit.

Or see. Increase sales to existing clients. Those are the only three strategies to add to your bottom line. Raise your prices, take on more bookings, sell more to existing clients. When you start to think about increasing your revenue through only these three channels, it starts to feel Uh, like so much more simple business and profit become more simple because there's only three strategies.

So you have to choose the strategy that works best for you. And if you're like, Erica, I want to do all of those things, then let's create, let's create a path to get you there. But today I'm really going to dive into the third one, increasing revenue with existing clients. And I'm going to tell you why, because this is really the most effective way to bring in.

More revenue right now in the short term with the least amount of effort, because, and you probably realize this in your own business when you, when you sit back and think about it, it takes way more effort in resources to get a new client than it does to serve an existing client on another level or on a deeper level.

But yeah, it's kind of funny because we all spend most of our time. Trying to get more clients, right? Posting to Instagram, trying to attract more inquiries where really your existing client base is the place to go. Especially this time of year, if you're looking to increase your profits, let me give you just a couple of statistics on this so that you can really like start to grasp the benefit of focusing on serving your existing clients.

Um, just doing a quick search on the Google gave me some really interesting statistics. Returning customers spend 67 percent more. Then new customers. So this is an article on business. com. They're talking about that. It's common business knowledge that it's cheaper to retain a current customer than it is to attract a new one.

Acquiring new customers costs five to 10 times more than selling to a current customer. And so that might be, you know, advertising that might be. Sponsored posts that might be cost in terms of your time. So investments, new customers cost five to 10 times more than selling to your current customers. And then when you couple that with the initial fact that I read where current customers spend 67 percent more.

Um, then new customers, then that's really the place where you want to focus your time in your effort. When you're reaching out to new customers, when you're trying to work with new inquiries, you've got a lot of work to do. You've got to build know, like, and trust. You've got to indoctrinate them into the way that you do business.

And Um, and get them introduced into what it's like to work with you. If you've been serving your clients and they already have that know, like, and trust, and they already enjoy the experience of working with you, then it's likely that they would love another opportunity to work with you again. I'm not talking about going out and creating a brand new product or a brand new service right now, because again, we're in busy season and ain't nobody got time for that.

Okay. So what we're going to do instead is create a bite sized experience to offer solely to those existing clients. Yes, I am talking about mini sessions and before you turn off this episode and move on, let's have a chat about it because many sessions get a really bad rap. If you've tried them in the past and you didn't love them, then there's There's a couple of things that were probably happening.

So here's what I hear most often with many sessions. I tried them before and they were a total waste of time. I put a ton of preparation into them, a ton of planning, maybe even spending your own money on renting a space. Um, and I made like. Not enough money. It's hours and hours and hours of work for a couple hundred dollars.

Um, it is like, you know, I know I announced many sessions all over the place and I only booked a few spots. The people that I attracted through many sessions are lower budget. They are looking for a deal. They're not my ideal client. Maybe you've never run many sessions before, but you have this fear that you're going to attract the people who are not your ideal client.

You're going to devalue your brand. You, um, you've just heard, heard the horror stories of everybody else who's had a mini session and it's gone wrong. One of, so there's lots of things. That can go wrong with many sessions, right? Pricing structure, um, is definitely a big one plan. So in terms of like not keeping it simple and going overboard and elaborate with themes is another one.

But the one that I really want to chat about today is audience, because yes, if you are trying to market many sessions to just the general masses, then you're likely going to attract. Budget clients, you are likely going to attract people who are not your ideal. Now there might be some who have been following you for a long time, who have been dreaming about working with you and are so excited to get this like smaller investment level, to be able to have a chance to work with you.

Yes. But that's going to be the minority. So the majority of people really who are booking mini sessions, when you post them out to the public are booking them because they are a deal. Right? Most of the people in the fall who are looking for many sessions are looking for a really great deal, except for your clients, your existing clients already hold you at a certain value.

They already see you for the investment level that they made for your full experience. They've already anchored your value at a higher price point. So for example, on my portrait business side of things, my clients typically invest anywhere from about a thousand on the low end to 5, 000 or more. When I can offer many sessions in the investment is more like.

Six to 700 or six to 1, 000, 600 to 1, 000. Then that is just, it just feels like such a great deal, right? Because they're anchoring my value at several thousand. And so when they can get a bite sized experience for significantly less than that. It's a deal. Whereas if I was to post on social media with a mini session offer for, you know, a 600, 700, 800 mini session, I would really struggle to book that because in that instance, I am competing against all the 100 mini sessions out there and I'm competing For the attention of people who don't have that level of no, like, and trust who don't value my product or service at that higher threshold, right?

That is why so, so many people struggle when it comes to filling their spots for a mini session event, or when it comes to actually making profitable mini sessions. Because that's another thing that I always hear is, well, how am I supposed to compete with the 100 mini sessions out there? I can't offer this at 100.

That's going to make me, you know, no money. It's going to end up costing you money in terms of the amount of time that you're going to spend on this. There's no way or no reason for you to compete to the, like, you know, the race to the bottom, right? Like when we compete on price, it's always a race to the bottom.

Whereas this is another area too, where people get frustrated with many sessions is because they feel like they have to charge. Nothing in order to book them. And so then it's not worth the time, but you don't basically, what you want to do is it's, it's all about audience number one. So offering mini sessions only to existing clients, what this does for you is you're reaching that though, that group, like we've already covered who know, they can trust you, who already have your value anchored at a higher price point, a higher investment level, they know that what you're providing to them is.

Quality. And so then when you start to think about the investment level that you should be charging, the experience is bite sized. And so the price should be bite sized too, but not competing at a hundred dollars, it should be in really like proportion to your full session, right? What would make it worth it for you?

And also make it worth it for your clients because you want the mini session experience to be a win win. The other reason that I'm, that I was thinking about this episode in this topic is because I've been starting to get emails from my existing clients who look forward to the mini sessions. They love this experience again, because it's a small way to work with me each and every year.

When, and then they can save the, like the big investment for a bigger milestone. So a lot of times people will hire me for a full session for like newborn. And I do a baby plan. So first year, one year sessions. And then typically around toddler age, and then maybe elementary school age, they, they might not necessarily feel compelled to have a full session every single year.

So minis are really a beautiful experience for them. And for me, in this case, they end up feeling like a reunion with all of my favorite clients because the people that I love. Want to come back and they want to get refreshed pictures. They want to have print quality photos and a lot of them want me to take care of the printing too.

So this is something where I offer a few different mini packages. Some of them are for the DIY people because I'm full service with my full sessions. So once they've gone through that full experience, if they want to print on their own, they more than can. You know, they're welcome to, but I do still offer that full service experience at a discount for my mini session people.

And I've had many sessions where clients happily invest several thousand every single year, because they want that easy breezy experience of a mini session, but they still also value that full service experience. So I'm still making albums and wall art and all of the things that I love to create for my clients.

I see a lot of people creating highly themed mini sessions. So maybe it's Christmas tree farms and fall like pumpkins and things like that in the winter. Um, or like in the springtime, a lot of times it's like pictures with baby animals. You don't need to do any of that. Keep it simple. Keep it streamlined, but just provide a really beautiful, smaller option and offer it to your existing clients.

I'm talking so incredibly simple. Like the promotion is a couple of emails. It's only going to existing clients, which again, also addresses the thought around not wanting to devalue your brand. So if you are a higher end Um, you know, photographer or creative in your industry, and you don't want to publicly offer smaller bite sized experiences.

You never have to publicly announce these. I have not announced many sessions anywhere publicly in years, and I sell out my minis every single year. I make five figures every single year. Um, and, and so they can be really be, uh, like a very, very win win experience for you and your favorite clients. Um, when, okay.

So back in what, 2020, when there was the pandemic, We created this crazy goal of wanting to go to Hawaii for a month. Um, and so we ended up doing it. We spent February, 2021 in Maui. Um, and it was the literal best experience of our lives. We were able to take our boys out of the cold, frigid, socially distant Boston and enjoy the tropics of Hawaii.

With plenty of space and warmth and sunshine and waves and all of the good Stuff. And we were able to do that all with our mini sessions, not with a ton, not with ever having to attract new clients, not with anything over elaborate or difficult. It was two emails to my existing list serving my existing clients who already are all about what we offer.

Um, I love, I love, love, love our clients, especially the ones that keep coming back. We have this connection. I know their family. I love their family. Serving them fills my cup, seeing them feels like a reunion, and it paid for our trip in Hawaii, which again, was the most incredible month of our lives. If you ask any one of us 4 Ewings, To talk about the core memories in our lives that have changed all of us, have strengthened our relationship with each other, have given us just once in a lifetime experience.

That was it. And it came from this bite sized experience that our clients love. So please take a break from editing, carve out literally one hour and schedule a bite sized experience for your favorite clients. If you want my help, I have a quick start guide for many sessions. This is something that can get you set up literally in an hour.

It's all, it's my exact email templates that I use. It is the tech that I use that is, um, I think it's all free. Um, I'm pretty sure. All the tech that I use, uh, it's the email service that I use to blast out the emails to my, to my list. It is how I book the sessions. It is, um, how I schedule them automated.

It is all done for you. There's also, um, pricing in there. So if you're confused about exactly what to charge and exactly what to include in your packages, it's. It's all in this quick start guide. There are so many ways that minis are done so wrong. And this guide really like walks you through all of the pitfalls and what to do instead.

Like how to run your sessions without a theme, where to host them, all of the things to think about how to run them smoothly. Um, for like what to do if it rains, cause that's always a big question. So this quick start guide gives, gives you, it's like the A to Z. The top to the bottom of exactly how to run a profitable mini session so that you can run them with ease and serve your clients and increase your profits.

Now, even amidst busy season, this works for all photographers. And I would be so interested to hear like using this for another, um, Another specialty too. So if you are a videographer, is there a way that you could offer a bite size video experience, like video holiday cards or holiday greetings? Uh, this works for brand photography.

I wonder if you're a like stationary artist, if you could go back to your wedding list and start to offer holiday cards, custom holiday cards with. Reusing their, their, you know, the wedding designs that they had, that you had created same thing. If you're a painter or like a water, like watercolor painter or a live wedding painter, you could go back and offer reproductions that they could use for gifts for Christmas this year.

There are so many ways that you can start to brainstorm just a bite size experience that doesn't take a ton of effort, but gives your client A lot of value for a smaller price point, a wedding photographer who went through this, uh, she doesn't usually even photograph families. She said I sold out within 24 hours.

And I don't even usually photograph families. The best part is now I have a system in place to run them year after year, which is a really great point too, because once you get these set up, whether you take advantage of the quick start guide or not, um, it's rinse and repeat. You can literally reuse what you've created this year and offer them in the spring, offer them in the summer for if you're near the beach, like I am offer beach mini sessions.

And, or at least just every fall offer them once a year that increases the exclusivity just to your existing clients. Katie, a brand photographer had launched her many sessions and she had made all of the normal mistakes. She launched, she launched them to, um, you know, social media. She did launch them to her current list, but also to social media.

She had a pricing structure that really doesn't work. Um, she had themed. Setups and she, I think she had booked only one or two out of 10 spots. And while she was in the middle of the mini launch, she jumped in and grabbed the quick start kit kit. And she said, I booked 12 mini sessions where before I had only booked one and I seven X to my income.

I was skeptical, but this works y'all. Uh, she's a brand photographer in Texas and it worked for her like immediately first time. So. Run them, get my help. If you want my help and DM me on Instagram, let me know how your minis went. I'm about to go set up mine this week. So if you're an existing client of mine, check your inbox cause your invite is coming.

See you soon.