Photography Business Growth with Real Data with Emilee Baum

Pat Miller: 00:00

I'm Pat Miller, and this is The Professional Photographer Podcast. It's time to make a big decision. What do you do? Trust your gut and hope for the best? Well, if that's you, you could make better decisions, and you could make better decisions when you trust your gut, and you got some data coming in, like what do your customers think and what's going on in the industry and what's going on in the economy and having better inputs will make better outputs. But research can be a little intimidating, and it seems like a waste of time. And that's not the case according to our guest, Emilee Baum, PPA Research Manager. On today's show, we're gonna talk about the role of research for you in your photography business. We'll also talk about the upcoming benchmark survey and the business guide coming out momentarily. Plus, she'll preview the big deal, the state of the photography industry getting released this fall. If you wanna make better decisions, if you wanna run a better business, you need to have the data. You need research along with your gut check. We'll talk with Emilee Baum next. Emilee Baum, welcome to The Professional Photographer Podcast. How are you today?

Emilee Baum: 01:19

Oh, I'm great. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here. I've wanted to share on this podcast for a while, so I'm glad to be here.

Pat Miller: 01:27

Awesome. And you're gonna explain stuff I barely understand, so I'm gonna smile and follow along because you're gonna talk numbers and stats and research. And I think maybe a lot of photographers are more creative than they are mathematical and research-based. So today, we're gonna listen to what you had to say, and we're gonna learn about how to do research for our studios and what's going on with PPA. But if someone hasn't met you yet, tell them who you are and what you do.

Emilee Baum: 01:52

Yes. Well, I should say, you know, research can seem intimidating, but I promise it's not that scary. It's actually a lot of fun. Oh, well, like you said my name is Emilee. I am the Research Manager at Professional Photographers of America. And, basically, my role is to help gather data from all different kinds of places and translate that into something that's usable for working photographers. So, you know, helping photographers understand what their clients want or how to help run a business more profitably. And then maybe the other side of PPA research is that we also do research about our members and our organization to make PPA better for all of our member photographers. So really the goal of research at PPA, I would say, is to give photographers the tools and the insights that they need so that they can actually use it with their businesses.

Pat Miller: 02:47

The show's only a year old, but we've done over 50 episodes. This is the first time we've talked about research. How come we're not talking about research more often? It seems like it's underplayed or almost ignored in the overall photography community. Why is that?

Emilee Baum: 03:03

Well, I was thinking about this. You know, I mentioned sometimes research can seem a little intimidating, but I don't know that that's always the right word. It's more like I don't know that everyone knows where the door is to get into research. Right? Like, where do you start to even begin to think about it? Like, what is research? And, you know, really photographers come to research with their best research tool at hand, which is their knowledge of their own clients, you know. You have experience of your clients. You have experience of your marketplace. In your gut, you kind of know who your target audience is. And that's fantastic. That's like the perfect place to start in research. However, your gut instinct is really just kind of it's one data point. Right? When you're thinking about the entire complex marketplace, your gut is just one data point. And so, research really helps you fill in the rest of the picture around whatever your business questions are. It helps you get outside of your own bubble, really. You know, and kind of get into the mindset of your own clients and think about things that you wouldn't necessarily think about.

Pat Miller: 04:10

Just think about the big picture of research for a second, though. We wanna believe that our gut is right, and we wanna follow our gut. But when we start bringing in other data points, either that's validated or it's corrected, is that maybe one reason why we ignore it? Because we don't wanna, like, introduce something that might prove ourselves wrong? Like, sometimes it can be uncomfortable, can't it?

Emilee Baum: 04:31

It's true. Sometimes, you know, things aren't what you expected. But that's actually good news. You know, when you discover something that you weren't aware of or maybe is a little bit different than what you had assumed, that means that you're actually learning things. You know, when you think about client behavior, right? Purchasing behavior, how things are doing, in the marketplace. You know, the way that things were happening back in 2020, the way that consumers were behaving and the way that we were communicating the value of photography in 2020 is going to be totally different today. You know, 2025 is a whole new world. So, even if you think you know what your assumptions are sometimes there's a whole world of things that you're not aware of yet. There are customers that you haven't even met yet. You know, research is the way that you discover all of those possibilities that you hadn't even considered.

Pat Miller: 05:24

More clients? Now you have my attention. Okay. Yeah, I'm teasing.

Emilee Baum: 05:28

More clients. Yes.

Pat Miller: 05:29

Alright. You talked about doing research on potential clients or how to grow the studio, but PPA has a great service: the benchmark survey and the business guide. Tell us about what those two things are and how they benefit members.

Emilee Baum: 05:43

Yes. So I'm excited to talk about the benchmark study because it's kind of a unique piece of research that PPA does. What the benchmark study is really a deep dive into the financial and operational choices that are made by real working studios. This year, we had over a hundred different studios participate. They sort of open their books and and let us see how are they handling things like pricing, you know, what are their expenses? What are they spending on marketing? What is their profit? You know, really, how are studios spending their money and how much are they keeping, right? And then what does that look like, you know, for a profitable studio? We completed the study and we've done it several times. The last time we did this study was in 2014. So this is really an update to that to look at how the marketplace has changed in the last ten years. So that was the data collection. We did that in 2024. And in 2025, we worked on the analysis and we are creating what's called the business guide, which it's really a stand-alone document that is the key to all of that data that I was just telling you about. The business guide is how you can make that actionable for your own business.

Pat Miller: 07:01

It sounds like the benchmark survey would give us the map, and then the business guide would give us the GPS to get to where we're going. Like, oh, I see most studios are doing this. I'm not. I can go this direction, and I can help improve the business. Is that one way to think about it?

Emilee Baum: 07:15

Yes. That's exactly right. So, for example, if you've ever asked yourself, you know, you're thinking, am I spending too much on marketing? Right? Like, am I spending too much as a part of my business? Or is my profit margin, does that match up with other studios that are kind of the same size? You know, how is my profitability comparing to other studios? Those are questions that you could ask yourself, and maybe you've even got some gut references, you know, to answer those questions for yourself. You can maybe even talk to some other photographers that you know. That's not quite the same thing as having an entire study of studios to reference yourself with and compare yourself with. Not in the sense of, like, better or worse, but more like how is my business situated within the common marketplace? And what are the opportunities that I have to either grow or, you know, maybe think about things that you hadn't thought about in terms of how your business expenses are managed? So, it's really exciting stuff. And the business guide itself, like I said, it's a tool. So it will be able to guide you through the process of looking at your own expenses and comparing them to the benchmark numbers and giving you an opportunity to think about, you know, profitability.

Pat Miller: 08:31

Do people get surprised when they see how much other people are making or how much they're spending? What are some of the places that pop up that first time reviewers of the benchmark go, woah, I'm way out of alignment here?

Emilee Baum: 08:44

Well, you know, I think that really probably depends on the studio. Right? That's one of the things that's so compelling about this. You know, when I say benchmark, what I mean is, you know, we took the data from all of these studios, all hundred plus, and aggregated them and sort of distilled it down into a model that you can compare your own business to. So, it's kind of like you don't know what sort of surprises you might find. Really. But, you know, in the business guide, there will be worksheets to help you kind of navigate that. And when you do have questions that arise, you know, PPA is certainly here to help you explore those answers, so.

Pat Miller: 09:24

Yeah. It's one of the big benefits of membership. Another thing that just dropped, the consumer research of photography specialties. It was the headshot. Was it that the research that just got released?

Emilee Baum: 09:34

Yes. That was the one that just came out. So what do I mean when I say that we do consumer studies? Well, what's happening with consumer studies is we are actually talking to people who have purchased photography. Right? They've hired a photographer for their own personal use. And we've done a whole series of these studies. So the most recent one is headshot photography. And it was, let's see, it was over 400 responses that we had in that survey of people who had purchased headshots recently. One thing that we discussed–can I talk about it a little bit?

Pat Miller: 10:10

Yeah. Bring it on. Let's go. I wanna hear all the good stuff.

Emilee Baum: 10:12

I get excited because, you know, I think because people are a little intimidated by research, you know, I don't get to talk about it often. So, yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, so one of the things that kind of surprised me in this study is, you know, we knew headshots aren't just for business cards anymore. Right? That was something that I think my gut, I already knew. But what was a little eye opening was really a huge shift towards headshots as personal branding. You know, people want to look like themselves, but they also want to look their best and represent kind of a little bit more of a full range of their personality. This actually came up in a really great discussion on The Loop, which–if there are any of our listeners that don't know what I'm talking about, The Loop is the social network that is a part of PPA members. You can go there and post questions of other members and have discussions with other photographers. And one photographer brought this up and said, you know, when photographers think of headshots, typically you're thinking of just your head and shoulders. Right? Like, our listeners can't see me doing this Vogue thing, but I'm making a box around my head and shoulders. You know, that's what a photographer might think of when you say headshot. But consumers, they are using these images, you know, not just for business cards, but this is your Facebook. This is Instagram. This might be your LinkedIn profile. This is your personal website, your company website. You know, the usage occasions for this kind of imagery have just exploded. So, when we say headshots, maybe we're thinking about head and shoulders. But when our customers say headshots, they have a much bigger idea. So what do we do with that? You know, like, how do we think about that? Well, it makes sense to me because over half of the people in the study, 51% said, I really feel like I need to get my headshots redone probably every year to two years, which is much more frequent than I think we would have seen in the past. And this opens up and indicates kind of a huge, new repeat business opportunity, right? If you know that your professional headshot customer is going to wanna keep up with their style and keep their style relevant with the media platforms that are available, you can ask them every twelve to eighteen months, hey, are you ready to re-update your headshots? You know? That kind of business opportunity didn't exist ten or fifteen years ago because consumers didn't have the need ten or fifteen years ago to use images in that way. So that's one example of how research can kind of broaden your ideas about a category.

Pat Miller: 12:50

Certainly at scale. Just as an aside to those of you that are thinking, woah, that's more frequent than I thought. I just did an interview with a guy named Mark Asquith who runs a podcasting company called Captivate. He's one of the leaders on branding and audience growth in the world. He's in The UK. Brilliant dude. And he made the point that marketing is used to call it content marketing. Now marketing is just content. And every photographer and every small business owner is a content creator. And to just draw a finer point on it, you, as a photographer, are not necessarily creating content by sharing your work. He's talking about sharing work about who you are and telling your story and putting your personal brand out there because people are hungry to connect with personal brands, going back to the research that says personal branding is something that people are latching on to. So underscoring that point for sure.

Emilee Baum: 13:42

So, yes, the headshot study, we just recently released that one. And that we've been calling these studies, like our consumer niche studies or our consumer specialty studies. It's a series that we've been doing for a while. And so in addition to headshots, we–oh, gosh, now I'm gonna have to try and remember them all. High school seniors came before headshots. That was a really interesting study because not only did we talk to the purchasers of high school senior photography, which is the parents. Right? They're holding the checkbook. But we did a study right alongside of it with the students that were having their photographs done. So you have two perspectives there, the student perspective and the purchaser perspective. In addition to that one, we've done newborns, weddings; there was a study on family portrait photography and pet photography, pets. Yeah, so those studies, all of them, even if you're not already in that specialty, even if you're just thinking about it, it's a really great place to get started, to learn more about the target audience, you know, to learn more about what they're looking for in a photographer and what their expectations are for a session.

Pat Miller: 14:57

Now I know it's on the PPA podcast, but come on. Who's out there talking to 400 headshot people to get you the answers you need? If you're not yet a PPA member, we need to have a conversation because I gotta explain this to you, ppa.com is the website. Sorry. I just had to throw that in.

Emilee Baum: 15:12

No. I appreciate it. I do.

Pat Miller: 15:13

This is really valuable stuff.

Emilee Baum: 15:15

Yes. And again, it might seem intimidating, but part of what PPA does in these research studies is try and distill down the findings. Right? So for example, at the beginning of the headshot study, we have the top 10 key marketing takeaways. So if you don't feel like reading all the charts and graphs, you can always just read the executive summary at the top. It'll give you the nuggets to take home with you.

Pat Miller: 15:40

Yeah. I always go to that. Give me the one paragraph summary and let smart people like you interpret the charts. I just wanna know.

Emilee Baum: 15:48

Who's got time to read anymore? You know?

Pat Miller: 15:52

Reading. Alright, let's talk about our customers. What are some of the things that you see in the customers that we serve? Are there any big myths that we've been telling ourselves for the past twenty or thirty years that just aren't true anymore?

Emilee Baum: 16:04

Oh, gosh. You know, when I think about research, you know, kind of like what the research function does. Right? I've talked about how it could kind of fill in the picture for you in the marketplace. But another thing that research can do for you is it's kind of a key to empathy. You know, it helps you understand what your clients are thinking, what excites them, what confuses them, you know, what is the barrier to booking that session. You really can kind of build up a knowledge base about that. And one of the myths that I seem to encounter time and time again is that price is, like, the end all and be all decision making factor. You know, like, price is always important. You know, price is always a consideration for consumers. But over and over again, we learn that they care more about the photographer's style. They care more about the photographer's ability to communicate with them and make them feel comfortable. Those categories of behavior are gonna win out over price almost every time. You know, if you can demonstrate to your clients that you are going to be able to give them the confidence that they need to feel in that photo session, that is way more compelling a message than I have the lowest price. Because honestly, you probably won't always have the lowest price, and that's not how you wanna build the business as always being the lowest price. You know? You gotta you need to charge what you're worth. And part of that is communicating to your custome in language that they can understand.

So this kind of research really helps you, helps you develop messaging that's meaningful for your audience because you know where they're coming from and helps you connect with them in a way that will help them understand, yes, you know, price is important, but what's really important is how you feel about these images and how you feel when you're having these images made with me, your photographer.

Pat Miller: 17:54

You talked about listening to our gut, but also following the data to have another data point. How do we balance those two things and how often should data be brought into big and small decisions while we build the studio?

Emilee Baum: 18:10

I would say use data or maybe lean a little more heavy on data when you are trying to get your bearings in a situation or perhaps if you are looking to make a change, in your business, like try a new specialty, for example, or adjusting your packages or adjusting your prices. That's the time that you would wanna ask yourself, well, you know, my gut is telling me I might need to make a change here. What does the research say to help me make a smart step forward? Another way to think about it maybe is, like, think about data like a compass. Right? You don't have to make every single decision based on the data from your compass, but it really can help you from getting lost. It really can help you from getting lost. So especially in a fast-changing market or an unfamiliar market, using data is how you can identify what your opportunities are and also how you can kind of take out the guesswork about what that next step needs to be.

Pat Miller: 19:11

Let's pretend that you are a photographer and have your own studio. You're not at PPA, and you were paying attention to data and your KPIs the way that you wished everybody else would. Are we looking at the numbers once a week, once a month, once a quarter, once a year? What is good data hygiene to make sure that we're not obsessing about them, but looking at them frequently enough that they're actionable?

Emilee Baum: 19:36

Sure. Sure. Well, you know, I mean, a little bit that depends on which type of data you're talking about. If we're talking about, for example, the benchmark data that we were discussing, if you're looking at your profitability and the amount that you're spending on your marketing and your return on investment for marketing and, you know, like, those types of metrics, you know, obviously, you're gonna be wanting to look at that a little more frequently. Right? Those are your business books. For data like, perhaps consumer studies or things that might be a little more of a niche interest for you, you know, stay on top of it regularly, maybe once a quarter or even more frequently than that. Just check-in and see. Is there anything new out there that I haven't really thought about? Or check-in with your own self, your own sense of, wow, I've really been considering expanding into pet photography. Is there anything I can find out there that's gonna let me know more about this audience before I make that decision? Research is a-it's a tool. It's an assistant. It shouldn't be like a bad thing. Right? Like, I don't want you to feel scared or unhappy when you have to think about research because, at least for me, it feels a little bit like being Sherlock Holmes. You know, it's like being an investigator. It's a mystery. You have questions that you don't know the answer to, so you get to explore and kind of find the support to give you more of a picture than you had before.

Pat Miller: 21:01

Very valuable. We've got the benchmark study coming, the business guide that goes along with it. What's coming up later in the year? Are you just taking the rest of the year off? You got something else coming?

Emilee Baum: 21:10

Oh, gosh. No. I think probably the most exciting thing that I'd like to share here is that we are updating a study for ourselves. You remember me saying about–what did I say? Like, in 2020, things aren't the same way that they are today. Right? The market has changed. Well, 2020 was the last time that we ran a large consumer study. You know, not a specialty consumer study, but just large consumer study among nationwide consumers about all things photography. You know, how do they receive images? How do they feel about them? How are they budgeting for them? What does the state of the photography consumer look like in 2025? So that is the study that we are running this summer, so you can look for that this fall. And, you know, Pat, if I'm lucky, you will invite me back and we can talk about some of the exciting findings that we have in that study too.

Pat Miller: 22:03

Absolutely. Because let's be clear, we love research around here. Right?

Emilee Baum: 22:07

Yay.

Pat Miller: 22:08

She talked me into it. I was intimidated before this interview, but now big research guy. Right here.

Emilee Baum: 22:12

Oh, good.

Pat Miller: 22:13

Love me some research.

Emilee Baum: 22:15

Good. Well, I hope I've convinced a few others because, as I said, I really feel passionate about it, and then I enjoy talking about it. So I welcome if anybody's got questions or wants to discuss research or research applications for their market specifically, you know where to find me. Right?

Pat Miller: 22:32

Absolutely. The PPA website is where we should be logging in and joining PPA if you're not yet a member, but that's the place to do it.

Emilee Baum: 22:38

Yes, and all of the research that we've discussed today well, and the research that's coming up that you'll be able to find is all on the website at ppa.com/research. So you can see all of these reports there.

Pat Miller: 22:50

It may be, and you don't have to agree with this because I think you're gonna say yes. But for the dollars generated for your membership, this might be the most valuable piece of the PPA membership, wouldn't you say?

Emilee Baum: 23:02

Oh, well, I mean, I don't know if I can go that far. I think there are other–

Pat Miller: 23:06

Come on, now. Come on.

Emilee Baum: 23:08

–other departments at PPA might argue with me on that one. But I can say, you know, the types of research products that we're–you know, the size of the studies that we're doing and the specificity of the studies that we're doing is not a small expense. You know, it is something that PPA really invests in because we believe that our members, you know, deserve and need to have research as one of the tools in their basket. So, you know, take advantage of this because it's PPA investing in you by sharing this research with you.

Pat Miller: 23:39

We appreciate you doing the work, Emilee Baum. Thanks for joining us on The Professional Photographer Podcast. I appreciate it.

Emilee Baum: 23:44

The pleasure is all mine. Thanks, and I'll see you next time.

Pat Miller: 23:47

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of The Professional Photographer Podcast. I'm already cooking up next week's episode, so I hope to see you then. And it gets easier for you to find us when you click subscribe because YouTube does the work and it makes us go into–you know how it works. I don't need to explain it. Just hit subscribe. Give us a thumbs up too. And if you really want all the brownie points, you'll leave us a comment because we wanna know what did Emilee say that stuck out to you? What made you think? What are you curious about? You want us to give Emilee a high five for coming on the show. Leave us a comment that will help us make better episodes in the future. One more thing. If you're not yet a PPA member, you now know what you're missing. Professional Photographers of America are not only researching your clients and your colleagues, they're also offering you equipment insurance, top-notch education, and a supportive community of photographers ready to help you succeed. It's perfect for photographers who are serious about growing their business in a sustainable and profitable way. At PPA, you belong here. Discover more about membership at ppa.com. That's ppa.com. I'm Pat Miller, founder of the Small Business Owners Community and the publisher of the Small Business Summary Newsletter. I appreciate you tuning in. We'll see you right here next time. Take care.