If you were asked to describe a content writer or content creation marketer in a word, you might use words like creative, imaginative, or artistic. Words to describe a market researcher, however, may look rational, factual, or logical. Although seemingly opposite, the blend of research-driven content has proven to pay continual beneficial dividends for businesses. Research and content go hand-in-hand because of the reciprocal benefits of one feeding the other. Data obtained from market research can fuel content to create endless consumption from your audiences.
Market research creates an endless flow of quality content for your brand.
If done right, good research will answer many questions for you but also lead to many more questions, which encourages additional research and content. Research-driven content can come in many forms, including:
- primary research (surveys)
- secondary research (weaving findings together from other data and studies published online)
- big data and analytics (merging data from keyword searches, lead generation platforms, and other systems).
All three of these modalities provide content benefits for an agency or client. Primary research may provide the highest value because it is proprietary, fresh, and something that can provide you with a leg up on your other competitors by giving you access to statistics that no one else has.
What are the leading objectives for content creation?
A report from Ascend2 fielded in January of 2014 stated the leading objectives of its content creation strategy were to
- increase the number of leads generated – by 54%
- increase brand or product awareness – by 41%
- increase the number of website visitors – by 32%.
Primary research supplies relatable and pertinent content that encourages conversation among audiences.
So how can primary research be repurposed into endless content for marketing?
Here are some applications:
- Public reporting. What’s better than a branded report of new industry data to share with media outlets resulting in new potential leads? Maybe I’m biased because I love research, but that sounds pretty good.
- Whitepapers. Take a research finding or nugget and develop it into a persuasive piece that positions your brand as a thought leader in the industry.
- Blog posts. Primary research is the gift that keeps on giving for blogs. Each question in your survey and each data point in your results tells a separate story which sets the stage for a long series of blogs. Think of the options for the content scope that exist, like telling a story from just one page of a book, recapping a chapter, ultimately creating a summary of the whole book, or comparing two books. The options are endless.
- eBook. Need data for your eBook to better leverage your company as a leader in the industry? What better way to prove that than by thoroughly understanding your target audience using a survey?
- Press releases. Primary research is fodder for press releases that can tell a large story (survey conducted with over 400 B2B individuals, and here are the top 3 findings) or a smaller, more specific story (among the 400 B2B individuals surveyed, here are the 8 most common challenges they foresee in their industry in the upcoming year).
Final thoughts on using market research for content creation
The internal benefits of the market research outcomes might prove equal to the value of aiding your content strategy. In addition to creating a public report, whitepapers, blog posts, and case studies that can be shared with the general public, primary research within your industry will provide key marketing and sales recommendations based on the data collected. Content marketing agencies can work with your businesses to interpret findings and develop items for your sales and marketing team to act on.