As we enter a new year, what goals can we set forth to improve our businesses and reach new territory?
I’m guessing because you stumbled across this post, creating a way to boost your content strategy is part of your 2022 objectives.
You are not alone. As an industry, content marketing is pushing toward a worth of over $400 billion from both the investment and confidence organizations have put into content creation.
With this growing market, your business cannot afford to be left behind.
Have you considered market research? A team specialized in this field will teach you how to develop a content strategy for your business.
Watch our video on the 3 benefits of original research with a market research firm.
The Importance of a Data-Driven Marketing Strategy
Original research in content marketing is the process of re-purposing data and feedback from market research surveys for content purposes.
Market research findings can be used in marketing deliverables such as:
- Blog posts
- Whitepapers
- Competitor compare cards
- Webinars
- Social media shares
- Press releases
The list really could go on and on.
Now more than ever, a data-driven marketing strategy is critical for organizations everywhere.
Whether it be to test ad concepts or to generate headlines, market research can help brands maximize their marketing and advertising ROI.
Don't just take our word for it. Here are a few statistics that back up our claims.
- Two out of three marketers agree data-based decisions are more effective than gut instincts. (Adverity)
- 64 percent of marketing professionals said that data-driven strategies are vital in today’s economy. The top usages included:
- Customer journey mapping
- A/B testing
- Website personalization
- Campaigns that utilize data-driven personalization earn 5x to 8x ROI for their campaign spend.
With that being said, 57 percent of marketers are incorrectly interpreting data. This means they are taking action with inaccurate information.
This can explain the frustration brands see when they keep getting little to no return from their efforts.
Research-driven content can be the powerhouse of all content marketing for your organization in 2022.
Here is how a third-party market research company can help.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Gathering accurate information is a fantastic way to boost your content strategy. With the help of quality data, you’ll be able to create content from blogs to social posts.
1. Carry the Grunt Work
An issue for many organizations (whether they have an in-house marketing team or not) when it comes to website content strategy is that they lack the time and resources to create personalized content.
Content personalization involves gathering, reviewing, and analyzing data about your target audience to create content that best aligns with their needs or interests.
By adding an element of original research within your 2022 content strategy, businesses can effortlessly produce an extremely personal experience in their marketing efforts.
Research-driven content allows organizations to speak specifically to visitors at their exact level of brand awareness (high or low).
While this sounds and is ideal, it is not always easy for content marketers to set aside time to design, implement, and analyze survey data – where a third-party original research company lives, breathes and sleeps data.
For a small cost, a content marketing research company like Drive Research can carry out as much or as little of a content survey as is needed by your organization.
We’ll gather your research data through the use of online surveys to boost your content strategy.
The reason content marketing research offers high ROI is because much of the feedback third-party companies gather can be used in many ways.
Created a content survey, but don’t know how to find respondents? Ask Drive Research. Not sure where to even begin? Ask Drive Research.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Creating a content strategy for the web may seem intimidating. With the help of a third-party research team, you’ll be guided through the process. You’ll be able to obtain as much information as your company needs.
2. Already Written Content
With any market research study implemented by a third party, a key deliverable for clients is the market research report.
Breaking down a market research report into different components allows you to clearly see the information gathered.
A market research report is key because it effortlessly summarizes your study’s data. Aside from recapping project goals, these reports serve as a guide to all the feedback gathered.
Research reports break down the data as follows:
- Question-by-question: Feedback is placed in the same order as questions
- Themed organization: Feedback is organized based on the subject matter
- Crosstabs: Otherwise known as demographics, crosstabs offers additional insight into feedback
As with any other report, a conclusion is placed at the end of this market research document. Additional elements included in these reports include anything from infographics to correlation and regression analysis.
However, the major difference with a content survey study is the results are meant to be shared.
Many times organizations seeking help from a market research firm is because they are looking for evidence and data to help solve their business challenges or objectives.
These business goals often range from an increase in new customers, improving employee retention, understanding target market awareness, measuring customer satisfaction, etc.
Of course, market research can help with all of these objectives (more on that, here). But, the results from the studies are only shared with the client and their team.
Original research on the other hand is built on the basis of creating shareable content to gain fresh eyes and leads for your organization.
In fact, original research can help with increasing new customers and improving brand awareness.
With a market research report delivered by a content marketing research company, a lot of the material for your 2022 content strategy is already written for you.
Realistically, all it takes on your end is a little reformatting and rebranding.
In little to no time, your organization now has loads of content in your marketing arsenal. This can be recreated into blog posts, infographics, website copy, sales material, and more!
💡 The Key Takeaway: Receiving a market research report will help clients zero in on their specific goals. From there, you can decide how to develop a content strategy, whether it’s through blog posts or sales material.
3. Honorable Data
Perhaps your organization has the resources to implement a content survey and is knowledgeable enough to analyze the data in a way that is beneficial for your 2022 content strategy.
It’s still important to be aware of a major outlier in the dangers of DIY market research–reliable data.
If conducting research in-house, especially research that is meant to be shared, readers can be skeptical to trust the results.
For example, a financial institution conducts a content survey asking the general population questions about their current banking provider.
The bank or credit union then takes the results from the content survey to publish a competitor compare card showcasing how their financial intuition outranked all of their competitors with factors such as customer satisfaction, pricing, and knowledge of services.
Even if the results were accurate, it is hard for people to believe this wasn’t a made-up study. It comes off as though the financial institution is self-proclaiming they are the best to attract customers.
Original research conducted by a third party, however, verifies that the results were not fudged, skewed, or misrepresented to benefit the sponsor of the study.
It is critical to produce research-driven content your target audience can 100% trust.
Lack of market research industry knowledge can also be evident in DIY market research. It’s important to have a team of experts working on questions. These research questions should be written in a specific way to produce the desired feedback.
When companies use DIY market research, they could be missing out on valuable information.
Another faux-pas from in-house research is choosing the wrong research methodology. Without a solid understanding of qualitative and quantitative research, a company can lose out on loads of valuable data.
A market research company will know the exact type of research you need.
Since companies who use DIY methods have limited research resources, they can only gather so much information.
Third-party firms will come and take care of the research, letting you attend to other areas of your organization.
Working with a trusted team of researchers to boost your content strategy better positions your organization as a thought leader and trusted partner in your industry by providing honest and reliable data.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Working with a third-party team has many benefits, with honest data as its number one. Not only will your company receive reliable feedback, but you will also appear trustworthy to other companies as well.
Contact Our Content Marketing Research Firm
Drive Research is a market research company that specializes in research-based content and research-driven content insights. We work closely with organizations that are looking to use market research to drive content strategies.
Questions about how we can help? Want to talk about a project?
Contact us below:
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Emily Carroll
A SUNY Cortland graduate, Emily has taken her passion for social and content marketing to Drive Research as the Marketing Manager. She has earned certificates for both Google Analytics and Google AdWords.
Learn more about Emily, here.
