How to conduct and publish Industry Research

Marketers know the importance of original, high-quality industry research. Brands with compelling statistics, visuals and reports on important industry topics are more visible than their competitors and earn more backlinks. Every company can now conduct industry research thanks to technology and data access.

We'll show you exactly how to do this in this article. We will cover:

• Define industry research as it exists within the marketing world
• Take a look at 6 benefits of publishing original research in your industry.
• Step-by-step guide through the process for conducting industry research

Let's get started.

Quick Take-Aways

• Brands are recognized as thought leaders by original industry research.
• Backlinks and customer trust are two other benefits to conducting industry research.
• Industry research should have clear goals and a dedicated group.
• Half of companies that do industry research work with a third party organization.

What is industry research?

An organization can conduct industry research on any topic relevant to that industry. Industry research is used in content marketing to generate thought leadership content, build brand authority and report on trends that affect customers and organizations.

There are several ways to conduct compelling industry research. Conducting surveys is the first. Surveys are released to targeted groups and collected original data. Researchers then share the results. The second involves analysing existing data in order to draw new conclusions.

Annual benchmark reports are a good example of survey-based research. Annual benchmark reports are a good example of survey-based research. They're compiled from the data from large groups of participants and then used the results to create reports such as "The Current State in X Topic in 2022" or "X Topic in 2022." These reports discuss industry norms and future trends, all based upon responses from customers or companies in the industry.

Research based on industry data is the best way to find out more about a topic that is covered often within an industry. It compiles all relevant data and draws conclusions. It also uncovers new insights and explores future research opportunities.

Quality industry research is a key indicator of a brand's expertise in their field. This makes them an authority in their field and a resource for other brands to learn how they can drive content creation.

HubSpot and the Content Marketing Institute are two examples of content marketing organizations that spring to mind. These two companies are so common in product industry research that you rarely see them on Google results pages for any digital marketing topic.

The next section will discuss the specific benefits of conducting industry research and how to publish it as part your content marketing strategy.

Publishing Industry Research has many benefits

Leadership that is thought-provoking

Content that is thought leadership is content that helps build your brand's authority as an expert. Thought leadership is especially important in B2B because it shows customers that you can deliver solutions, both in terms of products and services.

B2B buyers make important and lasting decisions that have a long-lasting impact on their companies. This is why they look for this level of confidence during the buyer journey. According to Edelman research and LinkedIn, 64% of B2B decision-makers believe that a company’s thought leadership content is more reliable than its marketing or promotional content in assessing its capabilities.

They believe that thought leadership content can help brands outperform competitors with greater name recognition. This study found that 47% of respondents said that thought leadership content helped them find and choose a company not considered to be a leader in their particular industry.

Image Source: Edelman

This is how it works: Original research can not only build your reputation but it can also be what makes buyers choose you over other competitors, even if they have a larger market share or are more well-known.

Link building strategies that boost your performance

Link building, which is the process of gaining backlinks on other websites to drive traffic your way, takes time and can be done in many ways. One of these is industry research. Your research will be cited by brands. It is also possible that other companies will link to your site to learn more.

Take a look at the Edelman-LinkedIn industry research. This kind of research was what I needed in order to make the article more compelling. Their data helped me to highlight the important points that I believe are essential to your understanding of thought leadership.

It's not something I haven't cited. There will be many readers who will read the report.

In short, original industry research can boost your link-building strategy as it improves the quality of other brands' content. This will lead to more organic traffic and possible customers for your website over time.

Building Customer Trust

In a B2B buying decision, trust is a key factor. Buyers consider trust essential for choosing a brand. It also provides a number other benefits that can help drive business to your company, such as higher referrals, frequent purchases, and willingness to pay more for products.

Image Source: Marketing Diagrams

This helps build trust with your audience by demonstrating your company's leadership and providing valuable insight for other industry professionals.

Increased Content Creation Opportunities

You can find tons of ways to generate high-quality content for your audience by conducting original industry research. This could be in the form of various content types, such as an infographic that highlights key statistics from the research. Other content pieces may cover the same topic more in depth, such as a blog post that analyses one interesting finding in a larger report.

Industry research often yields more research opportunities (and therefore more content), because it identifies topics that require more research and exploration.

Research has shown that marketers who are successful create almost three times as much content from original research as their less successful counterparts.

Image Source: Mantis Research

Get Insight

Your audience isn't the only one who benefits from industry research. Research can provide critical insights into your industry. This could include feedback from survey participants or understanding trends through third-party analysis. These insights can be used to improve your business's strategies and deliver better results.

Drives Traffic

All of these benefits have one result: more organic traffic to the website. You can expect greater results if you drive organic traffic to your website on a regular basis. This will result in more leads, higher conversions and more sales.

How to conduct and publish industry research

Identify a need

The first step in conducting industry research is to identify a need. This information gap can be filled by your initial research. To find these information gaps, think about the following:

• You are interested in/need to learn more about certain topics, but cannot find any quality information.
• There are many topics that your industry covers but doesn't have any reliable or definitive insights.
• Ask your customers groups questions that are worth further investigation
• Industry research is not yet available for emerging trends in your industry.
• Your own data could offer valuable insights.
• Benchmark reports could cover the most important topics for your brand

For your industry research, set goals

The goal setting process for industry research helps to guide the overall direction of the project and ensures that you get your intended ROI. For your industry research goals, you need to think back to what your original purpose was for conducting the research.

You might ask, "Are you trying to educate your customers about a product-related topic?" Understanding buyer behavior Do you want to build authority by doing better research on a topic that is already covered? You can be the first to cover a new trend in your industry.

Understanding your goals will help you determine the best steps to take to complete your industry research.

Create Your Team

Next, choose who will conduct your research. Your marketing team will most likely be the one conducting industry research for content marketing. Identify the members of that marketing team who will be involved in the execution of research.

Include other members of your organization with the appropriate expertise and information access to help you in your research. You might include data analysts to help you access data owned.

You might also be able to work with an organization from a different country whose members are also part of your team. (More on that later).

Establish Your Methods

Next, you need to decide the method that will be used to conduct industry research. This will depend on the topic. To get complete results, you can use a combination of research methods.

If your topic is about buyer behavior, you might send a survey to gather data and analyze your customer's past data.

Make a plan

A documented plan allows you to assign responsibility and set deadlines. It also helps to keep your team accountable during the research process. Important action steps are also prevented from getting lost.

The plan does not need to be complicated. It is sufficient to have a Google spreadsheet with tasks and deadlines. However, it should be shared and updated frequently in order to keep your research process on the right track.

Execute your Plan

Now it's time for you to put your plan into action. You can create a schedule to allow your research team members to meet regularly and keep you updated. To ensure that everything runs smoothly and meets deadlines, refer to your plan.

Analyze the Results

Now it's time for you to analyze the results of your research. To guide the data analysis, you can refer back to your original research goals. As a team, review the data and decide the most important and relevant ways to analyze it.

You could report on survey questions with a simple response but also break down responses by demographics or user groups to gain deeper insights. Data analysis tools can automate this step and improve accuracy.

Distribute and amplify

You must be strategic in how you share your industry research. Research in the industry is far more valuable than email or standard blog content. Use it to grow your audience and drive traffic.

Your research report could be used as a gated lead magnet. This requires that users share their information to gain access to the content. Blog articles or social media posts can include parts of your research to pique people's interest and drive them to your website.

Lead magnets keep your content easily accessible and increase the ROI you get from it through new leads. Your research is amplified when you share related content on your blog, social media platforms, and email.

Are you looking to collaborate with another company for industry research?

It's not required. However, there are real benefits to doing this. The expertise of third-party research companies is invaluable and can be a guide throughout the process.

Recent research found that nearly half (49%) of companies conducting original industry research partner directly with third-party firms in order to increase their reach and the number of participants.

Image Source: BuzzSumo | Mantis Research

You can conduct industry research by yourself, but a third party partner can help you increase the quality and number of participants and provide support in process execution.

With great content, you can build your brand's reputation

One way to improve your content reputation is by conducting industry research. This strategy can be furthered by writing frequent blog articles that are customer-focused and cover the most important topics for your brand.

It can be time-consuming to create and publish content in large quantities. Marketing Insider Group's team of SEO specialists and writers can provide optimized content that is ready to publish every week for one year or more so you can concentrate on your core business priorities.

To learn more, visit our SEO Blog Writing Service.