Take a look at the websites of the top firms in your industry. What makes those firms thought leaders? Is it simply that they are bigger, more established and better known? Look closely and you’ll often find one thing they have in common: They conduct original research.
We don’t mean the audience research that we’ve written about before. We’re talking about a different category of research, specifically studies and surveys that delve into issues your audience cares about. Issues that your firm can address.
This has been a smart strategy for years. Most of the heavy hitters in professional services—from the Big 4 to the top global firms in every industry—conduct this kind of research. But so do small and mid-sized firms, such as construction cost management firm RLB and regional accounting firm LBMC. And, boutique specialists, such as B2B training and consulting firm The AIM Institute and consultant coaching and training firm Consulting Success, are putting out compelling original research that educates their respective audiences on the very things that are keeping them up at night.
When you conduct research that answers questions your audience wants answers to, you put yourself in a unique position. Suddenly, you are an essential resource—and you might be the only organization with data on those issues.
According to a study by SurveyMonkey, 75% of readers find content that contains data more trustworthy than material that doesn’t. And 73% find research-based information more persuasive.
More trustworthy and persuasive. That sounds like a powerful combo. In fact, this is exactly the approach that Hinge has used to build a large and growing loyal audience. We include data—often data that we collected—whenever possible in our content. And we recommend this approach to our clients.
You now have something else, too: a mine of dazzling gems that can inspire a whole content marketing campaign. For instance, you can write a blog post that summarizes your findings. Then you can dive deep into each one. These provide fodder for a series of webinars and educational videos that also cover the material. Podcasters love to feature new guests who have a data-driven perspective. And individual data points can turn heads on social media.
Speaking of media, journalists love research, especially if it turns up unexpected findings. So be sure to promote your survey or study to them, as well. A well written press release is a good place to start. Be sure to distribute it to the news wires. To increase your chances of getting coverage, consider working with a PR professional who can pitch your study to specific journalists who cover your industry.
In today’s fast-evolving AI-search-oriented marketing environment, research is also a powerful tool to improve your chances of appearing in AI search results. Google and AI tools like ChatGPT are looking for content that demonstrates first-hand experience, knowledge and authority. Original research fulfills all those requirements. That means your blog posts and YouTube videos are more likely to be featured in their results, or at least influence what those AI-generated answers say. And when people who are ready to buy search for firms like yours, you will be better positioned to make the list.
AI is the future of search, and one you need to be thinking about today. Research can play a powerful role in preparing you for that future. A search environment dominated by AI is right around the corner, and you’d better be ready.
Examples of Research
What kinds of things can you cover in a research study or survey? Really, anything your buyers are actively looking to answer. Here are examples from three firms that produce regular research:
At the beginning of each year, Tennessee-based accounting firm LBMC publishes a Business Outlook Report for the year ahead. This report gives clients and prospects in key industries insights in the marketplace to inform their planning and strategy.
The AIM Institute conducts a variety of research on topics related to the front-end of B2B product innovation, from drivers of organic growth to advanced VOC (voice of the customer) practices. Much of this research is very specific and difficult to find elsewhere.
RLB releases a quarterly report on construction costs. This report has become a go-to resource for the entire industry. The data they produce provides benchmarks that are available nowhere else. A considerable part of their reputation is built on these studies.
What Are Your Research Options?
If you can afford it, nothing beats a formal, in-depth research study. Covering a topic from every angle produces a wealth of insights and value. Your marketing team can draw on a comprehensive study for an entire year, and often longer.
A comprehensive study is difficult to pull off in-house, and it is expensive. You will get the best result by outsourcing it to an experienced research firm that knows your industry. This kind of study can include 25 or more questions, and may involve phone interviews, online surveys or both.
How much does it cost? Expect it to be one of your bigger marketing investments. Research can take many forms, but it can quickly cascade into the tens of thousands of dollars. However, you have to put that investment in perspective. It becomes the foundation of your marketing program. If you produce a study on this scale each year, for instance, you can start to build research into the advice you give your clients. It becomes part of your DNA. And because it is expensive and hard, few of your competitors will be willing to copy it.
This is the kind of research reputations are founded upon.
What if you don’t have the time or budget to produce a full-blown study? What other options are available to you?
One avenue is to sponsor another organization’s research. If their study targets the same audience as yours and covers relevant material, this can be a fast and affordable shortcut. You may even have some influence over the questions they ask. Typically, this approach involves paying a fee to the organization—which could be an association or a firm in a different but audience-adjacent industry or niche—and agreeing to promote the report to your list. You get your logo on the cover, exposure to their audience, and the right to use all that data in your own content.
A similar option is to license an existing research study. While you won’t have any say in the content of the report, this approach offers similar benefits to a sponsored study. Typically, a license covers a specific period of time, after which you no longer can use the data.
The cost of sponsoring or licensing a report varies greatly, since each organization will put a different value on their research. Typically, this sort of arrangement costs thousands to the low tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the quality and depth of the research and the specific usage terms you negotiate.
Another path is to conduct smaller-scale research. This involves limited surveys using a tool like SurveyMonkey, SurveySparrow or TypeForm (these are not endorsements—there are plenty of others to pick from). Choose a very narrow topic, then ask just a few questions. Five to ten questions is a good target.
An added benefit of a limited survey is that it takes less of people’s time. If you can tell potential respondents that it will only take three to five minutes to complete, they are far more likely to participate than if the survey requires 20 or 30 minutes.
How to Find Research Participants
The key with any survey is to target the right people. And getting access to enough of them can be a challenge. A good rule of thumb is to develop a list that is twice as large as the number of responses you want to receive. That means if you want 100 respondents, you may need to reach out to at least 200 people.
Your clients are a great place to start, but if you want to get a large enough sample to make your study both statistically valid and credible to your readers, you may need to look elsewhere for additional candidates. Your email list is the next place to go. If you have a large enough list of prospects, you may be all set. Just keep in mind that only a fraction of your list will see or open your email, so each person on your list is not the equivalent of a person you ask directly. It will likely require a much higher proportion of email list recipients to reach your target number of respondents.
If those tactics don’t attract enough participants, you’ll need to hire a survey panel provider. These are companies that guarantee a certain number of qualified participants for a fee. Typically, you describe the demographics you are looking for and the number of survey participants you need, then they will supply you with a fixed-price estimate. In our experience, this can be a good way to fill in gaps, but the quality of panel responses—especially in niche markets—can vary. Many panel providers will allow you to reject low-quality responses and replace them with new ones.
Incentives Work
These days, people are bombarded with requests to take surveys. Most of those requests are ignored. While you can simply ask people to take your survey, you are going to get a much better response rate if you incentivize them.
Your budget will determine what incentives are possible. For instance, offering each participant a $25 gift card if they complete the survey may make sense if you are looking for 100 participants. But it might become unaffordable if your target is 1,000.
If you plan to sell your research study, giving it away for free to participants who complete the survey may be your best incentive option. Not only does it cost you nothing, it also motivates the people who take the survey to provide high-quality responses. After all, their input will affect the final data. This is exactly what we do at Hinge.
Another lower-cost incentive strategy is to enter participants into a drawing for a prize. Make sure the prize is valuable and broadly appealing enough to entice people to take the survey. You can calibrate the value of the prize to the level of effort required to complete the survey. If you are targeting a large number of participants, you can increase people’s odds of winning by offering multiple prizes.
Important: Make it clear up front that the incentive is only available to people who finish the survey. Partial completions don’t make the cut.
If you have never conducted research on the markets you serve, it may feel like a big undertaking. But if you work with a qualified firm or start with a small DIY survey, doing research can be a lot easier than you think. The potential payoff—today and tomorrow—is enormous. It could even transform your positioning… and fortunes.
