Original research produced by b2B marketers drives traffic and social shares - but are marketers making the most of their excellent research? The short answer, according to research by Buzzsumo and Mantis Research is pretty much a "no".
The research found the main benefits of producing original research (research reports which involve conducting a survey of real people e.g. marketers) drives traffic and social shares, success!
Website traffic, social shares, PR and influencer mentions, as well as leads were reported by half or more respondents. This proves the value of conducting original research and shows why it's so popular as a content marketing methods.
When asked how marketers then promoted the research, this is what they found:
Most marketers promote the findings using blog posts, infographics and a PDF report of the results. This makes sense, though I'd expect as many PDF's to be produced as blog posts, as blog posts could highlight key findings, with the PDF containing the full report. Infographics are still popular, though video and interactive graphics, which are very user-friendly for readers, were not used very much.
Research by Buffer in their 2018 State of Social Report, found that 85% of marketers are planning to create more video content in 2018. According to the research above, this won't include producing video on original research conducted. Perhaps video has not been traditionally used to communicate B2B research findings, but with video becoming a trend in the content marketing world and with marketers wanting to watch short digestible clips, it could be beneficial for content marketers to use video in future for their original research findings. I read a lot of B2B marketing research and rarely come across video, so it would be nice to see a bit of variety especially when there is so much research being produced and updated (which is also amazing, by the way!).
This begs the question - are we sticking to what works or the same old tricks? Does content marketing need to adapt more to become more interactive? And are marketers not promoting their hard work enough, after all such research projects take time, resources, cost money through incentives, use designers, copywriters, researchers, marketers, content marketing strategists and use many platforms: email marketing providers, survey platforms, social media channels. Are we really getting out of it what we put in?
By Robert Jones
Robert Jones is a specialist in CRO, UX Research, insight and digital Marketing. He is CRO Analyst at Enjoy Digital. He has a Psychology Masters of Research, has run large digital marketing campaigns to build research panels and worked in insight roles for Vision Critical, ASDA and WhatUsersDo. He also managed all of Smart Insights member resources and published several guides including "How to conduct Persona Research" as well as contributing over 100 blog posts to the Smart Insights blog. When he isn’t working on marketing campaigns he is most likely eating authentic Italian food or planning his next short trip. You can connect with Robert on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
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