Surveys: Feast and Fodder For Your Content Pipeline

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By Tonya Vinas, Senior Editor, Content4Demand

When it comes to content creation, surveys have one of the highest ROIs in terms of what you get for resources deployed. Survey results not only provide new and unique knowledge that will differentiate your message, but they also can feed your content pipeline with a variety of compelling assets. The first benefit a well-executed, market-relevant survey delivers is news. Content marketing has its roots in business journalism, but many in this field don’t know where the word “news” comes from. It’s the plural of “new.” When you push new information to your audience, you are delivering news — something they have not seen or heard before — and this turns up the volume on your voice in a noisy marketplace. After delivering the headline piece — the most relevant research results — a survey-based nurture campaign continues to deliver. Earlier this month in the webinar “Stepping Up Surveys In Content Campaigns,” IT Business Management Solutions provider AutoTask explained how it conducted a survey with partner Decision Tree Labs, and then used the results to create four compelling pieces of content (so far). The company produced an E-book, infographic, brief and video whitepaper. To maximize your investment in survey research, use a team or vendor that specializes in surveys to give credence to the results, and choose a survey theme and questions that reflect your customer’s challenges, not your product or service. For example, one of AutoTask’s goals in its survey and content development was to offer guidance on how to identify metrics that most meaningful for strategic decision-making. This knowledge is part of what made the content compelling. What company wouldn’t want to find out if they are using the right metrics to measure performance? Content marketing might have broadened the definition of business news, but solid survey research and market analysis will always attract the attention of business professionals and, if properly planned, can be the foundation of an effective and informative nurture campaign.

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