Content Marketing Research

What is content marketing research?

To create an informed content marketing strategy, you need to do research to support the tactics you invest in; otherwise, you’re just closing your eyes, throwing darts and hoping for the best possible outcome. We don’t recommend this.

Your research should be both qualitative and quantitative, allowing you to view your business from three different perspectives:

• Customers
• Competitors
• Industry 

This research might take the form of conducting surveys, conducting customer and stakeholder interviews, analysing competitors, analysing SEO keywords, trend reporting, browsing review sites and reading industry white papers.

See Case Studies for Competitor’s Analysis!
Case Study 1: OpenAi
Case Study 2: Articulate

Why is content marketing research important?

Content marketing research is important because without it you really don’t know enough about your customers, competitors or industry to make confident decisions about how to invest your marketing budget. Simply put: There is no excuse for skipping research in 2020.

What topics should you start exploring?

There are many topics you can explore when conducting content marketing research; here are a few suggestions for each of the categories mentioned above:

Customer

• Current and potential customer perceptions of your brand
• Preferences of current and potential customers
• The buying process 
• Content consumed/available throughout the buying process
• Barriers throughout the buying process
• Customer behavior
• Customer reviews 
• Keywords customers are searching for

Competitive

• Competitive positioning
• The need each competitor is serving
• Analysis of competitor websites and social communities

Industry 

• The health of the industry
• Relevant trends 
• Barriers or shifts that are having a negative impact

Related Terms

• Inbound Marketing
• Persona

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