Playbook: a step-by-step guide for creating data-led thought leadership content

This is a guest post from Amber Rhodes, a content marketer and social media strategist for hire. 

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Looking for recent, reliable data is like trying to find a mall goth at a Taylor Swift concert. Not impossible, but it takes a lot of searching.

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Yet companies need data to inform their messaging, strengthen narratives, and establish authority. Funny how that works… 🤔

When I was Director of Content at UserGems, we were searching for ways to differentiate our content and demonstrate authority in our space. We also knew that buyers were actively looking for data that would help them make smarter GTM decisions. 

Enter data-led thought leadership content. 

I launched an original research report that influenced brand storytelling, sales talk tracks, and even product positioning – and did it as a one-woman content team.

This guide will share how you can, too!

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Leveling up from commodity content to authority content

93%* of problems in content marketing are caused by two things:

1. Content is treated more like a commodity than an opportunity to drive a brand narrative. 
2. Original data is hard to find, easy to make up, and nearly impossible to attribute.

*See how easy it is to make up stats?

Every content marketer has felt the strain between creating content that establishes their company as an authority and creating content that does, well, everything else. It’s also never been easier for companies to produce tons of content by using content farms, AI, or a combination of both. 

On top of that, one-person and small content teams are asked to do more on a limited budget, at scale, as quickly as possible. 

No wonder over half of content marketers and non-content marketers rated their content marketing quality as average or below. 

Content marketer to content marketer, there’s a lot of crappy B2B content out there. You see it. I see it. Buyers see it. And at the end of the day, no one truly benefits from it.

What’s the alternative?

Stand out with data-led authority content

If you want to kick up your authority content a notch, create data-led authority content.

Authority content fills the white space left by low-value content. It is relevant, actionable, and shares a perspective that only your company can provide. 

Plus, data-led authority content can do a lot of heavy lifting for your marketing strategy when done well. 

🏋️‍♀️ Boost SEO efforts by generating backlinks to your insights.

🏋️‍♀️ Fuel your PR efforts by using your original research in pitches for public appearances, podcast guest spots, and news article features.

🏋️‍♀️ Strengthen company communications with content that validates and drives your brand narrative forward.

If you’re on a lean or one-person team, conducting original research probably seems pretty intimidating. It certainly was for me!

But spoiler alert: anyone can do it! (Even you, I promise 🫵)

What “counts” as data-led content?

The first mental barrier I had to tackle before creating data-led content was understanding what actually counts as “data” and “original research.” 

There’s a misconception that “data-led” means running millions of data points through a long, complicated analysis to get insights. You do not need huge datasets or a data science degree to get started.

Webster’s Dictionary defines “data” as…

Just kidding 😉

Basically, all you need to know is that there are two types of data you can pull from (and they are both equally valuable for authority content).

1. Qualitative data, e.g. interviews, articles, written responses, commentary
2. Quantitative data, e.g. product usage, CRM data, performance metrics, survey replies

Between surveys, product data, interviews, and market research, there are a ton of ways to produce interesting original research using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data.

Who’s doing data-led content well?

I like you—you want proof before you go all in. I can respect that.

Here are some companies using original research in their content strategies:

• Gong has a popular ongoing Gong Labs series
• TrustRadius releases an annual B2B Buying Disconnect Report
• LeanData has a State of Go-to-Market Efficiency Report
• Immuta produces an annual State of Data Security Report
• Klue released the eye-catching Competitive Revenue Gap Report
• Metadata publishes an annual Paid Social Benchmark Report

And for all the Beam Content fans, you’ve probably already seen their report on Closing the Content Gap. (What you may not have seen is the dozen reports they’ve created with their clients in the past year.) 

Yes, you CAN do original research without data scientists or a huge team. 

In these next few sections, I’ll show you the process I used to create a meaty original research report for UserGems as a team of one. (Plus some bonus tips from the one-and-only Brooklin Nash).

Keep reading for a step-by-step playbook to ideate, plan, write, and launch your first research report!

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Phase 1: Create a foundation for more insightful content

Before you get started on any data-led content project, make sure you have a solid foundation to build from. I would argue this step is the most important.

At this point, you need to figure out the big three: your audience, your point of view, and your hypothesis.

1 - Who is the audience you’re trying to reach? 

This gives you a point of reference for your content that orients your efforts to the needs of your audience.

• What do they care about?
• What types of content do they consume?
• How can we provide value?

2 - What’s the big idea? 

This is your point of view. It should be unique to your organization and introduce new insights. (Remember, you’re filling the content white space!)

• What is the story you want to tell?
• How does it support brand and communications goals?
• Is this something that will resonate?
• How can you make it resonate?

3 - What’s your hypothesis?

This is what you want to prove (or disprove) that guides your research. Treat the hypothesis as an extension of your big idea, and use it as a throughline that guides your report. 

Combine what your audience cares about + your big idea + your hypothesis and voilà, you have a narrative frame!

Here’s an example from UserGems’ Move the Needle report:

Revenue teams (sales, marketing, and revops) are constantly looking for new channels to generate pipeline. Traditional outbound strategies are losing efficacy, and revenue teams need to adopt new methods to improve pipeline generation. Should companies focus on strategies – like signal-based GTM—that prioritize quality, not quantity, of leads? We think so.

👆 Author’s tip: Get clear on who you want to respond. The quality of the data you collect will largely depend on getting the survey in front of the right people.

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Phase 2: Focus on the right questions

Don’t ignore this step! The most interesting insights will come from asking the right questions. 

Now that you’ve created a solid narrative frame you can use that to guide the creation of your questions. 

But first, let’s talk about the mechanics of creating a great survey. Typeform has some great recommendations for building an engaging, useful survey. Here are a few of my favorite:

• Provide respondents with context at the beginning of the survey
• Highlight what benefit the respondent will get from completing the survey
• Use accessible language that your audience will understand
• Keep the survey as brief as possible to prevent dropoff
• Keep open-ended questions to a minimum
• Each question should focus on just one idea

Put yourself in the mindset of your survey audience—are the questions concise? Are they clear? Have you removed as much friction as possible?

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Obviously, you can’t control how folks will respond to your survey, but you can write your questions to support the story you want to tell.

I use a simple framework to organize my thoughts:

Set the stage. What questions do I need to provide context for why the study matters? An example question would be “Do you believe pipeline generation is harder now than it was 2 years ago?”

Uncover challenges. How can I dig into the problems the audience is facing? What assumptions can we include? An example question would be “What are the top challenges to [big problem]? Check all that apply”

Highlight potential solutions. What are people doing to solve these challenges? An example question would be “Rank these solutions by which ones you are most likely to use to improve [big problem] in the next 6 months from most to least likely.”

Focus on the future. Are there any relevant trends you can touch on? Advice or strategies you can source? An example question would be “How do you think [big problem] will evolve by this time next year? (Open-ended)”

With this framework, I already have a basic outline planned out for the final content. This makes it way easier to find and organize insights for the story you want to tell.

In short, every question in your survey should have a clear purpose for your final product.

Phase 3: Launch the survey

It’s go time! I love launching surveys because you can watch the results as they come in.

Here are some ideas to make sure your survey is successful:

👉 Create a comprehensive distribution plan for the survey. Make a list of channels available to you and decide which ones will drive the most results.

• Activate your network to participate and share
• Get your team involved (SDRs, AEs, and CSMs are great at creating hype!)
• Include the survey in your newsletter
• Promote the survey on social
• Promote the survey in communities of SMEs, or in your own community
• Send an ask via your email database (but remember to segment your list so it goes to the most relevant folks and you don’t get pinged for spam)

👉 Set a goal for number of responses. This will vary based on the type of report you want to write. If you’re using the survey to collect primarily qualitative data, you may want fewer, higher-quality responses – especially if the survey has open-ended questions.

Consider making it a range (e.g. 80-100) to make hitting your goal of minimum viable responses less stressful. 

👉 Set a timeline with milestones for survey responses and make a plan for hitting your response goals. 

For example, I set a goal to get 100 survey responses within three weeks. I had a hunch that most responses would roll in by week one, so I made a big push in the first five days. I then monitored the numbers over the next two weeks and pulled different levers to hit that goal by the deadline.

☝️ Author’s tip: Incentivizing survey responses can boost participation. If you’re worried about not getting enough responses – and you have some budget to spare – consider offering an incentive like a gift card or entries for a giveaway. 

Congrats, you’ve just officially kicked off your research! Now the wait begins…

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Phase 4: Analyze the results

Now we’re getting to the fun part where you get to analyze the survey results! Since you created a solid narrative frame, this part should be a breeze. You already have a solid foundation for the analysis.

Think like a journalist as you’re digging through the data. Did you uncover anything surprising? Were any of the results completely unexpected? Which findings will your audience find most interesting or helpful? 

And, like a good investigative journalist, consider the different angles you can use to probe the results for deeper insights. You’re a reporter looking for your big scoop. 🔎

Reminders as you’re analyzing survey responses:

• Don’t try to manipulate the data to fit your preconceived notions. Trust the data and accept the results, even if it disproves your assumption (just get creative with how you talk about them). 
• Don’t overcomplicate your insights by making spurious connections. Clear questions should yield clear answers! 
• Look for common themes and patterns in responses to open-ended questions, as this will help you identify insights that are top-of-mind for your audience.

Your priority at this stage is to do two things: (1) Identify what the results mean, and (2) unpack why a reader should care. 

Let’s address the AI elephant in the room

Can you use AI to help analyze your findings? Yes, but…

🐘 Think of AI as a research assistant, not a replacement. You will still need to roll up your sleeves and analyze the data yourself. 

🐘 Keep in mind that AI has its limitations. AI is good at finding common themes and pulling together summaries, but is also susceptible to bias. 

🐘 Don’t rely on AI to write the analysis for you. The results will be dry and boring, which is the opposite of what you want. 😴

🐘 And finally, always validate that the AI analysis is correct before you publish anything – some algorithms have a habit of “hallucinating.”

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Phase 5: Package it up and publish

Are you ready to put your report together yet? Gather your notes and let’s get started!

Pick a publishing format

Start by curating examples of reports from competitors, industry leaders, or reports that simply caught your eye. Try to find reports in different formats (PDF, blog series, webpage) for variety and creative inspiration.

What do you like about these reports? What would you change? Which format is the best fit for the resources available to you? 

At UserGems, we opted to build a custom webpage for our report. We wanted something engaging and interactive that would stand out. But luckily for me, I had the help of a brilliant designer and talented web developer. 

You can still create a great report as a PDF as long as you make it relevant and insightful!

Write the research report draft

Outline the story based on your narrative frame then expand on insights from your analysis and interviews. If you’re not sure where to start, try stealing the framework I shared earlier:

1. Explain the context
2. Cover challenges
3. Highlight solutions
4. Make predictions about the future

As you’re writing, go beyond sharing only what the data shows. Data is interesting, but it’s only part of the story. Always connect your insights with why this matters, and how readers can use this data. 

A project like this is a big lift, so think of your report as a cornerstone of your content strategy. You want to squeeze as much juice from the source material as possible, including blog posts, webinars, social media posts, and speaker pitches. 

Use these components to add more spice

Walls of text are intimidating (and boring), don’t you think? 

You’re not writing a 100-page dissertation, so don’t treat it like one! Add some flair to the final product with these elements:

• Graphs and charts
• Standout quotes
• Interview clips as audiograms or video
• Data snapshots
• Interactive elements such as quizzes

Not only will these components keep the reader more engaged, but they also add more shareable/snackable pieces of content to your report. 

Before you hit publish

You’re this close to being done 🤏

But before you send your report into the world, do this:

When you’re ready, hold your breath, cross your fingers, and hit publish.

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Phase 6: Distribute results for maximum impact

Even though you just hit publish, you’re just getting started. It’s time for distribution, baby! Let’s get more juice out of that squeeze. 🍋

This phase is easier if you make a distribution plan rather than shipping by the seat of your pants. 

I’d recommend making your plan in two parts:

1. Launch plan—focused on the short-term initial push to get your report out into the world
2. Distribution plan—focused on getting long-term value from the content.

Consider what levers you can pull to get more traction, and what channels are available for distribution. You should also think about how you can apply new angles to the findings to keep the content fresh and relevant.

Here are just a few ideas:. 

• Publish follow-up articles with perspectives from thought leaders you didn’t interview for the original report
• Develop a webinar or webinar series to share the findings in a new format
• Present your findings to your sales, customer success, and product teams
• Share the report with company partners and activate them to help distribute it
• Update sales decks and website copy with particularly interesting findings and quotes
• Drip out your findings in your company newsletter and share actionable tips 
• Create pitches based on the report to book guest spots on podcasts
• Use your report to submit speaker appearance applications for upcoming conferences

If you're going through a big survey project like this, you shouldn't limit your content output to the one report! Steal and edit this basic distribution plan if you’re unsure where to begin. 

Also, think of distribution as a team sport. Get everyone on the team involved: leadership, employees, respondents, partners, influencers, and whoever else you can think of. 

You’ll have a much bigger impact with the powers of your channels + multiple networks combined. 🤝

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Who’s afraid of original research? Not you!

The B2B content space is saturated with mediocre content without a point of view and or any added value. If your content plate is full of tasks that “check boxes” to appease the Google overlords, it’s time for a change. 

The old SEO playbook is on the way out (don’t let the door hit ya!) and high-quality authoritative content is in. This is what will help you move the needle as a content marketer in 2024 and beyond.

If you take anything away from this article, I hope it’s confidence that you have what it takes to create data-led content.

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