Ever thought about it? If not, now maybe the moment 

AI-generated slop is engulfing huge chunks of the internet. Some businesses are happy to settle for this. Others, like you I imagine, are looking for ways to stand out from the swathes of mind-numbingly unoriginal  AI dross. 

Original research could help you do that. 

High-quality content grounded in original research is a powerful way to market your business. Do it right and you’ll have content that draws positive attention to your brand and creates an air of authority.  More importantly, you’ll offer fresh insights and information drawn from flesh and blood sources that reflect your audience’s best interests—something the bots haven’t got their wires into yet .

In an era of soul-suckingly, same-same content overload, that’s pretty special. 

Sounds great, right? But I get why you might hesitate. Because on first look, it appears to be a fuckload of work.

Let’s slow down and make sure we understand what original research is and why it’s worth doing.

Original research articles are top performing articles

First up, the pitch. According to the Annual Blogger Survey by Orbit Media, content drawing on original research performs just as well as lists. This means bloggers and marketers regularly get strong results from posts that use it.

The only blog styles that perform better are round ups, webinars ,and guides and ebooks.

So, what counts as an original research article? And why do they perform well as blog posts?

What is an original research blog post? 

Original research articles tell a story based on data and information gathered from your business, client base or industry. 

You’d usually start by running a poll, survey, focus group or data analysis. Then you’d take the results and findings of that research to create a report. Next, you, along with data analysts, writers, and public relations professionals can ‘mine’ that report for interesting angles and stories that turn into blog posts, press releases, white papers and social media posts. 

A business or organisation may run huge, large-scale research, involving a massive amount of data collection. Or they might run a simple poll on their social media account. Whatever the method, as long as the data is interesting enough, it can be turned into content.

How three brands use original research for content creation

There are different ways to create and use original research. Here are three examples to show you how some businesses are doing it, along with the benefits it (probably) brought them.

Pleasure product company Lovehoney wanted to find out what holds Australians back from buying sex toys. Their Empowering Your Pleasure campaign surveyed over 1,500 Aussie-based adults. 

For starters, this research gives the company invaluable first-hand insights into customer pain points. But it also delivers: 

• some great soundbites to use in articles and press releases
• the opportunity to promote products that answered people’s worries and fears about sex toys
• help and advice resources, positioning them as the authority.

Bed Bible is primarily a pleasure product review site. But  it’s a bit different from other sex toy review blogs. It also has a massive research centre. 

This operation generates  stats and facts on sex toy use and intimacy habits. The result is a huge resource centre full of articles based on their research and findings. 

This research gives them:

• lots of insight and data to draw on for content creation and PR opportunities
• credibility and status  as an authority in the niche—not just as sex toy reviewers but as overall champions of sexual wellness.

UK-based supermarket Tesco piggy-back off external, headline-making research or trend-worthy findings to create original content. Tesco then uses its own industry data to shift the focus to its own brand. 

This helps to:

• drive PR opportunities and media coverage
• highlight the volume of data the brand has available, positioning it as an authoritative voice.

Three key benefits of original research content

I can’t say for sure that the brands or businesses in these examples definitely reaped the benefits I mentioned. But it’s likely they would have been aiming for those perks.

But just so we’re clear, the benefits original research can bring to a business include: 

1. Positioning the brand as an authority – By investing in solid research to create data, they’re able to make a comment and back it up with statistics.

2. Creating linkable and sharable content – This extends the reach of the brand and builds their online audience.

3. PR opportunities leading to media coverage – Keeping the brand name in the media for positive reasons. 

These benefits sound like a marketing dream! So why aren’t more small-medium businesses creating this type of content? 

Well, the honest truth is that there are challenges to creating this type of content.

Original research creation. It’s a potential pain in the arse

I love helping brands create original research projects and repurpose the findings into a heap of interesting content. But I’ve been around the traps long enough to know first-hand how much labour is involved in this type of content creation. 

Here are five key things I’ve learned. Use them to decide if your business is ready to create original content. And if you are, here are the factors worth thinking about before you dive in.

Have a clear aim

Original research projects that succeed are clear on:

• the question they want to answer 
• the challenge they’re trying to help customers overcome
• the point they’re trying to demonstrate or prove. 

Being crystal on this helps you focus on the sort of data you need to collect and the best way to do it.

Allow enough time

Original research takes time. You need to allow time for writing the actual survey or poll material, and  you also need to allow time to:

• distribute and promote the survey to potential respondents
• let the poll or survey run so you get enough responses
• analyse the findings and data
• write the supporting material to promote the findings. 

Underestimating time needed is a real danger. This isn’t a ‘done in a couple of business days’ sort of project.

Depending on your budget and resources—time, energy, expertise—give yourself (and your team if you have one) about a month to bring an original research project to fruition.

Decide on your budget

You can  create this type of content without spending much money at all. For example, you could run an internal poll using staff. Or you could set something up on social media and just pay for a post boost to make sure you reach maximum eyeballs. 

If your business is large enough or you’ve been operating long enough, you could even draw from your existing sales and customer insight data. Like the Tesco examples. 

Original research content creation doesn’t have to be super exy if you can use  channels and resources you already have. 

If you’ve not got existing data 

And want to generate something large-scale from scratch, then you need to set a budget to cover the cost of:

• Survey design and creation – Which could involve hiring a survey researcher or data scientist 
• Access to a respondent list – So you get enough responses to make sure your research is credible and noteworthy.

Decide how you’ll collect data

This will depend on the method you choose. For example, if you run a focus group you may need recording equipment so you can capture and revisit what was said. Or you might  use online software that collates responses and generates polls. 

Choose the best way to distribute the survey 

Let this decision be driven by your target demographic. Is email, text, phone or post the best way to maximise the number of responses from your particular audience? 

Making it happen: the step-by-step of original research content creation

There are already a fuck-ton of articles out there on how to create original research. Written by people who do it way more consistently than me. Here are two resources that deliver the steps you need to take if original research creation is something you’re considering. 

How to conduct original research: an easy-to-follow guide for modern marketers

By Brafton.

Why it’s good

This 11-page PDF covers pretty much everything I’ve said in this article. But the great bit is the seven steps for success. 

It’s clear and very scannable, which makes a massive task feel way more manageable. 

How to create original research that gets attention

By Michelle Lin for Orbit Media Studios

Why it’s good

I regularly use Orbit Media’s original research content. They publish the Annual Blogger Survey, which I often write about and refer to in my content. (And sometimes for clients.) So they know a thing or two about creating this type of content. 

This article gives you a realistic overview of the steps involved in creating research. It also approaches the project from the angle of how it will benefit you by drawing attention to your business. 

The fun bit (as long as you like writing)

Once you’ve done the hard yakka and got your original research, the fun can begin. And there are lots of content opportunities when it comes to repurposing your findings. 

Writing a blog (or several) that reveals your findings is the logical place to start. But then you can also:

• create email shots or newsletters
• use stats and soundbites for social media posts 
• pitch to appear on podcasts to discuss your research
• write a press release and send it to journalists at relevant media outlets
• use it to inform any paid advertising or online marketing messaging.

Copywriting to support your original research project

As a copywriter who spends a lot of her time writing blogs, I’ve had my share of encounters with original research content. And I’ve seen how it flies high for clients. Their audience loves it (because people are nosey and love the taste and scent of original content that feels like ‘them’). Industry peers pick it up and share it (for support and because they wish they’d thought of it), and sometimes they even get mainstream press coverage (because those columns won’t fill themselves.). 

But there’s a lot of copy involved to get to that point. 

When you reach the stage of creating your original research, you might want to hire a copywriter to help with:

• writing the questions
• writing the emails, messages or letters convincing people to take the time to answer the questions
• writing up the research results in a  report, document, web page, press release, blog post or social media captions.

And that’s something I can help with. 

Tell me your original research content idea and let’s work it out together. Drop me a line.