How to Promote Your Original Research Report to Get Maximum Media Coverage
Brands generate original research to increase their recognition as thought leaders in their industry.
But the buzz won’t materialize if the marketing team doesn’t promote the search. Whether or not you have a sizable budget, consider these five strategies to ensure your organization’s research maximizes its direct and indirect benefits.
You can start with these five ideas based on my and others’ experiences:
1. Choose topics that get noticed
Buffer is a social media management SaaS company. Between 2018 and 2023 he published the Status of remote work. Instead of compiling yet another “state of social” report like its competitors – an approach directly related to the services they offer – Buffer took a creative news turn by addressing the growing remote work trend , even if it is not directly linked to its main offerings.
Buffer recognized that research on remote work would attract broader interest than another social media report aimed at marketers. The strategy worked, as major media outlets such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, TechCrunchAnd Fast business Regularly reference and link to Buffer’s remote work status reports.
This media coverage reported to Buff useful backlinkswhich tell search engines that the Buffer search deserves attention in the ranking of results. However, in 2022, the State of Remote Work report received much more attention than in 2020.
As these Ahrefs’ reports show, the 2022 study has generated over 1.8 million backlinks over its lifetime (of which 621,000 are still active), while the 2020 study received 9 000 backlinks (more than 3,000 are still active).
What explains this huge difference? Remote work was a trending topic in 2022 as everyone then had access to COVID-19 vaccines. Employees were considering returning to the office voluntarily or were forced to do so by their employers. The media searched for data to cite on this increasingly important topic and flooded Buffer’s new study with press mentions and backlinks.
2. Publish the report on a more visible website
When I created the first edition of the How to Create a Credible Blog report, I planned to publish it on my website (socialmarketingwriting.com) and do a ton of outreach.
Then, an idea came to me: “What if I published the study on another site before mine? I had seen other companies do this and gain press mentions.
So I asked Jeff Bullas, who has a large following on social media, to post my report on his site, which gets a ton of traffic and for which I had previously written. I told him that I would start the study on his websiteand he said yes.
The idea paid off. People who visited Jeff’s site, which generates a good amount of organic searches and direct traffic, discovered my work. Jeff also shared the link to the blog post on social media and tagged my handle. This brought more attention to the study and boosted its credibility.
I republished the study on my site a week later and used that link for other sites mentioning my research.
ADVICE: Turn some of your study results into infographics and promote them to journalists so that their sites only include a single image.
3. Email study participants
An easy way to get feedback quickly is to email the published research link to all participants. But to achieve this, you have to anticipate.
I like to add a line at the end of the investigation which says: “To be among the first people to see the report, be sure to add your email address. » Many people submitted their contact details. Just make sure you stick to your promise and contact them before sharing it with anyone else.
ADVICE: You can also use the notification email to ask them to help promote it. Share some descriptive text and an image or two and encourage them to tell their social media followers about it.
4. Collaborate with influencers
I came across this LinkedIn post from Matt Navarreauthor of the Geekout newsletter and social media consultant with over 250,000 social media followers, including over 64,000 on LinkedIn.
He provided an overview of the Metricool study on LinkedIn in the text of the article and posted a 10-image carousel with its results, ending with a call to view the full report. I ended up providing my details to Metricool and downloading the report.
ADVICE: Support the influencer partner after the promotion is published. When someone commented on not having a survey as an option in search, Matt responded and tagged Metricool, who then thanked the commenter for the suggestion and noted that they might add it in the next survey.
Of course, for this strategy to work properly, you need to team up with influencers who have access to the audience you want to reach.
5. Tease the Content of Blog Posts and Ads
Even when you want to generate leads and require registration to access the report, you can use some of the content to attract the audience.
Publish a blog post with a few key findings that would prompt the viewer to provide their contact information to read the rest of the research. Include a registration box on this page or at least provide a link to the research registration landing page.
You can also show ads which direct people to the main article of the blog. You’ll likely find that the cost per click is lower than ads that take readers to a landing page where they only have the option to sign up for something.
ADVICE: The higher traffic and time spent on the blog post will also likely generate more positive results from social media algorithms and search engines.
Get the most out of your original research
Original research is one of the best types of content to create. It’s unique. However, your target audience can’t marvel at its uniqueness if they don’t know about it. So, plan a promotion strategy and amplify the study as much as possible through survey participants, well-known websites, media, influencers, etc.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
