Industry reports

Why this works

People crave data and authority. A well-researched report provides fresh, credible insights that journalists, bloggers, and other founders want to cite. Every citation is a backlink and a brand mention, building your SEO and domain authority. Instead of just another blog post, you're creating a foundational piece of content that serves as a 'linkable asset'.

Reports also make fantastic lead magnets. By offering the full report in exchange for an email address, you build a list of self-qualified prospects who are actively interested in your industry. Featuring quotes from experts in your report not only adds credibility but also gives those experts an incentive to share the final product with their own audiences, amplifying your reach instantly.

Three real examples

Use a tool like Canva to create 5-10 social media graphics, each highlighting one key stat from the report, for your launch-week promotion.

The step-by-step playbook

1. 1

   Step 1: Choose Your Angle

   Select a topic that is core to your business and interesting to your target audience. Look for a niche or a new angle. Instead of a broad 'State of Marketing' report, maybe it's 'The State of AI in Marketing for Small Businesses'.

2. 2

   Step 2: Define Your Methodology

   Decide how you'll get your data. Will you survey your audience? Analyze publicly available data? Use your own product's anonymized data? A clear, defensible methodology is key to building trust.

3. 3

   Step 3: Gather Your Data

   Use a tool like Tally.so or SurveyMonkey to create and run your survey. Aim for a statistically significant number of responses (200+ is a good start). If you're analyzing existing data, compile it into a clean, usable format.

4. 4

   Step 4: Seek Expert Quotes

   Identify 5-10 influential people in your industry. Reach out with a specific data point you've found and ask for their 1-2 sentence reaction. This adds credibility and expands your promotional reach when they share.

5. 5

   Step 5: Analyze and Find the Narrative

   Go through your data and look for the story. What are the most surprising or counter-intuitive findings? What's the main headline? Pull out 3-5 key takeaways that will form the backbone of your report.

6. 6

   Step 6: Write and Design the Report

   Write the report, starting with a clear executive summary of your key findings. Use charts and graphs to visualize the data. Make it professional but easy to scan. You can use tools like Canva or hire a freelancer on Upwork for design.

7. 7

   Step 7: Create a Gated Landing Page

   Build a landing page to host your report. Show the key takeaways and a preview, but require an email address to download the full PDF. This is how the report becomes a lead generation machine.

8. 8

   Step 8: Launch and Promote

   Email your list, share on social media, and send it to the experts you quoted. Personally email journalists and bloggers who cover your industry with your key findings, offering the full report and an interview.

The Ask: Get Expert Quotes

Use this template to reach out to industry leaders. The key is to be concise and make it easy for them to say yes by showing them the data point first.

Subject: Quote for our {Industry} report?

Hi {FirstName},

My name is {YourName}, and I'm the founder of {YourCompany}. We're putting together a report on the state of {YourIndustry} for 2024.

We just analyzed the data from {NumberOfRespondents} professionals, and one of our key findings is:

'{SurprisingDataPoint}'.

We're asking a few experts for their take. Would you be open to providing a 1-2 sentence reaction to this finding? We'd of course credit you and link back to your site in the report.

The deadline is {Date}.

Thanks,
{YourName}

Questions to ask yourself

• What unique data can we access (our users, public data, surveys)?
• What's a niche topic our competitors haven't covered yet?
• What is the single most interesting story the data is telling us?
• Who are 10 dream experts we'd love to feature in our report?
• What's our promotion plan? Who will we email on launch day? (Don't start without this)

The most important questions are about your unique data angle and your promotion plan. A great report with no promotion is a wasted effort.

Recommended tools

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Mistakes that kill this play

• ×Choosing a boring or overly broad topic.
• ×Not having a clear promotion plan before you start.
• ×Making the report too long and academic. Keep it scannable.
• ×Hiding your best data deep inside the report. Put it upfront.
• ×Not including quotes from external experts.
• ×Forgetting to build a dedicated, gated landing page for lead capture.
• ×Failing to personally email the report to journalists and influencers in your space.

Your first 7 days

• Day 1: Choose your main topic and 3 potential niche angles.
• Day 2: Decide on your methodology (survey, public data, internal data). Draft your survey questions using Tally.so.
• Day 3: Build a list of 20 industry experts to contact for quotes later.
• Day 4: Launch your survey and start promoting it on social media and to your email list.
• Day 5: While data comes in, use Jasper.ai to draft promotional copy and your outreach email template.
• Day 6: Start initial data analysis. Look for the most surprising or interesting early results.
• Day 7: Send your first outreach emails to 5 experts, sharing an early data point to get their reaction.

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