Why Agencies Need to Publish Their Own Data and How to Make it Happen
As agency leaders, we balance a fine line between data-driven insights and creativity to promote our clients.
At The Campfire Circle, we are firm believers in lead magnets for agencies. Specifically, lead magnets in the form of industry reports.
If you put yourself in the shoes of your target audience, would industry statistics that you source from a different publisher resonate more, or would it be more impactful if you were the one who gathered and published the data?
Remember, brands are often willing to pay more for expertise, and the easiest and most credible way to convey expertise is by gathering and publishing your agency’s own data.
In this post, I’m going to share some of my top-secret sauce when it comes to gathering data and publishing it to gain traction with any given target audience.
Why Should I Publish Data?
There is nothing easier to promote than your own unique data. There are a lot of data nerds out there.
It’s not as complicated as it may sound. And being the source of intriguing data does wonders for thought leadership.
Data establishes credibility, which builds trust and ultimately leads to more clients for your agency.
Brands are willing to pay more for an agency with expertise in their industry, and one way to demonstrate expertise is by publishing reports compiled with data you went out and got yourself.
And then there is the SEO component. As businesses are planning for the upcoming year, they will seek out data about their industry, and wouldn’t it be great if your data showed up on page one of Google?
Types of Data Agencies Should Publish
There are several different routes to take to publish actionable data. And eventually, you’ll probably go down each route, but don’t bite off more than you can chew!
To gain data, you first need to strategically survey an audience, and here are a few options:
Survey your clients and release insights in a white paper
Survey 200-300 people who make up the decision-makers in the industry you’re targeting and compile an industry report
Survey your target audience’s target audience as brands always want insights into the people they are trying to reach
How to Gather Your Own Data: 10 Steps
This section boils this whole post down into 10 steps so that you can effectively collect and report your agency’s own unique data in the form of a report.
Step 1: Determine your target audience
Step 2: Come up with a theme for your survey and ultimately your report
Step 3: Compile survey questions strategically and think through how they’ll translate into a report
Step 4: Release your survey either on your own or through a third party like PollFish
Step 5: When enough people have taken your survey, produce a report that highlights your findings with key takeaways
Step 6: Create an engaging landing page to house your report
Step 7: Gate your report with a lead capture form
Step 8: Promote your data
Step 9: Nurture the contacts that download your report
Step 10: Learn from your first data-driven report and keep getting stronger
Best Practices for Leveraging Data
Once you’ve compiled and published your data, it should be the hub of all of your promotion efforts.
Don’t put too many fields in the lead capture form or you’ll have a high bounce rate
Make your landing page intriguing and sharable with social share buttons
Promote your data like you would any other piece of content
Social media (organic and paid) posts
Email your contacts
Purchase a third-party email blast
Sponsor a newsletter
Write guest posts on high-profile publications linking to your data
Reach out to thought leaders and ask them to share your data-driven report
Create a strong nurturing sequence to convert the people who download your report into a client for your agency
Continuously publish data to stay top-of-mind
Final Thoughts: I Want to Publish My Own Data!
I have data collecting, publishing, and promoting down to a science, so many agencies hire me to gather data, compile, and promote, so if time is holding you back, you can get in touch with me here and keep in mind that my reports get picked up by publications like Forbes.
Honestly, the biggest hangup with my approach to gathering and promoting data tends to be asking the right questions and having them translate well into a data-driven report.
From there, follow the steps and best practices that I outlined, and I think you’ll be really proud of yourself when you see the results gained from publishing your agency’s unique data.
Do you have any tips when it comes to publishing data? I’d love to read your insights in the comments below!
