Before someone can pick your products or services, they need to know and trust your business.
In a world of fake claims, empty promises, and deceiving marketing, though, consumers are more skeptical than ever. So, opinions alone are no longer enough to build trust.
While this might sound discouraging, it’s actually a GREAT opportunity for businesses that are serious about standing out: you can position yourself as a credible thought leader by conducting your own original research and creating unique data-driven content around it.
Here’s why it makes such a big difference and how you can approach it, even as a small or medium business on a budget.
5 reasons why data-driven content builds trust and brand loyalty
By “data-driven”, we simply mean content based on your own original research.
So, instead of sticking to generic opinions or always referencing someone else’s insights, you produce your own (for example, starting from a strategic survey and using it to create a report that brings something fresh to your industry).
How exactly can data-driven content help you build trust and brand loyalty, though?
1. Consumer trust is earned through credibility, authenticity, and transparency
- Providing evidence and offering transparency – Many businesses are churning out generic and biased content, trying to pass their opinions for facts. Instead, numbers don’t lie! Research-driven content eliminates both guesswork and subjective bias. So, you’ll highlight your expertise while showing your audience you’re backing up your claims. For example, brands like HubSpot and Gartner have been using original data to build credibility for years (but as teased before, you can do that as a small business on a budget too, and we’ll show you how soon!)
- Reinforcing your authority – Instead of repeating what everyone else is saying, you’ll be bringing something new to the table: original data and a unique angle. So, this will position you as a trustworthy and forward-thinking thought leader in your niche!
- Inspiring relatability – Your original research should focus on something your target customers are passionate about or interested in, like a common pattern in your industry or a problem they’re experiencing. When they see you care about that, too? They’ll feel more connected to your brand and mission
2. Personalized insights build deeper connections
- Going beyond the surface – You’ll be getting your target customers’ input and using it to create and share relevant original research (for example, on a common challenge in your industry). So, you’ll show them you care about the same values, want to understand their needs, or are trying to do something about those problems. Either way, they’ll be impressed and feel heard and understood
- Using personalization – You can also use your new data to tailor your messages and marketing, making them more relevant to each participant’s situation (for example, by sending them a custom report based on their survey answers or recommending the best product, service, or next step for them). No wonder personalization leads to a 20% increase in sales!
3. Data-backed storytelling enhances engagement
- Anchoring your stories – In your marketing, use compelling narratives to grab your audience’s attention and put your message into context (for example, a personal story, case study, or client results), and back it up with your original data
- Making the most of various content formats – Once you have your original research, you get to use the same data in lots of different ways, enriching your usual formats or tapping into new ones. For example, reference your insights in your social media posts, blogs, and videos, and turn them into value-packed infographics and reports. Your content will become more shareable as well as attracting more engagement and backlinks, boosting your SEO and reaching even more people
4. Sharing relevant knowledge will strengthen customer retention
- Giving value – From your initial report or whitepaper to the data-backed content created around it, you’ll get your target customers in the habit of engaging with your brand (even after that initial sale). They’ll see you as the authority they can trust whenever they want to keep up with your industry or better understand their current situation and problems
- Making your customers a part of your story – By getting your target audience’s input for your original research, you’ll show them you value their opinion and welcome them into your journey. So, once you send them your report, it’ll feel like a partnership because they actively contributed to it
5. It gives you a competitive advantage, helping you stand out in a crowded market
- Showcasing thought-leadership – Your original research will bring something new to your industry, showcase your expertise, and back it all up with data. So, it’ll position you as a proper thought leader, not “just another business playing it safe and saying the same stuff as everyone else”
- Attracting additional opportunities – Data-driven content and original research tend to attract more backlinks, PR opportunities, partnerships, and exciting benefits you hadn’t even thought of before. So, your customers will see your brand pop up more and more and in lots of different contexts. Continuing to choose you over your competitors? A no-brainer!
How to use ScoreApp for your original research, driving long-term brand loyalty
Original research and insight-driven content start with data collection. Don’t worry, though: you don’t need to drop thousands on a market research agency or waste time with a messy process.
ScoreApp makes data collection simple but effective. Here’s how it can work in practice:
- Pick a relevant topic for your original research – What will it be about? For the best results, we recommend choosing something relevant in your industry and that taps into a common challenge or desire for your target audience (for example, a marketing agency could focus on “how AI is changing the way businesses create content”, whereas a trauma-informed coach could prioritize “mental health for solopreneurs”). Then, plan questions that’ll help you collect the right qualitative and quantitative data. With ScoreApp, you get 9 different formats to choose from
- Create a survey or quiz to collect your insights – Forget about boring, plain-looking surveys nobody wants to complete! ScoreApp gives you plenty of engaging and visually attractive templates.
To compel as many participants as possible to get involved, you can either:
– Lead with why their survey contribution matters (people love to help if they understand this!)
– Use a data-collection quiz that offers something valuable to them, too: personalized results and advice (for example, “Help us understand the reality behind solopreneurship, and discover your entrepreneurial profile”)
- Invite your audience to participate, collecting their contact information – Share your survey or quiz everywhere. For example, add its landing page to your website, use pop-ups, link to your survey in your social media bios, send it to your email subscribers, create new content around it, and use paid ads to drive traffic to it. ScoreApp will also capture your participants’ contact details, allowing you to stay in touch and generate more leads
- Gather new data automatically – Your ScoreApp survey or quiz will keep collecting your participants’ submissions for you. It can also segment them into different groups based on their answers
- Use it to inform your original research – Once you’ve collected enough data with ScoreApp? Analyze it, identify trends and patterns, and put it into context, using it to inform the creation of your report (and because you’ll find everything in your clear dashboard, this is a breeze!)
- Share your report with your audience – Start by publishing it on your website (why not treat it as a free lead magnet, asking your audience to share their contact details to access it?) and emailing it to those who contributed to your research through your ScoreApp survey
- Get the very most out of it through your marketing – Repurpose your research into different formats and create fresh content around it (from social media posts to blogs and infographics), use your new insights and segments to personalize your communication, and start attracting backlinks and opportunities. In other words, get ready to attract more customers and be seen as a trustworthy authority in your industry!
While your competitors keep churning our generic or opinion-based fluff, you can stand out and build brand loyalty with insight-driven content.
It all starts with data collection. So, launch your ScoreApp market research survey today and for FREE.
