Surveys are a crucial tactic for thought leadership content-based PR campaigns because, if designed well, they deliver original findings which add a combination of authority and originality to your commentary.

Evidence your understanding of your market

They also help you prove that your reading of the market is the correct one – in other words you are not simply regurgitating what others have said about the market you serve but putting a fresh interpretation on market changes.

The great thing about stats and trends is that we all love reading and interpreting them. Somehow stats make vague market issues or concerns much more real, and put you in a better position to expound unique insights.

PR Survey results build your profile

At Agility PR, we’ve used the results of surveys in PR campaigns to build profile in multiple ways. Most commonly, we will present them in the form of a news release shared with key trade media. When designed well, survey results are irresistible to news editors.

Then we might do a full write-up of the survey, complete with pie charts and diagrams, together with a series of supporting articles, and a full management report. Again, when well-designed this becomes a highly effective download for your website and the basis for marketing mailers directing readers to download the resulting business guide. PR survey results also provide a good basis for presentations to industry bodies and prospects.

Targeting multiple sectors through rolling PR campaigns

Where firms are targeting multiple sectors, it will make sense to build rolling PR campaigns aimed at different sectors. Depending on how deep you want those campaigns to run you may need to conduct market research, building a sector-specific campaign based on genuine insight you’ve gleaned from your own research and market observations.

Think in terms of surveys, case studies, articles and a sector-specific proposition launch with outreach to that sector’s key trade media, whether that be education, retail, leisure facilities, travel & tourism, hotels and restaurants, financial services, critical national infrastructure and so on and so forth.

It might take six months to complete a sector-focused campaign drilling to this depth. If resource allows, you can run PR campaigns facing several sectors at the same time.

Again, marketing automation helps ensure the right content is reaching the right audience in the right market. In this way, it’s possible to build a content creation and delivery engine around which more and more prospect and customer outreach and engagement activity is delivered.

At Agility PR we see our clients’ customers, trade bodies, trade magazines and even regulators quote research that we have designed and executed.

If there is a silver bullet in PR marketing it’s a well-designed survey which puts reliable numbers around the pain that your propositions and expertise can ease.

Video content development can help articulate your findings more eye-catchingly and quickly – and you’ll be surprised by how many more people access your insights.