Every marketer’s goal is to produce great content, push them through distribution channels, and incite action from a target audience - whether it be Likes, Shares, or Purchases.  In this era of crowded digital landscapes that are flooded with content from every direction every day, having a sharp data-driven content strategy that can slice through the noise to reach target audiences is as crucial as ever. In that spirit, the best but most often overlooked must-do is the simplest task: Content Research

Why is Content Research important? 

1. It encourages you to dig deeper into understanding your audience

Good content does not always mean relevant content. And if you produce irrelevant content for your target audience, all that content production effort would be wasted. Without content research, how might you know whether your brand is producing the relevant content that attracts your audience? If you don’t tailor your content to the right audience’s interest, you might still generate traffic, but that traffic would most likely not fulfill your brand goals.

2. It encourages you to understand your brand’s positioning among peers and competitors

Sometimes you don’t need to pressure yourself to be too creative or too original. All it takes to make good content is to know your brand’s unique positioning among other players in the market, and finding a gap of themes of topics that are in-demand but underserved.

3. It promotes long-term growth and evolution (and survival) for your brand

Branding and marketing are never stagnant, they are dynamic.  Meaning they are always subject to changing market trends and behaviors that marketers need to be aware of to adapt and survive.  If your branding and marketing does not constantly evolve, there is a high-risk of losing touch with your audience and eroding your brand in the medium-long term since the tastes and habits in the digital world change fast.

In essence, good content is made if there is a high degree of relevance with the intended target audience.  And such relevance can only be achieved through thorough research to gain a deep understanding of target audiences, comparable industry players, and constantly shifting market trends.