The Friday Concentrate #35: Survey says...

Creating content has never been easier.

Creating content that cuts through the noise has never be been more challenging.

Content by the pound has been commoditized. Need a 1200-word blog post? Great, all you'll need is a half-baked prompt and about 5-minutes of your time.

Need it to drive business results? Good luck.

...

Marketers know better. Well, most marketers. I've been encouraged by a few recent conversations with marketers who are doing it the hard way.

The way that works.

"If it were easy, someone would have already done it."

In the land of generative AI, there is one thing it can't create. Proprietary data. More and more, I'm encouraged by marketers who are taking on the challenge of creating high-quality content using proprietary data.

I'm starting to see more and more businesses, teams, and marketers lean into creating data that they can infuse into their content. In the last week, I've had the pleasure of talking to:

• Adam Sockel ?? at Orum ?? who is creating the State of Sales Development
• Mollie Kuramoto at High Alpha who is leading the way with the 2024 SaaS Benchmarks
• Sangram Vajre and GTM Partners who are always surveying GTM leaders to identify actionable trends
• Clay Ostrom and his team at Map & Fire are doing the research to help their clients create content that resonates
• Tommy Walker leaned into a survey model for a soon-to-be-released State of (Dis)Content report.

Survey content sounds easy. But to do it right (like all of these folks) takes a ton of effort.

You have to:

• create the survey, ensuring you're covering everything you want—you only get one chance to collect the data you want
• distribute the survey
• solicit responses to the survey
• analyze the results that might or might not validate what you want
• create the report
• distribute the report
• drive business results

It's really multiple pieces of content and multiple projects all rolled into one result.

But, when it's done well, it can power an entire year of content strategy. We've seen this happen at The Juice with our State of Gated vs. Ungated Content report. We're still benefitting from the data gathered, promoted, and shared from this report.

The individuals above all shared how they're already planning to create follow-up pieces, atomize the content, and turn it into a pillar strategy.

Content that is hard to create is what will stand out in this environment.

So for marketers, the question is: do you take the path of least resistance and keep seeing the same results? Or do you do the hard work and create the content that will work?

Survey says...

Until Next Time,

Jonathan

A Dash of Data:

Through the CRM integration on our platform, we know...

The average deal cycle for a content-led sales opportunity is 162 days.

Great content doesn't convert. Great content educates and entertains. If and when it converts, it's 6-months down the road.

Fresh Content from The Week:

?? What to Do When a Prospect Ghosts You from RepVue

?? Inside the 2024 SaaS Benchmark Report with Mollie Kuramoto, High Alpha from The Juice

?? Is AI Taking Over Jobs? AI's Impact on Job Displacement from Copy.ai

?? [Future Event] How to Engage and Convert Using Video Content by RevGenius

?? [Topline #72] Growth vs Profitability, CAC Tolerability & Choosing The Right Business Model from Pavilion