In the digital landscape, where content is king, research-based reports serve as powerful tools for building backlinks and establishing brand authority. These reports offer valuable insights, statistics, and analysis, making them attractive resources for other websites to reference and link back to.

In the realm of SEO, backlinks reign supreme as one of the most influential factors for website ranking, especially in the era of AI-Generated content. They act as votes of confidence from other websites, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable and worthy of attention.

Here’s how we created a research-based report for one of our clients that generated +150 backlinks and enhanced the brand’s credibility with 8 earned media articles.

In this guide you will learn:

1. Why use research-based reports?
2. How to create news with a research-based report?
3. How to promote your report?
4. Results from our campaign
5. Measuring success and how we could have improved

First off you’ll need to understand what a backlink is and why they are important. To get you up to speed watch this great explainer video:

Why use research-based reports?

Research-based reports are what you call Skyscraper content. A link-building tactic where you find a page with a lot of backlinks from reputable publishers. The goal is to create a media buzz by making newsworthy headlines collected from your findings.

How to create news with a research-based report?

The foundation of any compelling research-based report lies in thorough and comprehensive research.

Step 1: Start by identifying keywords

Use Semrush or Ahrefs to find relevant topics or industry trends that align with your brand’s expertise and audience interests. Entering your niche followed by facts or statistics is a good place to start. Look at the results from “facts about cars”.

Look into each backlink portfolio and try to find key statistics that are missing a backlink or haven’t got a source. Here are 3 examples taken from only 1 article:

Continue digging into each referring domain and its backlinks until you have built a list of target keywords/anchor text with relevant statistics and referring domains. Aim for 100 links across various publishers and be sure to add contact information as this will come in use later on.

Step 2: Draft newsworthy headlines

Your headline is the most important part of your report, it grabs the reader’s attention and will fuel writers and bloggers to create content around your statistic or fact.

There is no way of knowing what headlines will go viral but here are some tips to help you along your journey.

Lead with controversial statistics

Lead with statistics that are the opposite of the general public’s expectations. If there’s a particular stereotype, misconception, or myth about your topic you should highlight or disprove it.

For example, if there’s a myth that:

“Used exotic cars aren’t reliable”

But your survey could find that:

“8 in 10 exotic car owners have driven over 100,000 miles in their used car”

If you can picture your statistic in a headline then more than likely on the right track.

Get Creative

Any study can create content, but not all content can capture attention. It is important to be creative in your brainstorming so find the right balance of insight vs entertainment. The more you can tell a story with your findings the more captivating the report will be.

Step 3: Collect data

There are multiple ways you can collect your data for from publicly available data to proprietary internal data to surveys, interviews and questionnaires.

Do you have the in-house resources to effectively collect the data? If so, assign stakeholders to the project.  If not, you might want to consider outsourcing this work to a content marketing agency such as Standard X, we work with you to plan, research, collect, analyze and design a stunning report that we promote to your audience and further.

Where can I find publicly available data?

Avoid cherry-picking data from blogs or other articles that haven’t stated a reputable source. You want to search for data from credible sources like government sites or research groups.

No, before you ask, much like your school teacher said, Wikipedia doesn’t count as a reputable source.

Instead here is a list of reputable data sources you can start to look into:

• Google Dataset Search (Misc)
• Kaggle (Misc)
• Data.Gov (US Goverment)
• Data.Gov.Uk (UK Goverment)
• Datahub.io (Business & Finance)
• Earth Data (Earth Science)

How can I collect data internally?

Collecting data internally for a public report requires effective coordination but has limitless upside potential with unique insights that only your business can have.

Here’s an approach:

• Define data needs: Clearly outline the data points required for the report and their purpose.
• Identify internal sources: Pinpoint relevant departments or individuals holding the necessary information (e.g., sales records, marketing analytics, HR reports, social media data).
• Establish data collection methods: Choose efficient methods like standardised data collection forms, internal surveys, or direct requests from specific departments.
• Ensure data quality: Emphasize the importance of accurate and complete data submission. Implement data validation procedures to ensure the integrity for the report.

How to create a survey that makes headlines?

It may sound obvious but asking the right questions is key to creating a successful report. Avoid leading questions, but make sure the questions you ask are in line with the newsworthy headlines that you brainstormed earlier.

Be specific

Being specific is key to collecting robust results.

Do you believe your supercar is reliable?

• Yes
• No

This question is vague and misleading, it is down to the respondent’s opinion which will vary from person to person. It also fails to define that reliable means.

A more detailed question might me:

What is the mileage on your exotic car?

• Less than 10,000
• Between 10,000 and 49,999
• Between 50,000 and 99,999
• Between 100,000 and 150,000
• Over 150,000

As this is more specific we can generate a more valuable insight from this data and target the publication of which we identified in our keyword research.

Avoid leading questions

Ask the right number of people