A key pillar of successful inbound marketing strategies is the quality of content published by brands and businesses. Unless the content is read and applied, which implies its usefulness, it is just adding to the noise in the market place. The droves of leads the business is expecting with its digital marketing effort may at best be a trickle, if not nil. While it might sound logical for a yoga instructor to develop content that reads "Why yoga promotes healthy minds", it's probably a topic that has been covered extensively by others in the industry. As such, it's unlikely to draw attention or create engagement. Our advice to clients is to integrate research into their content development activities. In this post, we'll look at how you can do content research. 1. Observe sociomarketing trends It's not enough to keep yourself abreast of trends in your industry only. People's lives aren't shaped by one or two things. Unfortunately, you can't be following everything! To this end, the other reason it is important for you to know your target audience well is to enable you to follow what else matters to them. It is from observing what matters to them you might find the inspiration to find topics of concern and relevant to your offering. 2. Turn to your analytics You probably have an active social media account. From blogs to re-posting, you've put the word out on what matters to you and the business. Your target audience may have reacted to them through likes, comments or shares. Spending some time every day analysing these reactions will shed some light on issues of concern to your target audience. 3. Ask them! It's the simplest thing to do - ask your target audience what's hot and what's not. In the age of digital marketing, where IoT seems to have the answers for everything, businesses have forgotten to use market research. When done well, market research is a treasure trove. With the proliferation of online research platforms, you can undertake market research easily and effectively. Connect with us to craft a winning inbound marketing strategy!