Write Your Industry’s 2013 Trends Report…Like, Today!
With another year coming to a close, we’re starting to see the onslaught of “2013 Industry Trends/Predictions” content being published on just about every industry category you can think of. For those companies who get an insightful blog post, report or ebook published (and promoted) early, these content assets can pay big dividends in the form of website/blog visits, backlinks, trade media mentions and of course…sales.
Think about it.
The end of the year is planning season. Companies across the globe are looking for insights and analysis to guide and validate the direction and focus of their business in 2013. This research is often done online. A well-written, insightful piece that discusses the future trends (or predictions) of your industry may just be the perfect way to score some serious thought-leadership points in the minds of your industry practitioners and prospective customers.
Are You Up for It?
Here are a few great ways to get it done.
- Original Research / Internal Data Analysis – When you look back on your 2012 data, what sorts of interesting data points jump out at you? What new questions or requests are popping up within sales and/or customer service conversations?
- Do a Quick Survey or Poll – Shoot an email to your customers or create a poll on your website or social media outposts. Ask your community which new things they are going to focus on in 2013. What are their biggest challenges they’ll face in 2013?
- Curate Predictions from Industry Thought Leaders – If you’ve established a relationship with your industry’s top minds, send them an email with a request to submit their top 2013 prediction in exchange for a nice mention in your piece and a backlink to their website. The Content Marketing Institute has always done a nice job of putting these prediction posts together and they have consistently been one of the most popular blog posts each year on the CMI blog. Utilizing a simple email that goes out to all their blog contributors, they just ask for a few sentences…and they certainly receive.
Package & Promote
Once you have the actual content, now you just need to determine the best way to package it all. If you only have a few trends/predictions, a blog post and/or email newsletter will probably suffice. If you receive a slew of good insights, you might want to think the ebook route. Get it developed (quickly), then embed that into a blog post. In all cases, promote the heck out of it. Here are 12 things to do when you’re ready to promote your 2013 trends piece.
