Most marketers don’t count on social shares much! That’s because from 2015 to 2017, social sharing dropped by half, according to BuzzSumo data.

Yet, there is an outlier: original, authoritative content. Publications like The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and The Economist actually saw a substantial increase in the number of their social shares.

For marketers, publishing original research was their ticket to capitalize on the above trend. For the most part, it seemed to work. BuzzSumo, for example, saw more than 13,000 more social interactions when it published its analysis of over 100 million headlines.

Other marketers agreed. Publishing original research drove website traffic, social shares, media coverage, leads, and backlinks to their site. Plus, 94% agreed that their research elevated their brand’s authority in their industry, according to a 2019 study.

Perhaps that’s why the majority of marketers said that publishing original research either exceeded or met the majority of their expectations.

Despite this major opportunity for brands, only 39% of marketers have published original research in the last 12 months. That’s an 8% drop compared to 2018.

What gives? Well, this year, 9% more B2B marketers took the survey. They’re more likely than B2C marketers to use this tactic, so that could account for the difference.

Or it could be the time investment. 30% of marketers said their research, from strategy to final publication, took at least a month while 28% noted it took at least three months. Original research can do wonders for your brand and marketing, but it is a substantial time investment.

There are three other significant factors holding marketers back from conducting original research. 41 % don’t believe they could easily get a budget to fund it, 38 % worry they don’t have the necessary buy-in, and 31% feel like they don’t know how to execute research.

Sharing the above statistics may get you closer to the buy-in you need, and often, once you have buy-in, the budget follows shortly after.

With that said, let’s zero in on tips that can empower you to do your own original research:

Don’t overthink it. Your research can be as simple as sending a survey! That’s how 65% of marketers approach their research.

Before you start, focus on drafting survey questions that will tell a strong story. Then, when distributing the survey, be sure to disqualify people from taking it if they don’t meet the criteria. 39 % of marketers make this mistake, which could be a doozy when you publish the survey methodology. 66% do that, which boosts the credibility of their results.

Think outside your organization. If a survey seems too overwhelming, opt for the second most popular type of original research. Analyze data from third-party sources. That way, you don’t need to execute the research yourself. You can zero in on mining the insights.

You aren’t in it alone! 70% of marketers collaborate with others when working on their own research. Most often, that means asking others to promote the research, but asking industry influencers for quotes and partnering with other organizations to increase the number of survey respondents are two other popular tactics.