The Secret Power of Surveys

With so many companies churning out new media, it’s tough for marketing teams to find ways to differentiate their content. 

People-centered stories are one way to do it, but how do you find good stories fast? And how can teams take stories a step forward to make data-backed points? 

Surveys can unlock stories and data. And they provide you with insights that can lead to unique content pieces. 

Say you’re writing a story on how crucial or not an MBA is for product managers. Using a simple LinkedIn search, you could find products managers with and without MBAs and ask them a few questions (via a survey tool), like:

  1. If you have an MBA, describe a time that you applied something you learned while in school to a major business decision as a product manager.

  2. If you don’t have an MBA, how do you see yourself as different than your PM colleagues with MBAs? 

With answers to questions like those, you’ll have anecdotes to craft stories that your audience can relate to.

You could also poll a large group of PMs to uncover stats about how many have MBAs and how useful they feel that their degree has been for their roles. 

Bam. You’ll have people’s stories and your own research findings. Beyond a blog post, the survey findings could be turned into trickle-down content like infographics, social graphics, quotes, etc. All of it will stand apart from your competitors’ content because it’s your original findings.