A step-by-step guide to content research

I love researching content – ​​what’s better than falling down a few Google rabbit holes? (Don’t answer that.)

Of course, great marketing content is based on more than just Google search results. I’ve put together a six-step guide on how I conduct my own content research for HubSpot blog posts using a real-world example.

Table of contents

On the one hand, content research is exactly what it sounds like: researching content. But it’s a deceptively simple term for a process that’s far more complex than a few Google searches.

In marketing terms, content research is the systematic process of gathering information to create valuable content that meets your readers’ needs, advances your business goals, and ranks in search results.

Why is content research important?

Thoughtful and thorough research will reward you with compelling, engaging, and genuinely helpful content. You’re probably already doing keyword research (if not, Learn the basics!), and you probably already know subject matter experts in your company or network. Content research will connect all of these points together.

And “really helpful” cannot be understated. When you understand search intent and can answer your users’ questions, you establish your brand as an authority and set yourself up for repeat visitors. And Show Google that you know your stuff.

A structured research plan helps with other aspects of your content workflow, such as a marketing or editorial calendar, content intelligence, and any other tools you and your team use to maintain a well-functioning marketing machine.

Components of content research

Although the substeps of Content marketing research can look a little different depending on the project and area of ​​expertise – we’ll cover that in the next section – but there are a few basics that are fundamental to great content.

Keyword research

As they say, start at the beginning. Keyword research is the gateway to search intent analysis, which not only answers your users’ initial questions, but also their follow-up questions (and maybe even questions they didn’t know they had).

You can check out our beginner’s guide to keyword research, but here are the key elements to keep in mind:

• Relevance: Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the needs of searchers.
• authority: Google gives more weight to sources it deems authoritative.
• Volume: Volume is measured by MSV (monthly search volume), which is how often the keyword is searched per month across all target groups.

Target group research

You probably already know who your target audience is and may even have customer or buyer personas. Also consider search intent and follow-up questions.

For example, if I write marketing content about bedding, there will be a significant difference in the target audience for budget bedding and luxury bedding. For the former, I may look for subject matter experts on different types of materials, including cheaper options. If I’m marketing luxury bedding, I may look for experts in the highest quality materials and construction methods.

Whoever your audience is, keep these personas in mind as you do the rest of your research so you don’t find yourself going down the wrong rabbit hole.

For a deeper dive into market research, including a how-to guide, check out our Market research guide and templates.

Competitive research

During your keyword research, you will probably come across some competitors. I like that Ahrefs Tool that compares two websites so you can see what one has and what the other doesn’t – this can be very useful when comparing a top ranked competitor with one that ranks slightly lower. What separates number one from the rest?

Continuing with luxury bedding: This is what the Ahrefs Keyword Explorer looks like:

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I want to see what the top ranked result has that the tenth result doesn’t have. On the Competitor Analysis tab I can enter both URLs, like this:

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When I click “View Keyword Opportunities,” I can see what the top-ranking link has that the 10th-ranking link doesn’t have:

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I confess I don’t know exactly what “coastal bedding” is, but the highest rated link has a lot of it. When I know where my competitors are ahead, I can better think about my target audience’s search intent.

Start thinking about what You Bring your own experience, knowledge and network. What gaps in search intent could you potentially address?

Current research

Whether you start with Google or an AI-powered search engine, make sure you are careful about your sources. Are they websites or publications you know and trust? What information about the author can you find in their bio or on LinkedIn?

(Random pro tip that I hope you’ll never need, but: If something seems too good to be true, check it and make sure it’s not dated April 1st. I know more than one clever author who fell for a brand’s April Fool’s joke).

Some starting points I’ve relied on in my own research:

• Seek LinkedIn for your keywords. I often meet experts and thought leaders who talk about exactly what I write about. Just make sure to cite and link to them when using their writing as a source.

  Pro tip: Proceed carefully – read the person’s LinkedIn profile and make sure you can trust their expertise.

• Search Google Scholar. Although the results may be too academic for your audience, this helped me find experts and find the latest research, especially when it comes to AI.

  Pro tip: Unless you are looking for historical knowledge, check the publication date or limit your search to the last few years. For studies, make sure you know the sample size and geographic location – these can be very different from your own target audience, so proceed with caution.

• Post on your own LinkedIn. If you have a large following and/or a strong network in your industry, telling other content managers that you are working on an article can help you find some experts you may already know. Your network may also have suggestions for other people or resources.
• Use primary sources. If you have a subscription to Statista or a similar service, you can usually find a treasure trove of studies that are directly related to your topic.

  Pro tip: Don’t rely on other articles that cite studies – I’ve found that they are often old studies, even if the article is more recent.

• Use social media. Even if you don’t have access to social media listening tools, you can still check out places like Reddit, Quora, Substack, or niche online forums where people in your industry meet and talk to each other.
• Use your colleagues. If you don’t already have a Slack or Teams channel where your marketing colleagues can share ideas or ask questions, consider this a sign to start one. Your colleagues may be experts themselves or can connect you with someone in their network.

Subject matter experts

Not everything you write requires a subject matter expert, but an outside perspective on a topic can give you ideas and creative inspiration, and expert quotes are good for your readers and good for search algorithms that emphasize personal experiences.

Quotes and background information from the people in the trenches also differentiate your final product from AI-written content. I like to limit these informational interviews to just 15 minutes – they’re long enough to get in-depth background information and quotes, and short enough for even busy people to easily say “yes.”

Performance analysis

You’re not quite finished when you click Publish. Take some time to review your KPIs to see how the content is performing with your audience and if there is anything you should edit now or revise in the future.

KPIs you could include in your analysis:

• Engagement metrics like scroll depth, click-through rates and bounce rates
• Traffic metrics such as page views, unique visitors and returning visitors
• Conversion metrics such as lead generation rates, product purchases, and email signups

If you have the resources to do at least a quick monthly performance analysis of all your content, patterns will become apparent and you can further refine SEO, EEAT, voice and tone, and other elements that make your content unique.

How to conduct content research

Let’s use an article I recently wrote about B2B newsletters as an example. It’s a topic I have experience with, but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert per se.

Here’s how I did my content research:

1. Research keywords and audience intent.

Thanks to our world-class SEO team, I know the main keyword for this article is “B2B newsletter marketing.” Therefore, my first step is to use Ahrefs Keyword Explorer:

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I can also narrow my search by user intent by selecting the dropdown menu and checking the “Intent” box.

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A few things stand out to me in these results: strategies, examples, and best practices. This gives me an idea of ​​what users are looking for and helps me structure my article to ensure it provides real value.

People ask too

On Google, I searched for “B2B newsletter marketing” and scrolled down to the “People Also Ask” section.

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It’s more of the same – users want an overview of what B2B newsletter marketing is and what the best practices are.

Ahrefs also has a handy SERPs overview with the same information:

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AI search engines

Personally, I don’t like using AI for sketches or first drafts, but I do for content research. I use it often confusion for research and Claude for analysis; Together, they can help me see a perspective I hadn’t considered or uncover additional resources.

When I search for “B2B newsletter marketing” in Perplexity, I can scroll down to the “Similar Questions” section:

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No surprises here – further confirmation that users are looking for an overview, best practices, and examples.

2. Research the competition.

I use both Ahrefs and Perplexity to identify competitors.

Perplexity summarizes information from its major sources, so I want to see what is identified as a source. I simply use a simple search term and not a complex technical prompt:

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This shows me three sources; Click the “Show All” box to see all the sources it draws from.

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This shows all sources and their links, which gives me an idea of ​​the competition.

In Ahrefs, I can browse through the list of top-ranking articles that rank for the same keyword I’m targeting.

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An important note about this step: It can be very easy to accidentally plagiarize something from a competitor – such as a definition, the structure of the article or even a phrase. You read something, it gets stuck in your head, and a day later you write it down without realizing it came from another source.

My strategy for avoiding this is not to spend a lot of time reading the competition – I actually just skim – but your mileage may vary, so do what’s best for you.

3. Consider your own experiences.

I took some notes on the newsletters I’ve written over the last few years – questions I had, questions I didn’t ask knowledge I had time until I was knee-deep in an email newsletter platform and learned lessons from it.

For example, in a previous job with a very small team, I was faced with some of the more technical aspects of running a newsletter. I had no idea what “DKIM” or “DMARC” meant, and as far as I knew “SPF” referred to sunscreen.

So when I started working on another blog post about B2B newsletters for HubSpot, I knew I wanted to include something about the technical side of newsletters without going into too much detail.

I reached out to a HubSpotter on our MarTech team who was able to give me some high-level advice on what marketers new to newsletters should consider from a technical perspective.

This is just a fraction of the information I gleaned from a 15 minute Zoom call:

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Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and drawing on your own experiences can help uncover questions your audience will have as they delve deeper into the topic at hand.

4. Research the topic and possible trends.

If you have access to a data and research tool like Statista, IBISWorldor something similar, get in the habit of doing a few searches. It turns out this wasn’t a major source for this particular topic, but I did find some data on personalization, one of the subtopics I touched on in the blog post.

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I also searched Google Scholar for “email newsletters in marketing” and limited the results to everything from 2023 onwards. I came across an article from December 2023 titled “(In)effectiveness of personalization in email marketing” from a magazine called Digital Business.

For me, this was more of a background resource than something I cited in my article, but I think it’s worth taking a few minutes to browse scientific journals – you never know when you’ll come across someone who who does something completely new.

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5. Interview subject matter experts.

This step can be intimidating if you don’t know any subject matter experts. Here are some of the tricks I used to find people to talk to about B2B newsletters:

• I started by asking the HubSpot #marketing Slack channel: What are your favorite email newsletters? Lia Habermans ICYMI and Alexis Grants They were taken over Both were mentioned several times and therefore ended up on my list.
• I searched LinkedIn for “B2B email marketing” and found other experts and top voices.
• I looked through my own network and found that I knew a few people on the technical side. I asked them if they had any suggestions or recommendations.
• I asked other newsletter writers at HubSpot if I could talk to them and if they knew anyone they could introduce me to.

6. Analyze performance.

It’s good to check your item’s performance after a month, although I’ve also worked in places where we monitored daily performance – so let your industry and KPIs guide you. If you write timely (as opposed to evergreen) content, your page views will likely peak within the first week or even sooner.

If you use HubSpot CMSIf you click View Post Details, you can monitor metrics like lead conversion rates, attributed sales, and other metrics. HubSpot also shows you the breakdown of traffic sources, which can help you fine-tune your distribution in the future. (Google Analytics, a commonly used tool, has similar metrics.)

Research with confidence

There are many approaches to content research, and not everything I’ve outlined may apply to you. But you should now have a solid foundation in content research, the many possible paths, and how to start researching great content effectively and efficiently.