Using Google Surveys to Create a Data-Driven Content Marketing Plan

Every company needs a content marketing plan.

Of course, simply having one isn’t good enough. If your content marketing plan isn’t driven by data, it will drive your company right into obscurity.

The good news is that Google Surveys makes it extremely easy to harvest this data from your audience. As long as you know which questions to ask – and what to do with the answers – you should have no problem producing a powerful content marketing plan.

The 4 Questions Your Google Surveys Need to Ask and Why

One thing we can’t stress enough is the importance of asking the right questions. Not surprisingly, Google Surveys is a fantastic tool for this.

However, if you don’t absolutely nail this step, your content marketing plan won’t be data driven. It will be dead.

Fortunately, we know all about asking marketing-related questions to set your company up for success.

The main focus of your Google Surveys questions will be building reliable buyer personas, the foundation of any good content marketing plan.

If you’ve ignored this important concept in the past, consider these statistics about buyer personas:

• 71% of companies that surpass revenue and lead goals use buyer personas
• 47% of companies that consistently surpass these goals maintain these personas over time
• 90% of companies that use personas report that it helps them create a clearer understanding of their customers

Therefore, the more priority you put on buyer personas, the better your content plan will be. Here are four questions that will help.

1. Questions That Establish Personal Metrics

This is pretty standard for buyer personas. You want to know a person’s:

• Age
• Gender
• Level of Education
• Income Level

The list could go on and on, but these four are the basics. They lay the foundation for creating a realistic buyer persona.

2. “What Makes You Tick?”

This is actually a two-part question. First, ask about your customers’ desires, and then what they fear or are frustrated by.

These questions will give you key insights into what influences your market.

For example, a personal trainer might discover customers are confused by the concept of macronutrients. The trainer could set up resources that explain this topic in a way that’s easy to understand.

3. “What Topics Interest You Most?”

Another question content marketers belabor is “What should I talk about?”

Depending on your field, you might allow the survey taker to pick more than one answer. Letting them pick all that apply will give you more topics to choose from in the future.

Don’t get too specific, either. You still have other analytics to judge content by. Right now, you just want to make sure you’re posting about topics your audience truly cares about and not wasting time on those that don’t.

4. “What Information Do You Use to Make Buying Decisions?”

At the end of the day, your content marketing plan is all about revenue. Above all else, it’s your bottom line that will be the ultimate judge of how well your content marketing plan worked.

That’s why you should use Google Surveys to find out what information your market requires to feel comfortable making a purchase.

Again, this would be another good time to allow multiple answers.

It might help to have an example here. Let’s say we’re selling shoes for standing. We’d want to ask our market this question and then give them potential answers like:

• Materials Used
• Explanations of Features
• Sport-Specific Information
• Fashion Trends
• Signs It’s Time to Replace My Old Pair

When we look at our results, we might find that our market really wants to know more about the types of materials that are used to make workout shoes.

Going forward, we could talk about these materials by explaining them in depth and describing their importance for working out.

Bonus Tip: Ask the Same Question Twice

Consider adding a duplicate question to your Google Surveys. If you get two different answers, you know the person probably wasn’t paying attention or didn’t care. In either case, their results should be thrown out for the sake of quality control.

From Q&A to ROI

At this point, you have some great questions to ask, so we know you’ll receive some amazing answers.

However, you’re not done yet. Those answers won’t do your content marketing plan any good if you don’t put them to work properly.

In many ways, it helps to start with the results you want and then come up with the questions to ask. While the ones above are always going to deliver, when you consider the insights you’re hoping to find, other questions and potential answers will come to mind, too.

That said, the first thing you should do with your answers is create those buyer personas we mentioned earlier. You may have primary, secondary, and tertiary buyer personas, which is a thorough practice. Just make sure you have separate content plans for each.

Second, now that you understand what kind of content your audience likes most, figure out new verticals for each type.

Going back to our shoe website example, if we found out people love learning about materials, we’d want to think of 3-5 we could discuss in a number of different ways.  Then, if “fashion trends” was also a popular answer, we’d want to do the same there.

Breaking down answers about content will make for a better plan. You can also do another Google Survey in the future, too, to get even more granular about the content your audience likes.

Third, use the answers to inform your content plan right away and then get to work instituting it. The sooner your content is out in front of your audience, the sooner you’ll be able to test the validity of the insights you’ve drawn.

Begin Using Google Surveys Today

Even if you already have a content plan, Google Surveys will make it better, so start using it right away. If you’d like help with any of the above steps or even with putting together a potent content marketing plan, contact Ravenshoe Group. Since 1996, we’ve been helping businesses effectively connect with their markets.