3 builders who never spoke to each other

Publish research only your data could produce

A findings roundup pulled from your own product's data, or a survey you run yourself when the industry figures do not add up, is the value that buys you the right to promote alongside it. Where you have no proprietary data, assemble the artefact out of free public sources so the running cost stays near zero.

The method

1. 01

   Publish an original research artefact - a long list of findings from your own product's data - as the value that buys your right to promote.

2. 02

   Run the survey yourself when the industry numbers do not add up, and publish what comes back.

3. 03

   Assemble the asset out of free public data rather than producing original content, so the running cost stays near zero.

4. 04

   To get other operators in your market to hand over private numbers, take the work off them: supply a ready-made one-year spreadsheet plus a short submission form, and set the eligibility bar low enough that young operations still qualify.

What it returned

• 57

  Josh, founder of trend-spotting tool Trennd, posted a roundup of 57 fast-growing trends and got a traffic spike off the back of it.

• 180

  Rand Fishkin got 180 respondents to answer 8 questions over five days in May 2024, which showed roughly 72 percent attending two or more events a year from 2015 to 2019 falling to about 44 percent in 2023.

• $29.99

  Flare TV's stream cost $29.99 per month to host and pulled subscriber counts from the free YouTube Realtime service

• He accepted anyone with six months of active membership rather than a full year, because so few spaces had been open longer than twelve months.

Sources

• Coworking Churn RatesAlex Hillman · dangerouslyawesome.com · We need data. · 2010-01-01
• The key to self promotion on RedditHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · How to do it · undated
• Growing 2.5 million subscribers piggybacking on viral trendsHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · Piggy back on viral trends · undated
• Why Are Marketing Conferences Shrinking? And What Do Attendees Say They Want? - SparkToroRand Fishkin · sparktoro.com · 2024-05-16