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♾️ How to use original research across the funnel
Inside Nectar’s content operation
Tanaaz Khan
October 18, 2024
I’ve always noticed that B2B SaaS marketers talk about research reports (or original research in general), they think of it as a top-of-funnel tactic.
Basically, a way to get more awareness through PR and backlinks.
While that's a valid take, you can actually use reports to retain customers in the long run.
I’m not going to give you an entire spiel on why customer retention is more profitable than acquisition. You need both to build a business—but retention-focused content is often forgotten about.
I had the opportunity to speak with Amanda Cross, Content Research and Insights Manager at Nectar.
Nectar, the employee recognition platform
I've been following her work since she joined Nectar and have been super impressed with how the company has used original research to acquire and retain customers.
Let’s get right into it.
How Nectar tested a survey-led SEO program
When Amanda Cross joined Nectar as its Content Marketing Manager, the company was already experimenting with research.
However, they mainly relied on HARO (Help a Reporter Out) polls with low participation rates. Amanda saw an opportunity to dig deeper.
"They [Nectar's marketing team] were using HARO at the time. They would do polls inside of those requests and use that data for the articles. Ultimately, the result was low as there weren't a lot of participants. And so when I came in, I wanted us to move deeper.”
She decided to field surveys using Pollfish, a market research platform. Since it was her first time, she decided to run a small test.
The first survey had only 800 participants—which isn’t tiny, but it’s a small sample when you’re surveying full-time employees (Nectar's audience).
As a result, she could prove the concept without overcommitting resources.
With the first blog post, the results spoke for themselves, with high-quality backlinks rolling in quickly.
Operationalizing the survey-led program
After the first survey was a hit, Nectar’s team decided to go all in on this approach.
To start off, Amanda brainstormed topics using internal resources first. It usually starts from sources like:
ICP or customer conversations: Usually via resources shared in Slack or by other teams or customer/ICP call recordings
Sales team: Focused on top issues prospects are highlighting at the moment
Customer success team: Focused on top issues/challenges customers are facing either within the workplace or with the product
Internal SMEs: Amanda leans on her in-house HR executive to surface industry trends and topics of interest
Other than that, she also uses Nectar’s product to identify potential issues users might run into.
“When I joined Nectar, one of the first projects I wanted to tackle was our employee challenge idea article because I loved our challenge feature. But it was so open-ended you could literally do anything there. And if I were a customer, I wouldn't know how to choose which challenges I wanted. We had some challenge templates inside the software, and that helped, but there was so much brainstorming that could be done.”
She took a similar approach to the surveys as well. If there was a feature that could use more data on its importance and examples of how to use it, that would be a priority.
For example, when she noticed that there wasn’t a lot of data on employee recognition and how to facilitate that internally, she fielded a survey to learn more. The topic was an excellent fit because that’s exactly what Nectar’s software helps with.
Ultimately, she wanted to make sure that she helped potential customers understand what the product does AND existing customers get the value they needed from the product.
“If I'm bringing in a customer who stays a little longer because of the content we're producing, that also speaks well to what we're doing. More leads stay because you have all of the things that they need to feel prepared. So, content, in general, should focus on more down funnel and retention activities if possible.”
After she has a list of topics to tackle, she brainstorms potential angles and survey questions using ChatGPT.
Tip: If you need help programming your survey, you can also work with your data provider, such as SurveyMonkey or Pollfish.
At the very least, Nectar surveys 1000+ professionals because of their target audience (full-time employees).
Amanda recommends using tools like ChatGPT to ease the burden of data analysis.
Typically, you’ll get the raw file with basic reports from your data provider. But if you want to do more advanced analysis like cross-tabulation, input the data into ChatGPT and get better insights.
Tip: Always make sure you’ve verified the output—because AI can hallucinate or pick up different data points (depending on how you prompt it and which tool you’re using).
Amanda then turns the analyzed results into long-form assets like blog posts.
The best part? They're ungated, so anyone can access the results, making it easier to link back to.
Here’s an example from Nectar’s Employee Turnover and Retention statistics article:
A recent blog post Amanda published on employee turnover and retention
As for distribution, the team focuses on SEO, LinkedIn, and customer newsletters (not a general newsletter for prospects and customers).
But they do plan on gating future reports to start generating pipeline from content.
Nectar’s content operation workflow (as of October 2024)
Note: As Nectar focused solely on awareness, backlinks, and traffic, it makes sense to not gate these reports and make them freely available.
But if lead generation is a priority, consider semi-gating the content or even gating it completely. Just don’t bombard folks with a sales pitch after that 😆
Hitting the gas on the SEO pedal
Initially, Nectar's primary goal was to build authority.
When Amanda joined, their domain rating was 59. Today, it's over 70, thanks to the ungated survey-led blog posts.
Nectar’s SEO performance (as of October 2024)
But these benefits don’t stop at backlinks and traffic.
Nectar’s pieces were cited by publishing and HR giants like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and even competitors in their space.
That's what happens when there's a shortage of original data.
You can swoop in and build thought leadership, eventually leading to more sales conversations and partnerships.
Nectar’s survey-led blog posts are some of the most linked pages on its website
And that’s what she’s focusing on in her new role at Nectar as the Content Research and Insights Manager.
As lead generation is a priority now, she’ll focus more on creating gated reports and work on top-of-funnel acquisition. But she’ll also start building reports that can be used to support existing customers and help them maximize product usage.
If more users stay thanks to the content she creates, that’s also an excellent way to prove the content program’s impact.
When I asked Amanda her #1 tip for early-stage companies that want to invest in original research, this is what she had to say:
"You don't have to do a state-of-the-industry report right away. It takes a lot of work and effort. Start small, create good content, use it often, and find multiple ways to leverage it."
Amanda also says you don't need a statistics expert to get started.
However, you need a basic understanding of statistics and the ability to use tools like SurveyMonkey and ChatGPT to field and analyze the survey.
And I agree.
You need better ideas and systems to make content work for you—and that starts with smaller experiments to test the waters.
How can YOU use this strategy for your SaaS?
Lean in on your internal teams to see what your audience/customers want to hear about.
Start working with SMEs that resemble your ICP—for example, work with your HR team if you're selling to HR teams.
Start small. Run a short survey and see how it’s working out for you. It’ll be easier to get buy-in if it’s a new strategy you want to put in place.
Use AI tools like ChatGPT for data analysis, but verify the answers.
Use a strategic gating method—if it's a blog post, leave it ungated and incorporate a few stats, but if lead generation is a priority, gate fuller assets like roundtable discussions and the full report.
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