When Do Content Research Tools Fail?

 

“When do content research tools fail?” – I have been asked this many times in my years in the industry.

There are many times they fail but here is one you probably don’t know… 

… identifying latent demand. 

What’s that, you may ask? It’s identifying the hidden questions and hidden issues.

I have a good example to share with you:

A while ago, we produced a piece of content for a client that was extraordinarily successful. The headline read: “Elon Musk’s Secret to Sales Success”.

There are a few things going for that piece of content, most notably the celebrity profile of Elon Musk.

The other part of it is everyone talks about how he’s a PhD physics candidate. They talk about Tesla and Spacex, and so forth.

But the hidden element of that content piece was that it was about an aspect of Elon Musk that is not obviously identifiable. Everybody wants to know, on some level, how this guy sells.

This is where data tools can really lead you astray. If you jump into the various tools that are out there now, you’ll find that no one’s overtly asking for Elon Musk’s sales secrets.

For example, he was able to get a $300 million load from the Department of Energy, which has never been done before and is unheard of. So Elon Musk can really sell.

But as I mentioned, on some level, everyone still wants to know because, let’s face it, he is really good at selling lots of stuff.

That is part of the answer right there. If there is a latent or hidden demand or issue, you can create a huge window.

If you really understand your audience and you can uncover that hidden demand or issue, then you have the basis of a massive window.