How to Do Deep Research

“Before you can write anything, you have to notice something.” 

John Irving

At this point, a lot of my research skill goes back 20 years when I was a Master’s student in education, so it’s become second nature. I’ve done my best to reflect and think about how I think about research, but if you see anything that jumps out as interesting or weird, don’t hesitate to ask about it… or to share how you do things!

PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

Sources are the foundation of research, it’s where we find the information we plan to cite or reference in our piece for one of two purposes: 1) To discover what to write about and what to say about it, or 2) to find information that supports what we are writing about. This has ethical gray area and you should be observant of that as you build the outline and find evidence that supports it. 

This leads us to the fact that you can find anything online, so you need to think from your client’s perspective and seek out reputable, trustworthy, timely sources… But on the other hand, in my opinion some of the most surprising and ground-breaking information cannot be verified because they’re new ideas. Welcome to the jungle!

SOURCES

First let’s look at the spectrum of sources that are available to you and uniquely useful to B2B writing projects, including blog articles, white papers, and case studies. I’ve arranged these along the spectrum of General < – > Specific, as I think that’s a good way to think about the support you’re looking for for your piece. 

GENERAL	Search engine keywords and long-tail phrases.
	Go-to publications like Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Industry Dive, etc.
	Go-to analysts and management consultants like Deloitte, McKinsey & Company, Nielsen, Boston Consulting Group, Pew Research Center, PwC, Gartner, etc.
	Niche trade publications that vary by industry, such as the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), Food Business News, etc.
SPECIFIC	Academic libraries and research reports like Science Direct.

Let’s discuss…

Search engine keywords and phrases.

Look at the intersection of your topic and get creative — how would you describe what you’re looking for in multiple different phrases? From different perspectives? Explaining the thing without using the word for the thing, like a messed up game of Pictionary?

• Catch more tips from Lifehack’s “20 Google Search Tips,” including:
  • Use a colon to search specific sites (Sidney Crosby site:nhl.com)
    • Create a custom search engine for your clients to focus on sites they prefer to source.
  • Use a hyphen to exclude words (Mustang -cars)
  • Use quotes to specify a specific phrase and word order (“Puppy dog sweaters”)
  • Find sites that are similar to other sites (related:amazon.com)
  • Search for multiple words at once (“Best ways to prepare for a job interview” OR “How to prepare for a job interview”)

Tips: 

Evaluate the search results and exclude competitors or outdated information over 5 years old (with very few exceptions). Use search engine tools like Ahrefs and SemRush to look up keyword comparisons and find sources that are used in the comparative blogs you’re looking at. Once you find a research study landing page, search for it again “+ PDF” to see if you can find it without having to go through the gated landing page; if you can’t consider creating a free email address you can use to download things without getting added to lists for the rest of your life. 

Go-to publications.

There are general “business” publications that do in-depth analysis or pull in researchers or professors to provide perspective on business topics. These are vaguely “niched” but not truly trade publications or anything like that. Sometimes you may cite them flat-out, and sometimes they function best as a source of sources — look at the URLs used throughout the piece and the endnotes to see if there are relevant resources for you to peruse. 

Go-to analysts and management consultants.

There are consulting bodies that publish analysis for the general public, including annual surveys and reports. These can be incredibly useful for “State of X” reports that document similar findings over the years, as well as surveys of hard-to-reach audiences like C-Suite executives. These are high-quality sources, however by their nature they are slightly promotional because they’re published by a group that sells consulting services. 

Niche trade publications.

Every niche has its favored publications, from sewer and waste treatment to pizza flour — you just need to find it. Search your niche, topic, or keyword “+ trade publication” and see what pops up. Beware sponsored articles that mention your client’s competitor, as niche trade publications have an awful lot of sponsored content that you might not notice unless you check it with a fine-toothed comb. 

Academic libraries.

Rarely, but sometimes, you might want to pull from an academic journal or research report to verify something or to provide more beefy citations. Be prepared to defend why the piece is relevant or necessary, as otherwise it may be a lot to ask a B2B reader to follow you to a research-style report. 

PUTTING LIMITS AROUND RESEARCH

The internet is vast, too vast to catch everything every time. You need to put parameters around how much research you’ll put into a piece before you get started, and then when the timer is up, it’s up.

Within the bounds of your standards and the requirements of the project, here are two reasonable ways to limit or control the research you’re putting into the work: HOURS or TABS, or both. 

HOURS: Decide in advance how much time you’ll spend on research. 

You can’t put 5 hours of research into a project that is only paying for 2. This is an internal rule you need to stick to to make your hourly rate make sense. Plan your project timeline by percentages according to the project rate and how long you’ve set aside for the project, such as the 10-hour project example here:

• 25% research, interviews, and reading (2.5 hours)
• 50% writing and outlining (5 hours)
• 25% editing and style (2.5 hours)

TABS: Scan everything, read some things. 

Don’t read everything you come across. Scan each source as you find them, and keep about 7 tab spaces open. As you go, swap in and out the most high-potential research sources. At any given time, you can only have 7-10 potential sources; then you’ll narrow it down to 3-5 to reference and quote. 

Tip: As a general rule, if you have more than 25 tabs open, you are spiraling and probably not making progress the way you could if you evaluated and let go of things as you work through them. 

NOTE-KEEPING STYLE

Pen and paper. One notebook per topic or per client. Alternatively, note cards that you write on physically and arrange in small boxes.

A spreadsheet. One spreadsheet per topic or per client, save go-to sources or reports as you go. Also works as folders on your computer. 

Project outline. Keep information organized hierarchically in your outline, perhaps with fun highlights or text colors to indicate where it came from.

• Tip: Change your document view to 60% or so when you’re reviewing lots of research within your document so it’s easier to conceptualize. 

Online tool. OneNote, Notion, Evernote, Notes App. 

Book-writing tool. Scrivener, Bibisco, etc. for longer projects.

Go Forth and Research!

Our ability to research is changing and growing over time, along with the growth of the Internet and the growth of your skills. Try out some of these practices, then develop your own library of techniques. Your library of techniques will grow and shrink over time, depending on what works for you, your clients, and the kind of work you’re doing. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• The Google Scholar
• “The ultimate guide to B2B market research” from Qualtrics
• “Business News” from Georgetown University
• “How to Do Research: A Step-By-Step Guide: Get Started” from Elmira College