Research that gives your marketing something to say
The best marketing has a point of view - and a point of view lands harder when it's backed by data your competitors don't have. First-party research gives Microsoft Partners a credible, defensible reason to be in the conversation, rather than repeating what everyone else in the ecosystem is saying.
We help partners plan, run and get the most from research programmes - from small pulse surveys to full industry studies. The output isn't a PDF that sits on a shelf. It's a body of content, campaigns and sales conversations built on data that's genuinely yours.
Why first-party research works so hard
Four reasons research earns its place in a serious marketing plan.
Credibility you own
Original data can't be replicated by competitors and gives your point of view real weight with buyers, press and Microsoft.
Fuel for a full campaign
One well-run study produces a report, blogs, social, webinar content, PR angles and sales collateral - months of quality content from a single asset.
A reason to talk to buyers
The research process itself opens doors - to customers, prospects and Microsoft - and creates warm follow-up conversations after the study lands.
Awards and Partner of the Year ready
Data-led stories give judges (and Microsoft) something concrete to react to, which strengthens award and Partner of the Year submissions.
Working with a credible survey and data partner
The credibility of research lives or dies on how the data is collected. Sample size, audience quality, question design and how findings are analysed all shape whether the numbers stand up to scrutiny - or quietly undermine the story you're trying to tell.
We work with established survey and data partners so the fieldwork is properly resourced and the audience is genuinely representative of the buyers you want to influence. That means IT decision-makers, line-of-business leaders or end customers in the verticals that matter to your Microsoft solution area - not a convenience sample of anyone who happened to be on a mailing list.
The result is research you can put your name to publicly, cite in press, share with Microsoft and lean on in sales conversations without worrying about the small print.
How we run research programmes
A repeatable process that takes research from idea to campaign, without the drop-offs in between.
- 1
Discovery
We get under the skin of your proposition, audience and commercial goals - what you want the research to prove, who you want it to influence and where it needs to show up.
- 2
Questions and survey creation
We design questions that will produce quotable, campaignable findings - not just interesting data - and work with our survey partner to build a survey that's rigorous and audience-appropriate.
- 3
Analysis
Once the data is in, we interrogate it for the stories that matter: the headline stats, the surprising angles, the vertical or segment cuts that give you multiple ways to talk about the same study.
- 4
Content creation
We turn the findings into the assets you'll actually use - report, executive summary, blogs, social, sales one-pagers, webinar content and any hero pieces the campaign needs.
- 5
Campaign plan creation
We build a joined-up plan for how the research shows up in market - across paid, organic, PR, email, sales enablement and Microsoft-facing activity - so the study earns its investment back.
- 6
Campaign delivery
We execute the plan end-to-end, tracking performance as the research lands and adjusting so the best-performing angles get the biggest push.
Making research work beyond launch week
A common mistake is treating research as a launch moment - a press release, a report download page, a burst of social - and then moving on. That leaves most of the value on the table.
We plan research as a nine to twelve month content engine. Different cuts of the data fuel different campaigns, verticals and Microsoft solution area conversations across the year, so a single study keeps producing pipeline long after the initial launch.