Original Research to Book: A Founder’s Playbook

Original Research to Book: A Founder’s Playbook

Opinion is crowded. Data cuts through. For founders and B2B leaders, running an original research study is one of the most reliable ways to earn press, backlinks, and speaking invitations—and it gives you proprietary insights that can anchor an entire book. This guide shows you how to plan, execute, and publish a defensible study, then transform the findings into a high-authority business book that drives pipeline for years.

Why Research-Led Thought Leadership Works

Original research solves three problems at once:

• Authority: Proprietary data differentiates your message from competitors who rely on generic tips.
• Demand: Journalists, podcasters, and analysts constantly need fresh statistics to cite.
• Durability: Annualized studies become evergreen assets that can be updated and re-launched, compounding links and reach.

Instead of chasing trending topics, research lets you set the narrative in your market. When you own a statistic, you own the conversation.

Choose a Question Worth Answering

Great studies start with a sharp research question that matters to your buyers and the broader industry—not just to you. Use these lenses to find it:

• Decision lens: What high-stakes decision do your buyers struggle to make?
• Myth lens: What common belief deserves to be tested with data?
• Outcome lens: Which behaviors correlate with outsized results?
• Change lens: What’s shifting year over year (budgets, adoption, productivity)?

Examples of strong research questions:

• Go-to-market: Which sales motions yield the highest LTV in mid-market SaaS?
• Content: Which formats actually influence buyer committees at each stage?
• AI: Where does AI measurably reduce cycle time in customer onboarding?

Decision Criteria for Your Topic

• Relevance: Aligns to your product’s category without being a thin advertisement.
• Reach: Interesting to media and peers beyond your ICP.
• Repeatability: Measurable annually, so you can build a recognized benchmark.
• Practicality: Feasible with the samples and tooling you can access in 8–12 weeks.

Design the Study: Methods That Work for B2B

For most founders, a mixed-method design yields the best insight and stories:

• Quantitative survey (n=300–1,000+): Validates patterns, supports statistical claims, and feeds charts.
• Qualitative interviews (8–20): Surface nuance, objections, and narratives that make your book readable.

Survey Mechanics

• Sampling strategy: Target roles and industries that match your audience. Balance seniority and company size to avoid skew.
• Question design: Prefer closed-ended questions with clear scales (e.g., 5-point Likert). Add one or two open-ended prompts for quotable insights.
• Piloting: Test with 10–20 people to catch ambiguity and length issues. Aim for 7–10 minutes max.
• Incentives: Offer early access to the report, a webinar seat, or a small gift card to boost completion.

Interview Mechanics

• Recruit: Invite customers and non-customers. Diversity of perspective adds credibility.
• Guide: Use a semi-structured outline: context, behavior, obstacles, outcomes, advice.
• Recording: Get consent, record, and transcribe for easier analysis and quotable excerpts.

Collect, Clean, and Analyze

Collection

• Channels: Customer email lists, partner newsletters, communities, LinkedIn, targeted ads, and panel providers.
• Partnerships: Co-brand with an association or popular newsletter to expand reach and credibility.

Cleaning

• De-duplication: Remove duplicates and clearly fraudulent entries (speeders, straight-liners).
• Screening: Enforce role/seniority/industry criteria to maintain quality.

Analysis

• Descriptives: Means, medians, frequency distributions—this is your baseline story.
• Segments: Compare by company size, industry, or growth rate to uncover real differences.
• Correlations: Explore relationships (e.g., investment in onboarding vs. time-to-value).
• Cross-tabs and visuals: Bar charts, stacked bars, line charts for trends; keep it simple.

Rule of thumb: If a chart doesn’t help a decision-maker act differently, it doesn’t belong in the book.

From Study to Book: Structure That Works

Transform your research into a book that executives will read and share. Here’s a proven architecture:

Suggested Chapter Outline

• Chapter 1 – The Shift: Contextualize market change and why this study matters now.
• Chapter 2 – Method and Sample: Explain the design in plain English for credibility.
• Chapter 3 – Benchmarks: Present core metrics and year-over-year comparisons.
• Chapter 4 – What Winners Do: Segment behaviors of high performers vs. the rest.
• Chapter 5 – Playbooks: Translate findings into step-by-step actions.
• Chapter 6 – Case Snapshots: Short narratives from interviews that humanize the data.
• Chapter 7 – Implementation Roadmaps: Templates, checklists, and sequences.
• Chapter 8 – The Future: Predictions based on your findings and external signals.
• Appendix: Detailed methodology, questionnaire, definitions, and additional charts.

Voice and Narrative

• Neutral but useful: Lead with data, follow with interpretation, end with actionable steps.
• Quote liberally: Pull memorable lines from interviews to open chapters.
• Visual-first: Each chapter should promise 2–4 memorable charts.

Using AI to Accelerate the Draft

• Structure first: Feed your chapter outline, key findings, and chart list to your writing tool to produce draft sections per chapter.
• Evidence weaving: Insert the exact charts, stats, and quotes as anchors; then refine transitions.
• LibroFlow option: If you want AI assistance purpose-built for nonfiction, LibroFlow can generate a draft from your outline and insights, suggest a plan, draft chapters, and export to PDF/TXT. There’s a free tier to test, with credits at €29 for 1 book or €79 for 3 books.

Design Assets That Amplify Reach

• Signature charts: 5–7 branded visuals that will be cited repeatedly (PNG and SVG).
• Executive summary: A 2–3 page PDF for busy readers and outreach.
• Data dictionary: Definitions for terms and segments to increase trust.
• Web hub: A landing page with interactive charts, press kit, and lead capture.

Launch and Earn Links

PR and Outreach Sequencing

• T-minus 14 days: Pre-brief a small group of journalists and industry newsletters under embargo.
• Launch day: Publish the web hub, executive summary, and social assets. Offer a founder commentary post on LinkedIn.
• Week 1–2: Guest posts with 2–3 key charts each; pitch podcast angles based on surprising findings.
• Month 1–3: Webinars with partners, conference proposals, and ABM outreach to accounts that fit “high performer” profiles.

PR Pitch Angles

• Surprise: “Contrary to common belief, X doesn’t correlate with Y.”
• Regional: “How EMEA differs from North America on Z.”
• People: “What top-performing teams do differently this year.”

Link-Earning Tactics

• Embed codes: Provide copy-and-paste embed links for charts.
• Statistic pages: Create a statistics roundup page with your data (organized by topic) that journalists can reference.
• Source outreach: Share mention-ready snippets with everyone who contributed to the study.

Measure ROI and Prove Business Impact

Attribution Setup

• UTMs everywhere: Tag report links in PR, social, and partner campaigns.
• CRM fields: Create campaign fields for “Research Report” and “Book” to track first-touch and multi-touch attribution.
• Lead forms: Add a “How did you hear about this study?” field for manual validation.

Metrics That Matter

• Authority: Referring domains, media mentions, speaker invites.
• Engagement: Time on page, scroll depth, executive summary downloads.
• Pipeline: MQLs, SQLs, meetings booked, opportunities influenced, win rate for “high performer” segment.
• Revenue: New ARR tied to research/book campaigns, average deal size vs. baseline.

Back-of-the-Envelope ROI

• Inputs: Total cost (research + design + PR + writing + distribution).
• Outputs: Attributed pipeline × historical close rate × average deal size.
• Target: Many teams aim for 5–10x ROI over 12 months when the study anchors multiple campaigns and a book.

Timeline and Resourcing

8–12 Week Production Plan

• Week 1–2: Finalize question, draft survey and interview guide, line up partners.
• Week 3–5: Field survey, conduct interviews, start preliminary analysis.
• Week 6–7: Clean data, finalize charts, write executive summary.
• Week 8: Build web hub, press kit, and finalize outreach list.
• Week 9–12 (book focus): Expand findings into chapters; use AI drafting to accelerate; edit and design.

Roles

• Research lead: Defines question, ensures methodological rigor.
• Analyst: Cleans data, builds charts, checks claims.
• Writer/editor: Crafts narrative from data and interviews.
• Designer: Creates charts and book layout.
• PR/Partnerships: Coordinates outreach, co-branding, and events.

Budget Ranges

• DIY with internal list: Low cash cost, higher time investment.
• Panel respondents: Budget for sample procurement if you need niche roles.
• Design and PR: Allocate funds for professional visuals and targeted outreach.

Practical Templates You Can Reuse

Sample Survey Items

• Budget shift: “Compared to last year, your budget for X is: decreased a lot, decreased, unchanged, increased, increased a lot.”
• Adoption: “Which tools are currently in use? Select all that apply.”
• Outcome: “Time-to-value for new customers is: 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 90+ days.”
• Performance segmenting: “Rate this year’s growth vs. market: bottom quartile, below average, average, above average, top quartile.”

Interview Guide Snippets

• Opening: “Walk me through your last decision to invest in X. Who was involved?”
• Behavior: “What did you do differently from the previous year?”
• Outcome: “What changed within 90 days?”
• Advice: “If you had to teach this to a peer, what 3 steps would you insist on?”

Common Pitfalls (and Fixes)

• Vanity topics: If the question only serves your product pitch, you’ll lose credibility. Fix: Choose a problem the market already debates.
• Overlong surveys: Completion drops sharply after 10 minutes. Fix: Ruthlessly prioritize.
• Unclear charts: Complex visuals reduce trust. Fix: Favor clean bar charts with direct labels.
• No methodology appendix: Journalists won’t cite you. Fix: Publish your sample, method, and definitions.
• One-and-done launch: Momentum dies in a week. Fix: Plan a 90-day content calendar and annual refresh.

Turning Research into an Evergreen Asset

Once the book ships, keep the engine running:

• Annual cadence: Update the study yearly and release a new edition of the book with a “Year-in-Data” chapter.
• Events: Host briefings for customers and prospects; anchor conference talks in your findings.
• Enablement: Build sales one-pagers mapping segments to recommended plays from the book.
• Localization: Commission regional cuts and partner with local associations for co-branded forewords.

How LibroFlow Fits (Optional)

When it’s time to turn your research into a book-length asset, you can draft faster without compromising substance:

• Plan generation: Import your outline and key findings to generate structured chapter plans.
• Draft chapters: Create first drafts that you refine with your charts, quotes, and methodology.
• Export: Share internally or with designers via PDF/TXT export.
• Pricing: Test on the free tier; full projects start at €29 for 1 book or €79 for 3 books.

Data earns attention. Narrative earns memory. A research-backed book gives you both—at launch and every time your benchmark is updated.

Your Research-to-Book Checklist

• Pick a question decision-makers actually care about.
• Design a mixed-method study you can repeat annually.
• Secure distribution partners before you field.
• Collect, clean, and analyze with segment clarity.
• Build memorable charts and a web hub with a press kit.
• Draft a practical, visual-first book from your findings.
• Launch with pre-briefs, partners, and a 90-day calendar.
• Instrument attribution; report pipeline impact.
• Refresh annually; compound authority.

If you commit to this playbook, your brand becomes the source others cite. And when you’re the source, the market comes to you.