{"id":38022,"date":"2025-01-20T12:21:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T12:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/advertising\/i-created-a-30-page-industry-trend-report-heres-what-i-learned\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T12:21:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T12:21:32","slug":"i-created-a-30-page-industry-trend-report-heres-what-i-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=38022","title":{"rendered":"I Created a 30-page Industry Trend Report. Here’s what I Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This article first appeared in my marketing newsletter. Subscribe here<\/a> to be the first one to read new posts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

Ever downloaded an industry trend report or e-book?<\/p>\n

As for me, I\u2019ve downloaded 100+ of those\u2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

The landing page text<\/strong>\u00a0might say things like \u201cwe polled nearly 1,800 designers and developers from four continents\u2026\u201d (Figma<\/a>) but, of course, I never read the promo text.<\/p>\n

Because\u00a0it\u2019s the impeccably designed cover\u00a0<\/strong>that gets me.<\/p>\n

Like 8 billion other human animals, I\u2019m a visual creature. The design team at\u00a0Intercom<\/a>\u00a0wins the beauty pageant \u2013 as well as my email address that I exchange for the PDF \u2013 the email that will receive tens of marketing newsletters over the next 3 months until, finally, I open one of them to scroll down to the almost-transparent unsubscribe link.<\/p>\n

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So why do I download trend reports and e-books?<\/strong>\u00a0(Why do you?)<\/p>\n

Perhaps, it\u2019s the human\u00a0curiosity<\/strong>, the\u00a0FOMO<\/strong>\u00a0that scares you to miss out on some\u00a0very important<\/em>\u00a0shifts in the industry,\u00a0game-changing<\/em>\u00a0tactics,\u00a0considerably<\/em>\u00a0pleasant<\/em>\u00a0ways to waste a few hours of your working day.<\/p>\n

Be it as it may,\u00a0trend reports (and other kinds of e-books)\u00a0<\/strong>work<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong>\u00a0Especially in enterprise-level B2B sales where their purpose isn\u2019t as much education but\u2026<\/p>\n

Leaving the impression of an established, industry-leading brand<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And, naturally, collecting hundreds of potential future clients\u2019 emails. (You already know what to do next with those\u2026) \ud83c\udf1a<\/p>\n

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\u200b<\/p>\n

The short answer is: Yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s rephrase the question:\u00a0Are trend reports worth your marketing team\u2019s time, effort, and the ad budget\u00a0<\/strong>that goes into promotion?<\/p>\n

The answer shifts to: Maybe.<\/p>\n

It takes A LOT of time to create a trend report. The reason I know is because I just wrote, designed, and promoted one.<\/p>\n

Together with\u00a0Sera<\/a>, the super promising Estonian startup building AI SDR (you should check them out!), we decided to create the\u00a02025 Trend Report: How AI Will Change Sales Operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n

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\"industry<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The joke\u2019s on me because Sera\u2019s team is essentially three people. And, obviously,\u00a0there are no designers<\/strong>. (In Estonia, the first designer enters the game as ca 60th hire \u2013 hence the high success rate of local tech companies.)<\/p>\n

So when creating the 30-page trend report, 70% of my time went into designing the thing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result,\u00a0I learned\u00a0<\/strong>so much<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0about cutting corners\u00a0<\/strong>with Figma Library templates and unearthing legit-looking 3D icons for $80. More on this later!<\/p>\n

As I use Toggl to track the time spent on clients\u2019 marketing projects, I can more or less present the breakdown of a trend report creation timeline.<\/p>\n

Time spent on creating & promoting a trend report:<\/strong><\/p>\n