The client, a globally recognized cloud service provider, was facing a mystery. Despite increased investment and strong user feedback, their educational and inspirational video content had diminishing engagement rates. This content is aimed at fostering customer affinity and success on their cloud platform, but these content series were no longer drawing the same audience. While they knew engagement had declined, they felt they were “flying blind” with respect to what people wanted and what changes to make. The challenge was to replace a speculative or trial-and-error approach with a data driven strategy.
The Solution
Our innovative research strategy combined AI-powered analysis, quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, and the experience of our research team who have decades of knowledge about technical audiences. This unique blend allowed us to not only gather but also accurately interpret the data, providing our client with concrete recommendations to improve engagement and develop content that aligns with modern user’s needs.
Our approach consisted of the following components:
- A comprehensive quantitative survey was fielded to over 2,000 cloud users. This revealed insights about audience preferences and behaviors and served as the basis for subsequent, more detailed analysis.
- In-depth qualitative interviews with 50 cloud users, to discover the kinds of content they seek, and asking them to critique our client’s content.
- Follow-up video diary study that asked participants to provide links to videos that they watched over the subsequent week. This provided concrete information on what they actually watch, not just what they say they watch.
- Utilizing OpenAI’s API, we had ChatGPT analyze the video diary items. The AI was able to infer the video subject, technical level, target audience, and extract data including the title, summary, length, and more.
The blend of advanced quantitative techniques, such as regression analysis, AI-powered content analysis, in-depth interviews, and our deep understanding of technical audiences enabled us to hone in on video content that will move the needle with the target audience.
The Outcome
Our research served as a ‘map’ for the client, revealing the route towards creating more engaging and impactful content for their technical audience. Armed with the insights from our innovative research and our interpretation grounded in a deep understanding of technical audiences, the client embarked on a comprehensive revamp of their video strategy. Rather than flying blind, the client now has empirical evidence of what their users need to choose and be successful with their cloud platform. This case study serves as a testament to the power of innovative, data-driven research in shaping effective content strategies.