How to Use Studies and Statistics to Increase Your Blog's Credibility

How to Use Studies and Statistics to Increase Your Blog’s Credibility

If you have been blogging for over 6 months then you will have looked at some form of blog monetisation.

As you start to explore the ways that your carefully crafted content can deliver money, you’ll also start to notice that you need to do more to build trust among your readers and boost your blog’s credibility.

Prove it!

Studies and statistics can lend credibility to your product, service or blog like no other type of proof. People have a deeply built-in respect for conclusions which are reached by recognized experts or authorities.

Think about it for a moment; you are more likely to respond to a survey if it has come from a market leader. Market leaders are authorities in their niche and they often share their survey data with the participants as well as using it to boost their own content. A nice set of statistical data will be used by journalists to emphasize a point .

So take note content creators you can use stats to your own advantage when you share your own survey data.

Think of all the possible related statistics and studies that could positively reflect on your business, product or industry.

Let’s say you’re in the car manufacturing business. Here are a few possible studies or statistics you might want to look up:

The benefits of vehicle servicing
The positive aspects of driving
Why driving makes you live longer
Why drivers make better lovers
Statistics on the benefits of Vitamin D (being in the sun whilst driving a convertible)
The effects of driving on concentration

This is just a small suggestion of motoring studies that can be found. You should be able to come up with a list of up to fifty different kinds of statistics or studies to research for any given topic.

Look, if I can do it for transport (which is the world’s toughest topic to blog on) then you can do it in your blog’s niche.

Yeah but how do I find all these studies and statistics???

Now that you have your list of possible studies to use, use Google liberally to find all the different studies, statistics and case studies you can find.

Businesses often provide case studies on their websites and their blog (another reason why you need to have some case studies on your blog). Online journals will have all kinds of surveys and test reports. Go find them!

Compile your results on a spreadsheet. Label them by results and source. You need the source to attribute the data that your use. Writers get annoyed by incorrect grammar, I get annoyed by incorrect attribution of data.

Content is king? No, that’s not your favourite blogger, that’s Bill Gates back in 1996… Websites that have blogs have 55% more pages in the search engines? Hubspot, not your favourite blogger. Attribute the data please

Remember at school when you had to provide the “working out” for a sum? Attribution is your working out, if they get it wrong you won’t be in trouble with your readers. What you are providing is meaningful interpretation of the data.

And what do I do with all these numbers?

The compilation of the stats and then processing them can take up to a day. By the end of that day, you’ll have a whole list of different statistics and studies related to your blog, product or service.

Take the most compelling of the studies and use them in your websites and sales letters. How do you know what’s compelling? Ask a few people what jumps out at them.

Is it that drivers can concentrate ten times longer than the average person or that red cars go faster? And no, I won’t be attributing those as I just plucked them from thin air. Did you know 98% of statistics are just made up? (author unknown) ;).

By asking around you’ll find the kind of statistic that makes people want to know more…

A single great statistic or study can build so much excitement or credibility that it can make a landing page profitable. Look at the data that you have and start weaving that into your content. Start backing up what you say with facts, with your proof, and the numbers will start building trust with your audience.

Look how we do it here:

Come and share with us your creative use of numbers and how they boosted your credibility.

Image credit: IamWahid

Buffer

https://twitter.com/#!/AMWClarkLaw Anne-Marie

Caution: this post has several flaws. Unless you know and understand how to reference, incorporate and attribute studies and other expert sources properly, you will be guilty of the logical fallacy referred to as Appeal to Authority.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_authority Also, searching for a study to cite to back up an assertion you wish to make without accounting for countering studies is an example of confirmation bias.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias In that link, see especially, “Biased search for information” Even if readers aren’t familiar with the formal logical principles, most people have some sense of these, and as a result, you will lose not gain credibility.
- http://www.saraharrow.co.uk/ SarahArrow
  
  @Anne-Marie please see the the section where I talk about compiling the statistics and so on.
  Like a lawyer, I am picking out the most compelling studies because I am in the business of marketing and not science .
  Thank you for you comment, perhaps I hadn’t made it clear enough that I’ve looked at the other research and picked out the ones that make sense and rejected the ones that don’t – which is not confirmation bias but is in line with the scientific method – an ad hoc survey of the studies.
http://www.smallbusinesstraining.co.uk/ Linda Mattacks

Interesting addition, Anne-Marie

One of my mates is a lady who’s worked at director level for the top market research companies in the world and been based on their behalf in more countries than I’ve had hot dinners – well, not quite, but you get the picture

Whilst a stickler for accuracy, my friend understands more about the vagaries of market research than you or I could get our heads round: She is a trusted authority in her field and she was gracious enough to cast her eye over the chapter in my course (for small businesses winning, keeping and growing more profitable custom) that deals with why, how and when to undertake market/ marketing research – and point anything she thought could/ should be improved upon.

In my opinion, what Sarah’s doing here is highlighting ways each of could not need to go to those lengths and instead use readily available information to add to and increase the effectiveness of our message to our customers.

And I welcome that ‘heads up’

Linda
- https://twitter.com/#!/AMWClarkLaw Anne-Marie
  
  Asking a knowledgeable person to review your work is a good idea, but that is something different from accurately citing research studies from experts in your posts. Also, what is called market research is a different thing from what scientists do when they conduct scientific research and then submit their findings for peer review, after which you then might want to cite them. Incidentally, directors of companies typically are not the ones conducting the business. Rather, they are advisors to the company’s officers on how to run the business, not the research.
  - http://dannybrown.me/ DannyBrown
    
    @Anne-Marie I think that often depends on both company size and industry. We’re a tech startup, for instance, and I’m a director. I do all research needed as well as strategy and implementation. I also provide recommendations based on my findings. The smart companies have directors and other key executives as very hands-on.
http://asksage.us/ Srinivas “Sage” Reddy

Great tip, Sarah! I agree, properly attributed studies and stats can add a lot of credibility to a blog post. If we spend the time crafting a good post, we ought to take the time to research studies on this topic and pepper the post with delicious numbers that’ll grab the reader’s attention. That said, I do get turned off by articles that overdo it on studies and data. A few good numbers and stats ought to do it.
- http://www.saraharrow.co.uk/ SarahArrow
  
  @Srinivas “Sage” Reddy thanks for stopping by and commenting. I find when you mention the stats and link to it it builds and all round stronger blog post. The irony of that statement is I have only traffic and not actual data to prove it
SteveVernon

I have to admit the subject didn’t sound that interesting, but your post was a fun read in addition to be extremely informative. Thanks @SarahArrow Sarah.
SteveVernon

I have to admit, Sarah, the subject line didn’t sound particularly interesting at first, but your post turned out to be a fun read, in addition to being extremely informative! Thanks!
- http://www.saraharrow.co.uk/ SarahArrow
  
  @SteveVernon thanks Steve, stats can do that to you
http://www.RyanHanley.com/ Ryan Hanley

@SarahArrow I’ve also found that publishing your own results even if they’re not that impressive can be a very powerful engagement tactic. People love to review and discuss your results especially if you can pull some tidbits of wisdom from your stats.

Thanks!

Ryan H.
DawnMentzer

@dawabbitmedia Thanks, Craig!!
http://www.socialable.co.uk/ lilach

Great post Sarah:) I’m always surprised more people aren’t using and checking their stats on a regular basis. As you know mine are open daily and I’m not embarrassed to say I constantly check mine and have also shared my stat’s which always provokes interest:)
http://www.hughandnathalie.com/ Nathalie Villeneuve

Hi Sarah, I am guilty of not checking my stats enough…my husband does and we chat about it during little mastermind sessions. Your post was really informative and might have convinced me that I should go in there and learn to check my stats … Great share…thanks ~ Nathalie
http://www.opportunitiesplanet.com/ Kostas

Hi Sarah,
It really makes sense, even though these stats should be from an credible source in order to be able to use them with confidence and be able to back them up if someone questions the credibly of your stats, thanks for sharing…
donnamerrilltribe

Hi Sarah, I must say that I’m guilty! I hardly ever check my stats. But when I do, it surprises me because of the feedback. I know I should….but I make excuses. I also know that posting them is a great way to cause a buzz. After reading this blog, it has motivated me to do so.
Thanks so much Sarah,
Donna
http://www.inspiredgiftgiving.com martyinmaui

Excellent points. I write about personal growth so dropping in stats would be out of place in many of my articles, but there certainly are occasions where it would strengthen the content. Thanks for the valuable reminder!
Pingback: Get indexed, get ranked, get traffic | Socnetus - Social Networking Users