{"id":6148,"date":"2025-01-09T19:38:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-09T19:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/?p=6148"},"modified":"2025-04-14T16:36:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T16:36:41","slug":"i-created-a-30-page-industry-trend-report-heres-what-i-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karolakarlson.com\/ro\/i-created-a-30-page-industry-trend-report-heres-what-i-learned\/","title":{"rendered":"I Created a 30-page Industry Trend Report. Here’s what I Learned"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As for me, I’ve downloaded 100+ of those….<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Because it’s the impeccably designed cover <\/strong>that gets me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like 8 billion other human animals, I’m a visual creature. The design team at Intercom<\/a> wins 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\n\n\n

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

Perhaps, it’s the human curiosity<\/strong>, the FOMO<\/strong> that scares you to miss out on some very important<\/em> shifts in the industry, game-changing<\/em> tactics, considerably<\/em> pleasant<\/em> ways to waste a few hours of your working day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be it as it may, trend reports (and other kinds of e-books) <\/strong>work<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong> Especially in enterprise-level B2B sales where their purpose isn’t as much education but…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE question is: Do trend reports lead to sales & revenue growth?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

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

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

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

Together with Sera<\/a>, the super promising Estonian startup building AI SDR (you should check them out!), we decided to create the 2025 Trend Report: How AI Will Change Sales Operations<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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The joke’s on me because Sera’s team is essentially three people. And, obviously, there 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\n\n\n

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

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

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

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